It's wonderful to be here with all of you today.
We have a wonderful crowd for which we're thankful.
And as has been mentioned, we have some visitors.
We have those from other congregations and perhaps those
from the community, and we appreciate your presence.
We're grateful that you're here and we say welcome as always as
the case. I do consider it an honor to
speak concerning the word of God, and we're continuing our
series on the Great Sermon on the Mount.
The Sermon on the Mount is the greatest masterpiece of our
Lord. It was the first sermon ever
preached. It's found in Matthew Chapter 5,
Matthew Chapter 6, and Matthew Chapter 7.
We've now made it through chapter five.
We began chapter six last time, when Jesus dealt with the
concept of doing good to please God.
And one of the great things that we learned from the master in
our last sermon and that being Jesus is we learned that the
motive behind the ACT really matters.
But so it does with prayer too. Today for a little while, as you
can see the title of our lesson from our hearts to God's throne,
Jesus going to teach us about the principles of proper prayer.
What a great blessing that it is, Prayer for the child of God.
Our text is found in Matthew chapter 6, beginning there in
verse 5. Jesus says, And when you pray,
you shall not be like the hypocrites, For they love to
pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the
streets, that they may be seen by men.
Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.
But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have
shut your door, pray to the Father who is in secret place,
and your Father who sees in secret, will reward you openly.
Verse 7 And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions, as the
heathen do, for they think that they will be heard for their
many words. Therefore do not be like them,
For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask
him in this manner. Therefore pray our Father in
heaven, hallowed be your name. Prayer is the divine
communication that emanates from the heart of the believer and
ascends to the throne of God. I realize the Bible tells us to
pray. We're actually commanded to
pray. It is a duty and a
responsibility to pray. But it's so much more than that.
I hope that we are people that are instant in prayer.
I hope that prayer is part of our daily life.
And I don't mean just every once in a while.
I mean I hope and pray. That prayer is that for us.
That prayer is something that we're ready to do and ready to
go to God in prayer. In fact, if you look at verse 5,
Jesus says when you pray, now remember he's going to compare
the prayer of hypocrites and we'll talk about what that
actually means, the prayer of hypocrisy and what not to do
when you pray. And then he's going to talk
about what to do when you pray and who's he talking about?
Jesus still living under the law of Moses?
He has a Jewish audience on the Great Sermon on the Mount, but
he's talking about principles that will exist in the Kingdom
or when the church would come. He's going to talk about things
that apply in the Christian age, and the first thing he says is
about prayer. When you pray, in other words,
Christians are going to pray. That's the assumption.
And not only that, Christians are going to pray often.
It's going to be part of our life.
Then he said this. When you do that, don't be like
the hypocrites. I know that it's easy to define
hypocrisy with actions, in other words, in manner of life.
And we know what a hypocrite is. It's a play actor pretending to
be something he never intended to be.
We know that. And last time Jesus dealt with
hypocrisy. When you talking about works and
deeds, if you do it for the wrong reasons, it's
hypocritical, right? But if you ever stop to consider
that it's entirely possible for us to pray in a hypocritical
manner, Jesus said there is a way to pray in a hypocritical
manner. He says don't do that.
Let me talk about prayer in the Jewish culture for just a
moment. Prayer in the Jewish culture was
very important. It was really part of their
life. In fact, they would stop all
activity, whatever they were doing, three times a day, nine
AM, 12:00 PM, and 3:00 PM. Now, I got to tell you, it's a
good thing to block out time in your day.
I don't mean ritualistically at a specific time every day.
I'm just saying it is a good thing to block out time and stop
all activity. Go to your private place and go
to God and word of prayer. It's a great thing to do, right?
And it was a great thing to do back then when they would do it
in intervals. Here was the problem during the
personal ministry of Jesus that lasted about three years.
It got worse and worse and worse.
What the problem is they took something that was holy,
something that was special, something that was wonderful and
private, and they turned it into a public spectacle.
Jesus says don't be like that, don't turn it into a public
spectacle. Religious leaders were making
long public prayers and they were doing it for the wrong
reason. They were doing it for show.
They were doing it to be seen by men.
And it's the same thing, by the way, to do things, to be seen by
men. Whether you're praying or
whether you're doing works or deeds, it's the same thing.
Don't do it that way. Jesus says in a minute he's
going to say it about prayer. He said it last time about works
and deeds. They have their reward, meaning
they're getting nothing from God.
Whatever praise for men that they get, this is what Jesus
said that they were doing. They calls them hypocrites in
their prayer. This is what they did, for they
love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of
the streets that they may be seen by men.
Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.
OK, first of all, I want to talk about prayer posture for just a
moment. The usual prayer posture or the
usual posture of a Jewish prayer was standing.
That was the usual one, in fact. That's why Jesus says they enjoy
standing in the synagogues and standing on the corners of the
street when they pray. But if you look in the Old
Testament, there were other things that they did.
For example, we have examples of when they knelt down to pray.
We have other examples when they laid prostate on the ground like
this face down in humility when they prayed.
We're also going to find that there were other times when they
lifted up their hands in prayer, Literally.
In the Old Testament, we have, by way of customs, traditions.
We have different ways that we pray too.
Sometimes we kneel down, sometimes we stand up, sometimes
we sit down. When I'm driving down the road
and I'm praying to God, I'm praying to God, sitting down in
my truck, driving When I pillow my head at night, I don't kneel
down by the side of my bed. I could if I wanted to and I'd
be fine. I don't do that.
I lay down and I pray to God before I go to sleep.
What's the point? The point is the prayer.
Posture doesn't matter. There is no specific prayer
posture that God accepts, and there is no specific prayer
posture that God rejects. And we need to be very careful
that we don't bind with the Lord is not bound and we don't want
to bind our practice on someone else when the Lord has not bound
that practice or reject the practice that the Lord has not
rejected. OK, the average prayer or the
most Jewish prayers was done standing.
Here's another custom that we have, by the way, closing our
eyes. Closing our eyes.
I I asked myself, why do I close my eyes when I pray?
I don't. If there's a passage in the
Bible about closing your eyes, I don't know where it is.
But I asked myself, why do I close my eyes?
The only thing I can think of is focus and concentration.
That's the only thing that I can think of.
So is it OK to close your eyes? Absolutely, if that helps you
focus and concentrate. Do you have to close your eyes
to focus and concentrate and pray?
A scriptural prayer? No, years ago, and maybe I've
mentioned this to you over the years.
From time to time. I don't know if I have or not,
but I was a little boy and I remember after services I got in
the car and I said, Dad guess what Brother so and so had his
eyes wide open during the prayer.
He said, how did you know his eyes were open?
Man? I walked right into that one.
Busted. And then he said something else
I will never forget. I was a little boy.
He said, Son, prayer is not from the eyes, it's from the heart.
It just doesn't matter. Prayer posture doesn't matter.
And by the way, I'm setting the stage.
I'm making these points because I'm going to make a point later.
The 1st place that they would pray though standing is in the
synagogues publicly at the place of worship at the House of
worship. And instead of praying for the
glory of God and the edification of others, they were doing it
for their own praise. They were praise seekers to
receive the patch on the back. And I got to ask you a question
because I've heard this all my life.
Is there a prayer that doesn't get higher than the ceiling?
Why do I ask it like that? Because I've heard that phrase
my whole life. Oh, that his prayer didn't get
any higher than the ceiling. Is there a prayer that does not
ascend to God? Well, this is what some people
would say. Well, in John Chapter 9, the
Bible says that God does not hear the prayer of a Sinner.
That's true. The context of the passage is
this. Jesus heals a man that was born
blind. The Pharisees grill him and they
said Jesus must be a Sinner because he performed a miracle
on the Sabbath day. The man says, and I love this.
He says, well, Sinner or no. All I know is this.
I was blind. Now I can see and then he says,
but we know God does not hear the prayer of a Sinner, but he
that is a worshipper of God and does his will him he hears.
OK, my best way to wrap my head around that is this.
God does not listen to those who don't listen to him.
That's the best way to put that. If a person chooses a life of
sin away from God, God is not listening to those that don't
listen to him. Some people say, well, wait a
minute, A Sinner there in John Chapter 9 is anyone that is not
a baptized believer. Be careful with that.
Now please, I want you to listen closely to what I'm saying.
Be careful with that. I'm going to tell you why.
Acts chapter 10 here was a man that was a gentile.
He was a good man. His name was Cornelius.
He did many good things and alms and all of that for the people.
You know what the Bible says? He prayed to God always.
And the Scripture says God heard that prayer.
Did God save him in his condition?
No. Was he OK in his condition?
No. You know what God did?
He sent a messenger and the messenger said, hey, go down to
Joppa, send some guys down to Joppa, and you get old Peter and
you tell Peter to come and tell you what to do.
And Peter came and preached the gospel.
Guess what happened? Cornelius and his household were
baptized for the remission of sins and became Christians.
God does not listen to those that don't listen to him.
So here's my question. Is there a prayer?
Is there a prayer that does not ascend to heaven and only gets
as high as the ceiling? The answer is yes.
And it's this prayer right here. When you pray for the glory of
men, for the wrong motive to be seen of men, for the praise of
men. That's the prayer that God's not
listening to the second place, by the way that the Pharisees
abused. Prayer was on the street
corners. And really in historically
speaking in Jewish life and economy, it revolved around the
outdoor market. They would have these big main
thoroughfares, OK, all these people up and down walking up
and down the thoroughfares. And what they would do is they
would find these thoroughfares, They would stand on the corner
of the street so that everybody can hear.
And with long winded prayers to be seen by men, they would pray.
I'm going to tell you something though.
Jesus is not prohibiting public prayer.
In fact, there's sometimes public prayer is good, it's
warranted, it's merited and scriptural.
What does the Bible say in First Timothy chapter 2 and verse
eight? I desire therefore, that men
pray everywhere. Now I do know, and I do
understand that some commentators would mean that
everywhere means everywhere in the assembly, because the
context of the chapter is the assembly and all of that.
But I'm going to tell you, I disagree that it's exclusive to
the assembly. I think everywhere means what it
says. I think everywhere means
everywhere. There are times in the
scriptures when there's a distinction between the assembly
and not in the the assembly. For example, I'm gonna give you
one example like I can't spend time on this.
When Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, remember what Paul
said? He talks about roles of men and
women and he says in the church he makes a distinction.
You know what that means in the assembly of the church.
So there's a distinction there. So I think that in this case,
everywhere means or includes the assembly, but it's not exclusive
to it. I think everywhere means
everywhere. OK.
Then he says this lifting up holy hands without wrath and
doubting what is holy hands mean in this passage.
Lifting up holy hands means hands of men who are living holy
or righteous lives. The lifting up of the hands is
merely an allusion to the ancient practice of presenting
the uplifted hands in respectful petitions to God.
And I'm going to give you 3 Old Testament passages in just a
moment. But let me just suffice it to
say, what Paul was doing here in this passage is he's referring
to an Old Testament literal practice to make a New Testament
figurative application. Here's the Old Testament
passages, Nehemiah 8 and verse 6.
And Ezra blessed the Lord the great God.
Then all the people answered Amen, Amen, while lifting up
their hands, and they bowed their heads and worship the Lord
with their faces to the ground. Passage #2.
Psalm 141 and two let my prayer be set before you as incense,
the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.
And finally, #3 Lamentations 3 and 41 let us lift up our hearts
and hands to God in heaven. OK, Paul was not giving a
command for posture when he says lifting up holy hands.
Men pray everywhere lifting up holy hands.
He means holy lives. OK, is there anything wrong with
lifting up your hands literally when you pray?
Absolutely not. Prayer posture doesn't matter.
And remember, let's not bind what the Lord is not bound, and
let's not prohibit what the Lord has not prohibited.
It was an Old Testament practice to elevate your hands when you
prayed, literally. It's a New Testament principle
to elevate holy lives, not literal hands.
OK, but if somebody decided they wanted, when they prayed to lift
up their hands toward the heavens when they prayed,
there's nothing unscriptural or wrong about that.
Can I share something with you? I didn't mean to.
I didn't plan on it, but there was one time, about five years
ago, I was so distraught. I was in tears, and I went to
God in prayer. I fell down privately on my
knees, and I reached my hands up toward the heavens, reaching for
my God. Anything wrong with that?
How can that be wrong? Prayer posture doesn't matter.
You know why? It's the posture of the heart
that matters. It's the reverent posture of the
heart that matters. And whatever posture that a
person decides in order to achieve that is entirely up to
them. All right, So Jesus is not
condemning public prayer, he just contemning condemning the
improper attitudes or for the wrong reasons.
So before we pray in public, we need to examine our motives.
OK, Jesus says that the only reward that they're going to
receive is whatever praise that they get from men.
But I got to tell you, remember last time when I said that one
scholar actually said when Jesus says they have their reward, the
actual rendering of it from the original is they have in full
their reward. And the idea is this really,
there's a thin veneer of hypocrisy.
There's a thin veneer of whatever it is.
There's hypocrisy underneath, but there's a thin veneer of
piousness, or whatever you want to call it.
When people actually do see through the little veneer of
what we really are, you don't even get the praise of men
anymore because they see who we are.
And the same is true with prayer.
It's like that story I told you a few years ago.
I was traveling at 5:00 in the afternoon and a very busy St.
coming West of Bakersfield High School came to the that
intersection there and there was a guy standing there with a
microphone and a great big speaker.
It was so loud that I had my windows up, my AC blasted on my
and my my radio going and I could hear it.
He stopped the young lady and he asked her what was going on in
her life. You know what she did?
She shared some very personal things.
How do I know that? Because I heard.
I heard him shared some very personal things.
You know what he does? He starts praying for her
personal things, naming what they are out loud with a
microphone and a speaker. Why not take that young lady
privately and pray? Why do that?
There's only one answer to be heard and seen of men.
Why at 5:00? Why the microphone?
To be seen of men and the glory of men.
OK, Jesus says this in verse 6. But after he said all that, he
said. But when you pray, go into your
room and when you've shut the door, pray to your Father who is
in secret place. And your Father who sees in
secret will reward you openly. OK, this is the opposite of the
Pharisees prayer. By the way.
He shows that private prayer is to be private.
But let me just say, whether it's in the inner closet
privately or whether it's publicly, when you approach God
the Father with the right motive from your heart, the right
desires from your heart, God is present with you, and God is
listening. He's hearing and He's listening.
What he says is when you pray, this is a private prayer and God
will remove you, reward you openly, now in verse seven, He
continues. And when you pray, do not use
vain repetitions, all right? What is a vain repetition?
A vain repetition refers to stammering, thoughtless chatter,
or a meaningless repetition of sounds or phrases, according to
Mr. Robertson. Now then, he says this as the
heathen do, for they think that they will be heard for their
many words. Here's some examples, by the
way, of the heathen he was referring to.
It's the allusion to the Pagan religionist who practice
repeatedly calling on their deity's name in order to force
him into action. Here's an example.
The worshippers of Baal in the Old Testament did this on Mark
Mount Carmel as they crowd cried from morning till noon.
O Baal, hear us first Kings 18 and 26.
The Apostle Paul encountered a very similar problem as the
Ephesians cried out to Diana for two hours.
Here was the idea. The idea is that the value of
prayer is found in the quantity of words and not the quality of
words. And I'm going to tell you, you
don't have to pray a long prayer for your prayer to be good.
You don't have to wear people out with a long winded prayer.
You just don't. When you pray it privately pray
as long as you want, but you don't have to pray long for it
to be heard by God. That's the point.
The heathens that Jesus is talking about is people with
vain repetitions, repeatedly saying words that their idle God
has to be woke up or their idle God has to be alerted so that
they hear. That's not the God we serve.
And by the way, I think the greatest example of this, I
don't have time to go deep into this, but the greatest example
is the Pharisee and the tax collector.
It's beautiful. Remember, the Pharisee goes in.
He's praying all this stuff. God, you did a great job with
me. Congratulations.
Really. That's kind of what he was
saying. And I thank you that I'm not
like all the people in the world that are terrible.
And I thank you especially. I'm not like this poor tax
collector. You know what the Bible says
that the tax collector does, as he won't even look up toward the
heavens. But he bowed his head and he
smote his breast as an outward side of inward anguish.
And he said 7 words, God be merciful.
And in the original this is what it says to me.
The Sinner. That was it.
You know what Jesus said? That man went away justified.
That means to have acquitted, that means forgiven. 7 Words
doesn't have to be a long prayer, just has to be from the
heart. What's a vain repetition today?
Memorized words that are just recanted over and over and over
and over and over and over and over again.
That is a vain repetition. We don't need to do that.
God hears us in Isaiah 59 and one behold, the Lord's hand is
not shortened, that it cannot save, nor his ear heavy that it
cannot hear. OK, so that being the case,
there's no reason to think that our many words will tell God
something he doesn't already know.
But I got to talk about repetition and prayer.
Is there anything wrong with being repetitious in prayer?
Absolutely not. And Jesus is also not saying
that our words from prayer to prayer need to be artificially
dissimilar to the previous prayer.
He's condemning vain repetitions.
What if you use the same words you remember when Jesus was in
the Garden of Gethsemane? Bible says he was in agony.
My soul was exceeding sorrowful even unto death.
His sweat buzz as it were, great drops of blood falling to the
ground. He goes in the Garden of
Gethsemane and he prays to God. Notice what the Bible says in
Matthew chapter 26 and verse 39 and verse 44.
He went a little further and fell on his face and prayed,
saying, Oh my father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from
me nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.
So we left them, went away again and prayed the third time.
Notice saying the same words. The words don't have to be
artificially dissimilar to the previous prayer.
It just has to be coming from the right place.
It's got to be coming from the right heart.
OK, let me talk about something that we do every day.
Hopefully we do this every day. Hopefully we do this every meal,
and that is offering thanks or asking God when we thank God for
our food. Why do we do that and do we have
to change the words? Well, first of all, in First
Timothy Chapter 4, This is why we do that for every creature of
God is good and nothing is to be refused if it is received with
Thanksgiving. In other words, the privilege of
eating all kinds of food is the condition of how it's received
Then in verse 5, for it is sanctified by the word of God in
prayer. What is sanctified means.
Sanctified means to be set apart or devoted for righteous use.
OK, under the old law, Moses, we understand this, right?
We know that there was food, that there was considered
unclean. There were animals that were
considered unclean. They couldn't eat.
If it didn't chew its cud, and it didn't have a cloven hoof,
they couldn't eat it. That's why they couldn't have
pigs. Now we can have man.
We can have bacon and sausage and ham and all kinds of stuff.
You know why? Because everything's OK.
Because it's sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
And nothing is to be refused if it's received with Thanksgiving.
That's the reason why we offer thanks for our food.
It's not a ritual. It's not a ritualistic activity.
It actually gives us the right to eat it.
Thanksgiving and prayer. What else?
Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 20.
Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, meaning by His authority.
Another passage Colossians 317 And whatever you do in Word or
deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God
the Father through him. OK, now that's the reason that
we pray for our food. But if we say the same words,
relatively speaking, is it wrong and does it make it a vain
repetition? Sometimes we think we got to
pray for everything under the sun just to make the prayer for
our food different so we're not saying the same thing.
A vain repetition is this. Do you remember when kids are
told this little, they call it saying grace, which, by the way
is not the Bible, but saying grace when kids are little.
You remember that little memorized thing.
God is great. God is good.
Let us thank him for our food. Amen.
Pain, repetition. Here's another one for which we
are back to receive. Let us be everything thankful.
Amen. There's no thought behind it.
There's no meaning behind it. That's not what a prayer is.
That's a vain repetition. So even when you use the same
words, if it's from the heart speaking to God, it's not a vain
repetition. Jesus said remember in the
Garden of Gethsemane three times saying the same words?
What else? How about persistence in prayer?
Persistence in prayer is commended by Jesus.
Jesus was all about persistence in prayer.
He gave 2 parables about it. Remember the friend at midnight?
Remember that one? How about the persistent widow?
You got a widow and she's persistent.
She goes to an unrighteous unruly judge who doesn't follow
God. He doesn't recognize God nor man
doesn't have any respect, right? She goes to him to get some sort
of justice because of her adversary or from her adversary.
The judge doesn't want to hear her.
Finally, as I paraphrase, he says something like this man,
this woman is wearing me out. She's driving me out of my mind.
And so he gives in. And notice what the Bible says.
Because of that, Jesus says, Shall not God avenge his own
elect to cry out day and night to him, though he bears long
with them. That's persistent in prayer.
OK, so when it comes to vain repetitions, Jesus says this.
Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things
you have need of before you ask Him.
So when we petition God in sincere prayer, several things
happen. This is what happens a great
blessings. By the way, #1 we're
strengthened as we cast our cares on him. #2 We come to more
fully understand our dependence on Him. #3 We are reminded that
we are His children through the blood of Jesus Christ.
These are great blessings that come when we go to God in
sincere prayer. Martin Luther said it this way.
He said it's not about us telling God something He said by
our praying we are instructing ourselves more than we are
instructing God. OK then Jesus says this in verse
9. In this manner, therefore, pray
our Father in Heaven hallowed be your name.
So after instructing the disciples how to pray, Jesus
explains or how how not to pray. He then gives them the
principles of proper prayer by focusing on eight points.
OK, this is not a ritualistic prayer by the way.
That's to be memorized and recanted.
Please understand that he's giving an example to disciples
as a model on how to pray, not words that are to be memorized
and stated over and over again, because prayer needs to be
spontaneous and prayer needs to be thoughtful.
This is commonly called, by the way, the Lord's Prayer.
But if you want to know what the Lord's Prayer is, go look at the
prayer that the Lord prayed just a little bit ago, Darren prayed.
That was Darren's prayer. We listened and we agreed with
that prayer. If we agreed with that prayer,
and I'm sure we all did, we said Amen, right?
So it became our prayer too. For something to be a prayer by
a person, and it is their prayer, they have to be a prayer
that they prayed. If you want to know what the
Lord's prayer is, look in the Garden of Gethsemane.
That's the Lord's Prayer. This is more commonly known as a
model for the disciples prayer. There was another time when
Jesus dealt with this too. Do you remember in Luke Chapter
11? I don't have time to go there.
We won't go there. They came to Jesus and they said
Lord teach us how to pray as John did his disciples.
Jesus says this OK in like manner.
Pray this in this manner. Therefore pray.
Our Father in heaven hallowed be thy name and so on and so forth.
It was a model prayer, not something to be memorized and
spoken recanting the words. I want to spend a lot of time on
this because this is one of the greatest blessings that we have.
Please focus on this because I want to talk about the
relationship that we have with God when we pray.
It's not just words that we're speaking to some far away deity.
Jesus says pray our Father. What does that mean?
The word father here expresses God's fraternity, not only the
almighty creator, but get this, but also our Father.
Paul said it this way, we cry ABBA father.
By the way, it's probably they say is better, better
pronounced, Ababa don't talk like that.
So I'm going to say ABBA OK, we cry ABBA father, give you a
Bible passage. I think that that phrase, by the
way, is found I think three times in the New Testament.
One of them is in Galatians chapter 4.
And because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his
sons into your hearts crying ABBA Father.
What does that mean? Well, obviously it is Father
Father. But this phrase, ABBA is an
Aramaic term of endearment used by children to their own
personal father. Here's the example.
I have children. People would say Frank Brancato
is a father because I have children.
But to Taylor and Tanner, I am their dad.
When they were young, I was daddy.
Now I'm pops. Relationship.
When you approach God the
Father, you're not just approaching him as the almighty
creator in heaven, you're also approaching him as your father.
Your dad. I'll never forget.
Galen Osberg stood right here one day and stood out.
He said he's your daddy. Never forget that.
Doesn't it just make you feel better about God?
That's a relationship. That's the God we serve.
Having that relationship with him, we talk further about a
relationship for just a moment. I think we spend a whole lot of
time and we have all of our life.
We spend a whole lot of time on what it means or what it looks
like to be a church member, but we don't spend enough time
talking about what it means to be a Christian.
What does it look like to us by way of relationship with God and
Jesus Christ? Because if we can take that to
the level of a personal relationship that we have with
God and Jesus, I'm going to tell you you'll serve him a whole lot
better. Everything falls into place
better. What is a Christian?
Very simply, do you remember in Acts chapter 2 when the gospels
preached for the first time with the opportunity to respond and
3000 souls were saved? They were baptized for the
remission of sins. Do you remember what they were
called all the way up until Acts Chapter 11?
They were called disciples. What is a disciple?
A disciple is a follower of Jesus.
OK, what happened in Acts Chapter 11 and verse 26?
They had assembled for a whole year and then the Bible says and
the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.
What's a Christian by definition?
It's the word Christianos. And the word Christian, by the
way, means true learner. It means follower, and it means
Christ. Like that's what it means to be
a Christian. Put it all together.
What's a Christian, a true learner of Jesus, following him
by the word of God that directs our steps every step of the way.
It's got to be the word of God, all in our great pursuit of
becoming Christ like or being more like Jesus.
That's the personal part of what it means to be a Christian and
have a relationship with God, Jesus says when you pray though,
remember that God is in heaven, so God is in a lofty position.
So because God is in a lofty position, we speak to him as
such with respect. And then we say this Hallowed be
your name, meaning we honor the name of God with reverence,
addressing him as Heavenly Father, Revelation 4 and eight.
We have a song about this too. Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord, God
Almighty. I hope when people understand
what Paul said to the Colossians, he was talking to
people that were already Christians.
They were already baptized for their admission of sins, but
they had some growing to do, he said.
I labor among you again as a as a woman labours in birth.
Until when? Until Christ is formed in you.
When Jesus Christ is formed in you, everything falls into
place. When Jesus Christ is formed in
you, you recognize your relationship that you have with
God and Jesus Christ. You recognize that it's not by
your own strength, it's by God's strength.
And that's OK. Isn't it OK to say I'm nothing
without God? I think God wants us to say that
I can't do this without you. Bible talks about being strong
and courageous, but the strength and the courage comes from God.
And when that happens, and you lean on God in every aspect of
your life when you pray without ceasing, as the Bible says.
And that doesn't mean one long continuous prayer.
It means that's part of your life every day.
Remember that song we used to sing ere you left your room this
morning? Did you think to pray?
Oh, how praying rest the weary. Prayer will change the night
today. So when life seems dark and
dreary, don't forget to pray. Prayers.
Everything for us, folks. And I'm going to tell you, you
may be going through some things in your life.
I don't know, maybe it's true and you just sometimes don't
know where you can turn. I'm going to tell you there's a
place where you can turn. You could turn to God the
Father, but he's also your Father and you can reach out
with loving petitions to him and he's going to listen to you.
He's going to hear you. He's going to answer you.
Pray it with the proper way. So in closing, I'm finished.
In conclusion, what have we learned about the principles of
proper prayer from Jesus Christ today?
Never pray to be seen of men #2 Don't be ashamed though.
Don't be ashamed. Pray publicly, but always with
the right motive. #3 Do not use vain repetitions, which refers
to a stammering, thoughtless chatter or a meaningless
repetition of sounds or phrases. And finally #4 address the
Father with reverence and make all petitions in Jesus name.
Principles of proper Prayer and you know something.
It doesn't matter if it's 100 words, 7 words, 1000 words.
God hears us and He answers us. And sometimes I'll say this
finally and I'm finished. Sometimes the answer is no, and
we don't like his answer. But remember in first John it
says if we pray anything according to his will, he hears
us. The word here there predisposes
a response. It's better translated.
He answers us. But sometimes the answer is no.
But when you have the proper relationship with God, and you
pray according to God's will, which means you're not bending
God's will toward you, you're bending your will toward God,
and you're saying whatever you decide I'm going to be OK with.
When you have the proper relationship with God and trust
and faith in Him, you're OK with that response.
You're OK with doing it just that way.
Remember, if you're a Christian, you are God's child and God is
yours. Father, maybe you're here today
and you're not a Christian. We never close the time that we
assemble without extending an invitation to somebody that
might be subject to the gospel call.
The steps to become a Christian are very simple.
You must hear the word of God. Romans 10/17 So then faith comes
by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
After hearing the word of God, you have a choice to make.
Hebrews 11 and six says we have to believe with all our heart.
Without faith it's impossible to please him.
For he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he
is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.
We must repent of our sins. Acts 17 and 30.
Truly these times of ignorance, God overlooked, but now commands
all men everywhere to repent, and then to be able to make the
greatest statement you will ever make to confess Jesus Christ as
the Son of God. Acts 837 And Philip said, if you
believe with all your heart, you may.
And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the
Son of God. Upon taking these steps, you're
now a fit candidate to go to the point of salvation, to contact
the blood of Jesus, have your sins washed away, and that's at
baptism for the remission of sins.
Mark 1616 He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he
who does not believe will be condemned.
If you've never taken those steps of obedience, we would
love to assist you in that. We stand ready, willing and able
to do that. Maybe you have taken those steps
of obedience. And maybe there's just something
on your heart now. Maybe there's something that you
request the prayers of the congregation.
If we can assist you in either way, come forward while we
stand. And while we stand, we thank you
for. Listening to our podcast put on
by the Church of Christ at 2215 Plans Rd. in Bakersfield.
If you would like any additional information or you would like to
receive a free Bible correspondence course by mail,
please e-mail us at info@churchofchristbakersfield.com.
Our service times are Sundays at 10:30 AM and 5:00 PM and
Wednesdays at 7:30 PM. Please make plans to join us.
We would love for you to be our honored guest.