The Lord's Prayer

Thank you for going to be here. I do regret to tell you that message that he couldn't be here today because he's recovering from being struck by lightning for lying about his age he actually have a we have a pretty long history together. We we go back about 35 or so years we we attended the same church in college actually I was in college and he was in preschool, but let that be a lesson to you. Be nice to the kids in the nursery. They might be your boss one day. It is a privilege for me to share with you today. Not really something that God has been storing in my heart and doing in me for very long time and that's calling me calling me to spend time with him in his word and in prayer so want to share about that today and challenge you to that end, you been around for a while, you'll know that we've been in an extended series through the book of acts and is honestly been encouraging and challenging. I think all of us.

We marveled at what the early church experienced. They were joyful and pain. They were bold in sharing their faith. They were fruitful in seeing people come to Christ and they were unified and filled with love across racial and cultural barriers like nobody had ever seen before and I'm encouraged because I see that happening in us. I see the fruit of that I see God doing those things in us, but I'm challenged because I think we've only begun to see the tip of the iceberg.

I think there is so much more that God wants to do couple weeks ago and Summit kids are kids studied the story of Shadrach me shack and Abednego three guys who were persecuted for their faith thrown into a fiery furnace but miraculously, God brings them out untouched by the fire. Now I have a five-year-old and a 6 1/2-year-old and all the way home that they were in the car with her mom and Hudson.

My six-year-old says mom stuff that happened today does it just just back in old times right you know what, I'm afraid that too many of us might read the book of acts and internally say that kind of stuff doesn't happen the day just back in olden times. Listen, I want you to know I want my kids to know that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever, and what he did in Shadrach me shack and Abednego what he did in the people of acts, even walls and is willing to do in us today so why don't we experience that. What's the difference between us and them, what keeps us from that acts 242 says that they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

You see, they did this in response to the gospel and as they responded to the gospel. In this devotion every facet of their lives.

Corporate and individual was impacted by the power of God because they were devoted to him.

They gave themselves they gave themselves to knowing and experiencing God. They were each one devoted to him. This wasn't the staff devotion. It wasn't the special ops teams devotion. This was everyone's individual devotion to God and their collective individual devotion is what produced a dynamic corporate experience. It was it the other way around their corporate experience was not what they had their devotional time. Whatnot, what it's not what led them to be devoted to God.

It was their devotion to God led them to experience these things together and it's the same for us. It has to be our collective individual devotion that will lead us together to a dynamic corporate experience. I have one goal this weekend only one that is to encourage*provoke and challenge you every single one of you to pursue devotion to the word of God and to prayer and listen. I say pursue devotion because devotion to anything has to be cultivated and developed.

It just doesn't happen to you. You don't just wake up in the morning and suddenly find yourself devoted you seek it you go after it.

Devotion is giving yourself wholeheartedly to something abandoning other things for the sake of this thing disciplining yourself for the purpose of godliness. Listen, walking in lifelong devotion is cultivated by intentionally choosing devotion day by day and step-by-step. Can you hear me say that again walking in lifelong devotion is cultivated by intentionally choosing devotion day by day and step-by-step on the way in the day you got a copy of a new resource. We've created 30 days kickstart to your daily time with God. This is not the time for you to go flipping through it, checking it out see what's in there. There's some blank pages, you can open those open to those and start taking notes because in just a minute I'm going chastise you about that and if you're already doing smug about the rebuke to the people next to Bob asking I would ask you to take this and use it. I'm to challenge you to test God and see if he will meet with you as you draw near to him so I you would join me this morning and turn your Bibles to Matthew chapter 6, wherein the look together at an experience between Jesus and his disciples that I think should inform our approach to God as we go after him daily in his word and in prayer. Matthew chapter 6 and to read verses nine through 13. The context here is that Jesus disciples Avastin Lord, teach us to pray and so this is his response. Matthew six verse nine. This then is how you should pray our father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one yell. I believe in this short prayer is an outline for what our daily time with God should look like. This is not a prayer for us to repeat. There's nothing inherently wrong with saying it but listen, Jesus didn't say pray this.

He said this is how you should pray and don't miss that because they're fundamentally different. Repeating it will lead to ritual praying like it cultivates and shapes our relationship. So as we look at this together. Let me see if I can show you four ways that I think this prayer should inform or influence your daily time with God. Right you ready number one our daily time with God should celebrate and cultivate our relationship with him our daily time with God should celebrate and cultivate our relationship with him. That's why Jesus began to sweat our father in heaven, hallowed be your name. This has to be the place where we begin all of our time with God.

If you had. I can start our approach to God with the right understanding of God as father than I think everything else will fall in place. Oswald Chambers said we have to pray with our eyes on God, not on our circumstances.

Our difficulties to the disc to the disciples.

This would have been a revolutionary idea. You will have a problem with wielding think twice about it, but up to this point nobody called Godfather. The idea of referring to God or even addressing him in such a relational way was unheard of. But Jesus is underscoring an essential truth here for them and for us. We have access to God because we are his children by faith in Jesus Christ.

You and I are adopted as sons and daughters of God which you just let the wonder of that seek in on you, just for a moment. What an incredible privilege in Christ. You are beloved child crashes daughter favored son and are praying ought to be on the basis of that and everything about our praying ought to be for nurturing and developing that relationship not getting something from God is our father, our vending machine. He wants to know us. He wants us to know him. Jesus said right praying is rooted in understanding our relationship to God as father, but part of the problem is that our daily relationship often doesn't reflect the kind of closeness in engagement that ought to be there between a father and son we feel distant from God we feel removed from God is not God's fault. He hasn't abandoned us. He hasn't neglected us on a regular basis on a daily basis.

Many of us neglect him. We've abandoned him. God is not an absentee father. We are absentee children. Not too long ago, my boys were having a conversation which sometime their conversations are really quite entertaining. I mean their five and six, so the stuff they talk about in the way to phrase it is hysterical. Sometimes sometimes it's scary. So in this particular case, and they were having a conversation that was precipitated by the fact that we had denied them the opportunity to to engage in some of their favorite activity which is we and iPad and so are our five-year-old looks at the six-year-old with this little gleam in his and he goes, if mom and dad were dead, we could play iPad and we all the time. My first my first response to that was, we need some counseling followed by sweetheart. Start locking our bedroom door at night. Listen, my four-year-old has no idea how much he needs he can't comprehend what life would be like if I were there to provide for him, protect him, teach him, instruct him, love him, leave him play with him. All he can see is that sometimes stand between him and what he thinks he really wants to do and you know what the truth is that could be said about us.

We have no idea what would happen to our life. God was suddenly taken. We don't have a concept of how desperately we need him. How utterly and completely dependent we are on him and far too many times we in our hearts will think you know what if God were out of the picture.

I didn't have to deal with him.

I could do whatever I wanted to do and I wouldn't feel guilty about all we we need to learn what the psalmist said in Psalm 63. Oh God, you are my God, earnestly ICQ.

My soul thirsts for you. My body longs for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water listening up there is nothing that God could do for me or give me apart from himself. That would satisfy me. I don't need something from God.

I need God. And that's why so much of our time with God needs to be focused on who he is.

You seek too often when we approach God we have a better understanding of our problem in our circumstances that we do of the God were praying to. We have a clearer view and a better ability to express the need that we do to declare the greatness of the God were praying to. And it's upside down where more familiar with our peril than we are with our father, so you and I have got to learn to feed our prayer with praise and thanksgiving. We gotta saturate our time with God with worship can make a very simple suggestion to you about how you do that you take this God were giving you this weekend and inside it are some instructions in some places for you to be begin to build a play the capillary of praise and adoration and thanksgiving looks feed your praise which you just write down what God is teaching you about himself put it in a sentence.

Write it on the page go back to it and thank you for that door and for that go back over your sermon notes. Yes, you should be taking sermon notes and pull out where you heard God speak where you saw the glory of God. No, I'm afraid you don't know you have a set of how blessed you are to sit in this place week after week and have the word of God unfolded have the character of God, extolled the you have the promises of God given to you and you hear them and by 3 o'clock. Their goal you forgotten because you don't write them down and you and I need meat we need to ingest that we need to take any and we need to speak it back to God because we need to feed our praise. We need to nurture our understanding and our knowledge of who God is. You need to make a list of the goodness and kindness and mercy and love of God in your life you need to give you what. There's nothing more annoying than an ungrateful child is that you do you feed your gratitude. You remember to recall the simple things the daily the Monday. The places where God's goodness is poured out on you and yourself obsessed with what you don't have that you can't see what God is already All-Star gratitude and thankfulness in your heart by writing it down. Be specific. Build something that built build something for yourself that increases your faith and causes you to remember the greatness of God and something that turns your attention away from your obsession with yourself right number to our daily time with God should reorient us toward his kingdom and his purposes are daily time with God should reorient us toward his kingdom and his purposes.

But Jesus said pray this way, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Only give you this morning. This is not a phrase at the end of your prayer at caveat to cover all of the things that you said previously that might be your selfishness and your agenda and outside the kingdom and will of God. Okay, this is not a covering for your prayer.

This should instruct your prayer was permeated our preaching and are teaching here at the summit. What forms our mission and vision for this church which is the gospel in the kingdom of God advancing now needs to make its way into our pray what you and I need a gospel revolution in our prayer lives cannot just be confessional with you. One of the things God has exposed to me is that way too much of my prey way too much of my prey is focused on and motivated by my desire for comfort and ease relief and pleasure. That's me is that you is your prayer life saturated with this obsession with comfort, ease relief and pleasure was all I have lived long enough and walked with God long enough that I should know by now that those things are not God's primary agenda that is not what God is most concerned about in my life. God is working to conform need to the image of his son to redeem me to restore me to reconcile me and to remake me to be like Jesus. That's what he's concerned about and you know what often that will come at the expense of my comfort, ease relief and pleasure. And if I'm going to pray the will of God.

I'm gonna pray your kingdom come, your will be done, prayer.

I gotta get in touch with that. Recently we were reading the gospel storybook Bible with our kids at night and I would just say to you. If you have kids, it's a resource on and I think you get a copy of it. Our next steps area you order it online or pick ups at a Christian bookstore is a wonderful resource. Even if you don't have kids, you would do well to read this. It is a beautiful description of Bible stories that and it helps you see the gospel all the way through, but this particular night we just finished the story of Cain and Abel. Now some of you may remember the story of Cain and Abel bring sacrifices to God's sacrifice of Cain is unrighteous on acceptable to God. The sacrifice of Abel is pleasing to God and came in a fit of rage and jealousy kills his brother Abel. My six-year-old husband, Hudson has a family to sense of justice.

All this little kid can smell unfair from a mile away and you know it makes you mad he's passionate about where he get second stuff, but but he's passionate about. So we get to the end of the story and you see it in his face. You can see it in his eyes. He's mad he's furious and he blurts out, mom is not fair it's not fair that Cain killed Abel is not fair that he killed him if he didn't get to live his real life he had to go up to heaven and live some fake life. Don't laugh too hard because that's how you and I pray we act like this is real and that's fake.

We pray like this is what's going to last.

This is what matters, forgetting that in the moment, in the twinkling of an eye. This is going all that's what's eternal that's what listen from the moment sin entered the world from the very instant that sin entered in God's purpose in everything has been to redeem, reconcile and restore us to himself, from Genesis to Revelation.

It's the story of the Bible. The gospel, when God killed an animal took to provide a covering a garment for Adam and Eve in the garden after they sin. God was pointing to the day, even that one day he would slay his only son, the Lamb of God to cover our shame and our sin redeeming, reconciling, restoring, remaking us in the image of some of his son.

This is God's eternal purpose.

So can I ask you, are you praying that way. Are you praying that direction. Is that what you pray for your children. Is that what you pray for your boss. Do you pray that for your coworkers.

Do you pray for your roommate and your classmates.

That way, do you pray for your neighbors. That way less than God's primary agenda is not our comfort God Mary agenda is bringing us into a rich and abiding relationship with him and it's a waste of my breath to pray in ways that don't reflect his agenda. Listen, I'm not going to talk God out of his plan into mom.

God wants me to walk him and he is working to draw me in that direction. So practically speaking again. You and I need to build for ourselves a bank of your kingdom come, your will be done things to pray. This doesn't come naturally to you. This is not the first thing in our mind y'all, the first thing we think of is God fix this.get me out of this God make this work make this go away. Give me this take that what that's where that's where our mind and hardly so we have to teach ourselves to pray the gospel we have to teach ourselves to pray about the kingdom.

So start a list for yourself again of the promises of God. Listen, you can be pretty sure if God promised it. He wants to do it. So why don't you asking for it right now. Prayers that are recorded in Scripture.

Repeat those back to God. The Gospels tell us that Jesus said if you ask anything in my name. According to my will. You can be sure that you have what you ask why do I know that what I'm praying is within the will of God. Well, I can pray the promises of God and I can pray the prayers of the Bible and be pretty dang sure that's the will of God. So pray those things write them down, build a bank. And what about lost people.

Be intentional about praying for people you know who have not come to faith in Jesus Christ. Pray for nations and rulers and people groups that don't have access to the gospel lesson y'all I'm weary of all the posting. All the railing all the speculating about Putin and Russia and how they might inconvenience us or how their what they're doing might have an impact on our freedom you pray for Russia. You pray for the advance of the gospel and Russia have you prayed for Putin that his heart would be redeemed and reconciled and restored to God, listen. That's what God's about God's not about keeping us safe and prosperous as a nation that's not his agenda is agenda is saving in redeeming and restoring so get on your knees and pray that direction and stop being so upset like I am with your comfort easily from pleasure, loan number may become a homeowner sermon and I will write number three our daily time with God should affirm our dependence on him our daily time of God should affirm our dependence on him. He said pray this way. Give us this day. Give us today our daily bread know what this is the most fascinating phrase in the whole prayer to me. What did Jesus mean when he said I should pray that way, you know, the first real ask in the prayer. It's the first time that the prayer seems to reflect a common definition of praying, which is me getting something from God, why did Jesus say this when God delivered the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt. He provided for them.

He supplied food for them daily bread every morning, God made it rain potato flakes manna from heaven. When Jesus said, pray give us this day our daily bread. He's pointing back to that. Here's what's important about the children of Israel had no other way to sustain themselves. Y'all they were walking through the fields are the desert and seeing three planted crops that they could harvest to eat. There were no grocery stores are Walmart supercenter's for them to go in and buy groceries for the week. They were dependent on what God supplied an God supply enough for every day.

One day at a time. They had no alternative way to sustain themselves.

So when Jesus says daily bread. He's pointing us in the disciples back to fundamental principle.

I am every way in every physical way utterly and completely dependent on God, no, I don't keep myself breathing.

I will make my heart beat don't even take the food I eat and cause it to give nourishment to my body. I don't keep myself alive. God is the one who sustains me and if you live need him to do that, moment by moment, day by day. This is in a prayer for abundance or excess.

It's a call. The home will reliance on God. But you know what I need more than just physical bread I need more than just my body to be sustained. Jesus said I am the bread of life. I need Jesus in another place he would say man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Jesus instruction to his disciples and to us is to remember that we are only dependent on God for physical sustenance were absolutely dependent on him for sustaining our souls. You don't leave bread for your body. You need the bread from heaven to feed your heart, your soul and your mind.

I am, you are always physical and spiritual, utterly and completely dependent on God.

Not only should not prayers reflect that. But my pursuit of God in his word should position me to receive that daily bread, listen the manna in the desert didn't do the Israelites a bit of good until they picked it up. If they left it laying on the ground. It was none of no value to them if they didn't take it and use it and ingested it would not have sustained them. You and I need to learn. That's why the psalmist in Psalm 19 would say the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul, the statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart.

The commands of the Lord is radiant getting like to the ask the year of the Lord is pure, enduring forever, but the Crees of the Lord our firm and all of them are righteous, they are more precious than gold, and much pure gold.

They are sweeter than honey than honey from the honeycomb can ask you a question. Is that how you see God's word perfect, reviving, renewing, sustaining, joyful firm, absolute, secure, sweet, precious lesson y'all when I'm weary and worn out need to be recharged when I'm at the end of my understanding. I don't know what to do. I need wisdom when I'm discouraged and broken. I need joy when I'm confused.

I need clarity when I'm in the dark I need like insecure I need a firm foundation to stand on and when I am left wanting by the best the world has to offer to sign Jesus, and according to Psalm 19 that happened all of in the word of it doesn't happen in her vacation. It doesn't happen in recreational pursuits. It doesn't happen in relationships doesn't happen. Doesn't happen and things doesn't happen in changing your status. It doesn't happen in getting out of one marriage and getting into another doesn't happen having kids. It doesn't happen with getting rid of kids because you're feasting on the word of God cannot just be honest here.

Most of us have filled our lives with so much junk that we don't perceive we have a need or hunger for God you're like my kids you want to eat goldfish and pretzels and raisins all day and then when it comes time for dinner. You're not hungry you think you don't need the word of God because your saturated with things that mask your real hunger we say we don't have time*the Bible doesn't make sense. Can we be honest or what were really saying here is not that important were not convinced this valuable so we avoid it when you neglect time with God. You know what suffers is the life of Christ in you believe you need to understand this Christ by faith is born in you, he has come to dwell in you to live your his life in you.

But that life of Christ has to be nurtured. It has to be fed back fire has to be fanned. The flame has to be fanned and the way that happens is when you and I spend time with God in prayer and in his word. Listen, I'm worried about some of you. I'm deeply concerned about you. It's why you're spiritually weak. It's why you're unfruitful. It's why you're depressed.

It's why you're contemplating doing things that are that you know are outside the will of God because you're not feeding on the word of God you waltzing here on Sunday morning.

You don't run you will have of your late God's sake get here on time.

You don't show up to a movie are concert ballgame. That way you park early in so, how could God act like you're hungry like you want to see God do something in your life. But remember, it's not somebody on the state's responsibility to feed you like a once a week feeding would keep you alive. You need to pull yourself up to the table and feast on God's work seven days a week you need to let him nourish your soul. You need like you're hungry and if you're not, you need to get rid of things that mask that and go after God, make some of you mad I'm just fine with. If you spent half the time you spend on Facebook or third out and you gave that the word of God. What would happen to your relationship with Jesus. If you shut off twitter text and email for 15 or 30 minutes and salt.how much better would you know what's happening. God during the you know what happened with everybody else matter you follow these people anyway you universe. In his only son to die for you to redeem you and you act like that's not a part but some live in California some some some celebrity you gotta file everything I say you can clap for me but get off of her career in getting the word of God.

I'm not interested in your appalled. I'm interested in you doing what I want you to, which is seeking after him. And if I sound forceful I am because let me tell you I think your life and God depends on. I think some of you are dying your wiggling spiritually because you're not feasting on the word of God. You haven't tasted for yourself to see that God is good. Letting somebody else taste it for you and tell you about. Listen, if I don't I just thought I don't want to sit there and have somebody else describe it to me. I want to eat it myself, but that's what we do. We know we come sitting here let JD tell us about the meal, all God's word number four daily time with God to lead us to receive give rely on grace.

He said forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. Y'all daily time with God to connect me to grace. Listen we got blind spots.

We got false. We got errors. We got a bent toward sin that we can't see or we don't want to see what's it's when we put ourselves under the magnifying glass of God's word that our sin and our rebellion is exposed y'all that's God's grace to us because when it's exposed. We can confess and repent. We can experience. First John 119 if you confess your sins is faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

And that's not just saying I'm sorry that's owning your wrong that's owning your rebellion that's agreeing with God that what you did is what he says it is sin, rebellion, adultery, listen in our house. We tried to avoid letting our boys get away with just saying I'm sorry you know why because most of the time there just sorry they got called, then tell them they're wrong. I want to identify to say what it is and to confess that they did it because if they do then they have a chance to repent then they have a chance to walk the other direction. First Timothy 316 says all Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.

All the word.

The word warns that the word exposes me the word correctly know that's God's grace to me. Listen we live in a culture that thinks review is hey and they think that exposing CNN is intolerant but the Bible tells me that does the father loves he disciplines, that's not hey that's love. I tell my kids all the time when I discipline y'all son if I care about you find love you. I let you do whatever you want as hate. If I didn't care what you did I let you do whatever you wanted to but because I'm trying to nurture and protect life in you.

I'm going to instruct you. I'm to teach you on the discipline you and I'm going to correct you, that my friend is love and when you receive that kind of grace and that kind of love. It has got to compel you to give grace. Jesus makes a pretty strong statement here. He says father forgive us as we have forgiven our debtors. You understand what he's doing there.

Jesus is assuming that a real experience of grace and forgiveness from God would lead us to freely extend grace and forgiveness to one another listen.

How can I stand in this place and saying my sin all the bliss of this glorious thought Massey and not in part but the whole is nailed to the cross and bear it no more can I sing that and still refused to forgive you and I sing that and hold a grudge and I sing that it will just this for you I can I will grace for myself and justice for you. If I do that I declare by my actions and my heart that I don't really understand what it means to receive grace from God. One more piece of this that I will highlight before close and that is that this connection to grace time in God's Word teaches me to rely on grace all the grace of God is just for my past praise God, it's gone.

My sin is nailed to the cross, but the grace of God is for my present and my future development of Christian a long time I've been a pastor this church for almost 28 years. I cannot tell you that today I need the gospel and grace just as much as I did the first time I heard it in the first time I received it. I don't need it. Last I needed more because I am like the hymn writer said prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart Lord taken sealant sealant for your courts about I can say what John Newton said in him him amazing grace through many dangers, toils and snares I have already come in their more common. His grace has brought me safe thus far. Grace will lead me home, going to be directed away from temptation. I'm not going to say no to the desires of the flesh overcome the enemy prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour out grace, grace, remembering God's grace, believing God's grace soaking myself and saturating my heart with God's grace giving Christ grace, grace, and that's why need to be with God, I need to be connected to grace all we desperately need. We desperately need time with God, celebrates and cultivates our relationship time that reorient our perspective towards his kingdom and that helps us recognize our dependence on him and positions us to receive from him and time it saturates us in the gospel and grace so we do it when you go hard after God will you draw near to him James for excess draw near to me and I'll draw near to together can we embark on this journey and run hard after God daily seeking after him drawing close to him pray. Listening to his word, just a moment. Our campus worship teams are to come and lead you through a guided prayer time before they do. Would you let me pray over you and the forest God. How thankful we are for your grace in our lives we read it and saying it earlier when we were dead in our transgressions, and stand you made us alive. You poured out love and mercy on us great love and rich in mercy. So because of that God. We need you. We want you, God, stirring us a hunger and a desire to draw near to you. Then God fulfill your promise to us that if we would you draw near to us.

We pray all this in Jesus night