April 21, 2026 • 56 mins
Do you remember the first time you truly prayed? In this episode of The Greg Laurie Show, Pastor Greg Laurie opens up about the powerful, often overlooked practice of prayer—and why it can transform your relationship with God and your everyday life.
Drawing from his own journey as a new believer and his interactions with spiritual giants like Billy Graham, Pastor Greg Laurie shares candid stories, biblical insights, and down-to-earth wisdom to help you move beyond rote words and genuinely connect with your Heavenly Father. Centering the conversation around the Lord’s Prayer, Pastor Greg Laurie unpacks its role as both a prayer for all occasions and a practical template for your daily communication with God.
You’ll hear about:
- How the Lord’s Prayer shapes your view of God—not as some distant force, but as a loving Father who runs to embrace His children, even in their brokenness.
- The surprising reasons why many believers don’t pray as much as they want to—and how shifting your priorities can open the door to a more vibrant faith.
- What to do when God seems silent, including a memorable framework: If the request is wrong, God says “no”; if the timing is wrong, He says “slow”; if you are wrong, He says “grow”; but if everything’s right, God says “go.”
Whether you’re battling doubt, longing for deeper purpose, or hungry to experience real spiritual change, this episode reminds us: prayer isn’t about getting our will in Heaven, but welcoming God’s will on earth—starting with our own hearts.
Ready to rediscover the wonder and life-changing power of prayer? Subscribe for more conversations like this, and let your journey with God grow richer, one honest prayer at a time.
CHAPTERS:
00:00 God Is Not an AI Search Engine
01:19 Pastor Greg’s First Answered Prayer Story
02:27 Emergency Lord’s Prayer—A Pilot’s Crisis
04:38 Praying the Lord’s Prayer at March for Life
05:41 Why Memorize the Lord’s Prayer?
07:47 Social Media vs. Time Spent in Prayer
09:45 Do We Really Believe Prayer Works?
12:49 Jesus Teaches the Lord’s Prayer: The Ultimate Model
13:37 God as Father—The Prodigal Son Parallel
19:46 "Father Knows Best"—What Sets God Apart
22:20 The “Hallowed Be Your Name” Lifestyle Test
23:53 Praying for Christ’s Return and Loved Ones’ Salvation
29:39 Never Stop Praying for Those Far from God
32:12 Wrestling With God’s Will—Jonah and Jesus' Struggles
34:42 Prayer Isn’t Getting My Will in Heaven
37:05 "Give Us This Day": Total Dependence on God
39:14 Whose Cookies Are You Eating? The Cookie Parable
41:48 "Forgive Us"—Power and Challenge of Forgiveness
44:49 The Destructive Power of Unforgiveness
46:21 Temptation Is So Tempting—How to Pray Against It
49:53 Ask, Seek, Knock: The Persistence Principle
53:21 Can Nonbelievers Pray? The Sinner’s Prayer Invitation
55:53 Closing Prayer and Invitation to New Believers
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Life audio. God is not an AI search engine. He's
the creator of the universe. It's not artificial intelligence, it's
divine intelligence. Do you remember the first time you prayed?
(00:32):
But I remember when I did. I was a brand
new believer, and I was told by my Christian friends, now, Greg,
you can pray about things and the Lord will hear
your prayers and I'll answer your prayers. So I thought, well, okay,
I pray for a new Bible. And the reason was
because someone gave me like kind of the funkiest bible
(00:52):
you've ever seen. It was very used. It had two
popsicle sticks glued together in the shape of a cross.
I wanted a proper Bible. I had gone to a
Christian bookstore and they had a beautiful black leather Schofield
Cross Reference Bible with gold pages and ribbons. And I
wanted that Bible so much, but I couldn't afford it.
(01:14):
So I prayed, Lord, I want that Bible. And I
got a phone called that day from my grandmother who
had lived with as a boy for a number of years,
and she heard that I'd become a Christian and said,
I want to buy you a bible. Pick out a
really nice one my first answered prayer. Do you remember
the first time you prayed publicly? That's kind of challenging,
(01:36):
isn't it. I remember I was in a big prayer
circle and I was very nervous. I'd never done this before,
and I knew what I was going to pray, But
by the time it got to me, everything had been
prayed for already. I didn't know what to pray for.
I'm not sure what I asked the Lord for. But
I want to talk to you a little bit today
about prayer because that's one of the most neglected things
(01:59):
in the Christian life. I think we would all admit
that we could pray more. I certainly would admit I
could and I should pray more. Billy Grahama was once
asked if he had any regrets in life, and he said, yes,
I regret that I did not pray more and spend
more time telling the Lord how much I love him.
(02:22):
So let's think a little bit about prayer. Let's learn
a little bit more about prayer, and I want to
focus on something called the Lord's prayer that reminds me
of a story. A pilot was flying a plane full
of passengers to their destination, when suddenly the rudder malfunction.
He radioed the control tower in a panic and shouted,
(02:43):
the rudder is malfunctioned. What should I do? The air
traffic controller radio back very calmly and said, now keep calm, captain,
just repeat after me. Wings flap check, velocity check, altitude check.
And the pilot made the adjustments and everything was fine.
And about five minutes say to the starboard engines, and
(03:06):
the pilot radio is again. The starboard engine is talled.
What do I do? Same answer, Keep calm, captain, wings
flap check, velocity check, altitude check. It worked, everything was fine.
The pilot breathed the sigh of relief, and then both
engines went out at the same time. May day, may day.
(03:28):
The pilot shouts, the engines are gone. What do I do?
The air traffic controller said, keep calm, captain, just repeat
after me, our father, who are in heaven, how it
would be your name, your kingdom? Come? You know the
Lord's prayer, that's the one we pull out in case
of emergency. That's like the big prayer, and there's nothing
(03:51):
wrong with that. There have been a number of occasions
where I have prayed that prayer I remember I was
asked to speak at the March for Life event in Washington,
d C. It was very cold, very snowy, and said
thousands of people gathered to march for the unborn, and
I gave a little message and I told them about
(04:13):
how they get ever relationship with Jesus Christ. I commended
them for all their efforts because these are people from
every religious background, imaginable. And then I said, let's pray
the Lord's Prayer together and we did that. It was beautiful.
Remember another time I was speaking at an event in Cochella,
California for President Trump, and I also led that crowd
(04:38):
in the Lord's Prayer. It seems like most people know
this prayer, but there's one time when I prayed that
prayer in a very difficult situation. I have a friend
who had a son who was out running in a
track meet, and tragically, the boy died as he was
crossing the finish line and they took him down to
(04:58):
the hospital and he was gone, and I was called
down there and I walked into a room filled with people.
In fact, this whole family was in town because it
was the grandfather's birthday, so they were there to celebrate,
and here's this room full of devastated, grieving people. And
(05:19):
I talked to him a little bit about our own loss,
how the Lord had called our son home to heaven
unexpectedly sixteen years earlier. And I shared the hope that
we have in Christ. Because this young man, whose name
is Larry, was a believer, and so I could assure
the folks that Larry was with the Lord. And then
(05:40):
as they came to an end of my talk, it
just occurred to me, we should pray the Lord's prayer.
And we did pray it together. There's something so powerful,
so beautiful in that prayer. Do you know it? You
should memorize it. Our Father God in heaven, hollow would
be thy name, that kingdom come, that will be done
(06:01):
on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this
day our daily read, and forgive us our sins, as
we forgive those who have sinned against us. Deliver us
from evil. For Thine is the Kingdom and the Power
and the glory forever. Amen the Lord's Prayer. Now, if
this prayer was given in response to a question from
(06:22):
the disciples, they said, Lord, teach us to pray as
John taught his disciples to pray. Notice they did not say, Lord,
teach us a killer prayer, the one to pull out
in case of emergency. No, Rather, they said teach us
to pray. So the Lord's Prayer is a prayer we
can pray on occasion, but it is also a model
(06:47):
or a template for prayer. Have you ever gone to
a housing tract that's about to be built in the
of the model homes and you can walk around and
see what these homes will look like. Those model homes
are interesting, though the photographs of the people that live
there that don't live there at all, everything is fake,
but it gives you a sense of what I may
like one day. And this prayer that we call the
(07:08):
Lord's Prayer is a model for all prayer. It shows
us how to pray, which also reveals that prayer is
something that can be learned. We can, in effect, become
better at prayer the more that we do it. So
let's walk through the Lord's Prayer. But let's start with
(07:28):
this question, why don't we pray more? I think most
of us, as they said already, would acknowledge prayer is important.
We would acknowledge we should pray more. But if we're honest,
we would acknowledge. Also, we don't pray enough. Why I
don't know? Reason number one? Should I say? Excuse number one?
(07:50):
We say we don't have the time. Okay, is that true?
Let me throw us stat out that effectively disproves that.
Research tells us that people in the United States check
their social media accounts seventeen times a day. That's basically
once every waking hour. Now that's a lot, right now.
(08:10):
You have time to do that, but you don't have
time to pray. What if you prayed seventeen times a day.
We know that Daniel the Prophet prayed three times a day.
You might say it was a habit of yes. And
then get this. The average American watches five hours of
television a day. What if we give just half of
(08:32):
that to the Lord. Now, look, I'm not trying to
make you feel better about watching TV or checking your
social media accounts. But here's the thing. We have time
for what matters to us. We make time to check
our social media, we make time to binge watch stuff
on Netflix. We make time to do so many things.
(08:52):
But we don't have time for prayer. It's not really
a reason, it's just an excuse. Okay, here's reason number
two that we don't pray more? Or maybe I should
say excuse number two. If we're honest, maybe we wouldn't
say this, but it's probably true for us. We don't
think prayer is all that important. Who would say that
(09:14):
prayer is not important? But if it is important, why
don't we pray more? If we really believe that prayer
moved mountains, wouldn't we be doing it more? Here's what
always gets me. Jesus himself prayed constantly. If the son
of God walking among us felt the need to spend
hours in the evening praying to his father in heaven,
(09:38):
how much more should you and I be spending time
in prayer? Again, We're always going to find time for
what matters to us. One more reason we don't pray,
or i'll call it an excuse. We may just think
that prayer doesn't work. This is a big one. Oh,
maybe we wouldn't say it out loud, but do we
(09:58):
really believe that prayer works? Well? The answer to that
is yes, it does. And I want to address that
directly because I think there's something so often misunderstood about prayer.
God wants us to pray and isay a fifty nine
sixteen God wonders why his people don't pray more, and
(10:23):
the word that is used there in the text for
wonders means God is astonished. God's literally astonished, like people,
why don't you pray more? I want to bless you
through prayer. I want to provide for you through prayer,
as the Bible says, you have not because you ask not.
Jesus said, men are always to pray and not give up.
(10:47):
The apostle Paul said, don't worry about anything but pray
about everything. There's so much God wants to do in
our lives if we will just pray about it. I
think one of the problems with social media and Google
and AI is we're used to just getting median information.
So I'm praying Lord speak to me, show me what
(11:09):
to do, and he doesn't come through quickly enough for us.
And we're used to a world where if you have
a question, you type it in within seconds, you can
find out the weather in Brazil, whatever you need, it's
all there. But the thing is is God doesn't work
on our schedules. He speaks in his time, and he
tells us to be still and know that he is God.
(11:32):
God is not an AI search engine. He's the creator
of the universe and his wisdom. Do I really need
to say? This is so much greater than all of
the AI out there, no matter what particular program you
are using. It's not artificial intelligence, it's divine intelligence. But
(11:53):
here's what I want you to know. If your prayers
aren't working, maybe because you're not praying the right way.
And that's exactly what Jesus is talking to us about
and what we call the Lord's prayer. Now, think about
how amazing this is. Jesus Christ is teaching us how
to pray. I mean, imagine if you went to some
(12:15):
elite university and you could be taught by the absolute
best in every field across human history. You could study
music under Beethoven, take a drama class taught by Shakespeare,
political science with Thomas Jefferson, philosophy with C. S. Lewis. Well,
those will all be great. But how about a class
(12:36):
on prayer taught by Jesus Christ himself. And that's exactly
what we have here in Luke chapter eleven. So one
day the disciples of Jesus came to him, as I mentioned,
and said, Lord, teach us how to pray, and then
Jesus gave them what we now call the Lord's prayer. Okay,
so let's start with this template for prayer that we
(12:58):
call the Lord's prayer. It begins with these words, our Father,
who are in heaven. We have to begin to see
God the way the Bible presents him as a father.
He's a father who loves his children. He's a father
who misses his children when they go astray. He's a
(13:19):
father that longs for communication and fellowship with us. He's
a father who wants to bless us. Jesus himself said,
if you're not little flock, it is your father's good
pleasure to give to you the kingdom. Look, I don't
know what kind of earthly dad that you had growing up.
Maybe you had a great hands on father. Maybe your
(13:41):
father was rather aloof, Maybe your father was abusive, Maybe
your father was not there at all. That's my situation.
I never had a dad growing up. So depending on
your upbringing, you might approach his concept as God as
a father in different ways. But we need to see
him as the Bible presents him. One of the best
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illustrations and what we call the parable of the prodigals
son that Jesus gave. He presents God as a father
who had two sons. As you recall, one of the
sons one astray and made a mess of his life
and drug the family name to the gutter. And one
day he decided to return home. Because even that boy
(14:22):
knew people that worked for his dad had it better
than he had it. And he had a little speech
that he had written. I'll just say, Father, I have sinned.
I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Just
give me a job. I won't be your son anymore,
but just let me live under your roof. And here's
the story Jesus tells. When the boy was a great
ways off, his father saw him and ran to him
(14:45):
and threw his arms around him and kissed him and
welcomed him and said, rejoice with me. This my son,
who was dead is alive again. He who was lost
is found. That's what God is like now, Jesus said,
and suggested it. It might almost appear a reverend, because
(15:07):
we have this father running to the son. Do you
know that in ancient culture was considered undignified for an
older man to run, not to mention that's harder for
an older man to run. You know. I used to
be a runner, not anymore, and it's something that actually
just causes pain to me. Now I hear runners say, oh,
(15:27):
I had a great run. I really had the release
of the endorphins. I don't think I ever got a
single endorphined release when I was doing any form of exercise.
Maybe I've had some endorphins release when I'm eating a hamburger.
So here's the picture Jesus gives. A father is willing
to lose his dignity if you will, to get to
(15:48):
his son. It doesn't matter if that's not done. He
has to get to his son as quickly as possible,
and he welcomes his son, and he forgives his son.
What is God like. He's like a father who misses
his son, his daughter. And when we're away, he longed
for our return. He's our father who aren't in heaven.
(16:11):
Now I want you to know that, though it is
true he is your father, he's also your daddy if
you will. In Romans eight fifteen, it says you've not
received the spirit of a bondage that makes you fearful slaves. Instead,
you've received God's spirit where he adopted you as his
own children. Now we call him Abba father, Abba father.
(16:33):
That is an affectionate term. That is the Hebrew equivalent
of calling your father daddy or papa. Like if you're
sitting at a dinner table with your father and you
want the salt, you don't say, dearest Father, I beseech
thee to hend to me the salt that Now you
just say, hey, Dad, would you pass the sault. It's intimacy,
(16:54):
it's access, it's relationship. And so he is your father
in heaven. But there's an affection in that because he's
your Abba in heaven and you can approach any time.
So we begin our prayers with our father who are
in heaven. Before we start rattling off eliz of requests,
(17:15):
just pause and contemplate the awesomeness of God. If we
wrote the Lord's Prayer ourselves, it would go as follow
us our Father, whoard in heaven, give us us to
ear daily bread, like hello, God, how are you nice
to see you? Here's what I need. But Jesus teaches
us in the model prayer, the template for all prayer,
to pray our Father who ward in heaven. Hollow would
(17:38):
be thy name. Before you get to your personal requests,
contemplate the awesomeness and the greatness of God. Remind yourself
of the faithfulness of God. Listen, your God is a
promise keeper. He is not a promise breaker. It's good
for us to think of some of the attributes of
(17:58):
God as we call upon in For instance, the Bible
teaches that God is omnipotent. That means he is unlimited power.
In otherwise, how can he answer your prayer? So as
the Bible says, as anything too hard for the Lord.
So whatever you're bringing before him, you serve an all
powerful God. Secondly, God is I'm the present. That means
(18:20):
he's present everywhere that matters, because if he wasn't, how
would he be able to meet your needs wherever you are. So,
wherever you go, whatever you're facing, God is with you there,
as Jesus said, I Am with you even to the
end of the age. Thirdly, God is omniscient. This simply
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means he knows everything. He knows all things. He knows
everything that you're facing, he knows a lot of things
that you don't know, and he knows how He's ultimately
going to work it. Out according to His perfect plan
for your life and for his ultimate glory. Another thing
I would mention is God is loving. That means that
whatever happens in my life, whatever God allows or us,
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is ultimately for His glory and our and for our good,
and everything is screened through a lens of love. You know,
when I was a kid, I used to watch a
TV show called Father Knows Best. As I pointed out,
I didn't have a dad growing up, so I really
needed some paternal wisdom. Sadly I had to get it
(19:28):
from some actor reading lines in a sitcom. But the
way they portrayed fathers back in those days was a
lot different than the way they portray them in television
or movies today. The fathers are wise and considerate and
had good advice for their kids. So I would watch
Father Knows Best or word Cleaver on Leave It to Beaver.
(19:50):
But I was just looking for some direction. But I
like that title of that one program, father Knows Best?
And did you know your heavenly father knows Best? Soap,
let's review our father who are in he hallowood? Be
your name now? The word hollowood means set apart, be
(20:12):
your name. When I say, Hallowood be your name. I'm
saying God has set apart in my life. He is
above everything. He is over everything. He is Lord over everything.
Fact is, if he isn't Lord of all, he isn't
lord at all. Many of our homes have a wall
or a shelf dedicated to our family. We might have
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family photos there, or trophies that our children won for
sports events over the years, basically things that matter to you.
I was just back in Washington, d c. For lunch
at the White House, and while I was there, Secretary
of State Marco Rubio invited me to come visit him
in his office in the West Wing, which is right
(20:57):
across from the Oval Office. And so I went over
to his office and sat there, and what struck me
about it was what he had on a walls. He
pointed out to me that this was once the office
of Henry Kissinger, the Secretary of State under Richard Dixon,
and it was quite different Marco's office from Kissinger's office
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because on the walls of Secretary of State Marco Rubio's
office were photos of his family, starting with a big
one of his son playing football, and then photos of
him with his wife and to me that said, this
is what matters to me. You would think it would
be Marco with the president and Marco with world leaders,
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but primarily it was Marco with members of his family.
That's a man who has his priorities in order. I
ask you, what's on the wall of your life? What
is that the center of your life? It should be
the Lord Jesus Christ number one, and of course your family.
But you have to have things in their proper place.
(22:00):
So I say, Lord, Hollywood be your name. Lord, I
want to do this for your glory. I should be
able to write Hallowod be your name over everything that
I do. I should be able to write Hallowod be
thy name over my career choice, or hallowould be thy
name over the friends I choose to spend time with her.
(22:21):
Hollow would be thy name over the TV shows that
I watch, or the social media that I view, and
all the things that I spend my time doing. Here's
a simple test. If I can't ask the Lord to
bless it, I shouldn't do it. If I can't say
Hallowold be thy name over something, I shouldn't be engaged
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in it. As an example, if I'm going to church
in the Sunday morning. Can I say, Lord, bless his
time at church? Hallow it be thy name? Of course
I can't. If I'm going to go out for a
nice meal with family or friends, can I say hallowud
be thy name? Of course I can't. If I'm going
to go out and get drunk for the weekend, can
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I say, Lord, bless his time as I get drunk
and don't let me let me get a dui this time? No,
you can't do that. Hey, Can I say, Hallow would
be thy name, Lord as I sleep with my girlfriend
or boyfriend? No you can't. So my point is, find
things to do that you can say, Hallow would be
thy name. Over our Father who are in heaven, Hallow
(23:25):
would be thy name. Set apart be your name, Your
kingdom Come, Your will be done on earth as it
is in heaven. Now, this is a multi layered request,
and I want to unpack it because a lot of
us may not realize what we're really praying for. First
of all, I'm saying your kingdom Come. That means I'm
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asking for the rule and reign of Jesus Christ in
my life. Jesus said, the Kingdom of God is in
the midst of you. And what he meant was he
was walking among the people that was the kingdom of God.
So Jesus is ruling over us. He said, my kingdom
is not of this world. So when I'm saying your
(24:06):
kingdom come, I'm saying, Lord, I want the rule and
reign of Christ in my life. Remember Jesus told us
in Matthew six point thirty three to seek first the
Kingdom of God in his righteousness, and all these things
shall be added unto you. So when I pray Thy
Kingdom come, that will be done. I'm asking for the
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rule and reign of Christ in my life. And that's
something every Christian should be doing or placed here on
this earth to bring glory to God. So pray Thy
Kingdom come. Another thing is when I pray Thy Kingdom come,
that will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
I'm effectively praying for the return of Jesus Christ to
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our planet. Now, when Jesus uses the word kingdom here,
he's talking about sovereignty and dominion. In other words, I'm
praying for the rule and reign of Christ over this planet. Listen,
politicians are never going to be able to fix the
problems of our world, nor is the latest and greatest technology.
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Only Christ can fix this war torn planet. Only Christ
can bring true and lasting peace. Only Christ can change
things to the way they need to be. So when
I pray Thy Kingdom Come, I'm praying for the rule
and reign of Jesus Christ on this planet. And I'm saying,
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Jesus comes soon. The word that is used here by
Jesus for come, as in Thy Kingdom come, actually carries
a sense of a sudden, instantaneous coming. So I'm saying, Lord,
come back soon, like the apostle John said, Even so,
come Lord Jesus. You know. One concern that I have
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is that there is a doctrine that has gained some
prominence in the Church called the Preadorist view. The word
preatorist comes from a Latin word that means pass and
basically it is the view that the things that many
of us look forward to as Christians have already happened.
They're in the past. Specifically in seventy AD, when Titus
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and the Roman legions attacked Jerusalem. They say that all
these things were fulfilled. That's when the anti Christ came.
That's the second Coming included in that so we should
not be looking forward to the return of Christ to
our planet anymore. I don't believe in the prederest view.
I believe that Christ is coming in the future. I
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don't think it has already happened. I think it is
going to happen. And I think that this belief that
Jesus could come back at any moment actually has an
impact on us spiritually. And first John it says he
that has this so purifies himself, even as God is pure.
In other words, if I believe Jesus could come back
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at any time, and I do, by the way, it
is a purifying effect to me. Let me illustrate. Remember
when you were a little kid. Maybe you're being a
good little boy or girl, and you couldn't wait until
daddy got home, right, But maybe one day you misbehaved
and your mom said, now your father's going to have
to discipline you. So you kind of dreaded the arrival
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of your father. I think when we're walking with God
as we ought to, we look forward to the return
of Jesus, But when we're not walking with him as
we ought to, maybe we're dreading it. It should have
an effect on us and the way we live two
Peter three fourteen says, dear friends, while you're waiting for
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the Lord to return, live peaceful lives that are pure
and blameless in His sight. So Thy Kingdom Come, Thy
will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
It's a personal prayer for the rule and reign of
Christ in our life. It's a prayer for our planet
that Christ would return again. And finally, this is an
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evangelistic prayer. When I pray Thy Kingdom come, that will
be done. I'm praying for people that I know that
are not yet believers. I'm praying that the Kingdom of
God would rule and reign in their life. And by
the way, we can play a part in the Kingdom
of God coming into someone else's life. Every time you
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share the gospel, you're moving in that direction. Every time
someone believes in Jesus, God's Kingdom advances on the earth.
So I'm praying for the Lord to reach people I
know that aren't believers yet. I think of my own mother.
If you saw the Jesus Revolution film, you saw how
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she had a really rough life and was married in
divorce many times and was searching. And people have asked
me whatever happened to your mom. Well, I'm happy to
report that my mom eventually came to the Lord at
the age of seventy, and we were very happy that
finally took place. But the sad thing is she died
only a mind month or so after that. So we
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never want to give up praying for our loved ones
to come to know Jesus Christ. And by the way,
it is the will of God for people to believe
in Jesus. God says he's not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance. So it's biblical
to pray for our friends or people we know that
are not yet believers. Isaiah fifty three tells us Jesus
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interceded for the transgressors. That means he prayed for them.
And remember on the cross itself, what were the first
of his seventh statements statement number one, Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do. That was a
prayer for those people. And by the way, one of
them did believe that we know of one of the
thieves crucified next to him. Call them thieves are probably
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guilty of a far more serious crime to be crucified
by the Romans. But remember, one of those men turned
to Jesus and said, Lord, remember me when you come
into your kingdom. And Jesus said, truly, truly, I say
to you today, you'll be with me in Paradise. And
by the way, as the story begins, as Christ is
being crucified, both thieves joined in on the mockery of Jesus.
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Then Jesus prayed, Father, forgive them, for they know not
what they do. Then, right there on the spot, that thief,
as a result of that prayer of Christ believed. Now
I bring this up because some people will say, well,
this is a contradiction of the Bible, because one gospel
says that both of the thieves mocked Jesus, and another
gospel says one of them told him to remember them
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when he came into his kingdom. That's not a contradiction.
That's called a conversion. That I believed right there in
the spot. You know how long it takes to become
a Christian. It doesn't tag years, it doesn't dig months,
it doesn't dig ours. It can happen in a moment.
So here we see the Lord praying for people that
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did not yet know them, even praying for the peace
people that crucified him. Be praying for people you know
and are not yet Christians. The Bible says we should
pray that God would open their spiritual eyes, that they
would see their personal need for Jesus Christ. So let's
review our Father, who are in heaven, how it would
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be thy name, thy kingdom Come, Thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven. The will of
God is not always the easiest thing. Jonah didn't think
much of the Wolf of God when the Lord called
him to go preach to the people of Nineveh. After
all the Ninavitra the about enemies of Israel, and Jonah
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knew the nature of God and how forgiving he was.
And his fear was, if I go preach to these horrible,
wicked people, they'll repent and God will forgive them. But
if I don't go preach to them, they won't repent
and God won't forgive them, and he'll destroy them. And
that's one less enemy we have to worry about. So
you know the story. Jonah caught a boat going in
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the opposite direction, but the Lord sent a great storm.
Then he said, a great fish and Jonah got back
to the task at hand and preached the people of Ninevah,
and a spiritual awakening happened as a result. But he
didn't like the will of God. And sometimes the will
of God is a struggle. Even Jesus himself in the
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garden of Kyosemite had a hard time with the will
of the Father. Because remember, Jesus, being God, k near
the future. He was omniscient. He knew he was going
to be beaten beyond human recognition. He knew he was
going to have a crown of thorns placed on his head.
He knew his back would be torn open with the
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Roman cat of nine tails. Worst of all, Jesus knew
that he who was sinless, would bear all the sin
of the world. And from that he recoiled and he prayed, Father,
if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless,
not my will, but yours be done. Doctor Luke tells
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us that Jesus sweat as it were great drops of blood.
There's a medical condition that Doctor's called chema tridrosis, and
that happens when a person is under intense stress and
their perspiration is literally mixed with blood. It's possible. Doctor
Luke was describing that phenomena that Christ was experiencing as
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he recoiled from burying the sin of the world. But
thankfully he went through with it for you and for me.
But we need to understand that God's will ultimately is
better than our will. Listen to this. When I pray,
I'm not trying to get God to do what I
want him to do. True praying is not overcoming God's
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relf reluctance. It's taking hold of his willingness. Prayer is
not getting my will in heaven, it's getting God's will
on earth. Verse up five fourteen, we read this is
the confidence we have in him. If we ask anything
according to his will, he hears us, and we have
the petitions desired of him. Listen, nothing lies outside the
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reach of prayer except that which lies outside of the
will of God. So the Lord only answers the request
that he himself inspires. So you know, I want to
get in alignment with God's will. That's the key. Jesus
made this amazing promise in Jump fifteen. If you abide
in me and my words, abiding you, you shall ask
what you will, and it shall be done unto you.
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Another translation of that would go as follows Jesus speaking,
if you maintain a living communion with Me and my
word is at home and you you can ask it
once for yourself whatever your heart desires and its yours.
Oh that, whatever my heart desires. But yeah, they'll miss
the condition. That's the promise. What's the condition, Jesus says,
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if you abide in Me and my Word is at
home in you. The way you discover the will of
God is by reading the word of God. There you
see the character of God, you see the great stories
that show him at work and the lives of his people,
and you learn how to start praying for his will.
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So it's fine for you to bring whatever you think
you need for the Lord and ask for it. But
it's also important to add this little caveat not my will,
but yours be done. So let's put it all together.
Our Father Gord in heaven, how it would be your
name that kingdom come, That will be done on earth
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as it is in heaven. Now the first petition, give
us this day our daily bread. I love that. Isn't
it amazing that God, the all knowing, all powerful, I'm
the present God who created the entire universe, would have
any personal interest in us. We just had that amazing
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flight to the moon with the crew members of Artemis,
and they took some of the most amazing video I
have ever seen of the moon. And you think of
the God who created that and created the stars and
all of the universe interested in someone like you and
someone like me. Why? I don't know. I just know
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that he does care. Joe writes in Job seven seventeen,
what is man that you make so much of him
and give him so much attention? The answer is simply this,
because he loves us. Jesus says later in Luke chapter eleven, Hey,
if a son asks his father for brad well, the
father give him a stone. If he asks for a fish,
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will he give him a snake? If he asks him
for an egg, will he offer him I'm a scorpion?
And then Jesus says, so, if you sinful people know
how to give good gifts to your kids, how much
more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to
those who ask them. I mean, imagine your little boy
comes you, daddy, Can I have a tuna sandwich? No?
But you can have a rock? Wait? What come on?
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Fathers want to provide for their children, and your heavenly
father wants to provide for you as well. But notice
the phrasing that is used here, give us this day
our daily bread, not pay us this day our daily
bread that you owe us, No give us. It's an
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acknowledgment that everything that I have comes from God. It's
actually not mine, it's his. Listen, the breath you've draw
on your lungs right now, that's a gift from God.
The beat of your heart, that too, is a gift
from God. Heard about a lady that was getting ready
to catch her flight, and she bought a bag of
cookie and she was sitting down at one of those
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open tables to enjoy them. There was another gentleman seated
there already, and so she opened her bag and took
the first cookie out and was eating it, and then
heard a rustling in the bag and looked over and
he had his head in her cookie bag, and he
took a cookie. She thought, how dare this man take
my cookie? She glared at him, he kind of smiled
at her. She reached in took another cookie. He too,
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reached into her bag and took another of her cookies.
Then she reached and took a third, so did he.
They got to the bottom of the bag rather quickly.
There was one cookie left, and he grabbed it, broken
in half, smiled and offered it to her. She ate
her half of the cookie, grabbed her purse, got up,
stormed away so angry that man was stealing my cookies.
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And she opened up her purse to get a plane
ticket out and noticed her bag of cookies was in
the purse. Ah, he was not eating her cookies, she
was eating his. You see, it's generous enough to share
the last one with her. That's us in God, We
say it's my cookies, my life, my choices, my future.
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Hold on. Now, you belong to God, and you need
to come to him on a daily basis and say,
give me this day my daily bread. This verse is
a reminder that we are completely dependent on God. James
one seventeen says every good gift and every perfect gift
is from above and comes down from the Father of lights,
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with whom there is no variation or shadow of Jurney.
Now does this mean we just sit back and do nothing?
Absolutely not. The Bible says of a man doesn't work,
he shouldn't eat, Okay, So we need to be responsible.
We need to get a job or we need to
be good stewards, and then we need to be generous
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with the things that God gives us as well, and
remember to invest in the work of the Kingdom of God.
And Jesus teaches us to pray, give us this day
our daily bread. You see, bread was a staple of
the first century diet. They would pretty much have bread
with whatever else they were eating. Nobody was on the
keto diet back then. What's the new one? The carnivore diet?
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What is that where you go and eat animals alive
like carnivores. Do I know this? And I know it's
primarily meat, high protein, Okay, But in the first century
they eat bread. Bread was important. So when you're praying,
give me this date my daily bread. I'm not praying
just for bread. I'm praying for provision. Lord, give me
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my daily food. Lord, give me a roof over my head,
Give me Lord a career, a paycheck, provide for my needs.
You know, it's a funny thing. Back in the sixties
we referred to money as bread. Don't ask me why.
It's a Hey, dude, you have any bread, which meant
can you give me money, you know. So. But the
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idea is, we're coming to the Lord and we're saying, Lord,
give me my daily bread, provide for my needs, and
I acknowledge that everything I need comes from You. Okay,
so let's put it all together. Our Father warn in heaven,
hollow would be thy name. So I start with contemplating
the awesomeness and greatness of God. Thy kingdom come, that
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will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
I'm praying for the rule and reign of Jesus Christ
and my life. I'm praying for Christ to return to
this earth again. And I'm praying for my friends and
loved ones and people I know to come to know
Jesus Christ and then give me this day my daily bread.
I'm acknowledging everything that I have comes from God, and
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I'm acknowledging my dependence upon God. And now I pray
forgive me my sins as I forgive those who have
sinned against us. Just as surely as we need to
pray for daily bread, we need to pray for daily
forgiveness because you and I we sin every day. There's
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all kinds of ways to define sin. Sin is defined
as missing the mark, and God has sent a mark
of perfection for all of humanity. And the Bible says,
all of sin and fallen short of the glory of God.
There's not one righteous, no, not one. So we've all
fallen short of God's mark. But then sin also means
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to cross the line. The Bible speaks of being dead
in trespassing sin. You know, like when you go into
a city park and maybe they just planted grass, and
it says no trespassing when you step on that grass,
or trespassing. So when you break a commandment thou shall
not lie, thou shall not steal, Thou shall not take
the lords in the name in vain, you do one
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of those things, that's trespass. So sin is falling short,
sin is crossing the line. But sin can also be
not doing what you're supposed to do. The Bible says
to him that knows to do good and does not
do it, to him, it is sin. So there are
sins of commission and omission. Commission that's done the bad stuff.
Oh mission, it's not doing the good stuff. So the
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Lord might direct you share the Gospel with that person,
and we say no way. Like Jonah go in the
opposite direction. Or the Lord might say put down your
phone and open up the Bible and we say I
don't want to. Or the Lord might direct us to
apologize to our spouse for our shortness of temper. I
don't want to do that. See, that can be a
sin too. So my point is you need to ask
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God to forgive you of your sin each and every day.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have
sinned against us. Ah easier said than done. C. S.
Lewis said it best quote. Everyone says forgiveness is a
lovely idea until they have someone to forgive right end quote.
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So let me ask you directly, is there someone who
has heard you that you need to forgive? Bottom line,
We're going to hurt people in life. We're going to
be hurt by people in life, so we're going to
have to learn how to forgive. One of the most
amazing demonstrations of forgiveness that I've ever seen is the
forgiveness that was extended by Erica Kirk toward the man
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who assassinated her husband. You remember at Charlie Kirk's memorial service.
That was one of the most powerful times of seeing
the gospel presented to an international audience that's ever been staged.
Erica got up before that crowd and said, of the
men that took Charlie's life, I forgive this man. But
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you know that's important for the man. He needs God's forgiveness,
he needs to repent. But it's also important for the
person that is extending the forgiveness. It's been said, when
you forgive a person, you set a prisoner free yourself.
You See, when you harbor unforgiveness, it eats you up inside.
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Not forgiving someone is like drinking rat poison and waiting
for the rat to die. See, the problem is you're
going to be destroyed by your unforgiveness. When you harbor
and resentment and you refuse to forgive, you're actually grieving
the Holy Spirit. Ephesians four point thirty says, don't bring
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sorrow to God's Holy Spirit. Isn't that interesting brings sorrow?
You can make God's Holy Spirit sorrowful by the way
that you live. Paul continues, get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger,
harsh words, and slender These are things that bring sorrow
to the Holy Spirit, as well as all types of
malicious behavior. Man think of all the stuff that people
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post on social media, the slander, the lies, the the triol.
Don't be one of those people. Instead, Ephesians continues to say,
be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just
as God through Christ has forgiven you. So here's a
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little bonus on the topic of forgiveness. Research has shown
that people who refuse to forgive are more likely to
experience high blood pressure, depression, and problems with anger, stress,
and anxiety. So listen, forgiveness isn't just good for you spiritually,
it might help you to live longer too. Now we
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come to the next petition, Do not lead us into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. All right, So, our Father
ward in heaven, Hollywood be your name, your kingdom. Come
will be done on earth as said is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us
our sins, as we forgive those who have sinned against us,
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and deliver us from evil. In other words, they're saying, Lord,
don't let me be tempted above my capacity to resist.
Here's the problem with temptation. It's so tempting. I mean,
you know, the devil knows what he's doing. Right. He
knows how to make bad stuff look good and even
sometimes good stuff look bad. He's a liar, he's the
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father of lies, and he'll get you to take that
first bite. Have you ever been to Krispy Kream donuts? Okay?
So the key to Krispy Kream is you want that
little sign to be lit up. And what that means
is they're making the donuts fresh. And I'll tell you,
a freshly made glazed donut from Krispy Cream is incredible.
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And sometimes you walk into Krispy Kream and they'll give
you a free donut. You see, will They're so generous. Now,
they're smart because they know if you eat that first donut,
you're gonna walk want more. Right, And by the way,
the donuts are slightly smaller than a normal donut. So
I've gone and eaten I think seven is my record.
He probably shouldn't admit that, but yeah, I've eaten a lot,
washed them down with some cold milk. So good. The
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first one tastes so good, but then you know twenty
minutes later, all that dough is sitting in your stomach
and that sugar's affecting you, and you go into a
food coma and you're not feeling so good about it.
Sorry to compare Chrispy Gream donuts to sin. I actually
think they're great. I love them. But that's how sin works.
Oh it's so fun at first, you know, the Bible
(48:19):
Eving acknowledges sin can be pleasurable for a time, but
afterwards brings death. You know, it would be exciting to
jump out of the Empire State building without a parachute.
You're having so much fun until you hit the ground.
And sin is the same way. Oh, it might be
fun in exhilarating and even pleasurable for a time, but
then you face the consequences of it. So you're saying, Lord,
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don't give me more than I can handle. Here's the thing,
if you look back at any temptation you've ever given
in to, you would have to acknowledge that there was
always a way out, wasn't there. First Corinthians ten thirteen
says there is no temptation taking you, but such as
is common demand, meaning that we all face the same temptations. God,
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who is faithful, will not allow you to be tempted
above your ability to resist, but will with the temptation
give you a way of escape that you may be
able to bear it. Sometimes that way of escape is
as simple as walking out of door. Remember the story
of Joseph, when Potterver's wife pulled him down on the
bed and said, lie with me. He did, with any
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clear thinking, red blooded young man or woman should do
under such circumstances, he ran like crazy. That was the
right reaction. So sometimes it's going out the door. Sometimes
it's pushing the off button of the remote control. Sometimes
it's terminating the conversation or the text thread. It's just
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a practical thing. There's always a way out. Lord, don't
let me be tempted above my capacity to resist. Deliver
me from the evil one. And then it concludes, for
Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory.
So there's one more thing I'm going to tell you
about prayer, and this one is really important. So there's
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one more thing I want to talk about, and it
might be the most important thing of all in this
whole conversation about prayer. What do you do when you
pray and nothing seems to happen. So Jesus addresses this directly,
and look, Alvin, he says, asking it shall be given
to you seeking, he shall find knocking. The door shall
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be open. See here's a framework that I found really
helps when a prayer doesn't seem to be getting answered.
If the request is wrong, God says no. If the
timing is wrong, God says slow. If you are wrong,
God says grow. But if the request is right and
the timing is right and you are right, God says go.
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You see, Sometimes we say, oh, well I pray and
God didn't answer my prayer. Well, maybe you didn't like
the answer he gave. No is an answer right, Maybe
you wanted a yes. But sometimes, when it passing enough time,
you look back on life and you say, Lord, thank
you for saying no on that particular prayer, because I
realize now in retrospect, that would have been the worst
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thing that could have happened to me. Sometimes we pray
about something once or twice and we give up. But
God might be saying slow, like it's just not my timing.
Keep asking. I want you to look at the verbs
that Jesus uses, ask, seek, and knock. Actually, it's all
summed up in the acronym ask a s k ask, seek, knock. Actually,
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in the original language, they escalate in intensity, let me illustrate.
Ask just means you ask for assistance. You come to
the Lord and say, Lord, would you do this for me?
Asking it shall be given? But seek is different. It
means asking plus action. You're not just expressing the need.
You're like, you're actually storming God's throne about this. You're
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being persistent in your prayer, and not means ask plus
action plus perseverance. It's like pounding on a closed door.
Jesus actually illustrates this and says, which of you if
you had gone to sleep for the night and had
someone pound on your door, would get up and answer
the door. So back in the first century, everybody would
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sleep in the same room and little mats on the floor.
Mom and dad were their, Grandma and grandpa were there,
the kids were there, maybe a couple of the animals
were there, and so when you went to bed at night,
it was kind of a production to get up. And
so let's say some dude lives next to you and
he starts banging at your door at twelve o'clock at night,
(52:45):
and you're like, go away, we're asleep, and he keeps knocking.
Go away, and he keeps pounding. You're going to answer
the door to just get him to go away. Jesus
uses that opposite illustration to show how different God is.
So if you would go and answer that neighbor just
to get him to stop banging on your door, how
much more will your heavenly Father, who loves you and
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is looking out for your best interest, answer your prayer.
But you have to keep praying, ask, seek, and knock.
Don't give up, press on. It can be truan to
stated this way. Keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. Jesus
is calling us to passionate persistent prayer. Let me close
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with this. We're talking about prayer, but prayer, having a
prayer life is a privilege for the child of God.
Now non believers can pray. I remember before I was
a Christian, I would pray, God, get me out of
this and I'll serve you. Of course, I never kept
up my end of the bargain, but I called out
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to God. But only the Christian can really have a
prayer life. The one prayer that a non believer can
pray is what we might call the sinner's prayer. It's
in a story that Jesus told of two men that
went to the temple to pray. One was a pharisee
that means a very religious, devout man. The other was
a tax collector, which was just another way of saying
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a sinner. And the religious man prayed thus with himself, God,
I think, oh, I'm not like other men. I fast
twice a week, I give tithes at all that I possess,
and I'm thankful. I'm not like this guy next to me,
pointing to the tax collector. And that sinful man just said, Lord,
be merciful to me a sinner. Actually a better translation
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would be God be merciful to me the sinner. He
knew he was a sinner, And Jesus said that man,
the sinner, who was honest to God, went down justified
before the Lord, not the religious guide. So if you're
not a Christian yet, you need to pray that prayer,
God be merciful to me the sinner. Admit your sin,
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ask God to forgive you of your sin. You see,
there's a barrier that separates us from God called sin.
God says, it's not that I is heavy so I
can't hear you. It's not that my hand is short
that I can't save you. Your sins have separated you
from me, But then the Bible also says that we
will confess our sins. He's faithful and just to forgive
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us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Would
you like to have a relationship with God as your
father in heaven. Would you like Jesus Christ to come
into your life and be your savior and lord and
have the Kingdom of God ruling in your life. Would
you like to fill that deep hole inside of you
(55:40):
that maybe you've tried to fill with things that this
culture or this world offers. Then you need to just pray,
because Jesus he's just a prayer away. And if you
would like to pray a sinner's prayer, so to speak,
if you would like Jesus to come into your life,
why don't you just pause right now and pray with me.
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You can pray this after me if you like. Just pray,
Lord Jesus. I know that I'm a sinner, but I
thank you that you are the savior who died in
the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead.
I turned from my sin now and I choose to
follow you from this moment forward. Thank you for hearing
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this prayer and answering this prayer in Jesus' name, I pray, Amen,
did you just pray that prayer? If so, I want
to congratulate you and welcome you to the family of God. Listen,
I'd like to send you a free gift. It's called
the New Believer's Bible, which is a very understandable translation
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of the New Testament, along with hundreds of notes that
I wrote that will encourage you in this commitment you've
made to follow Jesus. So God bless you and keep praying.
Life audio. God is not an AI search engine. He's
the creator of the universe. It's not artificial intelligence, it's
divine intelligence. Do you remember the first time you prayed?
(00:32):
But I remember when I did. I was a brand
new believer, and I was told by my Christian friends, now, Greg,
you can pray about things and the Lord will hear
your prayers and I'll answer your prayers. So I thought, well, okay,
I pray for a new Bible. And the reason was
because someone gave me like kind of the funkiest bible
(00:52):
you've ever seen. It was very used. It had two
popsicle sticks glued together in the shape of a cross.
I wanted a proper Bible. I had gone to a
Christian bookstore and they had a beautiful black leather Schofield
Cross Reference Bible with gold pages and ribbons. And I
wanted that Bible so much, but I couldn't afford it.
(01:14):
So I prayed, Lord, I want that Bible. And I
got a phone called that day from my grandmother who
had lived with as a boy for a number of years,
and she heard that I'd become a Christian and said,
I want to buy you a bible. Pick out a
really nice one my first answered prayer. Do you remember
the first time you prayed publicly? That's kind of challenging,
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isn't it. I remember I was in a big prayer
circle and I was very nervous. I'd never done this before,
and I knew what I was going to pray, But
by the time it got to me, everything had been
prayed for already. I didn't know what to pray for.
I'm not sure what I asked the Lord for. But
I want to talk to you a little bit today
about prayer because that's one of the most neglected things
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in the Christian life. I think we would all admit
that we could pray more. I certainly would admit I
could and I should pray more. Billy Grahama was once
asked if he had any regrets in life, and he said, yes,
I regret that I did not pray more and spend
more time telling the Lord how much I love him.
(02:22):
So let's think a little bit about prayer. Let's learn
a little bit more about prayer, and I want to
focus on something called the Lord's prayer that reminds me
of a story. A pilot was flying a plane full
of passengers to their destination, when suddenly the rudder malfunction.
He radioed the control tower in a panic and shouted,
(02:43):
the rudder is malfunctioned. What should I do? The air
traffic controller radio back very calmly and said, now keep calm, captain,
just repeat after me. Wings flap check, velocity check, altitude check.
And the pilot made the adjustments and everything was fine.
And about five minutes say to the starboard engines, and
(03:06):
the pilot radio is again. The starboard engine is talled.
What do I do? Same answer, Keep calm, captain, wings
flap check, velocity check, altitude check. It worked, everything was fine.
The pilot breathed the sigh of relief, and then both
engines went out at the same time. May day, may day.
(03:28):
The pilot shouts, the engines are gone. What do I do?
The air traffic controller said, keep calm, captain, just repeat
after me, our father, who are in heaven, how it
would be your name, your kingdom? Come? You know the
Lord's prayer, that's the one we pull out in case
of emergency. That's like the big prayer, and there's nothing
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wrong with that. There have been a number of occasions
where I have prayed that prayer I remember I was
asked to speak at the March for Life event in Washington,
d C. It was very cold, very snowy, and said
thousands of people gathered to march for the unborn, and
I gave a little message and I told them about
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how they get ever relationship with Jesus Christ. I commended
them for all their efforts because these are people from
every religious background, imaginable. And then I said, let's pray
the Lord's Prayer together and we did that. It was beautiful.
Remember another time I was speaking at an event in Cochella,
California for President Trump, and I also led that crowd
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in the Lord's Prayer. It seems like most people know
this prayer, but there's one time when I prayed that
prayer in a very difficult situation. I have a friend
who had a son who was out running in a
track meet, and tragically, the boy died as he was
crossing the finish line and they took him down to
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the hospital and he was gone, and I was called
down there and I walked into a room filled with people.
In fact, this whole family was in town because it
was the grandfather's birthday, so they were there to celebrate,
and here's this room full of devastated, grieving people. And
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I talked to him a little bit about our own loss,
how the Lord had called our son home to heaven
unexpectedly sixteen years earlier. And I shared the hope that
we have in Christ. Because this young man, whose name
is Larry, was a believer, and so I could assure
the folks that Larry was with the Lord. And then
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as they came to an end of my talk, it
just occurred to me, we should pray the Lord's prayer.
And we did pray it together. There's something so powerful,
so beautiful in that prayer. Do you know it? You
should memorize it. Our Father God in heaven, hollow would
be thy name, that kingdom come, that will be done
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on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this
day our daily read, and forgive us our sins, as
we forgive those who have sinned against us. Deliver us
from evil. For Thine is the Kingdom and the Power
and the glory forever. Amen the Lord's Prayer. Now, if
this prayer was given in response to a question from
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the disciples, they said, Lord, teach us to pray as
John taught his disciples to pray. Notice they did not say, Lord,
teach us a killer prayer, the one to pull out
in case of emergency. No, Rather, they said teach us
to pray. So the Lord's Prayer is a prayer we
can pray on occasion, but it is also a model
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or a template for prayer. Have you ever gone to
a housing tract that's about to be built in the
of the model homes and you can walk around and
see what these homes will look like. Those model homes
are interesting, though the photographs of the people that live
there that don't live there at all, everything is fake,
but it gives you a sense of what I may
like one day. And this prayer that we call the
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Lord's Prayer is a model for all prayer. It shows
us how to pray, which also reveals that prayer is
something that can be learned. We can, in effect, become
better at prayer the more that we do it. So
let's walk through the Lord's Prayer. But let's start with
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this question, why don't we pray more? I think most
of us, as they said already, would acknowledge prayer is important.
We would acknowledge we should pray more. But if we're honest,
we would acknowledge. Also, we don't pray enough. Why I
don't know? Reason number one? Should I say? Excuse number one?
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We say we don't have the time. Okay, is that true?
Let me throw us stat out that effectively disproves that.
Research tells us that people in the United States check
their social media accounts seventeen times a day. That's basically
once every waking hour. Now that's a lot, right now.
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You have time to do that, but you don't have
time to pray. What if you prayed seventeen times a day.
We know that Daniel the Prophet prayed three times a day.
You might say it was a habit of yes. And
then get this. The average American watches five hours of
television a day. What if we give just half of
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that to the Lord. Now, look, I'm not trying to
make you feel better about watching TV or checking your
social media accounts. But here's the thing. We have time
for what matters to us. We make time to check
our social media, we make time to binge watch stuff
on Netflix. We make time to do so many things.
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But we don't have time for prayer. It's not really
a reason, it's just an excuse. Okay, here's reason number
two that we don't pray more? Or maybe I should
say excuse number two. If we're honest, maybe we wouldn't
say this, but it's probably true for us. We don't
think prayer is all that important. Who would say that
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prayer is not important? But if it is important, why
don't we pray more? If we really believe that prayer
moved mountains, wouldn't we be doing it more? Here's what
always gets me. Jesus himself prayed constantly. If the son
of God walking among us felt the need to spend
hours in the evening praying to his father in heaven,
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how much more should you and I be spending time
in prayer? Again, We're always going to find time for
what matters to us. One more reason we don't pray,
or i'll call it an excuse. We may just think
that prayer doesn't work. This is a big one. Oh,
maybe we wouldn't say it out loud, but do we
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really believe that prayer works? Well? The answer to that
is yes, it does. And I want to address that
directly because I think there's something so often misunderstood about prayer.
God wants us to pray and isay a fifty nine
sixteen God wonders why his people don't pray more, and
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the word that is used there in the text for
wonders means God is astonished. God's literally astonished, like people,
why don't you pray more? I want to bless you
through prayer. I want to provide for you through prayer,
as the Bible says, you have not because you ask not.
Jesus said, men are always to pray and not give up.
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The apostle Paul said, don't worry about anything but pray
about everything. There's so much God wants to do in
our lives if we will just pray about it. I
think one of the problems with social media and Google
and AI is we're used to just getting median information.
So I'm praying Lord speak to me, show me what
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to do, and he doesn't come through quickly enough for us.
And we're used to a world where if you have
a question, you type it in within seconds, you can
find out the weather in Brazil, whatever you need, it's
all there. But the thing is is God doesn't work
on our schedules. He speaks in his time, and he
tells us to be still and know that he is God.
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God is not an AI search engine. He's the creator
of the universe and his wisdom. Do I really need
to say? This is so much greater than all of
the AI out there, no matter what particular program you
are using. It's not artificial intelligence, it's divine intelligence. But
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here's what I want you to know. If your prayers
aren't working, maybe because you're not praying the right way.
And that's exactly what Jesus is talking to us about
and what we call the Lord's prayer. Now, think about
how amazing this is. Jesus Christ is teaching us how
to pray. I mean, imagine if you went to some
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elite university and you could be taught by the absolute
best in every field across human history. You could study
music under Beethoven, take a drama class taught by Shakespeare,
political science with Thomas Jefferson, philosophy with C. S. Lewis. Well,
those will all be great. But how about a class
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on prayer taught by Jesus Christ himself. And that's exactly
what we have here in Luke chapter eleven. So one
day the disciples of Jesus came to him, as I mentioned,
and said, Lord, teach us how to pray, and then
Jesus gave them what we now call the Lord's prayer. Okay,
so let's start with this template for prayer that we
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call the Lord's prayer. It begins with these words, our Father,
who are in heaven. We have to begin to see
God the way the Bible presents him as a father.
He's a father who loves his children. He's a father
who misses his children when they go astray. He's a
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father that longs for communication and fellowship with us. He's
a father who wants to bless us. Jesus himself said,
if you're not little flock, it is your father's good
pleasure to give to you the kingdom. Look, I don't
know what kind of earthly dad that you had growing up.
Maybe you had a great hands on father. Maybe your
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father was rather aloof, Maybe your father was abusive, Maybe
your father was not there at all. That's my situation.
I never had a dad growing up. So depending on
your upbringing, you might approach his concept as God as
a father in different ways. But we need to see
him as the Bible presents him. One of the best
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illustrations and what we call the parable of the prodigals
son that Jesus gave. He presents God as a father
who had two sons. As you recall, one of the
sons one astray and made a mess of his life
and drug the family name to the gutter. And one
day he decided to return home. Because even that boy
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knew people that worked for his dad had it better
than he had it. And he had a little speech
that he had written. I'll just say, Father, I have sinned.
I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Just
give me a job. I won't be your son anymore,
but just let me live under your roof. And here's
the story Jesus tells. When the boy was a great
ways off, his father saw him and ran to him
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and threw his arms around him and kissed him and
welcomed him and said, rejoice with me. This my son,
who was dead is alive again. He who was lost
is found. That's what God is like now, Jesus said,
and suggested it. It might almost appear a reverend, because
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we have this father running to the son. Do you
know that in ancient culture was considered undignified for an
older man to run, not to mention that's harder for
an older man to run. You know. I used to
be a runner, not anymore, and it's something that actually
just causes pain to me. Now I hear runners say, oh,
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I had a great run. I really had the release
of the endorphins. I don't think I ever got a
single endorphined release when I was doing any form of exercise.
Maybe I've had some endorphins release when I'm eating a hamburger.
So here's the picture Jesus gives. A father is willing
to lose his dignity if you will, to get to
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his son. It doesn't matter if that's not done. He
has to get to his son as quickly as possible,
and he welcomes his son, and he forgives his son.
What is God like. He's like a father who misses
his son, his daughter. And when we're away, he longed
for our return. He's our father who aren't in heaven.
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Now I want you to know that, though it is
true he is your father, he's also your daddy if
you will. In Romans eight fifteen, it says you've not
received the spirit of a bondage that makes you fearful slaves. Instead,
you've received God's spirit where he adopted you as his
own children. Now we call him Abba father, Abba father.
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That is an affectionate term. That is the Hebrew equivalent
of calling your father daddy or papa. Like if you're
sitting at a dinner table with your father and you
want the salt, you don't say, dearest Father, I beseech
thee to hend to me the salt that Now you
just say, hey, Dad, would you pass the sault. It's intimacy,
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it's access, it's relationship. And so he is your father
in heaven. But there's an affection in that because he's
your Abba in heaven and you can approach any time.
So we begin our prayers with our father who are
in heaven. Before we start rattling off eliz of requests,
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just pause and contemplate the awesomeness of God. If we
wrote the Lord's Prayer ourselves, it would go as follow
us our Father, whoard in heaven, give us us to
ear daily bread, like hello, God, how are you nice
to see you? Here's what I need. But Jesus teaches
us in the model prayer, the template for all prayer,
to pray our Father who ward in heaven. Hollow would
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be thy name. Before you get to your personal requests,
contemplate the awesomeness and the greatness of God. Remind yourself
of the faithfulness of God. Listen, your God is a
promise keeper. He is not a promise breaker. It's good
for us to think of some of the attributes of
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God as we call upon in For instance, the Bible
teaches that God is omnipotent. That means he is unlimited power.
In otherwise, how can he answer your prayer? So as
the Bible says, as anything too hard for the Lord.
So whatever you're bringing before him, you serve an all
powerful God. Secondly, God is I'm the present. That means
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he's present everywhere that matters, because if he wasn't, how
would he be able to meet your needs wherever you are. So,
wherever you go, whatever you're facing, God is with you there,
as Jesus said, I Am with you even to the
end of the age. Thirdly, God is omniscient. This simply
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means he knows everything. He knows all things. He knows
everything that you're facing, he knows a lot of things
that you don't know, and he knows how He's ultimately
going to work it. Out according to His perfect plan
for your life and for his ultimate glory. Another thing
I would mention is God is loving. That means that
whatever happens in my life, whatever God allows or us,
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is ultimately for His glory and our and for our good,
and everything is screened through a lens of love. You know,
when I was a kid, I used to watch a
TV show called Father Knows Best. As I pointed out,
I didn't have a dad growing up, so I really
needed some paternal wisdom. Sadly I had to get it
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from some actor reading lines in a sitcom. But the
way they portrayed fathers back in those days was a
lot different than the way they portray them in television
or movies today. The fathers are wise and considerate and
had good advice for their kids. So I would watch
Father Knows Best or word Cleaver on Leave It to Beaver.
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But I was just looking for some direction. But I
like that title of that one program, father Knows Best?
And did you know your heavenly father knows Best? Soap,
let's review our father who are in he hallowood? Be
your name now? The word hollowood means set apart, be
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your name. When I say, Hallowood be your name. I'm
saying God has set apart in my life. He is
above everything. He is over everything. He is Lord over everything.
Fact is, if he isn't Lord of all, he isn't
lord at all. Many of our homes have a wall
or a shelf dedicated to our family. We might have
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family photos there, or trophies that our children won for
sports events over the years, basically things that matter to you.
I was just back in Washington, d c. For lunch
at the White House, and while I was there, Secretary
of State Marco Rubio invited me to come visit him
in his office in the West Wing, which is right
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across from the Oval Office. And so I went over
to his office and sat there, and what struck me
about it was what he had on a walls. He
pointed out to me that this was once the office
of Henry Kissinger, the Secretary of State under Richard Dixon,
and it was quite different Marco's office from Kissinger's office
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because on the walls of Secretary of State Marco Rubio's
office were photos of his family, starting with a big
one of his son playing football, and then photos of
him with his wife and to me that said, this
is what matters to me. You would think it would
be Marco with the president and Marco with world leaders,
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but primarily it was Marco with members of his family.
That's a man who has his priorities in order. I
ask you, what's on the wall of your life? What
is that the center of your life? It should be
the Lord Jesus Christ number one, and of course your family.
But you have to have things in their proper place.
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So I say, Lord, Hollywood be your name. Lord, I
want to do this for your glory. I should be
able to write Hallowod be your name over everything that
I do. I should be able to write Hallowod be
thy name over my career choice, or hallowould be thy
name over the friends I choose to spend time with her.
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Hollow would be thy name over the TV shows that
I watch, or the social media that I view, and
all the things that I spend my time doing. Here's
a simple test. If I can't ask the Lord to
bless it, I shouldn't do it. If I can't say
Hallowold be thy name over something, I shouldn't be engaged
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in it. As an example, if I'm going to church
in the Sunday morning. Can I say, Lord, bless his
time at church? Hallow it be thy name? Of course
I can't. If I'm going to go out for a
nice meal with family or friends, can I say hallowud
be thy name? Of course I can't. If I'm going
to go out and get drunk for the weekend, can
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I say, Lord, bless his time as I get drunk
and don't let me let me get a dui this time? No,
you can't do that. Hey, Can I say, Hallow would
be thy name, Lord as I sleep with my girlfriend
or boyfriend? No you can't. So my point is, find
things to do that you can say, Hallow would be
thy name. Over our Father who are in heaven, Hallow
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would be thy name. Set apart be your name, Your
kingdom Come, Your will be done on earth as it
is in heaven. Now, this is a multi layered request,
and I want to unpack it because a lot of
us may not realize what we're really praying for. First
of all, I'm saying your kingdom Come. That means I'm
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asking for the rule and reign of Jesus Christ in
my life. Jesus said, the Kingdom of God is in
the midst of you. And what he meant was he
was walking among the people that was the kingdom of God.
So Jesus is ruling over us. He said, my kingdom
is not of this world. So when I'm saying your
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kingdom come, I'm saying, Lord, I want the rule and
reign of Christ in my life. Remember Jesus told us
in Matthew six point thirty three to seek first the
Kingdom of God in his righteousness, and all these things
shall be added unto you. So when I pray Thy
Kingdom come, that will be done. I'm asking for the
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rule and reign of Christ in my life. And that's
something every Christian should be doing or placed here on
this earth to bring glory to God. So pray Thy
Kingdom come. Another thing is when I pray Thy Kingdom come,
that will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
I'm effectively praying for the return of Jesus Christ to
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our planet. Now, when Jesus uses the word kingdom here,
he's talking about sovereignty and dominion. In other words, I'm
praying for the rule and reign of Christ over this planet. Listen,
politicians are never going to be able to fix the
problems of our world, nor is the latest and greatest technology.
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Only Christ can fix this war torn planet. Only Christ
can bring true and lasting peace. Only Christ can change
things to the way they need to be. So when
I pray Thy Kingdom Come, I'm praying for the rule
and reign of Jesus Christ on this planet. And I'm saying,
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Jesus comes soon. The word that is used here by
Jesus for come, as in Thy Kingdom come, actually carries
a sense of a sudden, instantaneous coming. So I'm saying, Lord,
come back soon, like the apostle John said, Even so,
come Lord Jesus. You know. One concern that I have
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is that there is a doctrine that has gained some
prominence in the Church called the Preadorist view. The word
preatorist comes from a Latin word that means pass and
basically it is the view that the things that many
of us look forward to as Christians have already happened.
They're in the past. Specifically in seventy AD, when Titus
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and the Roman legions attacked Jerusalem. They say that all
these things were fulfilled. That's when the anti Christ came.
That's the second Coming included in that so we should
not be looking forward to the return of Christ to
our planet anymore. I don't believe in the prederest view.
I believe that Christ is coming in the future. I
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don't think it has already happened. I think it is
going to happen. And I think that this belief that
Jesus could come back at any moment actually has an
impact on us spiritually. And first John it says he
that has this so purifies himself, even as God is pure.
In other words, if I believe Jesus could come back
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at any time, and I do, by the way, it
is a purifying effect to me. Let me illustrate. Remember
when you were a little kid. Maybe you're being a
good little boy or girl, and you couldn't wait until
daddy got home, right, But maybe one day you misbehaved
and your mom said, now your father's going to have
to discipline you. So you kind of dreaded the arrival
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of your father. I think when we're walking with God
as we ought to, we look forward to the return
of Jesus, But when we're not walking with him as
we ought to, maybe we're dreading it. It should have
an effect on us and the way we live two
Peter three fourteen says, dear friends, while you're waiting for
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the Lord to return, live peaceful lives that are pure
and blameless in His sight. So Thy Kingdom Come, Thy
will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
It's a personal prayer for the rule and reign of
Christ in our life. It's a prayer for our planet
that Christ would return again. And finally, this is an
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evangelistic prayer. When I pray Thy Kingdom come, that will
be done. I'm praying for people that I know that
are not yet believers. I'm praying that the Kingdom of
God would rule and reign in their life. And by
the way, we can play a part in the Kingdom
of God coming into someone else's life. Every time you
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share the gospel, you're moving in that direction. Every time
someone believes in Jesus, God's Kingdom advances on the earth.
So I'm praying for the Lord to reach people I
know that aren't believers yet. I think of my own mother.
If you saw the Jesus Revolution film, you saw how
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she had a really rough life and was married in
divorce many times and was searching. And people have asked
me whatever happened to your mom. Well, I'm happy to
report that my mom eventually came to the Lord at
the age of seventy, and we were very happy that
finally took place. But the sad thing is she died
only a mind month or so after that. So we
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never want to give up praying for our loved ones
to come to know Jesus Christ. And by the way,
it is the will of God for people to believe
in Jesus. God says he's not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance. So it's biblical
to pray for our friends or people we know that
are not yet believers. Isaiah fifty three tells us Jesus
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interceded for the transgressors. That means he prayed for them.
And remember on the cross itself, what were the first
of his seventh statements statement number one, Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do. That was a
prayer for those people. And by the way, one of
them did believe that we know of one of the
thieves crucified next to him. Call them thieves are probably
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guilty of a far more serious crime to be crucified
by the Romans. But remember, one of those men turned
to Jesus and said, Lord, remember me when you come
into your kingdom. And Jesus said, truly, truly, I say
to you today, you'll be with me in Paradise. And
by the way, as the story begins, as Christ is
being crucified, both thieves joined in on the mockery of Jesus.
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Then Jesus prayed, Father, forgive them, for they know not
what they do. Then, right there on the spot, that thief,
as a result of that prayer of Christ believed. Now
I bring this up because some people will say, well,
this is a contradiction of the Bible, because one gospel
says that both of the thieves mocked Jesus, and another
gospel says one of them told him to remember them
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when he came into his kingdom. That's not a contradiction.
That's called a conversion. That I believed right there in
the spot. You know how long it takes to become
a Christian. It doesn't tag years, it doesn't dig months,
it doesn't dig ours. It can happen in a moment.
So here we see the Lord praying for people that
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did not yet know them, even praying for the peace
people that crucified him. Be praying for people you know
and are not yet Christians. The Bible says we should
pray that God would open their spiritual eyes, that they
would see their personal need for Jesus Christ. So let's
review our Father, who are in heaven, how it would
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be thy name, thy kingdom Come, Thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven. The will of
God is not always the easiest thing. Jonah didn't think
much of the Wolf of God when the Lord called
him to go preach to the people of Nineveh. After
all the Ninavitra the about enemies of Israel, and Jonah
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knew the nature of God and how forgiving he was.
And his fear was, if I go preach to these horrible,
wicked people, they'll repent and God will forgive them. But
if I don't go preach to them, they won't repent
and God won't forgive them, and he'll destroy them. And
that's one less enemy we have to worry about. So
you know the story. Jonah caught a boat going in
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the opposite direction, but the Lord sent a great storm.
Then he said, a great fish and Jonah got back
to the task at hand and preached the people of Ninevah,
and a spiritual awakening happened as a result. But he
didn't like the will of God. And sometimes the will
of God is a struggle. Even Jesus himself in the
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garden of Kyosemite had a hard time with the will
of the Father. Because remember, Jesus, being God, k near
the future. He was omniscient. He knew he was going
to be beaten beyond human recognition. He knew he was
going to have a crown of thorns placed on his head.
He knew his back would be torn open with the
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Roman cat of nine tails. Worst of all, Jesus knew
that he who was sinless, would bear all the sin
of the world. And from that he recoiled and he prayed, Father,
if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless,
not my will, but yours be done. Doctor Luke tells
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us that Jesus sweat as it were great drops of blood.
There's a medical condition that Doctor's called chema tridrosis, and
that happens when a person is under intense stress and
their perspiration is literally mixed with blood. It's possible. Doctor
Luke was describing that phenomena that Christ was experiencing as
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he recoiled from burying the sin of the world. But
thankfully he went through with it for you and for me.
But we need to understand that God's will ultimately is
better than our will. Listen to this. When I pray,
I'm not trying to get God to do what I
want him to do. True praying is not overcoming God's
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relf reluctance. It's taking hold of his willingness. Prayer is
not getting my will in heaven, it's getting God's will
on earth. Verse up five fourteen, we read this is
the confidence we have in him. If we ask anything
according to his will, he hears us, and we have
the petitions desired of him. Listen, nothing lies outside the
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reach of prayer except that which lies outside of the
will of God. So the Lord only answers the request
that he himself inspires. So you know, I want to
get in alignment with God's will. That's the key. Jesus
made this amazing promise in Jump fifteen. If you abide
in me and my words, abiding you, you shall ask
what you will, and it shall be done unto you.
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Another translation of that would go as follows Jesus speaking,
if you maintain a living communion with Me and my
word is at home and you you can ask it
once for yourself whatever your heart desires and its yours.
Oh that, whatever my heart desires. But yeah, they'll miss
the condition. That's the promise. What's the condition, Jesus says,
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if you abide in Me and my Word is at
home in you. The way you discover the will of
God is by reading the word of God. There you
see the character of God, you see the great stories
that show him at work and the lives of his people,
and you learn how to start praying for his will.
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So it's fine for you to bring whatever you think
you need for the Lord and ask for it. But
it's also important to add this little caveat not my will,
but yours be done. So let's put it all together.
Our Father Gord in heaven, how it would be your
name that kingdom come, That will be done on earth
(35:55):
as it is in heaven. Now the first petition, give
us this day our daily bread. I love that. Isn't
it amazing that God, the all knowing, all powerful, I'm
the present God who created the entire universe, would have
any personal interest in us. We just had that amazing
(36:17):
flight to the moon with the crew members of Artemis,
and they took some of the most amazing video I
have ever seen of the moon. And you think of
the God who created that and created the stars and
all of the universe interested in someone like you and
someone like me. Why? I don't know. I just know
(36:41):
that he does care. Joe writes in Job seven seventeen,
what is man that you make so much of him
and give him so much attention? The answer is simply this,
because he loves us. Jesus says later in Luke chapter eleven, Hey,
if a son asks his father for brad well, the
father give him a stone. If he asks for a fish,
(37:01):
will he give him a snake? If he asks him
for an egg, will he offer him I'm a scorpion?
And then Jesus says, so, if you sinful people know
how to give good gifts to your kids, how much
more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to
those who ask them. I mean, imagine your little boy
comes you, daddy, Can I have a tuna sandwich? No?
But you can have a rock? Wait? What come on?
(37:24):
Fathers want to provide for their children, and your heavenly
father wants to provide for you as well. But notice
the phrasing that is used here, give us this day
our daily bread, not pay us this day our daily
bread that you owe us, No give us. It's an
(37:45):
acknowledgment that everything that I have comes from God. It's
actually not mine, it's his. Listen, the breath you've draw
on your lungs right now, that's a gift from God.
The beat of your heart, that too, is a gift
from God. Heard about a lady that was getting ready
to catch her flight, and she bought a bag of
cookie and she was sitting down at one of those
(38:07):
open tables to enjoy them. There was another gentleman seated
there already, and so she opened her bag and took
the first cookie out and was eating it, and then
heard a rustling in the bag and looked over and
he had his head in her cookie bag, and he
took a cookie. She thought, how dare this man take
my cookie? She glared at him, he kind of smiled
at her. She reached in took another cookie. He too,
(38:30):
reached into her bag and took another of her cookies.
Then she reached and took a third, so did he.
They got to the bottom of the bag rather quickly.
There was one cookie left, and he grabbed it, broken
in half, smiled and offered it to her. She ate
her half of the cookie, grabbed her purse, got up,
stormed away so angry that man was stealing my cookies.
(38:53):
And she opened up her purse to get a plane
ticket out and noticed her bag of cookies was in
the purse. Ah, he was not eating her cookies, she
was eating his. You see, it's generous enough to share
the last one with her. That's us in God, We
say it's my cookies, my life, my choices, my future.
(39:14):
Hold on. Now, you belong to God, and you need
to come to him on a daily basis and say,
give me this day my daily bread. This verse is
a reminder that we are completely dependent on God. James
one seventeen says every good gift and every perfect gift
is from above and comes down from the Father of lights,
(39:35):
with whom there is no variation or shadow of Jurney.
Now does this mean we just sit back and do nothing?
Absolutely not. The Bible says of a man doesn't work,
he shouldn't eat, Okay, So we need to be responsible.
We need to get a job or we need to
be good stewards, and then we need to be generous
(39:56):
with the things that God gives us as well, and
remember to invest in the work of the Kingdom of God.
And Jesus teaches us to pray, give us this day
our daily bread. You see, bread was a staple of
the first century diet. They would pretty much have bread
with whatever else they were eating. Nobody was on the
keto diet back then. What's the new one? The carnivore diet?
(40:18):
What is that where you go and eat animals alive
like carnivores. Do I know this? And I know it's
primarily meat, high protein, Okay, But in the first century
they eat bread. Bread was important. So when you're praying,
give me this date my daily bread. I'm not praying
just for bread. I'm praying for provision. Lord, give me
(40:39):
my daily food. Lord, give me a roof over my head,
Give me Lord a career, a paycheck, provide for my needs.
You know, it's a funny thing. Back in the sixties
we referred to money as bread. Don't ask me why.
It's a Hey, dude, you have any bread, which meant
can you give me money, you know. So. But the
(41:00):
idea is, we're coming to the Lord and we're saying, Lord,
give me my daily bread, provide for my needs, and
I acknowledge that everything I need comes from You. Okay,
so let's put it all together. Our Father warn in heaven,
hollow would be thy name. So I start with contemplating
the awesomeness and greatness of God. Thy kingdom come, that
(41:23):
will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
I'm praying for the rule and reign of Jesus Christ
and my life. I'm praying for Christ to return to
this earth again. And I'm praying for my friends and
loved ones and people I know to come to know
Jesus Christ and then give me this day my daily bread.
I'm acknowledging everything that I have comes from God, and
(41:45):
I'm acknowledging my dependence upon God. And now I pray
forgive me my sins as I forgive those who have
sinned against us. Just as surely as we need to
pray for daily bread, we need to pray for daily
forgiveness because you and I we sin every day. There's
(42:07):
all kinds of ways to define sin. Sin is defined
as missing the mark, and God has sent a mark
of perfection for all of humanity. And the Bible says,
all of sin and fallen short of the glory of God.
There's not one righteous, no, not one. So we've all
fallen short of God's mark. But then sin also means
(42:28):
to cross the line. The Bible speaks of being dead
in trespassing sin. You know, like when you go into
a city park and maybe they just planted grass, and
it says no trespassing when you step on that grass,
or trespassing. So when you break a commandment thou shall
not lie, thou shall not steal, Thou shall not take
the lords in the name in vain, you do one
(42:49):
of those things, that's trespass. So sin is falling short,
sin is crossing the line. But sin can also be
not doing what you're supposed to do. The Bible says
to him that knows to do good and does not
do it, to him, it is sin. So there are
sins of commission and omission. Commission that's done the bad stuff.
Oh mission, it's not doing the good stuff. So the
(43:11):
Lord might direct you share the Gospel with that person,
and we say no way. Like Jonah go in the
opposite direction. Or the Lord might say put down your
phone and open up the Bible and we say I
don't want to. Or the Lord might direct us to
apologize to our spouse for our shortness of temper. I
don't want to do that. See, that can be a
sin too. So my point is you need to ask
(43:33):
God to forgive you of your sin each and every day.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have
sinned against us. Ah easier said than done. C. S.
Lewis said it best quote. Everyone says forgiveness is a
lovely idea until they have someone to forgive right end quote.
(43:57):
So let me ask you directly, is there someone who
has heard you that you need to forgive? Bottom line,
We're going to hurt people in life. We're going to
be hurt by people in life, so we're going to
have to learn how to forgive. One of the most
amazing demonstrations of forgiveness that I've ever seen is the
forgiveness that was extended by Erica Kirk toward the man
(44:21):
who assassinated her husband. You remember at Charlie Kirk's memorial service.
That was one of the most powerful times of seeing
the gospel presented to an international audience that's ever been staged.
Erica got up before that crowd and said, of the
men that took Charlie's life, I forgive this man. But
(44:44):
you know that's important for the man. He needs God's forgiveness,
he needs to repent. But it's also important for the
person that is extending the forgiveness. It's been said, when
you forgive a person, you set a prisoner free yourself.
You See, when you harbor unforgiveness, it eats you up inside.
(45:06):
Not forgiving someone is like drinking rat poison and waiting
for the rat to die. See, the problem is you're
going to be destroyed by your unforgiveness. When you harbor
and resentment and you refuse to forgive, you're actually grieving
the Holy Spirit. Ephesians four point thirty says, don't bring
(45:27):
sorrow to God's Holy Spirit. Isn't that interesting brings sorrow?
You can make God's Holy Spirit sorrowful by the way
that you live. Paul continues, get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger,
harsh words, and slender These are things that bring sorrow
to the Holy Spirit, as well as all types of
malicious behavior. Man think of all the stuff that people
(45:49):
post on social media, the slander, the lies, the the triol.
Don't be one of those people. Instead, Ephesians continues to say,
be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just
as God through Christ has forgiven you. So here's a
(46:10):
little bonus on the topic of forgiveness. Research has shown
that people who refuse to forgive are more likely to
experience high blood pressure, depression, and problems with anger, stress,
and anxiety. So listen, forgiveness isn't just good for you spiritually,
it might help you to live longer too. Now we
(46:30):
come to the next petition, Do not lead us into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. All right, So, our Father
ward in heaven, Hollywood be your name, your kingdom. Come
will be done on earth as said is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us
our sins, as we forgive those who have sinned against us,
(46:51):
and deliver us from evil. In other words, they're saying, Lord,
don't let me be tempted above my capacity to resist.
Here's the problem with temptation. It's so tempting. I mean,
you know, the devil knows what he's doing. Right. He
knows how to make bad stuff look good and even
sometimes good stuff look bad. He's a liar, he's the
(47:14):
father of lies, and he'll get you to take that
first bite. Have you ever been to Krispy Kream donuts? Okay?
So the key to Krispy Kream is you want that
little sign to be lit up. And what that means
is they're making the donuts fresh. And I'll tell you,
a freshly made glazed donut from Krispy Cream is incredible.
(47:36):
And sometimes you walk into Krispy Kream and they'll give
you a free donut. You see, will They're so generous. Now,
they're smart because they know if you eat that first donut,
you're gonna walk want more. Right, And by the way,
the donuts are slightly smaller than a normal donut. So
I've gone and eaten I think seven is my record.
He probably shouldn't admit that, but yeah, I've eaten a lot,
washed them down with some cold milk. So good. The
(47:58):
first one tastes so good, but then you know twenty
minutes later, all that dough is sitting in your stomach
and that sugar's affecting you, and you go into a
food coma and you're not feeling so good about it.
Sorry to compare Chrispy Gream donuts to sin. I actually
think they're great. I love them. But that's how sin works.
Oh it's so fun at first, you know, the Bible
(48:19):
Eving acknowledges sin can be pleasurable for a time, but
afterwards brings death. You know, it would be exciting to
jump out of the Empire State building without a parachute.
You're having so much fun until you hit the ground.
And sin is the same way. Oh, it might be
fun in exhilarating and even pleasurable for a time, but
then you face the consequences of it. So you're saying, Lord,
(48:44):
don't give me more than I can handle. Here's the thing,
if you look back at any temptation you've ever given
in to, you would have to acknowledge that there was
always a way out, wasn't there. First Corinthians ten thirteen
says there is no temptation taking you, but such as
is common demand, meaning that we all face the same temptations. God,
(49:05):
who is faithful, will not allow you to be tempted
above your ability to resist, but will with the temptation
give you a way of escape that you may be
able to bear it. Sometimes that way of escape is
as simple as walking out of door. Remember the story
of Joseph, when Potterver's wife pulled him down on the
bed and said, lie with me. He did, with any
(49:27):
clear thinking, red blooded young man or woman should do
under such circumstances, he ran like crazy. That was the
right reaction. So sometimes it's going out the door. Sometimes
it's pushing the off button of the remote control. Sometimes
it's terminating the conversation or the text thread. It's just
(49:47):
a practical thing. There's always a way out. Lord, don't
let me be tempted above my capacity to resist. Deliver
me from the evil one. And then it concludes, for
Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory.
So there's one more thing I'm going to tell you
about prayer, and this one is really important. So there's
(50:11):
one more thing I want to talk about, and it
might be the most important thing of all in this
whole conversation about prayer. What do you do when you
pray and nothing seems to happen. So Jesus addresses this directly,
and look, Alvin, he says, asking it shall be given
to you seeking, he shall find knocking. The door shall
(50:32):
be open. See here's a framework that I found really
helps when a prayer doesn't seem to be getting answered.
If the request is wrong, God says no. If the
timing is wrong, God says slow. If you are wrong,
God says grow. But if the request is right and
the timing is right and you are right, God says go.
(50:53):
You see, Sometimes we say, oh, well I pray and
God didn't answer my prayer. Well, maybe you didn't like
the answer he gave. No is an answer right, Maybe
you wanted a yes. But sometimes, when it passing enough time,
you look back on life and you say, Lord, thank
you for saying no on that particular prayer, because I
realize now in retrospect, that would have been the worst
(51:14):
thing that could have happened to me. Sometimes we pray
about something once or twice and we give up. But
God might be saying slow, like it's just not my timing.
Keep asking. I want you to look at the verbs
that Jesus uses, ask, seek, and knock. Actually, it's all
summed up in the acronym ask a s k ask, seek, knock. Actually,
(51:38):
in the original language, they escalate in intensity, let me illustrate.
Ask just means you ask for assistance. You come to
the Lord and say, Lord, would you do this for me?
Asking it shall be given? But seek is different. It
means asking plus action. You're not just expressing the need.
You're like, you're actually storming God's throne about this. You're
(52:02):
being persistent in your prayer, and not means ask plus
action plus perseverance. It's like pounding on a closed door.
Jesus actually illustrates this and says, which of you if
you had gone to sleep for the night and had
someone pound on your door, would get up and answer
the door. So back in the first century, everybody would
(52:23):
sleep in the same room and little mats on the floor.
Mom and dad were their, Grandma and grandpa were there,
the kids were there, maybe a couple of the animals
were there, and so when you went to bed at night,
it was kind of a production to get up. And
so let's say some dude lives next to you and
he starts banging at your door at twelve o'clock at night,
(52:45):
and you're like, go away, we're asleep, and he keeps knocking.
Go away, and he keeps pounding. You're going to answer
the door to just get him to go away. Jesus
uses that opposite illustration to show how different God is.
So if you would go and answer that neighbor just
to get him to stop banging on your door, how
much more will your heavenly Father, who loves you and
(53:08):
is looking out for your best interest, answer your prayer.
But you have to keep praying, ask, seek, and knock.
Don't give up, press on. It can be truan to
stated this way. Keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. Jesus
is calling us to passionate persistent prayer. Let me close
(53:31):
with this. We're talking about prayer, but prayer, having a
prayer life is a privilege for the child of God.
Now non believers can pray. I remember before I was
a Christian, I would pray, God, get me out of
this and I'll serve you. Of course, I never kept
up my end of the bargain, but I called out
(53:51):
to God. But only the Christian can really have a
prayer life. The one prayer that a non believer can
pray is what we might call the sinner's prayer. It's
in a story that Jesus told of two men that
went to the temple to pray. One was a pharisee
that means a very religious, devout man. The other was
a tax collector, which was just another way of saying
(54:14):
a sinner. And the religious man prayed thus with himself, God,
I think, oh, I'm not like other men. I fast
twice a week, I give tithes at all that I possess,
and I'm thankful. I'm not like this guy next to me,
pointing to the tax collector. And that sinful man just said, Lord,
be merciful to me a sinner. Actually a better translation
(54:35):
would be God be merciful to me the sinner. He
knew he was a sinner, And Jesus said that man,
the sinner, who was honest to God, went down justified
before the Lord, not the religious guide. So if you're
not a Christian yet, you need to pray that prayer,
God be merciful to me the sinner. Admit your sin,
(54:57):
ask God to forgive you of your sin. You see,
there's a barrier that separates us from God called sin.
God says, it's not that I is heavy so I
can't hear you. It's not that my hand is short
that I can't save you. Your sins have separated you
from me, But then the Bible also says that we
will confess our sins. He's faithful and just to forgive
(55:19):
us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Would
you like to have a relationship with God as your
father in heaven. Would you like Jesus Christ to come
into your life and be your savior and lord and
have the Kingdom of God ruling in your life. Would
you like to fill that deep hole inside of you
(55:40):
that maybe you've tried to fill with things that this
culture or this world offers. Then you need to just pray,
because Jesus he's just a prayer away. And if you
would like to pray a sinner's prayer, so to speak,
if you would like Jesus to come into your life,
why don't you just pause right now and pray with me.
(56:01):
You can pray this after me if you like. Just pray,
Lord Jesus. I know that I'm a sinner, but I
thank you that you are the savior who died in
the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead.
I turned from my sin now and I choose to
follow you from this moment forward. Thank you for hearing
(56:23):
this prayer and answering this prayer in Jesus' name, I pray, Amen,
did you just pray that prayer? If so, I want
to congratulate you and welcome you to the family of God. Listen,
I'd like to send you a free gift. It's called
the New Believer's Bible, which is a very understandable translation
(56:43):
of the New Testament, along with hundreds of notes that
I wrote that will encourage you in this commitment you've
made to follow Jesus. So God bless you and keep praying.
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