March 16, 2025 • 26 mins
Pastor Ken Davis explores how giving to the work of God is an essential part of a healthy believer's life, serving as both a barometer of spiritual health and a catalyst for growth in Christ.
• God's Word should be our delight, not merely an obligation or duty
• The healthy Christian life isn't about "if" but "when" regarding spiritual disciplines
• Jesus teaches charitable giving should be done in secret, without seeking recognition
• Giving to the church supports both operations and meeting needs of those struggling
• Prayer should be approached as speaking to a perfect Father who loves us completely
• Jesus' model prayer teaches us to acknowledge God's person, seek His purposes, request His provision
• Our prayer life reveals the closeness of our relationship with God
• Setting aside regular morning devotional time is crucial for spiritual development
If you want to grow in your faith, give. Test the Lord and see what He will do for you and through you.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Heed the Word with our pastor
and teacher, Ken Davis.
Pastor Ken is the senior pastorof Calvary Chapel, Southwest
Metro, located in Burleson,Texas.
Please join us as we study ourseries entitled the Foundations
of Faith.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
I think, as a new believer as you come to Christ,
or as you're maybe, an olderbeliever who's continuing to
walk in Christ, sometimes we cutourselves off from growing in
the Lord because we refuse togive to the work of the Lord and
we refuse to give of ourselvesto what the Lord is doing.
If you want to grow, give.
I encourage you to do that, totest the Lord and see what he
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will do for you and through you.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Even if you're not handy, you know that when it's
time to build a house, thefoundation must be the first
thing that's addressed, and itmust be done right the first
time.
Our relationship with God is nodifferent.
We must have a firm foundationin the Word of God that's rooted
in a deep and lasting faith inJesus.
That's why Pastor Ken chose toshare with you our series
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entitled the Foundations of theFaith.
Giving to the work of God ispart of the life of a healthy
believer.
Does that mean that God needsour money to accomplish His will
?
Absolutely not.
God doesn't need us, let aloneour money.
He can do whatever he wisheswhenever he wishes.
Giving is simply a goodbarometer to spiritual health.
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It's a way to recognize thatall you have comes from God in
the first place.
Don't forget to stay with usafter today's message to hear
more information about Heed theWord, specifically how you can
get a free copy of this teaching.
But for now, please open yourBibles to the book of Psalms,
chapter 1.
So we join Pastor Ken with partone of our message entitled Not
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If, but when, and several otherimportant things.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
As we finished our study last week, we read
together from Psalm chapter 1.
Let's go ahead and turn thereto begin with.
Today and last week we talkedabout the importance of God's
Word in the life of a believerand how it's so necessary for us
to grow.
And as we read these first fewverses in the first chapter of
Psalms, we find that it ismeditating upon God's law or his
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word that is the key to theblessedness of this individual.
Blessed is the man who walksnot in the counsel of the
ungodly, nor stands in the pathof sinners, nor sits in the seat
of the scornful, but hisdelight is in the law of the
Lord and in his law.
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He meditates day and night.
He shall be like a tree plantedby the rivers of water that
brings forth its fruit in itsseason, whose leaf also shall
not wither and whatever he doesshall.
Now, verse 1 tells us what theman doesn't do.
Verse 3 tells us what theresults of his meditation in
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God's word are.
But verse 2 really tells usabout the man himself and about
his attitude towards God's wordand the activity that he enters
into with God's word that bringsabout these results of not
walking in sin but rather livinga blessed and a fruitful life.
And what is that attitude andthat activity?
Verse 2 tells us his delight isin the law of the Lord, and in
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his law he meditates day andnight.
It tells us of an attitude andof an activity.
His attitude is one of delightin God's word.
So often, as Christians, we readGod's word out of a sense of
obligation or out of a sense ofduty.
And a lot of the things that wedo in our Christian life are
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done very often out of a senseof duty.
And a lot of the things that wedo in our Christian life are
done very often out of a senseof obligation or duty.
And when we do these things outof that sense of obligation or
duty, we do not reap the fullbenefits of those activities.
Now, don't get me wrong.
If it takes a sense ofobligation and duty to get you
to read your Bible, then yes,you're obligated and yes, it's
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your duty.
But my desire for you and Ibelieve the Lord's desire for
you, is that as you do that,that you will begin to develop a
love for God's word, and indeveloping a love for God's word
, that you will develop a lovefor God himself and for Christ
and all that he's done for you.
Because, you see, god's word isa letter that he wrote to you.
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It's personal, it's passionateand it's powerful and we can
believe it.
When we read the word of God, itshould become our delight.
You know, I sat under a pastoronce who was talking about the
things that we partake of or thethings that we eat, and how, if
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you eat spinach every day,eventually you're going to
develop a taste for spinach.
I have never tested that theory, but I understand what he's
saying.
But I understand what he'ssaying.
When we do something on aregular basis and when what
we're doing becomes a routinepart of our life, it becomes
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something that we come to expect, that we come to depend on that
.
Perhaps we can even come tolove.
And as we are disciplined withGod's word and we spend time in
God's word, that love for God'sword should grow.
We should delight ourself inhis law and in his law he
meditates day and night.
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You know, day and night, everytime is a good time to meditate
on God's word.
But you know, it isn't enoughto simply meditate on God's word
, and we shared that as westudied in James last week as
well, where James writes that weare to be doers of the word and
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not hearers only deceivingourselves.
For if anyone is a hearer ofthe word and not a doer, he is
like a man observing his naturalface in a mirror, for he
observes himself, goes away andimmediately forgets what kind of
man he was.
But he who looks into theperfect law of liberty and
continues in it and is not aforgetful hearer but a doer of
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the work, this one will beblessed in what he does.
So again, for the believer, itisn't a question of if we are to
do God's will, but it's aquestion of when we are to do
God's will and of how we're todo his will.
We are to do God's will asbelievers.
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To do anything other than thatis to deny by our actions what
we claim with our mouths.
No-transcript.
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Now, if you're going to have ahealthy garden that produces a
lot of fruit, it isn't aquestion of if you're going to
pull the weeds, but when you'regoing to pull the weeds right,
because if you don't pull theweeds, you're not going to have
a healthy garden.
So if you're going to have ahealthy garden that produces a
lot of fruit, you're going tohave to pull some weeds.
It isn't a question of ifyou're going to water it, but
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when you're going to water it.
But when you're going to waterit, because if you're going to
have a healthy garden, you'regoing to water it, aren't you.
It isn't a question of ifyou're going to bring in a
harvest, but, again, it's aquestion of when.
And as a Christian, there are alot of things in our walk with
God, as we seek to grow in grace, that should be seen in the
same way, not if I'm going to dothis or that, or whether or not
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I should do this or that, butrather it's just a question of
when you do it.
How are you to do it?
Jesus talked about that quite alot, and let's look at just a
few things he had to say aboutit in Matthew, chapter six.
That's where we'll really beginour study today.
Please turn there.
This, of course, is taken fromthe sermon on the mountain.
As we read here the words ofJesus, starting in verse one, we
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find him saying on the mountain, as we read here the words of
Jesus starting in verse one, wefind him saying take heed, in
other words, pay attention, takeheed that you do not do your
charitable deeds before men tobe seen by them.
Does that mean that you'renever going to do them before
men?
Does that mean that every gooddeed you do, you have to really
be like, you know, james Bondslip around, don't let anybody
see a secret, right?
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No, it doesn't say that.
It says here take heed that youdo not do your charitable deeds
before men to be seen by them.
Because the fact of the matteris we are to let our good works
shine, right, so that people cansee our good works and glorify
who, our Father, who's in heaven.
So, yes, are people going tosee the works that we do?
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Yes, they are.
Should they see all of theworks that we do?
No, they shouldn't.
But even the works that they dosee, they should see them, not
so that we might be glorified bymen, but rather so that God
might be glorified.
I love the fact that Jesus sayshere in verse 2, therefore, when
you do a charitable deed, whenyou do a charitable deed, he
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doesn't say if you do acharitable deed, does he.
He says when you do acharitable deed, what does that
imply?
It implies that he expects youto do charitable deeds.
He expects you to do charitabledeeds, he expects you to do
good.
He expects you to bless otherpeople, and you know what?
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Ultimately, guys, what he'stalking about when we look at
the example here.
He expects you to give to theneeds of others.
Let's look at the example Jesususes.
Therefore, when you do acharitable deed, do not sound a
trumpet before you, as thehypocrites do in the synagogues
and in the streets.
That they may have glory frommen.
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Assuredly, I say to you, theyhave their reward.
But when you do a charitabledeed, do not let your left hand
know what your right hand isdoing.
That your charitable deed maybe in secret, and when your
father sees in secret, hehimself will reward you openly.
So understand what Jesus issaying here.
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He's making a reference when hetalks about this blowing the
trumpet.
In the temple there was a roomoff to one side, kind of in a
private area, where there was abox sort of shaped like a
trumpet in the earlier days ofworship, and what they would do
is those that came to give theiralms would go to that area,
that trumpet, and they wouldthrow their money into that
trumpet right.
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And then, when there were thosewho had need, they would then
come to the temple, to that area, and they would receive out of
that trumpet the things thatthey had need of.
Now, after a while they got tothink about the fact that this
wasn't all that practical, butthey could kind of cut out the
middlemen in a sense.
And so a lot of the scribes andthe Pharisees, they would carry
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around these little trumpetswith them and when they got
ready to do their charitabledeeds or to give their alms,
they would stand there on thestreet corner and they would
blow this little trumpet andthen all of the people who were
in need would come to them andthey would make a big show of
giving to the poor.
And so when Jesus is talkingabout this doing charitable
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deeds, he's not just talkingabout the things that we do, but
he is also talking about thethings that we give.
That's why I have a real bigproblem with programs in the
church that are designed to givehonor to the giver and I'm not
trying to point anybody out oranything out, and if you've
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participated in these kinds ofprograms before, may God bless
you anyway but the kind of thingwhere you know if you give such
and such amount of money to thechurch building fund, we'll put
your name on a brick in thewall.
You know what?
Keep my name off of that thing.
You know, if your name's onthat brick on the wall, guess
what?
You got your reward right there.
Or even worse, you know, hey,put my name on a pew and then
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every time someone comes inthey'll say, oh, that's my pew.
I just, you know, I have a realproblem with that and honestly,
I think the Lord has a problemwith it too.
We shouldn't seek recognitionfor the gifts that we give to
God other than from God himself.
And what's awesome here is thathe promises that if we give
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from the right motives, he willhonor it, he will recognize it
and he will reward it.
Therefore, when you do acharitable deed, do not sound a
trumpet before you as thehypocrites do in the synagogues
and in the streets, that theymay have glory of men.
Assuredly, I say to you, theyhave their reward.
But when you do a charitabledeed again, he's not saying if,
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but he's saying when you do acharitable deed, do not let your
left hand know what your righthand is doing.
I mean, that's really notboasting about anything, is it?
Your left hand shouldn't knowwhat your right hand is doing?
Meaning, don't even boast toyourself about what you're doing
or say, oh look at me, oh, Ifeel real good about myself.
You know, sometimes we give,not so that other people can
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look at us and admire us, but sothat we can feel good about
ourselves, don't we?
I feel really good?
You know, I gave this and Igave that.
Well, you know, when you give,you do feel good, but that
shouldn't be the motive of yourgiving, the motive of your
giving.
The motive of your givingshould be to bless and to honor
God.
Now, a lot of people haveproblems with giving money,
particularly to the church.
A lot of people have problemswith giving time and effort and
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resources For the purposes ofour discussion today.
Let's talk about money just fora moment.
First of all, there is a seriesthat we've done well, not a
series, but a teaching thatwe've done on the truth about
tithing, and if you havequestions about tithing, I
encourage you to order that fromthe bookstore.
It's called the Truth AboutTithing.
It's one of the teachings thatwe did some time ago and that'll
go into a lot more detail aboutgiving, but I want to point out
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one thing relating to thisparticular passage.
There are things that the churchcorporately will do to meet the
needs of those who are in need.
And when you, as a body, giveto the church, recognize the
fact that not only are yougiving to pay for our use of
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this facility, not only are yougiving to buy materials and
resources like this, butsometimes you're giving to keep
someone's electricity turned on.
Or sometimes you're giving toput groceries in someone's home.
Sometimes you are giving tomaybe help someone through a
really tough month or to keepthem from really falling on hard
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times.
Now, that's not to say that thechurch helps in every situation
.
We have to evaluate eachsituation individually to see if
help is warranted, becausesometimes you can go in and give
help where God is trying tobring correction and you can get
in the way of what God istrying to do.
So we do evaluate those thingsprayerfully and carefully.
But I need you to understandthat when you give, you're
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giving to the Lord and you'regiving to the Lord's people.
And so when you do yourcharitable deeds before men,
well there you have your reward.
But when you do them secretlywhen you do them as under the
Lord.
What does Jesus tell us?
He says in verse 4, that yourcharitable deed may be done in
secret and your Father, who seesin secret, will himself reward
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you openly, I think as a newbeliever, as you come to Christ,
or as you're maybe an olderbeliever who's continuing to
walk in Christ.
Sometimes we cut ourselves offfrom growing in the Lord because
we refuse to give to the workof the Lord and we refuse to
give of ourselves to what theLord is doing.
If you want to grow, give.
I encourage you to do that, totest the Lord and see what he
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will do for you and through you.
Moving on verse five of Matthew,chapter six, jesus goes on and
he says and when you pray, younotice he doesn't say if you
pray.
He says when you pray, youshall not be like the hypocrites
, for they love to pray,standing in the synagogues and
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on the corners of the streets,that they may be seen by men,
assuredly, I say to you, theyhave their reward.
But when you pray, again thesecond time, he said when you
pray, go into your room and whenyou have shut your door, pray
to your father who is in thesecret place, and your father,
who sees in secret, will rewardyou openly.
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And when you pray, do not usevain repetitions, as the heathen
do, for they think that theywill be heard for their many
words.
Therefore, do not be like them,for your father knows the
things you have need of beforeyou ask him In this manner.
Therefore, pray, and we'll talkabout that in a moment.
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Now, my goal today is not togive you an exhaustive message
on prayer.
If I were going to stretch thisout into six or seven or eight
lessons, then today's messagewould be on praying.
If you want an in-depth studyon prayer, I'm going to refer
you again to the book room.
You can order the series thatwe did not long ago.
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Jesus Prayed.
It's a three-part series.
You can get that for free ifyou want it and learn all about
prayer and why it's important topray and how Jesus gave us an
example of prayer.
But the bottom line is this as abeliever in Jesus Christ, if
you want to grow, you need to bepraying.
In fact, all of us, whetheryou're a new believer or not, we
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need to be praying.
I encourage you today toexamine your prayer life and ask
yourself if you've beenfaithful in this discipline, you
know maybe you would say youknow I don't know how to pray.
Well, you know what guys.
Praying is just talking to God.
You can do it anytime, you cando it anywhere.
You don't have to use floweryspeech, you don't have to have
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all the these thous and thuses,and you know, you can pray when
you're walking down the road.
You can pray when you'redriving in your car.
You can pray when you'recooking or washing dishes.
You can pray anywhere andanytime.
Now I would encourage you thatyou do set aside a specific
regular time to pray and I wouldencourage you that that time be
early, that it be in themorning, that it be one of the
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first priorities of your day.
I would encourage you to dothat.
I think that if you do that andyou develop what I like to call
a good devo time, a gooddevotional time, a time when
you're in the word of God andyou're prayerfully reading it
and you're talking to God aboutwhat you've read and you're
laying your day before him, ifyou develop that strong devo
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time, you're going to be doingyourself a great favor in your
walk with the Lord.
That's something that we needto be doing.
But, as we read here, whenJesus said, when you pray, pray
in this manner.
Let's look, at least briefly, atthis example of prayer that
he's given us in the Lord'sprayer.
There are at least six elementsin this prayer that we need to
take note of, and let's read thewhole thing, and then we'll go
back and break it down a littlebit.
In verse 9, jesus said In thismanner therefore, pray Our
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Father in heaven, hallowed beyour name, your kingdom come.
Your will be done on earth asit is in heaven.
Give us this day our dailybread and forgive us our debts
as we forgive our debtors, anddo not lead us into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one, for yours is the kingdom and
the power and the glory forever.
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Amen.
You know, the first thing thatwe need to notice as we look at
this prayer is that this prayerspeaks to us of the person of
God, because when we pray, wepray our Father, which art in
heaven.
Hallowed be thy name.
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We're beginning with praise,we're beginning with an
awareness of who it is thatwe're addressing, and this, when
Jesus gave it, was a departurefrom what they were used to.
You don't really see Godreferred to as Father too much
in the Old Testament.
You see him referred to asElohim or Yahweh, which speaks
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of his omnipotence and theunspeakable glory of his name.
And yet Jesus is sitting heresaying, when you pray, say
Father, abba, daddy, our Dad,who is in heaven.
You know you can tell a lotabout a person's walk with the
Lord and how close theirrelationship is to him, kind of
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by how they pray.
Sometimes, you know, if youlisten to someone praying and
you're there with them andthey're like, oh, majestic God,
who created all that is and everwas, and you know all this
other stuff, it's as thoughwe're addressing this God who's
way out there in the distance,right.
And while that's notinappropriate, how much closer
does that relationship seem whenwe come to him and we say, dad,
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abba, father, we need you.
You know, there's thatfamiliarity that's there, that's
that closeness that does notlose respect.
It still acknowledges who Godis, but it also acknowledges the
relationship that we have withhim.
What did John write in first?
Or in John chapter one, verse12,?
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He says but as many as receivedhim to them, he gave the right
to become children of God tothose who believe in his name.
So if we are those who believein his name, if we belong to him
, if we've been given the rightto become his children, then
when we approach him, we need torecognize that we're
approaching our father, a Godwho loves us.
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Now you might say, look, I hadan earthly father and I don't
really think he loved me thatmuch.
Well, guess what?
Your heavenly father is aperfect father.
He's the father you wish youhad, the father, perhaps that
you wish you could be.
He's a perfect father and heloves you with a perfect love.
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And so when we pray, the firstthing we need to recognize is
that we are addressing ourFather.
What's the second aspect of theLord's Prayer?
Here we see thy kingdom, comethy will be done in earth as it
is in heaven.
When we pray, we need toacknowledge that we are praying
according to God's purpose, thatwe aren't going to God to get
our will done, but that we'regoing to God to see his purposes
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accomplished in and through ourlives.
What we're saying is our father, who art in heaven hallowed, be
thy name, thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth as itis in heaven.
We're saying, lord, make me aninstrument of your divine
providence.
Use me to bring about yourkingdom.
Let me partner with you, god,in the accomplishing of your
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purposes.
The third part is for God'sprovision.
Give us this day our dailybread, lord.
Give us this day our dailybread.
That encompasses our needs.
Whatever you have need of,whatever your supplication is,
take that to the Lord.
The Bible tells us that you havenot because you ask not, or
that if you ask and you don'tget it, it's because you asked
it the wrong way.
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Can I tell you that Godunderstands that you need your
daily bread.
He understands that you need acertain amount of resources in
order to live and he'll providethose.
He will provide those.
The Bible tells us that my Godshall supply all your needs
according to his riches in gloryin Christ Jesus.
But you know what that's allyour needs, not all your greeds.
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He'll provide what you haveneed of, not necessarily
everything you want, becausesometimes what you want isn't
particularly good for you.
That's why it says here give usthis day our daily bread.
It doesn't say, lord, give usthis week our weekly bread, or
give us this month our monthlybread, or give us this month our
monthly bread, or give us thisyear our yearly bread.
Why does it say that?
Because God knows us and heknows that if he doesn't require
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us to come to him daily, wewon't.
If all we needed to do is say,lord, give us this month our
monthly bread, how often do youthink we would pray Monthly?
We would pray monthly.
But God doesn't want us to praymonthly.
He wants us to pray daily.
He wants us to pray daily.
He wants us to pray regularly.
He wants us to pray withoutceasing.
Why?
Because he needs our worshipand adoration?
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No, but because he knows thatwhen we spend time talking to
him, we get closer to him and weget to know him better.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
The Christian life was never designed to be a solo
flight.
God designed us with the needfor relationships with others
who can encourage us in ourpersonal journey of faith.
Maybe you're listening todayand you don't have a home church
and this message ministered toyou.
Well, we'd like to take thistime to invite you to join us
for one of our worship services.
Calvary Chapel Southwest Metromeets each Sunday morning at
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10.30 am and Wednesday eveningsat 7 pm.
Besides our Sunday morningservices, we have ministries for
children, men, women, couplesand youth.
To learn more about CalvaryChapel Southwest Metro, log on
to heedthewordorg and follow thelink, or, if you'd like to talk
with someone, give us a call.
Our phone number is817-447-5675.
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That's 817-447-5675.
So visit the website or call ustoday.
Now we also want to encourageyou to review this study.
This study and many more taughtby Pastor Ken are available at
our website, heaththewordorg.
Many of Pastor Ken's teachingsare available in MP3 or podcast
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format.
You can also receive a CD copyof this message.
Simply log on to heedthewordorgand select the option for CD
requests.
The CD that you'll receive isthe full-length unedited
teaching.
When you fill out the orderform, please keep in mind
today's date length uneditedteaching.
When you fill out the orderform, please keep in mind
today's date.
This helps us make sure that wesend you the correct message.
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Well, that's all the time wehave for today.
Please join Pastor Ken nexttime as he continues teaching
through our series entitled theFoundations of Faith, right here
on.
Heed the Word.
You're listening to Heed the Word with our pastor
and teacher, Ken Davis.
Pastor Ken is the senior pastorof Calvary Chapel, Southwest
Metro, located in Burleson,Texas.
Please join us as we study ourseries entitled the Foundations
of Faith.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
I think, as a new believer as you come to Christ,
or as you're maybe, an olderbeliever who's continuing to
walk in Christ, sometimes we cutourselves off from growing in
the Lord because we refuse togive to the work of the Lord and
we refuse to give of ourselvesto what the Lord is doing.
If you want to grow, give.
I encourage you to do that, totest the Lord and see what he
(00:39):
will do for you and through you.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Even if you're not handy, you know that when it's
time to build a house, thefoundation must be the first
thing that's addressed, and itmust be done right the first
time.
Our relationship with God is nodifferent.
We must have a firm foundationin the Word of God that's rooted
in a deep and lasting faith inJesus.
That's why Pastor Ken chose toshare with you our series
(01:03):
entitled the Foundations of theFaith.
Giving to the work of God ispart of the life of a healthy
believer.
Does that mean that God needsour money to accomplish His will
?
Absolutely not.
God doesn't need us, let aloneour money.
He can do whatever he wisheswhenever he wishes.
Giving is simply a goodbarometer to spiritual health.
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It's a way to recognize thatall you have comes from God in
the first place.
Don't forget to stay with usafter today's message to hear
more information about Heed theWord, specifically how you can
get a free copy of this teaching.
But for now, please open yourBibles to the book of Psalms,
chapter 1.
So we join Pastor Ken with partone of our message entitled Not
(01:47):
If, but when, and several otherimportant things.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
As we finished our study last week, we read
together from Psalm chapter 1.
Let's go ahead and turn thereto begin with.
Today and last week we talkedabout the importance of God's
Word in the life of a believerand how it's so necessary for us
to grow.
And as we read these first fewverses in the first chapter of
Psalms, we find that it ismeditating upon God's law or his
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word that is the key to theblessedness of this individual.
Blessed is the man who walksnot in the counsel of the
ungodly, nor stands in the pathof sinners, nor sits in the seat
of the scornful, but hisdelight is in the law of the
Lord and in his law.
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He meditates day and night.
He shall be like a tree plantedby the rivers of water that
brings forth its fruit in itsseason, whose leaf also shall
not wither and whatever he doesshall.
Now, verse 1 tells us what theman doesn't do.
Verse 3 tells us what theresults of his meditation in
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God's word are.
But verse 2 really tells usabout the man himself and about
his attitude towards God's wordand the activity that he enters
into with God's word that bringsabout these results of not
walking in sin but rather livinga blessed and a fruitful life.
And what is that attitude andthat activity?
Verse 2 tells us his delight isin the law of the Lord, and in
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his law he meditates day andnight.
It tells us of an attitude andof an activity.
His attitude is one of delightin God's word.
So often, as Christians, we readGod's word out of a sense of
obligation or out of a sense ofduty.
And a lot of the things that wedo in our Christian life are
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done very often out of a senseof duty.
And a lot of the things that wedo in our Christian life are
done very often out of a senseof obligation or duty.
And when we do these things outof that sense of obligation or
duty, we do not reap the fullbenefits of those activities.
Now, don't get me wrong.
If it takes a sense ofobligation and duty to get you
to read your Bible, then yes,you're obligated and yes, it's
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your duty.
But my desire for you and Ibelieve the Lord's desire for
you, is that as you do that,that you will begin to develop a
love for God's word, and indeveloping a love for God's word
, that you will develop a lovefor God himself and for Christ
and all that he's done for you.
Because, you see, god's word isa letter that he wrote to you.
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It's personal, it's passionateand it's powerful and we can
believe it.
When we read the word of God, itshould become our delight.
You know, I sat under a pastoronce who was talking about the
things that we partake of or thethings that we eat, and how, if
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you eat spinach every day,eventually you're going to
develop a taste for spinach.
I have never tested that theory, but I understand what he's
saying.
But I understand what he'ssaying.
When we do something on aregular basis and when what
we're doing becomes a routinepart of our life, it becomes
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something that we come to expect, that we come to depend on that
.
Perhaps we can even come tolove.
And as we are disciplined withGod's word and we spend time in
God's word, that love for God'sword should grow.
We should delight ourself inhis law and in his law he
meditates day and night.
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You know, day and night, everytime is a good time to meditate
on God's word.
But you know, it isn't enoughto simply meditate on God's word
, and we shared that as westudied in James last week as
well, where James writes that weare to be doers of the word and
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not hearers only deceivingourselves.
For if anyone is a hearer ofthe word and not a doer, he is
like a man observing his naturalface in a mirror, for he
observes himself, goes away andimmediately forgets what kind of
man he was.
But he who looks into theperfect law of liberty and
continues in it and is not aforgetful hearer but a doer of
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the work, this one will beblessed in what he does.
So again, for the believer, itisn't a question of if we are to
do God's will, but it's aquestion of when we are to do
God's will and of how we're todo his will.
We are to do God's will asbelievers.
(06:36):
To do anything other than thatis to deny by our actions what
we claim with our mouths.
No-transcript.
(06:58):
Now, if you're going to have ahealthy garden that produces a
lot of fruit, it isn't aquestion of if you're going to
pull the weeds, but when you'regoing to pull the weeds right,
because if you don't pull theweeds, you're not going to have
a healthy garden.
So if you're going to have ahealthy garden that produces a
lot of fruit, you're going tohave to pull some weeds.
It isn't a question of ifyou're going to water it, but
(07:20):
when you're going to water it.
But when you're going to waterit, because if you're going to
have a healthy garden, you'regoing to water it, aren't you.
It isn't a question of ifyou're going to bring in a
harvest, but, again, it's aquestion of when.
And as a Christian, there are alot of things in our walk with
God, as we seek to grow in grace, that should be seen in the
same way, not if I'm going to dothis or that, or whether or not
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I should do this or that, butrather it's just a question of
when you do it.
How are you to do it?
Jesus talked about that quite alot, and let's look at just a
few things he had to say aboutit in Matthew, chapter six.
That's where we'll really beginour study today.
Please turn there.
This, of course, is taken fromthe sermon on the mountain.
As we read here the words ofJesus, starting in verse one, we
(08:01):
find him saying on the mountain, as we read here the words of
Jesus starting in verse one, wefind him saying take heed, in
other words, pay attention, takeheed that you do not do your
charitable deeds before men tobe seen by them.
Does that mean that you'renever going to do them before
men?
Does that mean that every gooddeed you do, you have to really
be like, you know, james Bondslip around, don't let anybody
see a secret, right?
(08:21):
No, it doesn't say that.
It says here take heed that youdo not do your charitable deeds
before men to be seen by them.
Because the fact of the matteris we are to let our good works
shine, right, so that people cansee our good works and glorify
who, our Father, who's in heaven.
So, yes, are people going tosee the works that we do?
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Yes, they are.
Should they see all of theworks that we do?
No, they shouldn't.
But even the works that they dosee, they should see them, not
so that we might be glorified bymen, but rather so that God
might be glorified.
I love the fact that Jesus sayshere in verse 2, therefore, when
you do a charitable deed, whenyou do a charitable deed, he
(09:09):
doesn't say if you do acharitable deed, does he.
He says when you do acharitable deed, what does that
imply?
It implies that he expects youto do charitable deeds.
He expects you to do charitabledeeds, he expects you to do
good.
He expects you to bless otherpeople, and you know what?
(09:29):
Ultimately, guys, what he'stalking about when we look at
the example here.
He expects you to give to theneeds of others.
Let's look at the example Jesususes.
Therefore, when you do acharitable deed, do not sound a
trumpet before you, as thehypocrites do in the synagogues
and in the streets.
That they may have glory frommen.
(09:51):
Assuredly, I say to you, theyhave their reward.
But when you do a charitabledeed, do not let your left hand
know what your right hand isdoing.
That your charitable deed maybe in secret, and when your
father sees in secret, hehimself will reward you openly.
So understand what Jesus issaying here.
(10:14):
He's making a reference when hetalks about this blowing the
trumpet.
In the temple there was a roomoff to one side, kind of in a
private area, where there was abox sort of shaped like a
trumpet in the earlier days ofworship, and what they would do
is those that came to give theiralms would go to that area,
that trumpet, and they wouldthrow their money into that
trumpet right.
(10:34):
And then, when there were thosewho had need, they would then
come to the temple, to that area, and they would receive out of
that trumpet the things thatthey had need of.
Now, after a while they got tothink about the fact that this
wasn't all that practical, butthey could kind of cut out the
middlemen in a sense.
And so a lot of the scribes andthe Pharisees, they would carry
(10:56):
around these little trumpetswith them and when they got
ready to do their charitabledeeds or to give their alms,
they would stand there on thestreet corner and they would
blow this little trumpet andthen all of the people who were
in need would come to them andthey would make a big show of
giving to the poor.
And so when Jesus is talkingabout this doing charitable
(11:16):
deeds, he's not just talkingabout the things that we do, but
he is also talking about thethings that we give.
That's why I have a real bigproblem with programs in the
church that are designed to givehonor to the giver and I'm not
trying to point anybody out oranything out, and if you've
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participated in these kinds ofprograms before, may God bless
you anyway but the kind of thingwhere you know if you give such
and such amount of money to thechurch building fund, we'll put
your name on a brick in thewall.
You know what?
Keep my name off of that thing.
You know, if your name's onthat brick on the wall, guess
what?
You got your reward right there.
Or even worse, you know, hey,put my name on a pew and then
(12:00):
every time someone comes inthey'll say, oh, that's my pew.
I just, you know, I have a realproblem with that and honestly,
I think the Lord has a problemwith it too.
We shouldn't seek recognitionfor the gifts that we give to
God other than from God himself.
And what's awesome here is thathe promises that if we give
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from the right motives, he willhonor it, he will recognize it
and he will reward it.
Therefore, when you do acharitable deed, do not sound a
trumpet before you as thehypocrites do in the synagogues
and in the streets, that theymay have glory of men.
Assuredly, I say to you, theyhave their reward.
But when you do a charitabledeed again, he's not saying if,
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but he's saying when you do acharitable deed, do not let your
left hand know what your righthand is doing.
I mean, that's really notboasting about anything, is it?
Your left hand shouldn't knowwhat your right hand is doing?
Meaning, don't even boast toyourself about what you're doing
or say, oh look at me, oh, Ifeel real good about myself.
You know, sometimes we give,not so that other people can
(13:04):
look at us and admire us, but sothat we can feel good about
ourselves, don't we?
I feel really good?
You know, I gave this and Igave that.
Well, you know, when you give,you do feel good, but that
shouldn't be the motive of yourgiving, the motive of your
giving.
The motive of your givingshould be to bless and to honor
God.
Now, a lot of people haveproblems with giving money,
particularly to the church.
A lot of people have problemswith giving time and effort and
(13:25):
resources For the purposes ofour discussion today.
Let's talk about money just fora moment.
First of all, there is a seriesthat we've done well, not a
series, but a teaching thatwe've done on the truth about
tithing, and if you havequestions about tithing, I
encourage you to order that fromthe bookstore.
It's called the Truth AboutTithing.
It's one of the teachings thatwe did some time ago and that'll
go into a lot more detail aboutgiving, but I want to point out
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one thing relating to thisparticular passage.
There are things that the churchcorporately will do to meet the
needs of those who are in need.
And when you, as a body, giveto the church, recognize the
fact that not only are yougiving to pay for our use of
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this facility, not only are yougiving to buy materials and
resources like this, butsometimes you're giving to keep
someone's electricity turned on.
Or sometimes you're giving toput groceries in someone's home.
Sometimes you are giving tomaybe help someone through a
really tough month or to keepthem from really falling on hard
(14:33):
times.
Now, that's not to say that thechurch helps in every situation
.
We have to evaluate eachsituation individually to see if
help is warranted, becausesometimes you can go in and give
help where God is trying tobring correction and you can get
in the way of what God istrying to do.
So we do evaluate those thingsprayerfully and carefully.
But I need you to understandthat when you give, you're
(14:56):
giving to the Lord and you'regiving to the Lord's people.
And so when you do yourcharitable deeds before men,
well there you have your reward.
But when you do them secretlywhen you do them as under the
Lord.
What does Jesus tell us?
He says in verse 4, that yourcharitable deed may be done in
secret and your Father, who seesin secret, will himself reward
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you openly, I think as a newbeliever, as you come to Christ,
or as you're maybe an olderbeliever who's continuing to
walk in Christ.
Sometimes we cut ourselves offfrom growing in the Lord because
we refuse to give to the workof the Lord and we refuse to
give of ourselves to what theLord is doing.
If you want to grow, give.
I encourage you to do that, totest the Lord and see what he
(15:44):
will do for you and through you.
Moving on verse five of Matthew,chapter six, jesus goes on and
he says and when you pray, younotice he doesn't say if you
pray.
He says when you pray, youshall not be like the hypocrites
, for they love to pray,standing in the synagogues and
(16:07):
on the corners of the streets,that they may be seen by men,
assuredly, I say to you, theyhave their reward.
But when you pray, again thesecond time, he said when you
pray, go into your room and whenyou have shut your door, pray
to your father who is in thesecret place, and your father,
who sees in secret, will rewardyou openly.
(16:29):
And when you pray, do not usevain repetitions, as the heathen
do, for they think that theywill be heard for their many
words.
Therefore, do not be like them,for your father knows the
things you have need of beforeyou ask him In this manner.
Therefore, pray, and we'll talkabout that in a moment.
(16:50):
Now, my goal today is not togive you an exhaustive message
on prayer.
If I were going to stretch thisout into six or seven or eight
lessons, then today's messagewould be on praying.
If you want an in-depth studyon prayer, I'm going to refer
you again to the book room.
You can order the series thatwe did not long ago.
(17:11):
Jesus Prayed.
It's a three-part series.
You can get that for free ifyou want it and learn all about
prayer and why it's important topray and how Jesus gave us an
example of prayer.
But the bottom line is this as abeliever in Jesus Christ, if
you want to grow, you need to bepraying.
In fact, all of us, whetheryou're a new believer or not, we
(17:32):
need to be praying.
I encourage you today toexamine your prayer life and ask
yourself if you've beenfaithful in this discipline, you
know maybe you would say youknow I don't know how to pray.
Well, you know what guys.
Praying is just talking to God.
You can do it anytime, you cando it anywhere.
You don't have to use floweryspeech, you don't have to have
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all the these thous and thuses,and you know, you can pray when
you're walking down the road.
You can pray when you'redriving in your car.
You can pray when you'recooking or washing dishes.
You can pray anywhere andanytime.
Now I would encourage you thatyou do set aside a specific
regular time to pray and I wouldencourage you that that time be
early, that it be in themorning, that it be one of the
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first priorities of your day.
I would encourage you to dothat.
I think that if you do that andyou develop what I like to call
a good devo time, a gooddevotional time, a time when
you're in the word of God andyou're prayerfully reading it
and you're talking to God aboutwhat you've read and you're
laying your day before him, ifyou develop that strong devo
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time, you're going to be doingyourself a great favor in your
walk with the Lord.
That's something that we needto be doing.
But, as we read here, whenJesus said, when you pray, pray
in this manner.
Let's look, at least briefly, atthis example of prayer that
he's given us in the Lord'sprayer.
There are at least six elementsin this prayer that we need to
take note of, and let's read thewhole thing, and then we'll go
back and break it down a littlebit.
In verse 9, jesus said In thismanner therefore, pray Our
(19:04):
Father in heaven, hallowed beyour name, your kingdom come.
Your will be done on earth asit is in heaven.
Give us this day our dailybread and forgive us our debts
as we forgive our debtors, anddo not lead us into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one, for yours is the kingdom and
the power and the glory forever.
(19:27):
Amen.
You know, the first thing thatwe need to notice as we look at
this prayer is that this prayerspeaks to us of the person of
God, because when we pray, wepray our Father, which art in
heaven.
Hallowed be thy name.
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We're beginning with praise,we're beginning with an
awareness of who it is thatwe're addressing, and this, when
Jesus gave it, was a departurefrom what they were used to.
You don't really see Godreferred to as Father too much
in the Old Testament.
You see him referred to asElohim or Yahweh, which speaks
(20:08):
of his omnipotence and theunspeakable glory of his name.
And yet Jesus is sitting heresaying, when you pray, say
Father, abba, daddy, our Dad,who is in heaven.
You know you can tell a lotabout a person's walk with the
Lord and how close theirrelationship is to him, kind of
(20:28):
by how they pray.
Sometimes, you know, if youlisten to someone praying and
you're there with them andthey're like, oh, majestic God,
who created all that is and everwas, and you know all this
other stuff, it's as thoughwe're addressing this God who's
way out there in the distance,right.
And while that's notinappropriate, how much closer
does that relationship seem whenwe come to him and we say, dad,
(20:52):
abba, father, we need you.
You know, there's thatfamiliarity that's there, that's
that closeness that does notlose respect.
It still acknowledges who Godis, but it also acknowledges the
relationship that we have withhim.
What did John write in first?
Or in John chapter one, verse12,?
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He says but as many as receivedhim to them, he gave the right
to become children of God tothose who believe in his name.
So if we are those who believein his name, if we belong to him
, if we've been given the rightto become his children, then
when we approach him, we need torecognize that we're
approaching our father, a Godwho loves us.
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Now you might say, look, I hadan earthly father and I don't
really think he loved me thatmuch.
Well, guess what?
Your heavenly father is aperfect father.
He's the father you wish youhad, the father, perhaps that
you wish you could be.
He's a perfect father and heloves you with a perfect love.
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And so when we pray, the firstthing we need to recognize is
that we are addressing ourFather.
What's the second aspect of theLord's Prayer?
Here we see thy kingdom, comethy will be done in earth as it
is in heaven.
When we pray, we need toacknowledge that we are praying
according to God's purpose, thatwe aren't going to God to get
our will done, but that we'regoing to God to see his purposes
(22:18):
accomplished in and through ourlives.
What we're saying is our father, who art in heaven hallowed, be
thy name, thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth as itis in heaven.
We're saying, lord, make me aninstrument of your divine
providence.
Use me to bring about yourkingdom.
Let me partner with you, god,in the accomplishing of your
(22:39):
purposes.
The third part is for God'sprovision.
Give us this day our dailybread, lord.
Give us this day our dailybread.
That encompasses our needs.
Whatever you have need of,whatever your supplication is,
take that to the Lord.
The Bible tells us that you havenot because you ask not, or
that if you ask and you don'tget it, it's because you asked
it the wrong way.
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Can I tell you that Godunderstands that you need your
daily bread.
He understands that you need acertain amount of resources in
order to live and he'll providethose.
He will provide those.
The Bible tells us that my Godshall supply all your needs
according to his riches in gloryin Christ Jesus.
But you know what that's allyour needs, not all your greeds.
(23:20):
He'll provide what you haveneed of, not necessarily
everything you want, becausesometimes what you want isn't
particularly good for you.
That's why it says here give usthis day our daily bread.
It doesn't say, lord, give usthis week our weekly bread, or
give us this month our monthlybread, or give us this month our
monthly bread, or give us thisyear our yearly bread.
Why does it say that?
Because God knows us and heknows that if he doesn't require
(23:42):
us to come to him daily, wewon't.
If all we needed to do is say,lord, give us this month our
monthly bread, how often do youthink we would pray Monthly?
We would pray monthly.
But God doesn't want us to praymonthly.
He wants us to pray daily.
He wants us to pray daily.
He wants us to pray regularly.
He wants us to pray withoutceasing.
Why?
Because he needs our worshipand adoration?
(24:03):
No, but because he knows thatwhen we spend time talking to
him, we get closer to him and weget to know him better.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
The Christian life was never designed to be a solo
flight.
God designed us with the needfor relationships with others
who can encourage us in ourpersonal journey of faith.
Maybe you're listening todayand you don't have a home church
and this message ministered toyou.
Well, we'd like to take thistime to invite you to join us
for one of our worship services.
Calvary Chapel Southwest Metromeets each Sunday morning at
(24:35):
10.30 am and Wednesday eveningsat 7 pm.
Besides our Sunday morningservices, we have ministries for
children, men, women, couplesand youth.
To learn more about CalvaryChapel Southwest Metro, log on
to heedthewordorg and follow thelink, or, if you'd like to talk
with someone, give us a call.
Our phone number is817-447-5675.
(24:59):
That's 817-447-5675.
So visit the website or call ustoday.
Now we also want to encourageyou to review this study.
This study and many more taughtby Pastor Ken are available at
our website, heaththewordorg.
Many of Pastor Ken's teachingsare available in MP3 or podcast
(25:20):
format.
You can also receive a CD copyof this message.
Simply log on to heedthewordorgand select the option for CD
requests.
The CD that you'll receive isthe full-length unedited
teaching.
When you fill out the orderform, please keep in mind
today's date length uneditedteaching.
When you fill out the orderform, please keep in mind
today's date.
This helps us make sure that wesend you the correct message.
(25:43):
Well, that's all the time wehave for today.
Please join Pastor Ken nexttime as he continues teaching
through our series entitled theFoundations of Faith, right here
on.
Heed the Word.
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