Our Father Which art in Heaven

Introduction to Prayer in the Sermon on the Mount

0:08 Now let us turn again this morning to the sixth chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew, Matthew chapter 6.

0:33 In this sixth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, this very key section in the Sermon on the Mount, we are viewing the Christian and his religious life, the first part of the sixth chapter, and then, God willing, from verse 19 to the end of the chapter, we will be studying the Christian and his practical life, his relationship to food and clothing and the necessities of life. We have in our studies seen what our Lord says on the subject of giving alms, verses 2 to 4, which takes in the whole general area of the Christian and his practical expressions of mercy to those who are in need. And in every instance, our Lord says we are to be unlike the hypocrites, whose one motive is to be seen of men. And we are to be, as the children of God, those whose only concern is our Father's eye, that we may give in secret, even though our gifts may be known to men, and of necessity at times they must be, yet the basic motivation is we are giving to please our Father. Now we come this morning to our third study on what our Lord says on the subject of prayer,

1:54 verses 5 through 15. Thirteen, more limited, but fifteen in the general sense, deal with the subject of prayer, the Christian and his prayer life. And in studying this through, our Lord gives us, by way of introduction, two couplets of a positive and a negative. He said in verses 5 and 6, When you pray, don't be like the hypocrites.

2:19 They have one concern when they pray, the eye of men. Therefore, when they pray, they pray in the public place, to be seen of men. The result, they got what they wanted. They have the approval, the approbation, the admiration of men.

2:35 Our Lord said, when you pray, don't be like hypocrites, but, and here's the positive instruction, verse 6, when you pray, enter into your closet. When you shut the door, pray to your Father in secret. The hypocrite is regarding only the eye of men. The child of God should regard only, the eye of his Father.

2:57 Regarding the eye of men, the hypocrite prays openly to be seen of men. The Christian, regarding the eye of God, secretly to God who dwells in secret. And then, we come to the next section, in which our Lord deals with another couplet of positive and negative. He said, don't be like the heathen.

3:21 In verse 7, The heathen think they shall be heard for their much, speaking, don't be like them. Words, they think, will somehow prevail in deity.

3:38 And the basic problem of the heathen, as we saw last week, is they have a wrong concept of God, and a wrong concept of prayer. They have a God who's either so distant, that he's got to be enticed near by the multiplicity of words, or they've got a God so much like them, who can somehow be coerced. Spiritual payola, multiplying in prayer. Don't be like them, our Lord says, but when you pray, pray to your Father.

4:10 He knows what you have need of, even before you ask him.

Principle 1: The Lord's Prayer as an Outline for All True Prayer

4:17 Now we come to verse 9, in the following section, which is commonly called the Lord's Prayer, in which our Lord gives us, in some detail, instruction concerning prayer, which is absolutely vital to the Christian's life. If prayer is the Christian's life, and it is, then, then, then to pray good to a healthy Christian life. It's common amongst the Jews to have forms of prayer.

4:51 Religious teachers and leaders would give forms of prayer. Some of those forms were long. They would condense them into their main headings. And this is apparently what I'm hearing.

5:03 Now, as we begin a study of this prayer this morning, I believe it's absolutely necessary to study this prayer with two or three basic principles constantly before us. The first principle is this, that this prayer is a skeleton or an outline of all the principles of true prayer. When our Lord said in verse 9, after this manner pray ye, was He teaching that we are to just use words from rote, that we are to memorize this prayer, and we are to give it back to God? I think there's much to indicate that our Lord was not teaching this, for the very words, He did not say these words, but He said, after this manner therefore pray ye. He's not giving us a command to use these specific words, but He is giving us command to pray after this particular pattern. And so in answer to the question, is the Lord teaching we should simply repeat these words on the side of no, is this indication the very words are after this manner pray ye. Then as we read the life and prayer life of our Lord Jesus, and the apostles, we find that they prayed many prayers that don't fit into this specific pattern.

6:26 We find our Lord praying all night. Do you think He said ten million our fathers? Through the night? Of course not.

6:32 We find Him in the garden praying, not my will but thine be done. We find the apostle Paul praying in Ephesians 1 and Colossians 3, and none of those prayers is a verbatim copy of this. Has the sanction of God, take almost any petition in that prayer, and you can somehow under one of these specific petitions which our Lord gives. When Jesus prayed not my will but thine be done, it's obvious where you'd fit that.

7:06 Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, what? Thy will be done. When Paul is praying for Christians that they might be filled unto all the fullness of God, what is he praying? He's praying that the kingdom of God may come in greater measure in the hearts of men.

7:24 He's praying that God's name may be hallowed in the lives of the children of God as they grow up into spiritual maturity. And so you can take almost any of the prayers of the scriptures, it's an interesting study, and see how those specific prayers and their different component parts fit into one or two or three or four of these basic petitions which our Lord gives us, in this that we call the Lord's Prayer which is primarily a skeleton or an outline of all true prayer. Yet on the other hand, I do not think we should throw out the fact that there seems to be an indication in scripture that it might be the will of God for us to pray this as it is. For in Luke 11 when the disciples said, Lord teach us to pray, the answer was this. When ye pray, say, our Father who art in heaven. Now there is a clear indication that our Lord would have us actually use these words.

8:27 When ye pray, say, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Our Lord says after this manner pray ye. In Luke 11 in a completely different setting, further on in his ministry, our Lord says when ye pray, say these words. So in studying this, I've come to the conviction that it is the will of God that individually and more particularly, that corporately, for the prayer is our Father, not my Father, but our Father, the sense that we're coming to God together, that there is a place for the public praying of the people of God, of this that we call the Lord's Prayer.

9:09 But if that prayer is to be pleasing to God, we must understand what we're praying. And we must pray it with the heart. For the scripture says, to draw nigh with the lips and not with the heart for the heart is an abomination. And how can you pray this prayer from the heart if you don't understand with your mind what it means?

9:27 And so the Lord willing, after we've expounded the prayer, I believe we will periodically, I don't know how often, but periodically, use this prayer in our public worship. Because our Lord says in Luke 11, when ye pray, say, and I believe we have a command from the Lord Jesus that we should pray this prayer together. But the principle that we must remember, is that this prayer is basically a skeleton or an outline of what's involved in all true prayer. Then the second principle, this prayer or outline of prayer was given with the full intention, now follow closely, with the full intention that the people of God would have their prayer by the principles of this prayer. When Jesus said in verse 9, after this manner therefore pray ye, he was not giving a suggestion. That verb, our Lord, is commanding his disciples to pray in this particular pattern. And you say, why do you labor this point, Pastor?

Principle 2: Prayer Must Be Governed by God's Revealed Will

10:40 For a very simple reason, that I'm perfectly convinced and I believe I can prove it, that the great majority of the praying, the professing, Christians is completely unfounded on biblical principles. As to its context, as to its arrangement, as to its whole teaching us in this passage, that the prayers are to be governed not by the whims and fancies of their own hearts, not by notions of their own heads, but that their praying was to be disciplined of the word. Now John tells us there are many things that Jesus did and said that if we tried to write them all, the world could not contain the books. Now why should we, of all the things that he said and taught, why should the Holy Spirit have preserved at least three instances, two instances, in which this specific outline of prayer is given? If he did not intend that our praying should be greatly governed by this outline of prayer.

11:55 I would remind you that the Lord Jesus said, if ye love me, ye will do what? Ye will keep my commandments. Well, we usually think of that in terms of his command to be holy or his command to preach the gospel. What about his command to pray after this manner?

12:11 If we love him, he says, we want to keep his commandments. As a Christian, it will be of great importance to me to know whether or not my prayer life is disciplined by the revealed will of God. And yet I venture to say, and if I passed out paper and pencil and conducted a survey, there would be many of you here, children of God, who have never once sat down for five minutes and analyzed your praying in the light of the word of God and said, is my praying scriptural? Is the thing that I'm asking God revealed as part of his will?

12:45 Is the way in which I come to God in terms of the prescription of his word? Our Lord indicates in this prayer that we must pray according to his will. For you see, it's only then that we can have confidence in our praying that we're going to be heard. 1 John 5, 14 and 15 tells us that if we ask God and this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us.

13:12 And if we know that he heareth us, we know we have the petitions we desire of him. I can only pray in faith when I'm convinced that what I'm asking is in the will of God, right? This is the confidence we have that if we ask according to his will, we know that he heareth us. And if we know that he heareth us, we know we have the petition we desire of him.

13:36 And the reason why much of our praying is just sort of hit or miss, sort of like sending up a barrage of buckshot and hoping that a few beatings will drop down with blessing, the reason is we don't take time to discover is what I am asking part of the revealed will of God? Has God anywhere said that he'll give me what I want? Father, I'd rather spend an hour discovering whether or not to pray is in the will of God and pray for it for five minutes than to be heaven for twenty minutes for something that I've got no grounds to expect God will give me. It's as though a king has a subject or high subjects, a king who loves them, a king who has nothing but their good in his heart. And the king has so arranged his kingdom that much of his blessing will come only when his subjects acknowledge before him, I need such and such, will you give it? And this king so longs that they'll know what they can have that he himself draws up a list and says any of these things you may place on a petition and present it before me and I will gladly give it. What king he would be who so desires that his subjects get what they ask

15:02 that he even draws up the petition himself and says now here, these are the things that I give you full right to ask and then when the subject comes to ask he can come with absolute confidence that the king will get it and so the king himself has said these are the things that I want to give. Now that's what our Lord is doing here. He says do you want to know what your Father in heaven longs to give his children? Here they are.

15:27 Here are some of the things that he longs to give. Take note of them so that when you pray you'll present the very petitions that the mighty God himself has committed himself to give to his own children. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 14, 15 I will pray with the spirit but I will pray also with the understanding. In other words, prayer is something more and I'm going to keep repeating it until I trust it begins to sink through.

15:58 Prayer is something more than just the squeezing out of the surface desires and thoughts of my heart and of my mind. That's the second principle that our Lord expects that the prayers of his people will be governed and disciplined by this pattern of prayer. Now the third principle and so important. This prayer is the exclusive prayer of the true child of God.

Principle 3: The Lord's Prayer is Exclusive to True Children of God

16:29 Who has a right to pray this prayer? After this manner therefore pray ye. Who are the ye? Whom was this outline of prayer given?

16:40 Who can come with these petitions? Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive our sins. Who can come confident that these petitions will be granted?

16:49 I submit to you that the clear teaching of the scripture right here before us is that this prayer is the exclusive prayer of the true child of God. There are some of you here who have prayed this prayer perhaps many times who have had no business praying it. I don't mean to be untimed but I must be true. There will be multitudes of people praying this prayer in hundreds of churches across our country today who have absolutely no way whatsoever to pray this prayer.

17:20 None whatsoever. Why? Well, let me illustrate. Suppose I should be walking down Bloomfield Avenue Monday morning and some little dirty-faced child comes up to me and says, Daddy, I'm hungry.

17:32 I want you to get my breakfast for me. Am I under any obligation to get that little boy his breakfast? He's not my son. If he addresses me as Daddy, I'm under no obligation as a father to provide for him.

17:49 As a creature concerned with the little boy who might have need, there is the obligation of mercy. But there's no obligation of parenthood. The Scripture says if any man provide not for his own, he's worse than an infidel. I am obligated to provide for my own household by that relationship that I sustain as the father of my home.

18:09 But I am not obligated in the same sense to supply the needs of everybody's children except as human mercy and the bowels of Christian kindness move out toward need. Now if that little fellow says to me, Mister, I'm hungry. Can you help me? Ah, there.

18:27 Concern for people in need will move me. But if he thinks he's got a claim on me as his daddy, he's mistaken. Now the same is true with this prayer. God many times out of his general mercy, what the old theologians called his disinterested benevolence, he sends his reign upon the just and the unjust.

18:49 We read that in Matthew 5, doesn't he? Causes the sun to rise on the man who curses him as well as on the man who blesses him. And the man who's not saved may pray and God may spare his life in a foxhole or God may do something else. But he has no right to come to God as a son or a daughter expecting God to respond as a father until he's been put into God's family by the new birth.

19:19 When our Lord said after this manner pray, ye, he was talking to those people who were described in Matthew 5 as poor in spirit, meek, mourning, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, pure in heart. He was describing a true Christian. If you know nothing of what it is to be brought to the place of mourning before God, seeing yourself a hopeless, helpless, lost sinner, if you know not what it is to pant after God, to pant after righteousness, to be right with God through Jesus Christ, if you don't know what it is to be pure in heart, to have a heart that longs to be conformed to the will and purpose of God, then this prayer is not for you. For when our Lord said after this manner pray, ye, he was talking to the same people that he spoke to in chapter 5 who in the Beatitudes are described as the true children of God. The second indication that this prayer is the exclusive prayer of the children of God is that only the child of God is really concerned about these petitions. Let's look at them for just a moment briefly.

20:34 Notice. After this manner, therefore, pray ye, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed or beheld in reverence thy name. Now listen. Be honest with me.

20:46 Is anyone really concerned about God's name being held in reverence until he is born of the Spirit? Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done. Oh, dear ones, listen.

21:01 By nature this isn't what we're concerned about. All we're concerned about is the helm of our own name or our family name or our business corporation or our church name or denominational name. It's not until the Spirit of God has brought us to see the Lord Jesus as our only hope of mercy that we ever begin to be concerned primarily about his name, about his kingdom and about his will. Oh, but you say all of us by nature are concerned about bread.

21:30 That's right, but not in that order. Lots of people when they get in a pinch will cry to God, Oh, God, help me. Give me bread. As soon as they get bread, they forget all about his name and his glory.

21:45 You see, only the child of God puts his bread after God's kingdom and God's glory. Everyone else has got it this way. We're just concerned about our physical necessities and physical appetites, all that is in the world, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life, 1 John chapter 2. And so these very petitions, certainly our Lord was not teaching us to mouth the words, and only a Christian can really from the heart punish this.

22:16 Thou wilt be thy name brought to poverty that your name might be glorified. I will be thy name. I will be thy name. Thy will be done.

22:27 Lord, if it means I've got to turn my back upon every cherished dream and every plan that I've made and all the blueprints drawn by the fleshy hands of rebellion, Lord, thy will be done. Who prays this way? Who can really pray that way? No one but a Christian.

22:46 No one but a Christian can from the heart really cry to God that his will be done. So that's the second indication that this prayer is the exclusive prayer of the child of God. Reason number one, only the Christian who's described in chapter five has this prayer given to him. Only the Christian could hardly pray these petitions.

23:06 And thirdly, only one born of the Holy Spirit can truly say Father in the scriptural sense. For Galatians 4 verse 6 says, And because ye are sons, he hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. You see, I can never truly approach God as Father until the Holy Spirit indwells me, until I'm born of God. And so this morning, those of you in our midst, adults, young people, if you're not a child of God in the biblical sense, you've never been shown by the Spirit your absolute lostness and your need of Christ alone as the hope of mercy. If you've never fled to Christ and been born of His Spirit and received a new life from Him, you can't pray this prayer and expect to be heard. You can't. For this prayer is the property of the children of God.

Structure of the Lord's Prayer

24:12 Now the prayer itself, we're going to just touch one phrase this morning. As we try to think our way through the prayer, I think it's very easy to do so. You have in the little phrase Our Father, who art in heaven, this is the approach to God. Then we have three petitions relative to God.

24:32 Relative to God's concerns or God's interests. Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. And you have three petitions relative to our own needs. Give us our daily bread, forgive us our debts, lead us not into temptation.

24:54 And then the benediction at the close, as we'll see when we come to study it later, was sort of slipped in by some scribes later on. And all the better manuscripts do not have it there. And so we'll just omit that. And so thinking through the prayer, it's a very simple outline.

25:10 The first petition or the first words deal with my approach to God. Then my prayers concerning His purposes. Then my petitions concerning my personal needs. May we look just at that one phrase this morning.

Addressing God as 'Our Father'

25:29 Our Father, who art in heaven. The Lord said, when you pray, the first and most essential element of true prayer is to stop, recollect this simple principle to whom you're coming in relationship to it. Be to effective to whom you come. We're the children of God. We come and we call Him our...

26:40 Now what does that tell us? In the past days, just stopping and trying to...

26:45 The scripture reveals this tremendous concept of the father relationship that God bears to those who've been born of His Spirit. And as a child of the very life of God through Jesus Christ. The Bible says in Ephesians 1 that I have been predestinated unto the adoption of sons. John 1 says, which were born not of the will of flesh nor the will of man nor of blood but of God.

27:20 Because of God's eternal purpose in Christ. Actual partaker of the life of God through Jesus Christ. So that when I turn to 1 Corinthians 6 I read a statement like this. What know ye not that ye are a temple of the living God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

27:39 Will this make any difference when I come to pray? Father, because of a purpose that He had in eternity to make me His son. Because of the mighty work that He did in time by bringing me out of darkness into light by the operations of the Holy Spirit. Our Father, I'm a sharer of His Holy Spirit and I'm a sharer of His Holy Spirit and I'm a sharer of His Holy Spirit and I'm a sharer of His Holy Spirit and I'm a sharer of His Holy Spirit and I'm a sharer of His Holy Spirit and I'm a sharer of His Holy Spirit and I'm a sharer of His Holy Spirit and I'm a sharer of His Holy Spirit and I'm a sharer of His Holy Spirit and I'm a sharer of His Holy Spirit and I'm a sharer of His Holy Spirit and I'm a sharer of His Holy Spirit and I'm a sharer of His Holy Spirit and I'm a sharer of His Holy Spirit and I'm a sharer of His Holy Spirit and I'm a sharer of His Holy Spirit and I'm a sharer of His Holy Spirit and I'm a sharer of His Holy Spirit and I'm a sharer of His Holy Spirit So the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. I'm under the canopy of His provision. If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall the Heavenly Father give good things to those that ask Him? I'm under His tender and loving discipline.

29:02 Hebrews 11 says, As in the human sense the Father chastens the son whom He loves, so the Father in heaven chastens and scourges every son whom He receives. And the Lord Jesus wants us when we pray to stop and to remember that this is our relationship to Him. We stand in the relationship of adopted sons in the presence of the God of heaven. And I'm to address Him as my Father.

29:36 Now remember, this whole concept of Him as my Father, my Father, must be derived from the Bible. If you derive it from your own experience, it could be drastic. Some of you may have had a father who was the essence of meanness and churlishness and selfishness. All you think of when you think of your father is a crunched fist, a stern brow, and a rod in his hand.

29:59 And if you come to God and say, Father, and you project that image of your earthly father upward, you won't come. The very thought of Father will drive you away. You're to get your confidence. The concept of God as Father from the book.

30:14 And this book reveals Him as a Father of infinite compassion,

30:20 of tender understanding and concern for His children. Some of you may have had a father who was just an overindulgent, unprincipled man who wasn't worthy of his position. Anything you wanted, you could bend him to your own whims. You could put it over on the old man all the time.

30:41 If you project that image, that image upward and think you can do that with God, you're never going to get anywhere spiritually. You see, our concept of God as Father has to be framed from the Word. So that if your human experience of fatherhood has been one of too much sternness, you need to know that the Scripture reveals God as a tender, loving, pitying Father. Those of you who've known in a human father too much leniency and too much unprincipled, sentiment and not love, you need to remember that He's a Father who chastens.

31:18 He's not a Father who says He loves us too much to spank us.

31:23 He's not a Father who says He knows too much psychology to apply the rod to us. No, whom He loves, He chastens. He knows more psychology than all the ones that have ever lived put together. But He chastens and He uses the rod of discipline upon us.

31:41 So when I come, I need to come conscious that He's my Father. But notice the next little phrase. He's my Father who's where? In heaven.

Addressing God as 'Who Art in Heaven': His Holiness

31:53 Though He's my Father, and I am related to Him in this intimate relationship that stretches back to eternity and comes down in time when the Holy Spirit awakened me and convicted me and brought me to Christ and regenerated me, though He's my Father, with all the largeness of His Father's heart of pity, of compassion, of understanding, of concern, of provision, at the same time, He is still God. He's still God. He is my Father, but He is heaven. When I think of this, the words of that hymn come to me.

32:35 Eternal light, eternal light, how pure that soul must be, rich placed within thy burning light. It shrinks not, but with calm delight can live and look on thee. The spirits that surround thy throne may bear this burning bliss, but surely that is theirs alone, for they have never, never known a fallen world like this. But how shall I, whose native sphere is dark, whose mind is dim, before the ineffable appear and on thy naked spirit bear the uncreated beam?

33:15 Beloved, that's the cry of a man who knows who God is, the presence of such a holy God. He is my Father, yet He is in heaven. What does that little phrase mean, in heaven? I think I know a little bit what it means.

33:34 It reminds us that the God to whom we come is holy. Isaiah 57, 15 declares, Thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy. I dwell in the high place.

33:51 Beloved, do you believe when you come to pray to God that you're coming to a holy God?

33:58 Hebrews 12, 28 and 29 says, Let us have grace whereby we may serve Him acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire.

34:12 The grace of God revealed in Christ didn't change anything in the character of God. You see, there's a widespread misconception in our day that when I open the pages of my own testament, how God came down upon us when He was giving the law, the mountain shook, and the fire...

34:35 the people dared not touch the mount lest they be struck dead. When I read how a man put his hand upon the ark who had no business doing it, and God struck him dead, and burned stone out of heaven and consumed Sodom and Gomorrah, I read all of this and I say, What a God of consuming holiness! Then I come to the New Testament and I read the Lord Jesus healing the sick, raising the dead, opening the eyes of the blind, and people say, Well, now they know this about God. No, it hasn't, dear one.

35:11 God was a God of grace back then, but He was revealing primarily and essentially His holiness. Now He essentially revealed His holiness in the New Covenant. He's revealed His grace and the foundation of His holiness, but He hasn't cancelled His holiness. That's why Hebrews 12 says, Our God is a consuming fire.

35:36 Not He was. The concept of grace that takes away the burning holiness from my God lets the half-converted crooners, sing as we were listening to the FM station here the other night and heard a good message, and then someone comes singing, I walk in the trees and I hear the Lord say, I love you, I love you, singing it with a Mel Torme voice, making cheap love to the deity. Beloved, that's not my God. He's in heaven! When the prophet saw the Lord sitting upon His throne, he saw the seraphim with two wings. They covered their faces with two wings. They covered their feet.

36:33 And they cried, holy, holy, holy. They didn't need to blush because of sin. Seraphim have never sinned. They did not cover their feet because their feet had walked in paths of sin and wickedness and been soiled by corruption.

36:51 Yet in the presence of this holy God, they hide their face and they cover their feet and they cry, holy, holy, holy. Beloved, when you pray, that's the God you come to if you truly pray.

37:05 He's our Father, but He's in heaven. He's in heaven. He's holy. He's in heaven, which tells us that He's omnipresent.

Addressing God as 'Who Art in Heaven': His Omnipresence and Sovereignty

37:19 He is everywhere present. God says, do not I fill heaven and earth? 1 Kings 8, 27, God says, the heaven of heavens cannot contain me, much less the house that you're seeking to build for me. But I come to God and call Him my Father in heaven.

37:35 I must remember that He's holy. I must remember that He's omnipresent. He is omnipresent. He is all places at the same time.

37:43 I must remember that He's omnipotent and He's sovereign. Psalm 115, verse 3 says, our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. Beloved, when I pray, I don't come to a God who's running around shuffling his cards, trying to find out what to do next.

38:04 He doesn't have an IBM computer and say, well, let's see. Now things are developing this way. Let's schedule that here. Let's read it in here and see the best way I ought to make things come out, because Vietnam and communism and backsliding Christians and all of this is getting out of hand.

38:19 I've got to go to my computer real quick now and get some information to see what the next step should be. Our God is omnipotent and He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. I read in Daniel 4, 35, He hath His way in the armies of heaven and earth, and none can stay His hand and say unto Him, What doest thou? I don't know what that does for you, but I know what it does for me.

38:47 When I come to God, what do I do? When I come to God like that to pray, I better make sure that I come with clean hands and a pure heart. I better make sure that I come having left the natural irreverence of Adam's nature outside the prayer closet. As Job said in Job 41, I will lay my hand upon my mouth.

39:13 That's the first place you start to pray, when you lay your hand upon your mouth and say nothing. And allow this truth to penetrate. That I come to my Father who is in...

The Danger of Idolatry in Prayer

39:32 I want to say something that may shock some of you, but if it can help you, I'll thank God for it. I believe there are some of you who are idolaters. I believe we have idolatry in our midst. I believe some of you are worshipping idols.

39:52 Yes, I do. You're worshipping idols. You say, why do you say that, Pastor? Have you gone to some of our homes and seen a little statue in the closet?

40:01 No. What is an idol? An idol is anything to which you give worship and homage other than the true and the living God as revealed in the Scriptures. And some of you, when you pray, you're praying to a God who's nothing but the projection of your own ideas about God.

40:23 Or you can pray to Him with unconfessed sin in your heart and still think you'll get an answer. You've got a God who's not holy. You can rush to His presence and mouth some words and go out of His presence, because you've got a God who's not omnipotent, sovereign. Beloved, I've been guilty of idolatry.

40:57 I stand to confess to you at times I know my praying has been nothing but babbling to an idol, because I've been praying to the God who's been nothing but the projection of my own thoughts, instead of the Father who is in heaven. The God of biblical revelation and Christian theology is the only God that Jesus said we can pray to. Now, I know this sounds narrow, but it's no narrower than our Lord Jesus. No narrower than He.

41:38 And He said all true prayer includes this approach to God, which recognizes Him as the Father in heaven. Now, I ask you this morning, honestly, how much of our praying has been praying? Do we pause when we come to pray to remember He's our Father? I think if we did, it would save a lot of whimpering that we do in prayer.

Transforming Our Prayer Life

42:10 He knows what things we have need of before we ask Him. He's my Father. From eternity He's had His love set upon me. Look at what He did.

42:20 He put me in contact with this one and that one in this situation and circumstance to bring me to the place where there's nothing I can do but give myself to Him. And if from eternity and down into time the Father has been dealing with me, then when I come, why do I need to pray as though I had to beg Him to be interested in my need? Why, of course He's interested. He's my Father.

42:47 Ah, that He's in heaven. And the cure for the irreverence and the cheap concepts of God that are rife in evangelical circles today is to remember our God is in heaven. He's holy. He's sovereign.

43:05 He's omnipotent. He's omniscient. He knows me. Why do I come and try to kill Him?

43:09 And bend Him to my own carnal wishes? If what I want is nothing but the expression of my base, wicked heart, then I better tell God that instead of trying to fool Him. He knows He's in heaven. The Scripture says our God is in heaven.

43:27 His eyelids try. His eyes behold the children of man. See what a difference it would make? It would cut out a lot of this foolishness in our prayer.

43:39 It would cut out a lot of meaning in this word. Words that we simply pray as filler in our public prayer because we may be a little bit nervous. We won't be embarrassed to stop and pause in the middle of our public praying to recollect that I'm talking to God. I'm not talking to the brethren, the sisters.

43:54 I'm talking to God. It would cut out a lot of the meaningless words in our praying. I'm a little bit mystified at times when people address both persons of the deity at once. All on God.

44:17 Our Father. The Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus at once. We're not thinking what we're doing.

44:21 We're just mouthing words. But we use the word Lord every three seconds. I wouldn't say, Frank, I'd like you to, Frank, come and see me, Frank, because, you know, Frank, I just feel, Frank, there's some things, Frank, that you can help me with, Frank. If you'll come, Frank, I'd like you to have, Frank, have you come, Frank.

44:26 Well, we don't talk that way. Now, just the illustration. I trust the silliness of it. Now, when we pray.

44:30 Come on, now. Let's be honest this morning. Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord. We may say, Lord, fifty times in the three minutes.

44:34 We may say, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord. We may say, Lord, Lord, Lord. That's all. Meaningless words.

44:38 That's all. Don't be so hard on us. No, dear ones, I want my praying, and I want our praying together, to be according to this book. And when it is, you know what's going to happen?

44:58 The Lord is going to begin to rise todi. In the midst of everyzeugins велickies, he shall be borne in humble, and he shall dropdown be came. begin to respond to our prayers with blessing untold.

Conclusion and Call to Prayer

45:16 Is it worth it? I trust you've gotten the message. Three simple principles. This prayer is an outline.

45:25 This prayer was intended to be obeyed. This prayer is for Christians only. And then the first aspect is our approach to God. I am to remember who He is.

45:38 He's God in heaven. I am to remember my relationship to Him. And He is my Father. And oh, I trust the cry of our hearts will be, Lord, teach us to pray.

45:52 If you're here this morning and you're not a child of God, this prayer is not for you. You need to repent. You need to flee to Christ. You need to be born of the Spirit.

46:04 May the Lord so move upon our hearts that we'll pray as we sang, Lord, teach us how to pray aright with reverence and with fear. May this be your prayer today.