Small Talk and God
Transcript
Well, all right, how we doing this morning? All right. Grab your Bibles, go to Matthew chapter 6. Maybe that'll wake you up. We're going to be in Matthew chapter 6. We've been walking through verse by verse through the Sermon on the Mount.
We're just spending a couple times, a couple, spending some time and several weeks in this section of text where Jesus is teaching his followers what it's going to look like for them to follow him, what it looks like to be his people. We spent last time we were together, we talked through a section where Jesus is basically saying not to practice your righteousness in front of other people, not to to pray or to give or to be generous or to serve for the purpose of having other people see you and think, wow, look at how they pray, give and serve like to not have people look at you and think, what a wonderful person. And he says, if you do that, if that's your purpose, if that's your goal, if you stand up and pray and you pray so eloquently that it was like you poured honey in everyone's ears and it was so beautiful and they thought, man, I'll never be able to pray like that. What he says is, if that was your goal, goal accomplished, everyone thinks you're great at praying.
They can listen to it. I'm not going to. That's basically what he's saying. If your goal is to serve in a way that shows everyone how well you serve and how, how sacrificial you are and how generous you are. And that was your goal was so that everyone could see how great you are. You did it.
Well done. Everyone saw how great you were. Everyone saw how sacrificial you are. It doesn't actually count. Like I'm not rewarding that. And so he says to do all of these things in secret.
And then he rewards them. And in the middle of that section, he says, here's how you ought to pray. And so we just kind of moved past it last time. We're actually focusing in on it today. And we're just going to talk about how do we pray? How basically he's going to talk about what makes prayer effective and how do we do it?
Like, what do we say? And those are the two things we'll spend our time looking at today. So let's before we talk about prayer, let's pray. It just feels right. So let's do that.
Lord, we pray that you'd bless this time we have this morning, that you'd help us to grow in what it means to pray, understanding prayer, and that this would be a people that prays, that we would be a church that prays for your kingdom and your glory in this city. In Jesus' name, amen. So let's pick up in verse 5. We're going to look at Jesus is saying, don't do this, but do this. And we're going to kind of see what he's hinting at here, what he's teaching us here. And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites.
Now, a hypocrite is someone who pretends to be something on the outside, but is actually something different on the inside. So he says, don't be like them, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. So that's what we were just talking about. He's saying if your point of your prayer is to be seen, well done, you did it. That's all you get, though.
So, verse 6. But you, when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And so as he begins, he's basically saying prayer is about you and God. Prayer is about you and the Father. That's it.
So that's why he says go into your room, close the door, pray in secret. The point of prayer is for you to communicate, speak to, relate to God. That essentially prayer is a conversation with God. It's listening to him and talking to him. That's what prayer is. Now for some of us, when you hear that, that prayer is a conversation, maybe you get a little uncomfortable.
I know that we have, increasingly I've had people tell me they have social anxiety. I think it's just because we've labeled something, people now know what to call it. What they mean is when they get around people, they get uncomfortable. And there's a lot of people I know that just like having small talk is very awkward and difficult. I'm not the best at it. I do have this in my favor.
I don't feel uncomfortable when things get uncomfortable. So I've been in conversations and thought, oh, this has gotten awkward. But there's part of me that just kind of enjoys that. I just look around at the people who are like really struggling with the fact. So it makes me not the best person to have small talk with because you may be sweating bullets and feeling terrible.
And I'm like, this is interesting. Like this just, sorry, that happens. But I do know there are a couple of things I've worked on to try to be better at talking to people. Because when we started a church, one of the things you do as a pastor is you have to talk to people. And I wasn't the best at it. So I've worked on a few things.
And I can tell you a few things I've worked on. One of the things I was told, I was told that it's better in a conversation to be interested rather than to be interesting. And so they just said, just ask questions. So I do this. And I remember I met one of the guys who's in our community group now. I met him when we were working at Sears together.
And after we'd been talking for a little while, he goes, dude, are you like in school to be a cop or something? And I was like, well, why? And he goes, you just asked me 20 questions in a row. Like that's enough. And I was like, oh. This guy named Quincy brought one of his friends to our community group a couple weeks ago.
And I was talking to him. And legitimately he looked at me and said, okay, that's too many questions. I'm done. Stop asking me questions. And I was like, I'm overdoing this, I guess. But what I thought was being interested has turned into an interrogation.
And this is also part of the problem that I have is that this is my listening face. So if you're talking to me and I'm interested in what you have to say, this is how I'm going to be looking. And if it gets more interesting, there's a good chance, like if we're at a table or something, I may just start leaning in. So I've been in conversations with people where they start getting uncomfortable because they think I'm disagreeing or I'm upset by what they're saying. And with just cause, did y'all just see my face? And so they start being like, well, maybe, maybe it's not quite that.
And like, like you start trying to retract some of what they're saying. And when they do that, I get more interested in like, what are they, what are they talking about now? And so there's times where people get uncomfortable and I do this. And I start looking at them like, what, what, why did you stop talking? What are you, you know? And then I realized, oh, I look like a crazy person.
And so I've tried to work on this, but it makes it worse. I'll go. Raise my eyebrow, smile a little bit. And I do that some of the people who know I'm working on this. So they'll be talking to me and I'm going, and they're gonna do this worse.
You really got to quit that. But for some of us, when you hear, uh, it's a conversation immediately, you go, oh, I'm terrible at conversations. Like I, I don't know how to carry on a conversation. And it feels like if prayer is a conversation that makes it even more difficult. I'd love for prayer to be something that I, I recite. I'd love for prayer to be something that I memorize.
When Jesus says, this is the model prayer. And he says, this is how you ought to pray. I'd much rather just memorize that and say it. But no, what he's saying is it's a conversation. It's you talking to God, but he's going to give us some help there. So he says in verse seven, when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do.
Gentiles were non-Jewish people. Um, so that'd have been the Greeks or Romans that were around them for, they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them for your father knows what you need before you ask him. So the two things that Jesus is going to help us with today, it's going to tell us what makes prayer effective, what actually makes it work. And then how do we do it? And in this section right here in verse seven and eight, he's answering what makes it effective because that's the, that's the thing he's addressing.
He says, the Gentiles think that they'll be heard for their many phrases. I think they'll be heard because they talk so much because of their presentation. And I think that's what some of us think that if I'm going to have to talk to God, my presentation has to be good. I have to say the right words and in the right way. And I have to kind of know how to pray. And sometimes you'll hear someone else pray and you'll think, well, that's how you're supposed to pray.
I can't do any of that because we begin to believe that it's how we present it, what we say, the words we use, the phrases we use. And that's what he's saying. He's saying that Gentiles think this is how you have to do it in order to be heard. And their tactic, their method was to just say things over and over again. And he's saying it's not that. It's not your presentation.
Because imagine if you got to go in front of Congress to lobby for something or to make an argument for something, something you deeply care about. We would be very concerned with our presentation. What do we look like? What are we saying? What are we asking for? Are we going to have charts?
Are we going to use PowerPoint? Are we going to have some sort of well-crafted argument? And he's saying that there's a temptation for people to believe that when I pray, I have to present it well. I have to pray correctly. And he just says, no, that's not what makes it effective. And he tells us in 8 what makes it effective.
Do not be like them. For your father knows what you need before you ask him. And then he says, pray like this. So he says, what makes it effective is not your presentation. What makes it effective is that God is your father. That he knows you.
He knows what you need. He's intimately related to you. He cares about you. He's paying attention to you. That image of a father is a beautiful imagery. I recently became a dad.
We celebrated my son's two-year birthday. Two-year-old birthday. His second birthday. There we go. We celebrated his second birthday. I don't know.
St. Patrick's Day. Two days ago. And being a dad, I get this picture a little more now. And I understand what he's saying. And he's like, I am supremely interested in my son.
Like, if we're in a group of other children and I hear them, like one of them crying. I'll go, oh, is that? And I'll look. And if it's not my kid, I suddenly don't care anymore. It's like, not mine. Doing great.
Rock and roll. Like, you get to where you can tell the difference between your kid crying. I've been in rooms with dads and we have a kid in the other room. And they'll go, whose is that? And I'll be like, no, it's not mine. That's not what he cries like.
That you get, you care. I have never been that interested in children. They come over and tell you stuff. And I'm just like, uh-huh, that's great. Yeah, mm-hmm, all right. But my son, when he wants to tell me something, like I sit on the floor and just listen to him babble.
He doesn't even know how to use words right yet. And I think everything he says is really interesting. It's not even English. He's learning a little bit. We did ask him the other day how old he was. And he said, come on.
I don't know. And I was like, I am so proud of you. Most parents would be proud if you knew how old you were. I'm proud of this answer right here. But I'm very, like, and that's what he's saying.
God's saying, I'm your father. So with my son, I've held him until he fell asleep. I went and laid him in his crib. I've taken his shoes off so he'd sleep better. I've watched over him. I've disciplined him because I care about him.
One of the things that we talk a lot about, my wife and I, is like, how do we raise him? How do we care for him? How do we discipline him? One of the things that's implemented at our house is if he's throwing a fit, if he's crying, he doesn't get anything. Except for maybe spanked. Because we don't want to train him that the only way to be happy is to be miserable.
The only way to get what you want is to throw a fit first. So if he throws a fit, he doesn't get anything. I'll say, look, you're not getting anything from me like that. You better stop crying unless you want to get spanked. And he's beginning to learn crying and throwing a fit isn't the best way to be happy. It's a good way to get spanked.
But I've disciplined him because I care about him. I want him to be well adjusted and have joy. And when Jesus says, your father knows you, he knows what you need. He's interment related. He's saying the same thing. God's looking and saying, I've watched over you while you slept.
I've cleaned up your messes. I've disciplined you because I care about you. I've walked with you through life. And I'm interested in you and what you have to say. I'm interested in what's going on with you. And this promise is not fully realized or is only fully realized through the gospel.
You see, Jesus is talking to his disciples and he's saying, this is what my people are going to look like. And when he says, he's your father, Jesus actually purchases that right for us. For those who have placed faith in Christ, he purchases that right for us on the cross. I'm going to read a few sections. Galatians 4 says this. Ephesians 1 says this.
I'm going to read something from Romans 8. But it says, for all those who are led by the spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into the fear. But you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs.
Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. He's saying that through Christ we've been adopted into the family that the Holy Spirit's come into us. And it's not that God is like our father. If you are a Christian, God is your father. That you've been adopted into the family. Later in Romans he says this.
For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. In order that he, that's Jesus, might be the firstborn among many brothers. That Jesus is the eldest brother in God's family. And that all those who place faith in him have been adopted and are children and heirs. When he says he's your father, he doesn't mean, here's an image. He's saying this is the reality.
For those who will follow me. For those who will belong to me. For those who are mine. When you pray, you're praying to your father. And he loves you. And he cares about you.
And he knows you. And that's what makes prayer effective. You don't have to do it well. You don't have to craft good arguments. You don't have to pray eloquently. One of the things I've noticed by having my son who doesn't, cannot articulate what he wants.
Is that I'm trying to figure it out. When he comes to me and says, I don't go, look at here boy, unless you learn to enunciate clearly, you will never get anything in this household. And then push him. I don't do that. I don't. I go, pat pat.
What the heck is a pat pat? I try to figure it out. And that's what he's saying. When you come to your father, you don't have to come to him with eloquence. Or the right words. Or a perfect formulated argument.
You don't have to flatter him or butter him up. You just get to come to him because he cares about you. That's what makes prayer effective. Is that God, if you are in Christ, has redeemed you, adopted you, has made you his own. And his love is for you and over you. And he is your father.
He's not like your father. He is your father. Prayer gets to be that when we speak to him. But then Jesus does help us with the second question, which is, okay, that's the tone. That's the attitude. That's the posture of the conversation.
But how? How do we actually pray? And I think when we're asking that question, what we really mean is what do we pray? So I remember being in middle school and asking my dad, how do you talk to girls? That was a legitimate question I had. Hey, like, how do you talk to them?
And I knew English, how to formulate sentences. What I really didn't mean was how. What I meant was what on earth do you talk to a girl about? How do you begin this? What are the topics? What do you say?
Like, what's the appropriate? How do you pray about? How do you pray about? Like, that's what I think Jesus is answering when he says, pray like this. I think he's answering us. What do you pray about?
What do we need to talk to God about? What are the things that should be on our prayer list? And so here's my hope. As we walk through this, we're going to kind of just go through and say, here's what he's talking about. And my hope is for us as Christians, not only that we would be praying, but that as we walk through this today, if you see anything and you think, oh, I don't ever pray about that. That you'd put it on like it would become a normal way for you to pray.
Normal topic for you to pray about. Because I think that's what he's helping us with here. So let's pick up in verse 9. Pray then like this. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. So remember, he's saying our Father.
To remember who you're speaking to, he's our Father, but he's also our Father in heaven. So he's vast and massive and glorious and good. And then he says, hallowed be your name. Some of you maybe have different translations. You may have translations you may have. May your name be honored as holy.
That's a good translation. We don't really use the name hallowed. But it means may you be above everything else. May you be honored, respected, revered, glorified. So when he says this, when you begin to pray, some of what we pray about needs to be just praising God for who he is, for his gloriousness, for his goodness.
And this isn't flattery. This isn't me in high school talking to one of the cafeteria workers and slightly flirting with her to try to get an extra cookie. That's not it. It's not when you talk to God, you've got to butter him up first with like, oh, God, you're so special. And then secretly bring out the thing you really want. No, this is the appropriate way that we would begin praying.
That we would acknowledge how good he is. And this is what we do naturally for all things that are good and massive and glorious. So, like, let's say you ran into, it's always been interesting to me, when people meet someone famous, they spend the first little bit usually telling the person who they are and why they're famous. You're Michael Jordan. You're the greatest basketball player who's ever lived. And Michael Jordan's thinking, I'm so glad you told me that because I did not know.
You're Aaron Rodgers. Like, you know, like we would just, you're Neff Campbell. Like, I don't know. You just be popping off with like, you tell them who they are. That's like one of the ways that we would react. The other thing that we do when we see something glorious, we were watching a sunset last night, hanging out with my family.
And we're talking and we would just all stop and be like, look at that. And then you say things like, it's so orange. And the person next to you goes, yeah. He's saying that's one of the ways we ought to begin praying is by coming to God and saying, God, you're glorious. You're honorable. You're beautiful.
You're loving. Not only does it, is it the appropriate response for us when we see someone so good and so glorious, but it also puts us in the right frame of mind to who we're speaking to and what we're talking about. I think the other thing that we need to see here when we say and begin praise with, hallowed be your name. May you be above all else. We're also praying, God, help me to love you more than I love money because I'm so tempted to think that it is above all else. Help me to love you more than I love romance and relationships because I'm so tempted to believe that they're above all else.
Help me to love you more than I love success and approval and having everyone clap and pat me on the back and tell me I'm great because I'm so tempted to believe that that's above everything else. God, may you be above everything else. So do we pray like that? Is that part of your normal praying to praise God, to glorify him? Verse 10. He says, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
So God's kingdom and Matthew talks a lot about it or Jesus talks a lot about it in Matthew's gospel. God's kingdom is his rule and reign on earth. It's his righteous rule and reign on earth. And it's it's also the advance of the gospel. All of those who believe in him and faithfully follow him. That's his kingdom.
And it's it's his justice and his equity and his righteousness and his care for the poor. It's that's his kingdom as it moves forward. It's all the good things that come along with those who've been changed by the gospel and their work on earth. And so one of the ways we ought to be praying is that God's kingdom would advance. That's us praying for justice. That's us praying for fairness, for truth.
That people who commit crimes would be caught and convicted and people who did not commit crimes would would not be convicted. That that would be handled well. That we would we pray for God's right rule that people wouldn't take bribes. That that there would be fairness and equity and love. But it's also us praying that people would meet Jesus.
That for many of us and many of our friends and for the majority of the people in the city, they're facing a Christless eternity. That there will be a day when they stand before the king and all that will matter is that Jesus pay for your sin or are you going to. And that we would care and pray and say, God, this would be lists of names for us. God, be at work. Let your kingdom advance at my job in school. Let your kingdom advance over my neighborhood and begin asking specific people that God would save, that his kingdom would advance in.
I think when he says your will be done, I think we also have the freedom to any time we really have no clue what should happen or how something should work out. We just get to say, God, let your will be done. Let the way this should look in heaven look here. The way I should respond if I was a perfectly heavenly creature, let me respond that way. Empower me to do that. I think we also get to pray that his kingdom would advance in our hearts, that we would love truth and justice and honesty and all the good heavenly qualities of Jesus so they would be at work in us to change us.
So do you pray about those things? Is that a normal way for you to pray? Is that on your prayer list? If not, it should be. Because these are the things that Jesus is saying we ought to pray about. Verse 11.
Give us this day our daily bread. Um, this is just you get to pray for provision and normal daily stuff, small stuff that he would. This is where you get to say, God, I have a light bill. Could you help us pay that? I've got doctor's appointments coming up and I'm gonna have to be able to pay a copay or I've got insurance debt. Oh, that we just begin to pray for normal stuff.
Will you feed us? Will you care for us? I also want to point out that this is a daily prayer. He says, will you give us this day our daily bread? Meaning that he assumes you'll be praying to God daily and about these things on a very regular daily basis. Um, all the things that he's given us here.
This is normal stuff. I've heard some people before. For some of us it seems like there are some people in this room who maybe never pray prayers in this category. I've had someone tell me before, like, their shoulder was hurting and I was like, well, I'll pray about that. And they said, no, don't bother God with trivial stuff. And it's like, first of all, he's outside of time.
So he's okay. Like, he, he's good. He's not busy. He can handle it. Second of all, he's your father and he cares about you. So he cares that your shoulders hurt.
He may not fix it, but we can pray about it. Like, we, you can pray about all the normal stuff. For a lot of us in this room, this may be the only stuff you pray about. That it's only, uh, stuff that's coming up, stuff that's on your schedule, stuff that's going on. And that's, that's good. We ought to pray about that.
We ought to pray about our bills. We ought to pray about our life situations. We ought to pray about the things we need. He says he knows what you need. Go ahead and ask him. He cares.
But that shouldn't be all that we pray about. But this is the area where we would be praying about paying bills, getting a job, got a test coming up. I remember when I was in school, I always prayed, Lord, help me remember everything I studied and help me guess well. That was my test prayer. Everything I actually studied, let me remember that so that I didn't waste that time. And also, let me just, just work some, some of your grace on this test.
But that's, we get to pray about those things. The last, the last section we're going to look at here, it kind of shifts, I think. But still things that we ought to be praying about regularly. So he says, and forgive us our debts. This is verse 12. And forgive us our debts as we also forgive, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. I think we're familiar with the term debt. It means that we owe something. So some of us have school debt or credit card debt or house debt or car debt or debt, debt, debt, debt. And when he says this, he's talking about not just, not financial debt, but actually a sin debt. So that's why some versions will say, forgive us our sins or forgive us our trespasses, where we've stepped over the line, where we've missed the Mark, where we've harmed someone or we've sinned against you or others.
And he says, forgive us as we've forgiven those who've sinned against us, meaning that when we sin, we have debt with God and debt with others. So that there's a human debt from sin and a debt with God, a cosmic, eternal debt of sin. And so he says it's a normal daily thing for his followers who are speaking to the father to repent of sin, to ask for forgiveness. And here's what I want us to see here. This is actually a beautiful invitation into some freedom and joy and grace that I don't want us to miss out on. So I've heard some people before say that when you become a Christian, Jesus pays for all of your sin, past, present and future.
And that is true. All of your sin is covered, that you stand clothed in righteousness because of Christ. And so then they'll follow that up with, so Christians don't actually have to repent anymore. They don't have to acknowledge their sin anymore. It's already paid for. So you should not ever be as a Christian.
Just don't worry about it. Go, you're free. And I've also heard people say, no, you've got to repent of everything. And you've got to think about it and you've really got to figure out what it was. And you've got to know exactly. And you've got to take that to God.
And if there's anything going on, you better repent, repent, repent, repent. And really what Jesus is saying is that, first of all, can I just point out? Jesus, who's training his followers what it looks like to be his people, goes ahead and assumes they're going to daily have some things to repent about. Now, if Mill City Church doesn't say amen about anything, I think we say amen about that. We're going to have some stuff to repent about. There's going to be some things that we mess up, that we fail in, that we hurt each other and hurt God and rebel.
Like he just assumes. He's talking to his disciples, the 12 guys who he's training. He says, look, guys, when y'all talk to God, go ahead and know you've got some stuff to talk about. That's so freeing to me. And what he's saying is you're invited to have your debt forgiven. That you ought to acknowledge your sin on a regular basis and repent.
But that repentance is a celebration of the fact that my debt is paid. You get to go to him and say, forgive it. Forgive this debt. If there was going to be a place set up in downtown Columbia where all you had to do was show up and get debt forgiven, how long is that line? How long is that line? How amazing is that store or government program?
Where just your debt's wiped away. And that's what he's saying is you get to come to God and say, thank you. This is a celebration of the cross that Jesus paid our debt. And so we get to ask for forgiveness. So if you're a Christian, it should be a normal thing for you to repent.
For you to acknowledge sin where you've sinned against people in your community group or people in your family. And you repent. You go to God and say, forgive me. Wipe this debt clean. And you go to them and talk to them about it and ask for and repent there as well. So it's a good mixture of both.
We should acknowledge our sin. But when we acknowledge it, it's not grovelly fear based. It's celebration. Jesus, be at work in me. Continue to forgive me. Help me to walk in the forgiveness you've bought.
It's joy. He clarifies, though, because he says a statement here that I think he says, give us. No, sorry. Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. So he either means kind of at the same time as we or in the same manner.
And so then in 14, I think he clarifies for us. So jump down to verse 14 because he's going to kind of answer what he was saying there. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses. I think it's easy to not like those two verses, not because they're confusing, but because they aren't. What he said there was pretty clear.
Your forgiving of others is how you will be forgiven. If you forgive others, you're forgiven. If you don't forgive others, you're not forgiven. Now, Paul and Jesus later are going to flip this and say it as if you're truly forgiven, you will forgive. So Paul says we must forgive as we have been forgiven.
So he's saying that our action comes from the forgiveness we've received. Jesus here makes it sound like your forgiveness comes from how forgiving you are. Here's the thing. They're tied together. And here's why this matters immensely. And here's why this matters immensely.
If you genuinely understand the sin debt that was between you and God and the bridge that had to be, the chasm that had to be bridged by Christ on the cross and the amount of sin that was forgiven you, you are enabled to, by the gospel, forgive others. You're able to. You will. That's the way this is laid out in scripture, that you will forgive. So Jesus here says if you're not forgiving, you aren't forgiven.
If you don't forgive, you won't be forgiven. And here's one of the issues I think we have. When we say I'm a Christian, which means I believe that God has forgiven my debt. And then we look at someone and say, but I could never forgive them for what they've done to me. Because what they've done is real. Actually harmful.
Actually damaging. And you say I could never forgive them. Here's what you have articulated. I am bigger, more glorious, and any crime committed against me is more heinous than crimes committed against God. And that is not true. And that is not the gospel.
Our sin debt committed against God is so heinous, wicked, despicable because he is so glorious and so good that once he forgives that, we're able to forgive everyone else. I do want to help us out here. Forgiveness does not mean that you feel good inside or that it is not difficult. I have people say to me before, it's like I want to forgive him and I choose to forgive him, but I'm still angry or I still hurt and I'm still trying to process this and I'm still. And it's like, yeah, our model for forgiveness is a cross. It is not easy or comfortable.
Jesus chose to go to the cross in order to forgive us and we choose to forgive because we believe that he did that for us. And so Jesus is saying that as we forgive, it may be a process, it may be painful, it may hurt. We're choosing to absorb the pain ourselves rather than put it on them. So Jesus says, as we pray, repent and acknowledge our need to forgive others. Verse 13. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. So he says, forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sinned against us or forgive us our debts as we've forgiven our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. So lead us not into temptation. The Bible kind of lays out that we have three enemies. The flesh, the world, and the devil.
That we actually are your own worst enemy in some ways. You've lied to yourself more. You've tricked yourself more. You've harmed yourself more than anyone else has. That you actively choose to rebel against God. That you're at war with yourself.
So that's the flesh. The world is that the systems that exist around us that help us sin, that help us rebel. Well, so maybe you have a hard time controlling your eating habits. And you're battling yourself. But then, you know, snowballs just opened back up.
And they've opened one on every corner. Krispy Kreme exists. And so do buffets. And it's like it's just so difficult. Maybe you have lust issues. That you struggle with pornography and lust in every television show ever.
That's one of their goals. And they've made the internet have free, accessible pornography. That's our flesh and the world. That temptation exists around us. And then the Bible says that we actually have a real spiritual enemy. The same way that we have a real spiritual God and a real spiritual savior.
Who joined us in humanity and died on our behalf. That there are spiritual beings and we have a real enemy. That is actively waging war to keep us from Christ and to send us to hell. We have three enemies. Jesus says it's normal daily for Christians to pray about all three. The flesh, the world, the devil.
That we would pray, forgive me of my sin. Keep me from temptation. And deliver us from evil. There's some translations that will even say the evil one. Being as explicit as possible. So deliver me from temptation means we get to pray.
God, these are the things I struggle with. Help them not show up. Keep me far from them. When temptation comes, help me get away. It's not a sin to be tempted. It's a sin to sin.
Jesus was tempted. When Satan came to him and gave him temptations to sin. They were actually tempting. That's what a temptation is. It's not just a band. It's something that tempts you to sin.
So when Satan looked at Jesus and said, I'll let you be king of everything without a cross. I'll let you go straight to a throne without a cross. That was actually tempting. But Jesus resisted. He was delivered from temptation. This also can be basically us praying.
So if you have a little kid and you're walking through a store, you may intentionally skip an aisle. Because you just don't want to have to argue with them about they're not getting the things on that aisle. This is saying, hey, God, drive the cart far away from the aisle. Or if you're southern, keep my buggy out of that aisle. Whichever you'd rather say. But that's the prayer.
Keep me from temptation. And then deliver me from evil. That we as Christians would actively be aware that we don't just wage war against the flesh. But that we have an enemy that we can't see. And that we should be praying that his works and efforts would be thwarted. And that God would keep us far from him.
Keep him far from us. And that we would be delivered. It seems to me that people often will pray, maybe one or two of those, that maybe you're one of the people that notices your own sin very clearly. And that when things happen, you are always very quick to say, I'm sinful. I'm to blame. Some people will more quickly notice that the world tricked you.
That your friends are tempting you. Or that the world is tempting you. So you'll pray about this. Other people may be more willing to acknowledge that Satan is at work and blame things on him. And Jesus says yes to all three. So pray about all three.
Don't just acknowledge your flesh. Don't just acknowledge your world and your terrible friends that try to tempt you. And don't just acknowledge that you have an enemy. Acknowledge and pray about all three. Okay. We have a good father who cares about us.
Who intimately knows us, loves us, and has adopted us into his family at the cost of his own son. That Christ came to pay for our sin and to bring us to the Father to open up a seat at the table for us. So we get to pray. Three practical points on prayer. Set aside time. Jesus says go into your room, close the door.
Do that. Some people say, well, I pray, you know, just small times throughout the day. Or I pray, you know, when I'm riding. I pray when I'm driving. Or I pray when I'm in the shower or something. And it's like that's great.
And I think we should be praying. But I also think he says have an intentional time where you get away from everything. You close the door and you pray. And so I would just say for us as a church as we're going to pray, make some time. We make time for the things we care about. Make time to pray.
To spend some time talking to the Father. Secondly, just talk. You get to speak to a Father that cares about you. It doesn't have to be fancy. It doesn't have to be well planned out. Just talk.
Just pray. Just speak. Converse. It can be really awkward. That's fine. He knows you're awkward.
This isn't a first date. He knows you. You're not tricking him. If you show up, if you went into this room and wrote out a beautiful, eloquent prayer and then came into this room, he just saw you. Just talk to him. You're okay.
It doesn't have to be pretty or special. Just pray. Talk to him about the things you care about. Talk to things about worrying you. Talk about nothing. Just tell him he's great for five minutes.
That's fine. That'll help you. Pray. Thirdly, to help you learn how to pray and what to pray about, I would encourage you to do two things. Open your Bible and read it as a conversation. So let's say we're reading through the Sermon on the Mount.
You're reading through it at home. You're in your room. You've intentionally set this time aside to pray. And you come across something where he says, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. You may need to stop right there and say, God, I don't believe that. And I have such a hard time being meek.
The only times I felt like I inherited anything, I fought for it. And I have such a hard time believing that. Help me to believe that. Help me to understand that. Treat it like a conversation. When you hit something, you realize you need to repent.
When you hit something, it's just like, God, that's so beautiful. Because I'm mourning right now. And you say you're going to comfort me. Thank you for being the God who comforts those who mourn. Just use it as a conversation to teach you how to pray. Secondly, you can pray Psalms or epistles.
So you can pray Psalms or there are sections in Paul's letters where he says, this is what I'm praying for you. So you can just steal. I'm going to pray that for my group for a week. I'm going to pray that we would all understand the height and depth and length and breadth of God's love for us. That's my prayer for us right now. So you can just pray sections of scripture.
The same way that a child learns how to speak by having someone else speak to them. There's a reason my son said, come on. He didn't get that, make it up on his own. He got that because that's what has been spoken to him. So have God speak to you.
Use the scriptures to teach you how to pray. I also just want to point out that at the back end of that prayer, there's a section where Jesus is basically saying it's normal for Christians to pray. Keep me. Protect me. Defend me. Keep me from sin.
Keep me from falling. Keep me from running. Keep me close to you. And that ought to be a way that we pray. We praise God for his gloriousness. We pray for his kingdom to advance.
We talk to him about all the normal things going on. We acknowledge our sin. And then we say, God, keep me close to you. Keep me with you. Help me make it to the end. Band's going to come back up.
And we're going to sing. And praise God for his goodness. And celebrate that this is how we get to pray. Let's pray together. Father, you're glorious. You're holy.
And I pray that we would revere you and honor you and love you above all else. We ask, Lord, that your kingdom would come. That you would use our community groups to advance your kingdom on earth. That there would be more joy and more family and more love and more grace and more forgiveness and more justice and righteousness and equity. And more and more and more people who have been saved by the grace and the forgiveness that are found only in Christ. We pray that your kingdom would come through our community groups.
We pray that your kingdom would come in our community groups. That we would repent of sin. That we would acknowledge your holiness. That we would learn to obey. That we would learn to agree with your word and submit to it. We ask, Lord, that your will would be done.
In all the situations going on right now that we don't know how they should end up. We don't understand fully where you're at work. We can't even see beyond the next two steps in life. We pray that your will would be done. That it would look the way it ought to look. That it would look as if heaven for a moment touched the earth.
We ask that in your name. We pray, Lord, that you would provide for us. That you'd help us to pay bills. That you'd work in our health. That you would help us to do well in school and at work. That you'd help us to raise our children.
Or to grow up and to treat our parents well. We ask that you would daily take care of us. We pray, Lord, that you would help us to see our sin clearly. That we would repent often and celebrate in the grace and the joy that's offered to us. That repentance is a privilege that we have. That we don't carry debt because you paid for it.
And God, we ask that you would so free us up in the forgiveness and the payment of debt that you've given to us. That we would forgive everyone who sins against us. That those who've been holding on to bitterness would see your glorious grace for them. And that they would be empowered to forgive. God, keep us far from temptation. And keep us far from the enemy.
That his works would not be present here or active here. That we would walk in the full conquering freedom of Christ the King. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Y'all stand listening.