July 6, 2025 • 46 mins
Why do we pray? Why do we fast? In Matthew 6 Jesus strips away every layer of performance and invites us into a family conversation with the Father. Pastor Scott Wiens unpacks this potent passage by contrasting two identities: boarder and child.
A boarder treats God like a landlord—pay the rent of good behavior, expect prompt service on life’s leaky faucets. When prayers go unanswered, resentment bubbles up and faith erodes. Jesus warns that this transactional mindset leads only to fleeting human applause: you’ve “received your reward” already.
A child, however, belongs by birthright. Children don’t schedule an audience with Dad; they barge in, confident of love. Scott illustrates this with a vivid image: only a child wakes a king at 3 a.m. for a cup of water. That’s the access Jesus grants when He teaches us to begin, “Our Father.” The Lord’s Prayer then reshapes priorities—honor God’s name, seek His kingdom, trust Him for today’s bread, release and receive forgiveness, rely on His protection.
Prayer’s sibling discipline, fasting, suffers the same performance trap. In Jesus’ day people disfigured their faces to telegraph how spiritual they were. Today we’re tempted to do the digital equivalent. Jesus counters: wash your face, smile, keep it between you and Dad. Fasting becomes an inward hunger for God, not an outward badge of piety.
Key takeaways Scott covers:
- Secret place > public stage – Real reward happens where only God sees.
- Simplicity > verbosity – Fancy words don’t bend God’s will; honest words bend ours to His.
- Identity > transaction – Romans 8 says the Spirit of adoption makes us cry “Abba.” Prayer is family talk, not rent negotiation.
Scott ends with the gentle story of an elderly man who set an empty chair for Jesus during prayer; when he died, his head rested on that chair—picture of perfect trust.
Press play to let these truths recalibrate how you approach God this week. Then share the message with someone who needs to trade performance for peace.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Scott Wiens (00:04):
So I'm going to begin the sermon this morning by
asking you a question, and thequestion is fairly simple.
I want to ask you to thinkabout somebody that you know,
that you consider a truefollower of Jesus, someone that
you would consider a righteousperson.
Someone you know, not someonein the past, someone you would
know Now.
Don't put your hand on anybodyor don't high-five somebody, but
(00:29):
I want you to seriously thinkabout that person, get their
face in your mind.
Okay.
Now I want you to ask yourselfa question why do you consider
that person righteous?
Why do you consider that personrighteous?
Why do you consider themrighteous?
(00:49):
Is it because of the way theylive their life?
Is it maybe because of howthey've interacted with you over
the years?
Is it maybe because you happento know a little bit about their
relationship with God?
Why are they righteous?
Now, the reason I wanted you togo through this exercise is
it's really it's applicable towhat we're going to talk about
(01:13):
today.
In the scripture that we'regoing to cover, jesus is
challenging his disciples andtheir definition of
righteousness, and I wanted eachof us to think about that
because it's really importanthow we measure righteousness.
It is important because you seehow we define righteousness is
(01:36):
going to be how we pursuerighteousness right.
So your model is very important.
So I just want to read the textfor today.
We're in Matthew, chapter 6,beginning in verse 5.
We're going to go through verse18.
Matthew 6, verse 5 through 18.
Verse 5, and when you pray, youmust not be like the hypocrites,
for they love to stand and prayin the synagogues and in the
(01:59):
street corners that they may beseen by others.
Truly, I say to you, they havereceived their reward.
But when you pray, go into yourroom and shut the door and pray
to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in
secret, will reward you.
And when you pray, do not heapup empty phrases as Gentiles do,
(02:22):
for they think that they willbe heard for their many words.
Don't be like them, for yourfather knows what you need
before you ask him.
Pray like this then our fatherin heaven, hallowed be your name
, your kingdom come.
Your will be done on earth asit is in heaven.
Verse 11,.
(02:43):
Give us this day our dailybread and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven ourdebtors, and lead us not into
temptation but deliver us fromevil.
For if you forgive others theirtrespasses, your heavenly
Father will also forgive you.
But if you do not forgiveothers their trespasses, neither
will your Father forgive youyour trespasses.
(03:05):
And when you fast, do not lookgloomy like the hypocrites, for
they disfigure their faces thattheir fasting may be seen by
others.
Truly, I say to you, they havereceived their reward.
But when you fast, anoint yourhead and wash your faith that
your fasting may not be seen byothers, but by your Father, who
(03:27):
is in secret.
And your Father, who sees insecret, will reward you.
Let's pray, father.
We thank you for this passageof Scripture, jesus.
We thank you for this amazingteaching, for these words that
have lasted these thousands ofyears and how we read them
afresh today.
(03:47):
Father, as we go through thispassage and as we examine
ourselves and what ourdefinition of righteousness is,
god, I pray that you would workwith each one of our hearts.
I pray that you would help usto dare to be vulnerable to you
this morning, that we would dareto lay ourselves before you
(04:09):
with humility and to learn anewsometime for some.
Learn anew what you weretalking to us about, what true
righteousness means.
Father, we pray this in thename of Jesus, amen.
True righteousness means Father.
We pray this in the name ofJesus, amen.
Well, we've come to sermonnumber five in our series that
we've called Red Letters, inwhich we're walking through the
(04:31):
most famous sermon Jesus evergave, the Sermon on the Mount.
And today we're going to lookspecifically at what Jesus
teaches his disciples about twothings prayer and fasting.
Now I hope that through thiswe're going to see how this
passage Jesus was teaching them,not only about how to pray and
how to fast, but rather howtheir identity as a child of God
(04:55):
informs both of thosedisciplines.
So let's first get into thecontext.
So if you're new here, if youhaven't been here before, maybe
you're catching up.
We're in this sermon serieswe're covering on again called
Red Letters, and we're talkingabout this famous Sermon on the
Mount.
Now, by the way, we had a greatKelly really gave us a good
(05:16):
foundation for this whole seriesand this Sermon on the Mount.
It does say that he wasaddressing his disciples,
although some people think itwas a whole group of people.
It really doesn't matter.
The reality was he was talkingabout some very core truths
regarding what we as Christiansand how we should live our lives
(05:38):
.
But, beginning in chapter 6,we're seeing Jesus addressing
three specific religiousactivities, three very specific
ones giving, praying and fasting.
Okay, now it's interesting ashe deals with these, all three
of these, he uses a very similartechnique, and that is the
(05:58):
first thing he says is this ishow not to do it, and he's using
examples that they woulddefinitely know They'd
definitely seen right.
And then he says this is howyou should do it.
And he's using examples thatthey would definitely know they
had definitely seen right.
And then he says this is howyou should do it.
All right, because he wanted tohelp them understand that the
religious leaders were doing ita certain way, but the real
issue was their motivation, itwas their heart, and that's
(06:20):
really important.
And last week, tyler kind ofkicked off this section of it by
talking about giving and how we, as Christians, should approach
the whole concept of giving,and he outlined the truth that
practicing our righteousnessisn't about earning it, but
living like you've received afree gift and how we give that
to others.
It was really great and we'rereally going to kind of tie into
(06:41):
this because it's all the samecontext.
Right, and Jesus now continuesto teach his disciples in the
second part of chapter six byaddressing now prayer and
fasting, and so this is reallygood.
So let's first tackle theconcept of prayer.
Now, as Jesus did with regardsto the act of giving, he now
talks about what's the wrong wayto do it, and I love this.
(07:02):
So, in part of doing it wrong,he says they're doing it wrong
in two specific ways, and thefirst one was this public prayer
, this inappropriate publicprayer that they were going
through.
So in verse 5 of chapter 6, itsays and when you pray, by the
way, we should pray, right, hesays when, not if you pray.
(07:23):
When you pray, you must not belike the hypocrites, for they
love to stand and pray in thesynagogues and at the street
corners that they may be seen byothers.
Truly, I say, they've receivedtheir reward.
Now you have to understand theaudience here, these disciples.
They would have witnessed thistheir whole life.
I mean, they would have seenthis all the time the Pharisees
(07:46):
standing on street cornerspraying, then the synagogues
praying loudly.
And, by the way, they weren'tleading others in prayer, right,
they were just prayingthemselves.
It's like if suddenly, you know, kelly, were to stand up and
just say and so I start prayingloudly for everybody to hear him
talking to God, notrepresenting us, but just him
and God.
That would kind of be a littleweird, but there, for their
(08:10):
culture, that was commonplace,that's what they saw their whole
life.
And, by the way, he doesn't heremention the scribes and
Pharisees.
He uses that wonderful term.
We love hypocrites, hypocrites,but we know pretty much the
audience, because these were thedudes that stood in street
corners and in Matthew 23, heliterally calls them out as
(08:33):
scribes and Pharisees.
You hypocrites, you hypocrites.
And, by the way, just so youget the concept, they literally
would find a busy street corner,not a side street somewhere.
They would find a street cornerso they could see them from all
four directions and then they'dstart going in.
Can you imagine going up to astreet corner and go oh, here,
(08:55):
this is the Pharisee prayercorner and have four or five of
these dudes, just you know,praying and going like this,
like this la la, la, la, la la.
That's what they did and thatwas considered righteous.
And it's interesting becausetheir focus was not above but it
(09:15):
was below.
Now you might say, okay, Iunderstand what you mean by not
above, but what do you mean bybelow.
Trust me, these scribes andPharisees looked at anyone else
as below them.
That's the way they viewed them.
They wanted the lowly people,these people that weren't like
them, to acknowledge their pietyand their righteousness.
(09:39):
That's what they wanted.
They weren't focusing on God,they were focusing on letting
people see who I am.
So I love when Jesus saidthey've received their reward.
They've received their reward.
Why?
Because really, whether theyknew it or not, their heart
(10:01):
wasn't to gain anything, to drawcloser to God.
It was to be patted on the backand said yes, you are righteous
.
They were looking at it fromthe wrong place.
Now he follows up thisdescription about the wrong way
to pray, this whole publicprayer, versus how we are
(10:23):
supposed to pray.
In verse 6, he said but whenyou pray, go into your room and
shut the door and pray to yourFather, who is in secret, and
your Father, who sees in secret,will reward you.
The most important thing youcan pull out of here is this
whole concept of a secret.
He doesn't say privately, hesays in secret, which of course
(10:44):
kind of means the same thing.
But I think it's interesting.
He doesn't say privately, hesays in secret, which of course
kind of means the same thing,but I think it's interesting.
He says and your father, whosees in secret.
I really stopped and spent timelooking at that and trying to
understand that a little bitmore.
And some translations actuallysay and your father, who is in
secret?
He is in secret.
(11:05):
Okay, that changes a little bitwhen you think about that.
What's that mean?
I think Jesus is basicallysaying that God the Father, is
there with you in secret.
He's not on that street corner.
He's listening to you, not them.
He's listening to you.
That's where God is.
That's where you'll, not them.
He's listening to you.
(11:25):
That's where God is.
That's where you'll find God.
Not in anybody else's hearing,but you'll find him in your
prayer closet or you'll find himin your chair.
I shouldn't brag about that.
I got three acres now and I cansit out there with the chickens
and I can pray and it's reallycool.
(11:46):
The chickens don't know I'mpraying, by the way, so it's not
the same as a Pharisee, by theway, but that's where he is.
He's where you are and it's insecret because it's between you
and him, and I just think that'sso beautiful.
Jesus is saying that God is withthose who pray privately and is
(12:08):
listening to those prayers.
And, by the way, let me justmake it clear and this is really
important, you understand this.
He's not saying there's not aplace for corporate prayer in
the church.
We corporately pray all thetime.
We did this this morning.
We do it.
For those of you who don't knowthat, don't volunteer.
We spend about 10 minutespraying with everybody before
the service at 915.
(12:28):
Out here in the lobby, we praytogether and different people
pray.
Well, that's different.
That's corporate prayer.
You're actually praying witheveryone else.
So that's not what he's talkingabout here.
There's a time and a place forthat.
But our primary time of prayershould be with God in private.
(12:50):
The principle Jesus is teachingus is that prayer is an intimate
communication between us andGod.
You know, nobody in thesanctuary knows how long or how
often anybody else prays.
You know, I have no idea howlong Chad prays or when he prays
.
I don't know and I'm notsupposed to know, because that's
(13:12):
between him and God.
Now, if you're married, yes,you're going to know roughly
what your prayer life is foryour, of your spouse, right, but
that's different.
But it's this, it's thisintimacy that you have and this
conversation that you shouldonly have with God.
You know my wife and I we have.
I can talk to my wife abouteverything and anything, and
(13:32):
there's things I will tell her.
I will never have thoseconversations with anybody else.
I mean we leave church and wegossip about all you guys.
I mean nobody else needs toknow that.
No, we don't.
We only gossip about thescribes and Pharisees, but
nobody else is going to have apart of those.
(13:53):
My fears, my hopes, my dreams,the challenges I have, those are
with her and I.
You don't have thoseconversations with everybody
else.
That's why sometimes in groupprayer you will hear somebody
say some things You're like thatshould be for you and God alone
.
Right, let's use a littlediscretion there, right, but
that's what it's supposed to be.
(14:14):
And Jesus is saying you cannothave this type of intimate
relationship with him.
If your heart is searchingafter the accolades of other
people, you just can't.
And that's why you want to getreal, get alone with God, and
you will find out really quicklywhere your relationship is.
Will you have anything to say?
(14:35):
What were you willing to talkto him about?
And isn't it amazing that wehave God, the Father, this great
being, the Almighty God, thatwants to talk to you and wants
you to talk to him.
I mean, we don't understand howamazing that is.
We just don't understand howamazing it is.
(14:57):
So he's realigning the subjectof prayer, he's realigning his
disciples' definition of it andhe's saying don't let me find
you on a street corner, unlessyou're preaching.
You can preach on a streetcorner, but your prayer time is
with him and his alone, andthat's important.
Now, second thing about prayerthat he corrects is this
(15:20):
excessive words, and this isinteresting.
In verse 7 he says and when youpray, do not heap up empty
phrases as the Gentiles do, forthey think that they will be
heard for their many words.
Now I just want to confirmsomething here.
Some translations actually saypagans and we throw the term
pagan out all the time.
It's not all the time, but youknow I'm not a pagan, where
(15:43):
oftentimes we're referring tosomebody who doesn't believe in
God.
That's not what he's talkingabout.
These Gentiles, these quotepagans.
They were very religious people.
They had many gods.
In fact, pantheism was veryprevalent in the Gentiles right.
So you have to understand thesewere very religious people and
he was saying when they pray,this is what they're doing.
(16:05):
He's calling out the fact thatthese people had this mindset
that God would eventually haveto acquiesce and respond to them
if they prayed loudly and longenough.
Anybody see a problem with that?
Yeah, it's pretty evident,right?
In essence, they thought theycould control God.
(16:26):
They could control God, theyjust had to be eloquent and they
just had to use lots of phrasesand lots of words.
That's what they thought hesays.
In its interest.
He says for your father.
He says don't do this, by theway, for your father knows what
(16:48):
you need before you ask him.
So if we've got any legalistsout here, you can say well, then
I don't really have to pray, doI?
Yeah, that's right.
You don't have to talk to yourwife either?
Right?
I don't think so.
It's not what he's right?
You don't have to talk to yourwife either?
Right?
I don't think so.
It's not what he's saying.
We need to understand that.
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Why he said not to jump to thatradical conclusion and why we
shouldn't jump to that, is thatGod wants us to talk to him.
He wants us to have thatrelationship with him and he
wants us to make that request.
But we have to make sure thatwe aren't going after God with
the desire to change his heartor change his mind, or we're
(17:32):
going to somehow mold histhinking to fall in line with us
, because, after all, we knowwhat the right thing is right.
You ever prayed for somethingand later on said God, thank you
for not letting me get that.
Yeah, it's really true.
I remember praying.
I was in love with somebodywhen I was 19 and I 18, I
(17:55):
thought I prayed God, this isthe person, this is for me.
Thank you, god.
Thank you, god that I did notget what I wanted.
The reality is he's teaching thedisciples that their prayers
should not be focused on tryingto remind or control God with
his words.
Their words aren't.
It's not the purpose.
He is saying God knows all.
(18:18):
God is sovereign.
He's reminding the disciples ofthe sovereignty of God and we
have to be reminded of thatoften as well of the sovereignty
of God, and we have to bereminded of that often as well.
But you need to understand wedon't pray with an attitude of
bending God to our will.
But, as a child, you're layingyour requests before God.
You're expressing thoserequests to Him with the
(18:39):
understanding that God willalways do what's best for you
and to glorify Him.
That is the purpose, and hisanswers to our prayers are
always good, although they'renot always answered.
And again, if you've beenwalking with the Lord for a
(19:02):
while, you'll understand that.
You understand that.
Now he goes into theinstructions of how they should
pray and he actually gives themwords In verse 9 through 13,.
We see this teaching that we'vecalled the Lord's Prayer In fact
, as I was reading it, a lot ofyou were probably just reciting
it and this is found also inLuke, chapter 11, and they're
(19:22):
the most memorized words ofJesus.
Right, and many times, by theway, we read the Lord's Prayer
and we're reading it out ofcontext.
You see, he's teaching, right,he's teaching on how to pray and
he's teaching how not to pray.
And he says so I'm going togive you some guidance on how
you're supposed to pray.
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And then he goes into thissection.
Right, he goes into this model.
But a lot of times we forgetthat that's the context of what
he's doing here.
You know, he just called outthe abuse of prayer and then he
taught that prayer is anoutflowing of a relationship
with God.
Right, and now, here we havethese amazing words.
Now, I don't have time to gothrough everything in the Lord's
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Prayer, because it deserves 10sermons all of its own right.
That's not the purpose of thismessage, but I want to focus on
one simple thing, and that ishow he instructed the disciples
to address God, and this isgoing to be a key for everything
we talk about today.
You know Jesus in his ministryand we read in the words.
(20:33):
So often he refers to theFather.
The Father and I are one.
I do nothing except the Fathertells me right, he always is
referring to the Father, andthat's really important.
But he's now telling thedisciples I want you guys to
address God as a Father as well.
(20:53):
Now, why is he doing that?
Well, I heard a great sermonone time and the teacher used a
metaphor that I'm going to stealfrom him because it's so good
to help you understand, and it'san analogy that will help you
be able to apply why we pray toGod as a father.
(21:15):
In this message, the teacherstated there's two primary ways
in which people interact withGod.
One is as a boarder in hishouse and one is as a child.
Okay, now let's kind of explorethat.
When someone's renting a room,a boarder is somebody who rents
a room from somebody in a house,right?
(21:35):
I don't know if anybody herehas ever had a boarder in their
house.
I had an Airbnb for a long time, but it was a separate
apartment, right?
So it was still mine, but Ididn't interact.
Sometimes people would come andgo.
I would never see them, right?
But somebody who's boarding inyour house a boarding house
they're actually renting a roomfrom you, right?
So that's the first conceptwe're going to focus on.
(21:57):
So when someone's a boarder,they actually have a business
relationship with you, don'tthey, right?
I mean, and it's conditional,okay, I'm going to pay you $100
a week to rent that room, andfrom that I expect, number one,
to have access to the bathroom.
I want access to the laundry atleast one hour every week.
(22:20):
I want to be able to make surethe lights should be gone.
There should be water availablewhen I need it, right?
There's expectations that comefrom that.
A boarder expects the homeownerwill do certain things for them
.
Now, keep that in mind.
Let's talk about a child In thatsame house.
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You have a child and that childlives with the homeowner, right
?
Which, of course, would betheir parents, but the child has
an entirely differentrelationship with their parents
than the boarder does.
Their relationship with theirfather is not one of expectation
, meaning you do this, I expectyou to do this, I expect you to
(23:04):
do this.
No, that's not what it is.
It's one of reliance and trust.
Their relationship is notconditional.
The relationship with thefather, the homeowner, is not a
conditional relationship.
They love them.
The father loves the child.
They trust them.
They're there in that homebecause they are part of the
(23:27):
family and it's expected thatthey would be in the home.
They don't pay anything,although once you graduate from
high school and you're stillwith your parents, you should
pay them something.
That's another sermon, right,tyler?
He dropped his water.
Levi took a deep drink.
I don't know what that means.
(23:47):
I didn't mean to bring anythingup.
I'm sorry, but you get the idearight A child they live there
that's.
There's an expectation of loveand acceptance.
Now, if you look at this, it's afamilial relationship.
So if you look at this andcompare the two from a mindset
(24:09):
standpoint and you apply it toprayer, you're going to see how
this really changes how you prayand how you interact with the
Father.
So, for instance, if you were aboarder, if you were a boarder,
could you go to the homeownerand just start telling them how
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difficult things are going inyour life and how the
relationship with yourgirlfriend has gone bad, or talk
about your fears about losingyour job because of layoffs and
things?
Would you go to the homeownerabout that if you were a boarder
?
No, in fact, some boardersexcuse me, some people who
actually have boarders in theirhouse say that one of the most
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difficult things they have to dois not get too close to their
borders.
Anybody want to guess why?
Because eventually it's goingto happen.
They're going to come to youand say I can't pay my rent
because my life is this and it'sharder to say no and keep it a
business relationship.
Right, they don't want to dothat because it's a business
(25:14):
relationship.
If you're a border, would youapproach your homeowner and
share your fears, your lifedreams?
No, it's not.
Would you wake up the homeownerat 3 in the morning and ask for
a glass of water?
I don't think so.
You could, but you might not beboarding there for long.
No, you couldn't do thatBecause it would be a violation
(25:39):
of a natural understanding ofthe relationship between the
homeowner and the boarder.
However, when you think aboutthat.
As a child, it's a totallydifferent thing.
It's a totally different thing.
Child, it's a totally differentthing.
It's a totally different thing.
The problem is, whereas a childis receiving from their father
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love, acceptance, provision,guidance, encouragement,
forgiveness, they're receivingall that.
You go to the before the Lordand that's what you accept.
But if you're a border and youstart praying to God like you're
a border, that's what youaccept, but if you're a border
and you start praying to Godlike you're a border, this is
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where the problems start to comeup.
And if you want to do a littletest of whether you have the
heart of a border or the heartof a child when it comes to
prayer, let me just throw a fewthings out there.
Let's look at asking God forthings.
Do you believe that God isgoing to be more inclined to
answer your prayers?
If you've been good, if you'vebeen praying and if you've been
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fighting temptation and you'vebeen studying God's word, do you
have an expectation in yourheart that God's going to listen
a little bit more clearly toyou than the guy over there?
That's not See.
If you do, you're looking atGod like he's the homeowner and
(27:10):
you're boarding with him becauseyou basically said I've done
this.
Them Because you basically saidI've done this.
Therefore, god, you must dothis.
You see the problem with thatand, guys, this can slip in
really, really subtly into ourlives, and I've told you many
times from stage how I came froma church that was very
(27:32):
legalistic, and there's times Ifeel this come up in me,
especially when I'm praying forsomebody who's sick.
God, this person is a righteousperson.
They love you, they serve you.
Please take this away from thembecause, after all, they're
(27:52):
doing good things for you.
I'm going to make a deal withyou, god here.
Come on, look, he's doing goodthings.
Come on, wait a second.
I'm walking into a businessrelationship with God.
God, because this person's donethis, you should do this, and
suddenly I'm making a deal withGod, and that's not the way it
works.
That's not the way it works.
(28:14):
That's not the way it works.
Another way, by the way, is howdo we respond to God's answers
To our prayers?
If you have a border mentalityand God does not answer the
prayers the way you wanted themto answer?
Well, sometimes you can getangry.
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If you find yourself gettingangry or depressed because God
didn't answer your prayers theway you wanted him to.
You might have a bordermentality Because after all, god
, we had a deal.
We had a deal.
We had a deal, I was going todo good and you were going to
give good things to me.
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I had this illustrated to me ina very, very sad way and I've
used this example before, so ifyou've heard this before,
forgive me, but it was sopoignant example before.
So if you've heard this before,forgive me, but it was so
poignant.
I worked with a man in Floridaand he was actually my boss, and
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when I came to know him, I didnot know him to be a Christian.
In fact, at that moment, abouttwo or three years before I'd
been called back to the Lord.
So I was going through a realspiritual renewal at the time.
But he was a crude man, cussedall the time, inappropriate
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jokes, all that stuff.
And I was talking to him onetime and I happened to express
my faith and he said you know, Iused to be a children's pastor.
I said you, I tried not to betoo.
You.
He said yeah.
He said my wife and I werehaving our children then and my
wife got pregnant with twins andshe had a difficult pregnancy.
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The twins were born prematureand they both died and I thought
I can't serve a God that wouldtake away my twins.
After all, I'd been doing forhim and following him.
You see the border mentalitythere.
God, I'd done all these thingsfor you and you wouldn't even
(30:38):
heal my children.
Now, brethren, I want you tounderstand I'm not casting a
stone at this man, I'm notjudging this man.
I have never gone through this.
I've never, and pray, I neverwill have to.
But you and I both know peoplein this congregation that have
lost loved ones, that expressedit and responded as a child of
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God.
I don't know why that happenedand, by the way, I pray that
there will be a day that he willcome back to the Lord.
His story's not done yet.
Right, it's not done yet, butthat mentality will cause you
deep, deep anger and I bet if Iasked you how many people have
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heard stories like that, a lotof hands would go up, because,
unfortunately, religion willtell you that that's the
relationship with God thatyou're supposed to have you be
good, god's going to do good toyou.
If you're bad, god's going tocome after you and that will
destroy your relationship withGod Because you're going to run
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into walls.
You're going to run into walls.
A mature son or daughter truststhat the parent indeed has their
best interest at heart and willaccept God's answers to their
prayers.
You know, scripture tells usthat when we were born again, we
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all became sons and daughtersof God.
I know we don't understand thatto its fullest.
We're adopted, you know Jesus'begotten son.
We're the adopted children andwe've preached this message or
we've used this Scripture before, but in Romans 8, it's nowhere
(32:33):
else in the Bible stated soclearly by the Apostle Paul in
Romans 8, verse 14 through 16.
For all who are led by theSpirit of God, you and I are
sons of God or daughters of God.
Right, for you did not receivethe spirit of slavery to fall
back into fear, but you havereceived the spirit of adoption
(32:54):
as sons by whom we cry Abba,father.
You've all heard sermons aboutthis.
Abba is the most intimate ofterms.
The Spirit himself bearswitness, with our spirit, that
we are children of God and ifchildren, then heirs.
(33:15):
Heirs of God and fellow heirswith Christ, provided we suffer
with him in order that we may beglorified with him, and part of
that suffering with Christ, bythe way, I believe, is laying
down our selfish desires, ourselfish desire to kind of tell
God.
This is what you have to do,and just accepting what he, what
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he, gives us, and trusting him.
King David and it was, it wasinteresting Evan quoted part of
Psalm 103 today.
King David said this in Psalm103, 13,.
As a father shows compassion tohis children, so the Lord shows
compassion to those who fearhim.
You and I are not borders inthe house of God, the kingdom of
(34:02):
God.
We're family.
We're family.
The only person that caninterrupt a king at three in the
morning to ask for a cup ofwater is a child.
You think God is bothered byyou, is irritated by you
(34:25):
interpreting, and you know,interrupting him.
No, we can go to him for a cupof water or we can go to him
with a broken heart.
He accepts it all.
If you embrace this, this heartof a child, your prayers will
change.
Your prayers will change.
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I want to address on the wayhere I was praying.
I have a longer drive, so I getto pray more.
On the way here I was praying.
I have a longer drive, so I getto pray more on the way here
and one of the parts of theLord's Prayer I didn't have
really time to go into.
But I want to address somethingI just felt like the Lord
wanted me to say something quickabout forgiveness.
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In verse 12 he says and forgiveus our debts as we have forgiven
our debtors, right.
And then in verse 14 he kind ofexpounds on that.
It says for if you forgiveothers their trespasses, your
heavenly Father will alsoforgive you, but if you do not
forgive others their trespasses,neither will your Father
forgive your trespasses.
Does that sound like a businessrelationship to you?
(35:28):
It kind of does, doesn't it?
Does that sound like a businessrelationship to you?
It kind of does, doesn't it?
And I've always not liked theway that was phrased Because,
coming from a legalisticstandpoint, that was just like
sugar to a baby.
I wanted that.
Yeah, see here, if I don'tforgive, god's not going to
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forgive me.
Hmm, I think we have the cartbefore the horse.
This is a misinterpretation whenpeople say that they are
misinterpreting what God'ssaying here.
I'll tell you what God's sayinghere.
If you truly are forgiven andyou have repented of your sins
(36:13):
and given your life to Christ,you will be someone who forgives
, you will be.
Someone forgives.
And God's simply saying that'sthe deal.
There ain't no deal from you dothis, I'll do this.
He's simply saying if you'renot forgiving, then you're not
one of mine.
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And as I was praying for thatand that hit me, I just thought
well, maybe someone needs tohear that.
Do you have unforgivenesssomewhere?
You have unforgiveness insomewhere in your heart.
Maybe you don't say I'm nevergoing to forgive that person,
but anytime that person's facecomes to your head, you get
angry and you get bitter.
That's unforgiveness.
And I'll tell you when you runinto that and you think about
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that person.
Here's what you need to do.
You need to play back all thesins that you've committed in
your life and all the terriblethings you've thought and all
the terrible things you've done,and realize that God sent his
son to hang on a cross for youto be forgiven of that.
Who are you not to forgiveothers?
Who are you not to forgiveothers?
So if that's for you, thenthat's for all of us.
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But just think about that man.
What a forgiving Savior we have.
Who are we not to forgive?
Okay, let's talk about fasting.
Anybody hungry?
I'm not going to spend a lot oftime on fasting.
I have a minute and a half left.
Everybody's like good, he's notgoing to talk about fasting,
(37:48):
but I am going to tell you aboutKelly's sermon, so you have to
watch it again Matthew 6, 16through 18.
But he's like good.
He's not going to talk aboutfasting, but I am going to tell
you about Kelly's sermon, so youhave to watch it again, buddy,
matthew 6, 16 through 18.
He says, when you fast again,when you fast, do not look
gloomy like the hypocrites, forthey just figure their faces
that they may be fasting, may beseen by others.
Truly, I say to you, they'vereceived their reward.
Again, he's resetting theirperspective on what holiness is
(38:11):
right and what righteousness isright.
So he says this if you fast.
Of course we know that he'ssaying, obviously, that fasting
truly is an expression of ourrelationship with God.
So he's grouping us in withprayer and it's important that
we understand fasting is not tolose weight.
Fasting is truly to draw close.
It's an expression of yourrelationship with God.
(38:32):
And he's talking again aboutthe hypocrites and how they
respond.
They want to make sureeverybody's fasting.
By the way, if you're fasting,don't tell anybody you're
fasting, just fast Now.
Maybe it's you know, someonewants you to come over for a
meal or whatever.
I mean you can come up with anexcuse or whatever, but you
don't normally tell people thatyou're fasting.
Right, they wanted everybody toknow that they were fasting.
(38:55):
But then he says how should youfast?
And in the same verse, the samesection, he says in verse 17,.
But when you fast, anoint yourhead and wash your face that
your fasting may not be seen byothers, but by your father
here's that phrase who is insecret, he's there, he's waiting
for you, and your Father, whosees in secret, will reward you.
(39:20):
Basically, anointing andwashing your face means you just
act like everything's normal.
That's what you're supposed todo.
Just keep going about yourbusiness.
Just don't go buy a salseritas.
Just keep going about yourbusiness.
Just don't go buy a salseritasright Now.
I don't have time, of course, togo into all this thing about
(39:40):
fasting, and I wanted toreference Kelly's message from
back in March.
It was great, one of the bestmessages I've heard on fasting,
and I think, yeah, we got fullbut not satisfied how fasting
brings a kingdom.
That's a great sermon and hecovered all that.
I simply want to point out thatJesus was instructing the
disciples that fasting was notabout performance.
Not about performance.
(40:02):
It's about being a child of Godand relying on God and seeking
God.
That's what fasting is about.
Okay, so there's a themerunning through this whole thing
and it's this theme of a child.
Now I want to finish up withsomething I don't normally
finish up a sermon with, andthat's a story, but I thought
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this story was very pertinent.
So we've spent time.
We understand that we should bechildren of God.
We should have the heart of Godwhen it comes heart of a child
when it comes to our approach toGod, and it's going to manifest
inside of us.
We have this heart of a child.
It's going to manifest insideof us to how we pray and how we
fast and how we respond to Godwhen he responds to us.
(40:45):
Okay, so that's what we'vetalked about today, but I came
across this story that I thinkis a beautiful example of
reliance and trust in God andhaving a child's heart, so I'm
just going to read it.
A man's daughter had asked thelocal pastor to come and pray
(41:05):
with her father.
When the pastor arrived, hefound the man lying in bed with
his head propped up in twopillows and an empty chair
beside his bed.
The pastor assumed the oldfellow had been informed that he
was going to visit.
I guess you were expecting me.
The pastor said no.
The man said who are you?
Well, he said I'm the newassociate pastor at your local
(41:27):
church.
When I saw the empty chair, Ifigured you knew I was going to
show up.
Oh yeah, the chair, said thebedridden man, would you mind
closing the door?
Puzzled.
The pastor, shut the door.
I never told anyone this, noteven my daughter.
The man continued but all mylife I've never known how to
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pray At church.
I used to hear the pastor talkabout prayer, but it always went
right over my head and I'vealways struggled with praying
Until one day, about four yearsago, my best friend said to me
Joe, prayer is just a simplematter of having a conversation
with Jesus.
Here's what I suggest Sit downon a chair, place an empty chair
(42:13):
in front of you and, in faith,see Jesus on that chair.
It's not spooky, because hepromised I'll be with you always
.
Then just speak to him andlisten in the same way that
you're doing with me right now.
So I tried and I liked it somuch that I could do it a couple
hours every day.
He said I'm careful, though, ifmy daughter saw me talking to
(42:36):
an empty chair, she'd eitherhave a nervous breakdown or send
me to the funny farm.
The pastor was deeply moved bythe story and he encouraged the
old man to continue on thatjourney and he prayed for them
and he returned to church.
Two nights later the daughtercalled to tell the pastor that
her daddy had died thatafternoon.
Did he seem to die in peace?
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The pastor asked yes.
When I left the house aroundtwo o'clock, he called me over
to his bedside, told me one ofhis corny dad jokes and kissed
me on the cheek.
When I got back from the storean hour later, I found him dead.
But there was something kind ofstrange.
In fact, it was beyond strange.
It was kind of weird.
(43:17):
Apparently, just before, justbefore daddy died, he leaned
over and rested his head on thechair beside the bed on the
chair beside the bed.
Do you know?
That's what God wants you to do.
He wants you to rest your headon his lap.
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That's the relationship hewants with you and he wants with
me.
Why?
Because he loves us and he'scalled us.
There are some people that mayhave never experienced that
relationship with God before.
And if you're one of them,that's what awaits you.
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That's what awaits you A lovingfather who wants to embrace you
, not in some border concept,but as a child.
He's literally calling you outand he wants you to follow him.
And that's what you have.
That's what you have in frontof you.
It requires you to turn yourback on your old life.
(44:20):
It requires you to repent ofyour sins and realize that
without him I'm lost.
But man, to have that type ofrelationship with a God that you
get to spend eternity with,there's nothing that's worth
holding on to.
So if you're one of thosepeople, we'd love to pray with
you after the service, rightdown front, here you can join us
(44:43):
.
Will you all stand and let'spray Amen, oh Heavenly Father.
How often we approach yourthrone with that phrase,
heavenly Father, and howappropriate it is, father, to
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think that the God who createdman and created this universe
and all its complexity, the Godthat created all that wants to
hold us in his bosom, isunfathomable.
Father, I pray that everyone inthis room that you would give us
the heart of a child.
So, when we pray and when wefast and when we come before you
(45:36):
, that we know that you're notjust accepting us and allowing
us to bow at your throne likesome great king that you are,
but you want to embrace us aswell.
Father, give us the heart of achild, that we can embrace you
as the Father who offers useverything.
We pray this, and I pray forthe hearts of those that are
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struggling with this, god.
I pray that you would show themyour mercy and your love in a
deep and binding way and help usto never forget that love and
just what you've given us, whichwe can never put a value on.
It's just immeasurable.
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So I pray for them, pray forall of us, father, that we may
have the heart of a child, andwe ask this in Jesus' most holy
name, amen.
So I'm going to begin the sermon this morning by
asking you a question, and thequestion is fairly simple.
I want to ask you to thinkabout somebody that you know,
that you consider a truefollower of Jesus, someone that
you would consider a righteousperson.
Someone you know, not someonein the past, someone you would
know Now.
Don't put your hand on anybodyor don't high-five somebody, but
(00:29):
I want you to seriously thinkabout that person, get their
face in your mind.
Okay.
Now I want you to ask yourselfa question why do you consider
that person righteous?
Why do you consider that personrighteous?
Why do you consider themrighteous?
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Is it because of the way theylive their life?
Is it maybe because of howthey've interacted with you over
the years?
Is it maybe because you happento know a little bit about their
relationship with God?
Why are they righteous?
Now, the reason I wanted you togo through this exercise is
it's really it's applicable towhat we're going to talk about
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today.
In the scripture that we'regoing to cover, jesus is
challenging his disciples andtheir definition of
righteousness, and I wanted eachof us to think about that
because it's really importanthow we measure righteousness.
It is important because you seehow we define righteousness is
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going to be how we pursuerighteousness right.
So your model is very important.
So I just want to read the textfor today.
We're in Matthew, chapter 6,beginning in verse 5.
We're going to go through verse18.
Matthew 6, verse 5 through 18.
Verse 5, and when you pray, youmust not be like the hypocrites,
for they love to stand and prayin the synagogues and in the
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street corners that they may beseen by others.
Truly, I say to you, they havereceived their reward.
But when you pray, go into yourroom and shut the door and pray
to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in
secret, will reward you.
And when you pray, do not heapup empty phrases as Gentiles do,
(02:22):
for they think that they willbe heard for their many words.
Don't be like them, for yourfather knows what you need
before you ask him.
Pray like this then our fatherin heaven, hallowed be your name
, your kingdom come.
Your will be done on earth asit is in heaven.
Verse 11,.
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Give us this day our dailybread and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven ourdebtors, and lead us not into
temptation but deliver us fromevil.
For if you forgive others theirtrespasses, your heavenly
Father will also forgive you.
But if you do not forgiveothers their trespasses, neither
will your Father forgive youyour trespasses.
(03:05):
And when you fast, do not lookgloomy like the hypocrites, for
they disfigure their faces thattheir fasting may be seen by
others.
Truly, I say to you, they havereceived their reward.
But when you fast, anoint yourhead and wash your faith that
your fasting may not be seen byothers, but by your Father, who
(03:27):
is in secret.
And your Father, who sees insecret, will reward you.
Let's pray, father.
We thank you for this passageof Scripture, jesus.
We thank you for this amazingteaching, for these words that
have lasted these thousands ofyears and how we read them
afresh today.
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Father, as we go through thispassage and as we examine
ourselves and what ourdefinition of righteousness is,
god, I pray that you would workwith each one of our hearts.
I pray that you would help usto dare to be vulnerable to you
this morning, that we would dareto lay ourselves before you
(04:09):
with humility and to learn anewsometime for some.
Learn anew what you weretalking to us about, what true
righteousness means.
Father, we pray this in thename of Jesus, amen.
True righteousness means Father.
We pray this in the name ofJesus, amen.
Well, we've come to sermonnumber five in our series that
we've called Red Letters, inwhich we're walking through the
(04:31):
most famous sermon Jesus evergave, the Sermon on the Mount.
And today we're going to lookspecifically at what Jesus
teaches his disciples about twothings prayer and fasting.
Now I hope that through thiswe're going to see how this
passage Jesus was teaching them,not only about how to pray and
how to fast, but rather howtheir identity as a child of God
(04:55):
informs both of thosedisciplines.
So let's first get into thecontext.
So if you're new here, if youhaven't been here before, maybe
you're catching up.
We're in this sermon serieswe're covering on again called
Red Letters, and we're talkingabout this famous Sermon on the
Mount.
Now, by the way, we had a greatKelly really gave us a good
(05:16):
foundation for this whole seriesand this Sermon on the Mount.
It does say that he wasaddressing his disciples,
although some people think itwas a whole group of people.
It really doesn't matter.
The reality was he was talkingabout some very core truths
regarding what we as Christiansand how we should live our lives
(05:38):
.
But, beginning in chapter 6,we're seeing Jesus addressing
three specific religiousactivities, three very specific
ones giving, praying and fasting.
Okay, now it's interesting ashe deals with these, all three
of these, he uses a very similartechnique, and that is the
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first thing he says is this ishow not to do it, and he's using
examples that they woulddefinitely know They'd
definitely seen right.
And then he says this is howyou should do it.
And he's using examples thatthey would definitely know they
had definitely seen right.
And then he says this is howyou should do it.
All right, because he wanted tohelp them understand that the
religious leaders were doing ita certain way, but the real
issue was their motivation, itwas their heart, and that's
(06:20):
really important.
And last week, tyler kind ofkicked off this section of it by
talking about giving and how we, as Christians, should approach
the whole concept of giving,and he outlined the truth that
practicing our righteousnessisn't about earning it, but
living like you've received afree gift and how we give that
to others.
It was really great and we'rereally going to kind of tie into
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this because it's all the samecontext.
Right, and Jesus now continuesto teach his disciples in the
second part of chapter six byaddressing now prayer and
fasting, and so this is reallygood.
So let's first tackle theconcept of prayer.
Now, as Jesus did with regardsto the act of giving, he now
talks about what's the wrong wayto do it, and I love this.
(07:02):
So, in part of doing it wrong,he says they're doing it wrong
in two specific ways, and thefirst one was this public prayer
, this inappropriate publicprayer that they were going
through.
So in verse 5 of chapter 6, itsays and when you pray, by the
way, we should pray, right, hesays when, not if you pray.
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When you pray, you must not belike the hypocrites, for they
love to stand and pray in thesynagogues and at the street
corners that they may be seen byothers.
Truly, I say, they've receivedtheir reward.
Now you have to understand theaudience here, these disciples.
They would have witnessed thistheir whole life.
I mean, they would have seenthis all the time the Pharisees
(07:46):
standing on street cornerspraying, then the synagogues
praying loudly.
And, by the way, they weren'tleading others in prayer, right,
they were just prayingthemselves.
It's like if suddenly, you know, kelly, were to stand up and
just say and so I start prayingloudly for everybody to hear him
talking to God, notrepresenting us, but just him
and God.
That would kind of be a littleweird, but there, for their
(08:10):
culture, that was commonplace,that's what they saw their whole
life.
And, by the way, he doesn't heremention the scribes and
Pharisees.
He uses that wonderful term.
We love hypocrites, hypocrites,but we know pretty much the
audience, because these were thedudes that stood in street
corners and in Matthew 23, heliterally calls them out as
(08:33):
scribes and Pharisees.
You hypocrites, you hypocrites.
And, by the way, just so youget the concept, they literally
would find a busy street corner,not a side street somewhere.
They would find a street cornerso they could see them from all
four directions and then they'dstart going in.
Can you imagine going up to astreet corner and go oh, here,
(08:55):
this is the Pharisee prayercorner and have four or five of
these dudes, just you know,praying and going like this,
like this la la, la, la, la la.
That's what they did and thatwas considered righteous.
And it's interesting becausetheir focus was not above but it
(09:15):
was below.
Now you might say, okay, Iunderstand what you mean by not
above, but what do you mean bybelow.
Trust me, these scribes andPharisees looked at anyone else
as below them.
That's the way they viewed them.
They wanted the lowly people,these people that weren't like
them, to acknowledge their pietyand their righteousness.
(09:39):
That's what they wanted.
They weren't focusing on God,they were focusing on letting
people see who I am.
So I love when Jesus saidthey've received their reward.
They've received their reward.
Why?
Because really, whether theyknew it or not, their heart
(10:01):
wasn't to gain anything, to drawcloser to God.
It was to be patted on the backand said yes, you are righteous
.
They were looking at it fromthe wrong place.
Now he follows up thisdescription about the wrong way
to pray, this whole publicprayer, versus how we are
(10:23):
supposed to pray.
In verse 6, he said but whenyou pray, go into your room and
shut the door and pray to yourFather, who is in secret, and
your Father, who sees in secret,will reward you.
The most important thing youcan pull out of here is this
whole concept of a secret.
He doesn't say privately, hesays in secret, which of course
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kind of means the same thing.
But I think it's interesting.
He doesn't say privately, hesays in secret, which of course
kind of means the same thing,but I think it's interesting.
He says and your father, whosees in secret.
I really stopped and spent timelooking at that and trying to
understand that a little bitmore.
And some translations actuallysay and your father, who is in
secret?
He is in secret.
(11:05):
Okay, that changes a little bitwhen you think about that.
What's that mean?
I think Jesus is basicallysaying that God the Father, is
there with you in secret.
He's not on that street corner.
He's listening to you, not them.
He's listening to you.
That's where God is.
That's where you'll, not them.
He's listening to you.
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That's where God is.
That's where you'll find God.
Not in anybody else's hearing,but you'll find him in your
prayer closet or you'll find himin your chair.
I shouldn't brag about that.
I got three acres now and I cansit out there with the chickens
and I can pray and it's reallycool.
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The chickens don't know I'mpraying, by the way, so it's not
the same as a Pharisee, by theway, but that's where he is.
He's where you are and it's insecret because it's between you
and him, and I just think that'sso beautiful.
Jesus is saying that God is withthose who pray privately and is
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listening to those prayers.
And, by the way, let me justmake it clear and this is really
important, you understand this.
He's not saying there's not aplace for corporate prayer in
the church.
We corporately pray all thetime.
We did this this morning.
We do it.
For those of you who don't knowthat, don't volunteer.
We spend about 10 minutespraying with everybody before
the service at 915.
(12:28):
Out here in the lobby, we praytogether and different people
pray.
Well, that's different.
That's corporate prayer.
You're actually praying witheveryone else.
So that's not what he's talkingabout here.
There's a time and a place forthat.
But our primary time of prayershould be with God in private.
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The principle Jesus is teachingus is that prayer is an intimate
communication between us andGod.
You know, nobody in thesanctuary knows how long or how
often anybody else prays.
You know, I have no idea howlong Chad prays or when he prays
.
I don't know and I'm notsupposed to know, because that's
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between him and God.
Now, if you're married, yes,you're going to know roughly
what your prayer life is foryour, of your spouse, right, but
that's different.
But it's this, it's thisintimacy that you have and this
conversation that you shouldonly have with God.
You know my wife and I we have.
I can talk to my wife abouteverything and anything, and
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there's things I will tell her.
I will never have thoseconversations with anybody else.
I mean we leave church and wegossip about all you guys.
I mean nobody else needs toknow that.
No, we don't.
We only gossip about thescribes and Pharisees, but
nobody else is going to have apart of those.
(13:53):
My fears, my hopes, my dreams,the challenges I have, those are
with her and I.
You don't have thoseconversations with everybody
else.
That's why sometimes in groupprayer you will hear somebody
say some things You're like thatshould be for you and God alone
.
Right, let's use a littlediscretion there, right, but
that's what it's supposed to be.
(14:14):
And Jesus is saying you cannothave this type of intimate
relationship with him.
If your heart is searchingafter the accolades of other
people, you just can't.
And that's why you want to getreal, get alone with God, and
you will find out really quicklywhere your relationship is.
Will you have anything to say?
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What were you willing to talkto him about?
And isn't it amazing that wehave God, the Father, this great
being, the Almighty God, thatwants to talk to you and wants
you to talk to him.
I mean, we don't understand howamazing that is.
We just don't understand howamazing it is.
(14:57):
So he's realigning the subjectof prayer, he's realigning his
disciples' definition of it andhe's saying don't let me find
you on a street corner, unlessyou're preaching.
You can preach on a streetcorner, but your prayer time is
with him and his alone, andthat's important.
Now, second thing about prayerthat he corrects is this
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excessive words, and this isinteresting.
In verse 7 he says and when youpray, do not heap up empty
phrases as the Gentiles do, forthey think that they will be
heard for their many words.
Now I just want to confirmsomething here.
Some translations actually saypagans and we throw the term
pagan out all the time.
It's not all the time, but youknow I'm not a pagan, where
(15:43):
oftentimes we're referring tosomebody who doesn't believe in
God.
That's not what he's talkingabout.
These Gentiles, these quotepagans.
They were very religious people.
They had many gods.
In fact, pantheism was veryprevalent in the Gentiles right.
So you have to understand thesewere very religious people and
he was saying when they pray,this is what they're doing.
(16:05):
He's calling out the fact thatthese people had this mindset
that God would eventually haveto acquiesce and respond to them
if they prayed loudly and longenough.
Anybody see a problem with that?
Yeah, it's pretty evident,right?
In essence, they thought theycould control God.
(16:26):
They could control God, theyjust had to be eloquent and they
just had to use lots of phrasesand lots of words.
That's what they thought hesays.
In its interest.
He says for your father.
He says don't do this, by theway, for your father knows what
(16:48):
you need before you ask him.
So if we've got any legalistsout here, you can say well, then
I don't really have to pray, doI?
Yeah, that's right.
You don't have to talk to yourwife either?
Right?
I don't think so.
It's not what he's right?
You don't have to talk to yourwife either?
Right?
I don't think so.
It's not what he's saying.
We need to understand that.
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Why he said not to jump to thatradical conclusion and why we
shouldn't jump to that, is thatGod wants us to talk to him.
He wants us to have thatrelationship with him and he
wants us to make that request.
But we have to make sure thatwe aren't going after God with
the desire to change his heartor change his mind, or we're
(17:32):
going to somehow mold histhinking to fall in line with us
, because, after all, we knowwhat the right thing is right.
You ever prayed for somethingand later on said God, thank you
for not letting me get that.
Yeah, it's really true.
I remember praying.
I was in love with somebodywhen I was 19 and I 18, I
(17:55):
thought I prayed God, this isthe person, this is for me.
Thank you, god.
Thank you, god that I did notget what I wanted.
The reality is he's teaching thedisciples that their prayers
should not be focused on tryingto remind or control God with
his words.
Their words aren't.
It's not the purpose.
He is saying God knows all.
(18:18):
God is sovereign.
He's reminding the disciples ofthe sovereignty of God and we
have to be reminded of thatoften as well of the sovereignty
of God, and we have to bereminded of that often as well.
But you need to understand wedon't pray with an attitude of
bending God to our will.
But, as a child, you're layingyour requests before God.
You're expressing thoserequests to Him with the
(18:39):
understanding that God willalways do what's best for you
and to glorify Him.
That is the purpose, and hisanswers to our prayers are
always good, although they'renot always answered.
And again, if you've beenwalking with the Lord for a
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while, you'll understand that.
You understand that.
Now he goes into theinstructions of how they should
pray and he actually gives themwords In verse 9 through 13,.
We see this teaching that we'vecalled the Lord's Prayer In fact
, as I was reading it, a lot ofyou were probably just reciting
it and this is found also inLuke, chapter 11, and they're
(19:22):
the most memorized words ofJesus.
Right, and many times, by theway, we read the Lord's Prayer
and we're reading it out ofcontext.
You see, he's teaching, right,he's teaching on how to pray and
he's teaching how not to pray.
And he says so I'm going togive you some guidance on how
you're supposed to pray.
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And then he goes into thissection.
Right, he goes into this model.
But a lot of times we forgetthat that's the context of what
he's doing here.
You know, he just called outthe abuse of prayer and then he
taught that prayer is anoutflowing of a relationship
with God.
Right, and now, here we havethese amazing words.
Now, I don't have time to gothrough everything in the Lord's
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Prayer, because it deserves 10sermons all of its own right.
That's not the purpose of thismessage, but I want to focus on
one simple thing, and that ishow he instructed the disciples
to address God, and this isgoing to be a key for everything
we talk about today.
You know Jesus in his ministryand we read in the words.
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So often he refers to theFather.
The Father and I are one.
I do nothing except the Fathertells me right, he always is
referring to the Father, andthat's really important.
But he's now telling thedisciples I want you guys to
address God as a Father as well.
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Now, why is he doing that?
Well, I heard a great sermonone time and the teacher used a
metaphor that I'm going to stealfrom him because it's so good
to help you understand, and it'san analogy that will help you
be able to apply why we pray toGod as a father.
(21:15):
In this message, the teacherstated there's two primary ways
in which people interact withGod.
One is as a boarder in hishouse and one is as a child.
Okay, now let's kind of explorethat.
When someone's renting a room,a boarder is somebody who rents
a room from somebody in a house,right?
(21:35):
I don't know if anybody herehas ever had a boarder in their
house.
I had an Airbnb for a long time, but it was a separate
apartment, right?
So it was still mine, but Ididn't interact.
Sometimes people would come andgo.
I would never see them, right?
But somebody who's boarding inyour house a boarding house
they're actually renting a roomfrom you, right?
So that's the first conceptwe're going to focus on.
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So when someone's a boarder,they actually have a business
relationship with you, don'tthey, right?
I mean, and it's conditional,okay, I'm going to pay you $100
a week to rent that room, andfrom that I expect, number one,
to have access to the bathroom.
I want access to the laundry atleast one hour every week.
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I want to be able to make surethe lights should be gone.
There should be water availablewhen I need it, right?
There's expectations that comefrom that.
A boarder expects the homeownerwill do certain things for them
.
Now, keep that in mind.
Let's talk about a child In thatsame house.
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You have a child and that childlives with the homeowner, right
?
Which, of course, would betheir parents, but the child has
an entirely differentrelationship with their parents
than the boarder does.
Their relationship with theirfather is not one of expectation
, meaning you do this, I expectyou to do this, I expect you to
(23:04):
do this.
No, that's not what it is.
It's one of reliance and trust.
Their relationship is notconditional.
The relationship with thefather, the homeowner, is not a
conditional relationship.
They love them.
The father loves the child.
They trust them.
They're there in that homebecause they are part of the
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family and it's expected thatthey would be in the home.
They don't pay anything,although once you graduate from
high school and you're stillwith your parents, you should
pay them something.
That's another sermon, right,tyler?
He dropped his water.
Levi took a deep drink.
I don't know what that means.
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I didn't mean to bring anythingup.
I'm sorry, but you get the idearight A child they live there
that's.
There's an expectation of loveand acceptance.
Now, if you look at this, it's afamilial relationship.
So if you look at this andcompare the two from a mindset
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standpoint and you apply it toprayer, you're going to see how
this really changes how you prayand how you interact with the
Father.
So, for instance, if you were aboarder, if you were a boarder,
could you go to the homeownerand just start telling them how
(24:29):
difficult things are going inyour life and how the
relationship with yourgirlfriend has gone bad, or talk
about your fears about losingyour job because of layoffs and
things?
Would you go to the homeownerabout that if you were a boarder
?
No, in fact, some boardersexcuse me, some people who
actually have boarders in theirhouse say that one of the most
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difficult things they have to dois not get too close to their
borders.
Anybody want to guess why?
Because eventually it's goingto happen.
They're going to come to youand say I can't pay my rent
because my life is this and it'sharder to say no and keep it a
business relationship.
Right, they don't want to dothat because it's a business
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relationship.
If you're a border, would youapproach your homeowner and
share your fears, your lifedreams?
No, it's not.
Would you wake up the homeownerat 3 in the morning and ask for
a glass of water?
I don't think so.
You could, but you might not beboarding there for long.
No, you couldn't do thatBecause it would be a violation
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of a natural understanding ofthe relationship between the
homeowner and the boarder.
However, when you think aboutthat.
As a child, it's a totallydifferent thing.
It's a totally different thing.
Child, it's a totally differentthing.
It's a totally different thing.
The problem is, whereas a childis receiving from their father
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love, acceptance, provision,guidance, encouragement,
forgiveness, they're receivingall that.
You go to the before the Lordand that's what you accept.
But if you're a border and youstart praying to God like you're
a border, that's what youaccept, but if you're a border
and you start praying to Godlike you're a border, this is
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where the problems start to comeup.
And if you want to do a littletest of whether you have the
heart of a border or the heartof a child when it comes to
prayer, let me just throw a fewthings out there.
Let's look at asking God forthings.
Do you believe that God isgoing to be more inclined to
answer your prayers?
If you've been good, if you'vebeen praying and if you've been
(26:48):
fighting temptation and you'vebeen studying God's word, do you
have an expectation in yourheart that God's going to listen
a little bit more clearly toyou than the guy over there?
That's not See.
If you do, you're looking atGod like he's the homeowner and
(27:10):
you're boarding with him becauseyou basically said I've done
this.
Them Because you basically saidI've done this.
Therefore, god, you must dothis.
You see the problem with thatand, guys, this can slip in
really, really subtly into ourlives, and I've told you many
times from stage how I came froma church that was very
(27:32):
legalistic, and there's times Ifeel this come up in me,
especially when I'm praying forsomebody who's sick.
God, this person is a righteousperson.
They love you, they serve you.
Please take this away from thembecause, after all, they're
(27:52):
doing good things for you.
I'm going to make a deal withyou, god here.
Come on, look, he's doing goodthings.
Come on, wait a second.
I'm walking into a businessrelationship with God.
God, because this person's donethis, you should do this, and
suddenly I'm making a deal withGod, and that's not the way it
works.
That's not the way it works.
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That's not the way it works.
Another way, by the way, is howdo we respond to God's answers
To our prayers?
If you have a border mentalityand God does not answer the
prayers the way you wanted themto answer?
Well, sometimes you can getangry.
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If you find yourself gettingangry or depressed because God
didn't answer your prayers theway you wanted him to.
You might have a bordermentality Because after all, god
, we had a deal.
We had a deal.
We had a deal, I was going todo good and you were going to
give good things to me.
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I had this illustrated to me ina very, very sad way and I've
used this example before, so ifyou've heard this before,
forgive me, but it was sopoignant example before.
So if you've heard this before,forgive me, but it was so
poignant.
I worked with a man in Floridaand he was actually my boss, and
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when I came to know him, I didnot know him to be a Christian.
In fact, at that moment, abouttwo or three years before I'd
been called back to the Lord.
So I was going through a realspiritual renewal at the time.
But he was a crude man, cussedall the time, inappropriate
(29:48):
jokes, all that stuff.
And I was talking to him onetime and I happened to express
my faith and he said you know, Iused to be a children's pastor.
I said you, I tried not to betoo.
You.
He said yeah.
He said my wife and I werehaving our children then and my
wife got pregnant with twins andshe had a difficult pregnancy.
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The twins were born prematureand they both died and I thought
I can't serve a God that wouldtake away my twins.
After all, I'd been doing forhim and following him.
You see the border mentalitythere.
God, I'd done all these thingsfor you and you wouldn't even
(30:38):
heal my children.
Now, brethren, I want you tounderstand I'm not casting a
stone at this man, I'm notjudging this man.
I have never gone through this.
I've never, and pray, I neverwill have to.
But you and I both know peoplein this congregation that have
lost loved ones, that expressedit and responded as a child of
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God.
I don't know why that happenedand, by the way, I pray that
there will be a day that he willcome back to the Lord.
His story's not done yet.
Right, it's not done yet, butthat mentality will cause you
deep, deep anger and I bet if Iasked you how many people have
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heard stories like that, a lotof hands would go up, because,
unfortunately, religion willtell you that that's the
relationship with God thatyou're supposed to have you be
good, god's going to do good toyou.
If you're bad, god's going tocome after you and that will
destroy your relationship withGod Because you're going to run
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into walls.
You're going to run into walls.
A mature son or daughter truststhat the parent indeed has their
best interest at heart and willaccept God's answers to their
prayers.
You know, scripture tells usthat when we were born again, we
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all became sons and daughtersof God.
I know we don't understand thatto its fullest.
We're adopted, you know Jesus'begotten son.
We're the adopted children andwe've preached this message or
we've used this Scripture before, but in Romans 8, it's nowhere
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else in the Bible stated soclearly by the Apostle Paul in
Romans 8, verse 14 through 16.
For all who are led by theSpirit of God, you and I are
sons of God or daughters of God.
Right, for you did not receivethe spirit of slavery to fall
back into fear, but you havereceived the spirit of adoption
(32:54):
as sons by whom we cry Abba,father.
You've all heard sermons aboutthis.
Abba is the most intimate ofterms.
The Spirit himself bearswitness, with our spirit, that
we are children of God and ifchildren, then heirs.
(33:15):
Heirs of God and fellow heirswith Christ, provided we suffer
with him in order that we may beglorified with him, and part of
that suffering with Christ, bythe way, I believe, is laying
down our selfish desires, ourselfish desire to kind of tell
God.
This is what you have to do,and just accepting what he, what
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he, gives us, and trusting him.
King David and it was, it wasinteresting Evan quoted part of
Psalm 103 today.
King David said this in Psalm103, 13,.
As a father shows compassion tohis children, so the Lord shows
compassion to those who fearhim.
You and I are not borders inthe house of God, the kingdom of
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God.
We're family.
We're family.
The only person that caninterrupt a king at three in the
morning to ask for a cup ofwater is a child.
You think God is bothered byyou, is irritated by you
(34:25):
interpreting, and you know,interrupting him.
No, we can go to him for a cupof water or we can go to him
with a broken heart.
He accepts it all.
If you embrace this, this heartof a child, your prayers will
change.
Your prayers will change.
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I want to address on the wayhere I was praying.
I have a longer drive, so I getto pray more.
On the way here I was praying.
I have a longer drive, so I getto pray more on the way here
and one of the parts of theLord's Prayer I didn't have
really time to go into.
But I want to address somethingI just felt like the Lord
wanted me to say something quickabout forgiveness.
(35:08):
In verse 12 he says and forgiveus our debts as we have forgiven
our debtors, right.
And then in verse 14 he kind ofexpounds on that.
It says for if you forgiveothers their trespasses, your
heavenly Father will alsoforgive you, but if you do not
forgive others their trespasses,neither will your Father
forgive your trespasses.
Does that sound like a businessrelationship to you?
(35:28):
It kind of does, doesn't it?
Does that sound like a businessrelationship to you?
It kind of does, doesn't it?
And I've always not liked theway that was phrased Because,
coming from a legalisticstandpoint, that was just like
sugar to a baby.
I wanted that.
Yeah, see here, if I don'tforgive, god's not going to
(35:49):
forgive me.
Hmm, I think we have the cartbefore the horse.
This is a misinterpretation whenpeople say that they are
misinterpreting what God'ssaying here.
I'll tell you what God's sayinghere.
If you truly are forgiven andyou have repented of your sins
(36:13):
and given your life to Christ,you will be someone who forgives
, you will be.
Someone forgives.
And God's simply saying that'sthe deal.
There ain't no deal from you dothis, I'll do this.
He's simply saying if you'renot forgiving, then you're not
one of mine.
(36:38):
And as I was praying for thatand that hit me, I just thought
well, maybe someone needs tohear that.
Do you have unforgivenesssomewhere?
You have unforgiveness insomewhere in your heart.
Maybe you don't say I'm nevergoing to forgive that person,
but anytime that person's facecomes to your head, you get
angry and you get bitter.
That's unforgiveness.
And I'll tell you when you runinto that and you think about
(37:00):
that person.
Here's what you need to do.
You need to play back all thesins that you've committed in
your life and all the terriblethings you've thought and all
the terrible things you've done,and realize that God sent his
son to hang on a cross for youto be forgiven of that.
Who are you not to forgiveothers?
Who are you not to forgiveothers?
So if that's for you, thenthat's for all of us.
(37:23):
But just think about that man.
What a forgiving Savior we have.
Who are we not to forgive?
Okay, let's talk about fasting.
Anybody hungry?
I'm not going to spend a lot oftime on fasting.
I have a minute and a half left.
Everybody's like good, he's notgoing to talk about fasting,
(37:48):
but I am going to tell you aboutKelly's sermon, so you have to
watch it again Matthew 6, 16through 18.
But he's like good.
He's not going to talk aboutfasting, but I am going to tell
you about Kelly's sermon, so youhave to watch it again, buddy,
matthew 6, 16 through 18.
He says, when you fast again,when you fast, do not look
gloomy like the hypocrites, forthey just figure their faces
that they may be fasting, may beseen by others.
Truly, I say to you, they'vereceived their reward.
Again, he's resetting theirperspective on what holiness is
(38:11):
right and what righteousness isright.
So he says this if you fast.
Of course we know that he'ssaying, obviously, that fasting
truly is an expression of ourrelationship with God.
So he's grouping us in withprayer and it's important that
we understand fasting is not tolose weight.
Fasting is truly to draw close.
It's an expression of yourrelationship with God.
(38:32):
And he's talking again aboutthe hypocrites and how they
respond.
They want to make sureeverybody's fasting.
By the way, if you're fasting,don't tell anybody you're
fasting, just fast Now.
Maybe it's you know, someonewants you to come over for a
meal or whatever.
I mean you can come up with anexcuse or whatever, but you
don't normally tell people thatyou're fasting.
Right, they wanted everybody toknow that they were fasting.
(38:55):
But then he says how should youfast?
And in the same verse, the samesection, he says in verse 17,.
But when you fast, anoint yourhead and wash your face that
your fasting may not be seen byothers, but by your father
here's that phrase who is insecret, he's there, he's waiting
for you, and your Father, whosees in secret, will reward you.
(39:20):
Basically, anointing andwashing your face means you just
act like everything's normal.
That's what you're supposed todo.
Just keep going about yourbusiness.
Just don't go buy a salseritas.
Just keep going about yourbusiness.
Just don't go buy a salseritasright Now.
I don't have time, of course, togo into all this thing about
(39:40):
fasting, and I wanted toreference Kelly's message from
back in March.
It was great, one of the bestmessages I've heard on fasting,
and I think, yeah, we got fullbut not satisfied how fasting
brings a kingdom.
That's a great sermon and hecovered all that.
I simply want to point out thatJesus was instructing the
disciples that fasting was notabout performance.
Not about performance.
(40:02):
It's about being a child of Godand relying on God and seeking
God.
That's what fasting is about.
Okay, so there's a themerunning through this whole thing
and it's this theme of a child.
Now I want to finish up withsomething I don't normally
finish up a sermon with, andthat's a story, but I thought
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this story was very pertinent.
So we've spent time.
We understand that we should bechildren of God.
We should have the heart of Godwhen it comes heart of a child
when it comes to our approach toGod, and it's going to manifest
inside of us.
We have this heart of a child.
It's going to manifest insideof us to how we pray and how we
fast and how we respond to Godwhen he responds to us.
(40:45):
Okay, so that's what we'vetalked about today, but I came
across this story that I thinkis a beautiful example of
reliance and trust in God andhaving a child's heart, so I'm
just going to read it.
A man's daughter had asked thelocal pastor to come and pray
(41:05):
with her father.
When the pastor arrived, hefound the man lying in bed with
his head propped up in twopillows and an empty chair
beside his bed.
The pastor assumed the oldfellow had been informed that he
was going to visit.
I guess you were expecting me.
The pastor said no.
The man said who are you?
Well, he said I'm the newassociate pastor at your local
(41:27):
church.
When I saw the empty chair, Ifigured you knew I was going to
show up.
Oh yeah, the chair, said thebedridden man, would you mind
closing the door?
Puzzled.
The pastor, shut the door.
I never told anyone this, noteven my daughter.
The man continued but all mylife I've never known how to
(41:49):
pray At church.
I used to hear the pastor talkabout prayer, but it always went
right over my head and I'vealways struggled with praying
Until one day, about four yearsago, my best friend said to me
Joe, prayer is just a simplematter of having a conversation
with Jesus.
Here's what I suggest Sit downon a chair, place an empty chair
(42:13):
in front of you and, in faith,see Jesus on that chair.
It's not spooky, because hepromised I'll be with you always
.
Then just speak to him andlisten in the same way that
you're doing with me right now.
So I tried and I liked it somuch that I could do it a couple
hours every day.
He said I'm careful, though, ifmy daughter saw me talking to
(42:36):
an empty chair, she'd eitherhave a nervous breakdown or send
me to the funny farm.
The pastor was deeply moved bythe story and he encouraged the
old man to continue on thatjourney and he prayed for them
and he returned to church.
Two nights later the daughtercalled to tell the pastor that
her daddy had died thatafternoon.
Did he seem to die in peace?
(42:57):
The pastor asked yes.
When I left the house aroundtwo o'clock, he called me over
to his bedside, told me one ofhis corny dad jokes and kissed
me on the cheek.
When I got back from the storean hour later, I found him dead.
But there was something kind ofstrange.
In fact, it was beyond strange.
It was kind of weird.
(43:17):
Apparently, just before, justbefore daddy died, he leaned
over and rested his head on thechair beside the bed on the
chair beside the bed.
Do you know?
That's what God wants you to do.
He wants you to rest your headon his lap.
(43:38):
That's the relationship hewants with you and he wants with
me.
Why?
Because he loves us and he'scalled us.
There are some people that mayhave never experienced that
relationship with God before.
And if you're one of them,that's what awaits you.
(43:58):
That's what awaits you A lovingfather who wants to embrace you
, not in some border concept,but as a child.
He's literally calling you outand he wants you to follow him.
And that's what you have.
That's what you have in frontof you.
It requires you to turn yourback on your old life.
(44:20):
It requires you to repent ofyour sins and realize that
without him I'm lost.
But man, to have that type ofrelationship with a God that you
get to spend eternity with,there's nothing that's worth
holding on to.
So if you're one of thosepeople, we'd love to pray with
you after the service, rightdown front, here you can join us
(44:43):
.
Will you all stand and let'spray Amen, oh Heavenly Father.
How often we approach yourthrone with that phrase,
heavenly Father, and howappropriate it is, father, to
(45:07):
think that the God who createdman and created this universe
and all its complexity, the Godthat created all that wants to
hold us in his bosom, isunfathomable.
Father, I pray that everyone inthis room that you would give us
the heart of a child.
So, when we pray and when wefast and when we come before you
(45:36):
, that we know that you're notjust accepting us and allowing
us to bow at your throne likesome great king that you are,
but you want to embrace us aswell.
Father, give us the heart of achild, that we can embrace you
as the Father who offers useverything.
We pray this, and I pray forthe hearts of those that are
(46:00):
struggling with this, god.
I pray that you would show themyour mercy and your love in a
deep and binding way and help usto never forget that love and
just what you've given us, whichwe can never put a value on.
It's just immeasurable.
(46:21):
So I pray for them, pray forall of us, father, that we may
have the heart of a child, andwe ask this in Jesus' most holy
name, amen.
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