Introduction
Let me begin with a discipleship question: will we trust and obey Jesus in the real decisions of everyday life? Christ forms us through truth received, repentance practiced, and obedience lived out.
Main Points
Grace and Justification
we're in matthew chapter six for the second week in a row uh if you were here last week you heard me say that this might be one of my favorite chapters of the bible it was the very first sermon that i ever preached i love that jesus says if you're a follower of christ if you live in the kingdom if you seek first the kingdom we have nothing to worry about we have just confidence that god will take care of us like he takes care of care of the birds of the field and the lilies in the valley and how much more will he take care of us and i've always loved just the confidence that we have in knowing that we belong to god's kingdom but before we get to that which will come up next week we're going to spend another week really as an extension of what we talked about last week so if you were here with us last week this will come by way of summary but if you weren't i want to share a little bit about what the beginning of this chapter states because it was something that really we all needed to hear it was an answer to the question of why so often especially in the day and age we live in the church movement the church culture the church people sometimes feel less than excited about church and we mentioned this startling statistic last week that the growth of our country and population is really not something that correlates to the growth of the church the churches is shrinking and there's less people going to church and when you look for a reason as to why that there are seats open this morning that may have been filled by someone who used to go to church or who would have gone to church except for the objections against church one of the main reasons if you talk to all of them there's a there's a lot but one of the main reasons that people will give was something we talked about all last week which is that one word hypocrisy so often when you come to church one of the worst experiences you can have is when what is preached from the pulpit is not actually practiced in life it's not only something that is confusing for an outsider looking in but in your own life if you follow god or you want to know god but there's no substance it's just religious activity or as we said last week religious theater then you're going to be left wanting because we are not designed just to practice religion and do all of the rituals around religion and jesus says hypocrites do that but the reward is not god the reward will just be the attention that you receive from religious theater so i say all of that in summary because jesus as the wise master teacher he is will never bring up a problem without giving us a solution and so if one of the problems of our age is hypocrisy we have to ask the question what's the solution how do we be people who genuinely pursue god and have hearts that align with our mouths as we worship or proclaim his goodness and that is the type of conversation today so last week the problem of hypocrisy we'll actually find the answer this morning in one of the most famous passages of scripture in the bible that we often call the lord's prayer so i took i told you to turn your bible to matthew chapter six many of you can probably listen to this sermon and have reference points to every verse just based off the memorization of this incredible prayer but this prayer that we're going to study this morning is the answer for the empty feeling that church sometimes leaves people with this is the answer for hypocrisy this is the answer for a church that's very active on sunday but dead during the week this is the answer for a heart that wants to know god but is left wanting it is found and revived and made known to god in the power of prayer is the answer to hypocrisy genuine heart before god is found in your genuine prayer life and so that's what we'll look at today one of the in just preparing for this one of the quotes that i stumbled across that got me so excited about this sermon being an answer to some of the problems of our age is an e.m bounds quote that i want to share with you now it says what the church needs today is not more machinery not new organizational methods or novel ideas on how to grow the church now e.m bounds lived in a different age but he could say that of his day he could say it of our day you could say throughout church history that what a church age needs to be revived in the power of god is never found simply in methodology or novel ideas not saying there isn't a good reason for us to share our experiences in ways that we found fruit in the church age we live in but when we're looking to find a real encounter with the living god it is not found in methodology what the quote will go on to say is what we must have is men by whom the holy spirit can use men of prayer mighty men of prayer because the holy spirit does not flow through methods but through men he does not come to machinery but men and he does not anoint plans before he anoints the prayers of men and women and god's people the revival of our hearts and our church and our age is never found in just cracking the code of ministry methodology and it will never be found in your life in the same way there is not a book that i can give you or a conference i can send to you or an idea that you just have to unlock that will all of a sudden make god come alive to you what makes god come alive is always and only god himself and how do you know god himself through the power of prayer so today we're going to look at that section matthew chapter 6 that really hones in on the opposite of hypocrisy in verse 5 it says this 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 street that they may be seen by men assuredly they have the reward that was the emphasis of last week that when you really look for the difference between a genuine heart after god and a difference between a religious theater it is the motivation to be seen and known by god for seen and known by men and how often do we find ourselves walking the tightrope and erring on the side of well i made it to church and i said the prayer and i sang the song and i was around the brothers and sisters and i've checked into the roll call of church so surely i must be on the straight and narrow with christ and it's like no it's not what it's about that is the tightrope that can easily lead to religious theater where you're patting yourself on the back because your reward is simply to be seen at church where the actual reward is to be known by god and to know him intimately so jesus is now going to give us a remedy by which we are revived in our relationship with god apart from religious theater he says when you pray go into your room and when you have shut your door pray to your father who is in the secret place and your father who sees in secret will reward you openly before we get to the lord's prayer we get to the run-up to how jesus even sets the table by which we would be interacting with god in a genuine and real way and what he says is find a place in your life call it the secret place call it the depths of your heart or the alone and quiet that you have with god in your mind and let that be the only measure by which you are seen before gods be so alone with god that there can be no confusion about who you are praying for be so quiet before the lord that there is no interaction with people part of it not that we can't have public prayer at time or corporate worship but to know the genuineness of your heart before god he says go and find him in secret and i was so blessed by this i emphasize this even before we get to the lord's prayer because in finding god and being genuine before him jesus says seek after him in a way where there's no one around and if you really do that if you really pursue a secret place with the lord what you'll find is that to find god in your life the day-to-day life which will come up in the rhythm of this prayer it requires you to make an attempt to find him there is a seeking nature to this prayer before he even opens his words as to the manner by which you pray there is a manner by which you seek after god because the secret place if you have not noticed is not easy to find and that was true of jesus day no doubt because we get another reference to the lord's prayer in luke chapter 11 right after he says this is the manner by which you would pray what we call the lord's prayer he says it's kind of like this imagine there is a man who's asleep in his bed and a neighbor knocks on the door because he's got an unexpected visitor and he needs some bread he's fresh out so he's pounding on the door at midnight and that is the teaching point to say keep going keep seeking be a persistent seeker of god and then jesus says something interesting he says the man is in bed with all of his children and he's so annoyed that this guy's knocking he's basically going to wake up the whole household because in ancient days it's not like they had three-bedroom two-bath households where everybody had their own bed it's like describing the scene the whole family's in the living room or whatever they called it and if you knock on the door you're waking everybody up now i read that and i think man how did they find a secret place where do you go to be alone with the lord go outside ancient days you better find some shade you better find somewhere near water you better make it a pursuit of your life to make your life alone with god something you are willing to fight for because i can tell you this if the application of this in the conviction of the spirit for your life is to carve out a secret place for your life it's not magically waiting for you after this service as i looked after my own secret place this week i was like okay it's not in the upstairs office because there's just too much going on around the church for me to just seek the lord alone in the private of the office so it's go home and it's like no i've got four kids and they're always hungry and there's no quiet time in that place and so it's like okay go somewhere find the lord along with him and if you haven't noticed our city is growing our trails are filling up the river is very popular and after about an hour and a half of just walking around trying to find quiet i finally opened my bible and lift my heart and i said god it is a struggle to find you day to day and if you want to have a genuine relationship with the lord you have a daily rhythm that is willing to struggle to the secret place wherever it is for you this day or tomorrow it's not the place that is sacred it is the power of god's presence that will make any attempt that you have to seek him in the secret place come alive the goal of this if you're listening to the words of jesus is to say are you seeking god like that to get away from all of the other pursuits of your life and to be alone with god requires a pursuit and what i love about this prayer is it's setting you up for that pursuit in a rhythm that every single day you are willing to get out of the busyness to get away from the noise to quiet your heart and to know who god is in your life what else does he say when you pray go to your secret place and don't use vain repetitions as the heathens do for they think they will be heard by their many words therefore do not be like them for your father knows the things you have need of before you even ask him there's another run-up to this that we have to be so mindful of when we study the lord's prayer because jesus says you really don't have to be loud and boisterous and in the streets that's really just to be seen by men but even before god you don't have to use vain repetitions as if you're trying to get god's attention you don't have to go through your prayer life and it requires five or ten minutes of you begging god to listen to you he said the heathens do that we believe in a god who has an ear that is inclined to hear and he compares this to a father which we'll talk about in the opening prayer or the manner by which we should pray but it's good to point out now because he says your father knows what you need you don't have to beg him to see the headline of your life that if only he'd be attentive to your life he would see what you actually need the idea is that if you go to god is waiting to hear your cry earthly fathers not so much i just think of vain repetition and it is actually a method by which my children get my attention they like pull on my shirt and they say the same thing 25 times until i listen that's not god he does not need to be woken for his slumber or focus from his distraction or listen to you finally get his attention because you said it enough times we say all that because how often has the very next application of this been abused the lord's prayer can turn into a vain repetition in my preparation of the preaching of the lord's prayer it was like maybe i'll just say this a hundred times until it kind of comes out of me what could be prayed and then i realized that's the way that we've misused this prayer for centuries it's like let's repeat it as a congregation go home and do ten unless you've been really off track then do 50 and make this a repetition of your life until the lord finally hears you god is inclined to dwell with his people god knows your needs god isn't needing to be awoken from his sleep the power of prayer is something that we do to awaken our own soul through his goodness and his faithfulness and his sovereignty and his wisdom and his will so as we approach the lord's prayer we realize that we approach it with a determination to pursue him and a belief that he will be waiting that if we seek will find and if we knock the door will be opened so now how do we pray how do we use the lord's prayer as the revival of the genuine hearts of worship we have by which we would uh be freed from hypocrisy or dead religion and be alive with the presence of god well there's a couple things i'll say on the onset one just meditating as you pray through this and the framework is there for you will be so simple and so profound that if you spend time in the presence of god and just go through this for your own life and recite the lord's prayer with your own application in your heart you will be blessed in fact as jesus encourages his disciples not to use vain repetitions he offers them a prayer that takes about 15 seconds to get through so don't wait until you have an hour or a prayer retreat set aside to seek the lord but seek him with the confidence that by this framework you will be blessed in what the lord has taught you to do in prayer the other way that you can use this is by using each one of these portions and petitions of the lord's prayer as framework by which you allow the spirit to pray more and more through you and we'll get to each one of those things that could be prayed beyond just the words of the lord prayer this morning but what we'll find in the pattern of this is a way for us to stay so anchored in all of the ways that our relationship with god will be full of life and vitality so the first thing he says pray in this manner pray like this father in heaven hallowed be your name and just that statement alone could be a sermon we could we could write a sermon about every line of the lord's prayer but this is called summer on the mount not the sermon for the year but we're going to try to put it all into one package but this one profound thing can change your entire prayer life jesus says to pursue god as our father and in your own prayer life look how often that we run up to the lord or we approach him in a way that uses the word god and he is god and he is lord but there is such a subtle yet profound shift that happens when we acknowledge that we are coming into the presence of god and he desires to be known as our father there is a very large distinction between god and all of the theology that comes with knowing him and the mystery of who he is and understanding him in the relationships that he's given us to have a reference point to how he wants to be known in our lives which is a father a father who cares for his children father who provides a father who has authority to give wise direction and counsel a father who as it says is in heaven representing the perfection of everything fatherhood was ever meant to be and again we look to luke chapter 11 because there is an enhancement of the lord's prayer that helps us understand what jesus is getting at when we look at god as not just a distant all-powerful being but a relational father who has come to make us sons and daughters by the rights of adoption for anyone who would receive the son would be made sons and daughters of god john chapter 1. in luke chapter 11 he says this if a son asks for bread what father among you will give him a stone or if he asks for a fish will he give him a serpent instead of a fish or if he asks for an egg will he offer him a scorpion if you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your kids how much more will your heavenly father give the holy spirit to those who ask here's the idea that jesus is getting at what we find in the god-given natural inclination towards children not always lived out perfectly but he said what father among you broadly inviting anyone to relate to this analogy fathers know how to care for their kids and they actually enjoy long for want to care for their children i was watching a documentary not long ago and it was a documentary that maybe i found interesting because my wife is colombian and fascinated by her culture and her language and also her motherland and so we're watching this documentary on pablo escobar who is if you don't know maybe the one of the most infamous drug lords of our time he was one of the main faces in the war on drugs that we were we were fighting against and he came to great wealth great power and he did not get there by godly means he had murder on his resume and he had all sorts of nefarious things that he did to get his status and yet part of the documentary was to give an expose into the private life of pablo escobar and one of the ways they were allowed us to see who he was is he had two kids and paulo escobar maybe the face of evil in the 80s was a great dad by all estimations he loved his kids he cared for them he took them out of poverty and gave them great wealth he gave them anything they wanted he was loyal to his children which is to say we get this when it comes to our own kids how much more will god be careful and loyal and caring and providing to his children who among you doesn't care for your kids how much more does the heavenly father care for his children so we start this out by saying god's our father whatever we come to him with whatever desires we have on our hearts or needs that we bring before him we are not supposed to think of him as distant but we are supposed to think of him as a loving father who longs to care for his children he has given us the right to be called his children for anyone who received his son and every time you preach about fatherhood as a reference point to god i have to also follow the disclaimer that earthly fathers are not perfect and they're not always giving and they're not always careful for the well-being of their children but we have a father in heaven the dwelling place of god that represents his perfection so that when you think of fatherhood you're not thinking of your own mistaken broken history but you're thinking of fatherhood in all of its perfection that is who god is in our life and i'm going to bring this up a lot but there's a daily rhythm to this prayer which means this is not something that you need simply for the doctrine of your mind this is something that we are supposed to live and breathe and be reminded of and confess and profess every day of our life lest god slowly fade into the background of our religious pursuit away from father and toward a distant deity this morning you wake up my father in heaven and then you come to this other part of a simple yet profound shift in the way that you approach god when you say hallowed be your name now hallowed is not a word that we use very often you have a little bit of that word in the word halloween all hallows eve it's this word that could best be described in a word that we use much more often in our proclamation of who god age which is the word holy lord god almighty was and is and is to come the holiness of god is what makes god altogether special and unique and different we live in a fallen world god dwells in the perfection of heaven we live where love is seen dimly lit through our relationships no one perfectly loving one another and yet god holy and separate set apart always perfectly kind and patient and loving and long-suffering and what we do when we say father holy is your name is we're saying may your name have that effect in my life because here's the question is god holy is god fully holy and separate set apart perfect in all of his ways different than the fallen world we live in and the bible students and the long time disciples and those of you who know doctrine can nod your head and say of course god is holy it's the tenet of the faith is that god is perfect and we're not and yet the real question of this prayer is not whether or not you believe in the theology of holiness but you believe in the personal nature of god's holiness in your own life is god holy in your life today has god been set apart as someone that is altogether different in the priority of your life in the worship and the aim and the pursuit of your life is god's name holy in your heart not just in your mind and again we look for reference points how can we understand a holy name what does that look like well i believe if you're like me you probably have a holy name other than the name of god that you can kind of get a picture of what it means to have something set apart for me the holy name when it comes into my mind or when i'm in the middle of something and it crosses across my screen and that name shows up is daniela it's totally different than all the other names in the audience and the sanctuary it's a it's a name that represents a relationship that is so different it's the name of my wife if you didn't know in fact when it comes on my screen it says colombian princess which she put in there and i just never changed but it to the teaching point it's the only princess in my phone i have a relationship with her that is unique and different and set apart for all of the relationships represented here hers is hallowed and you may have a hallowed name no matter what you're doing in your day checking emails writing your focus time your you're writing the report or you're in business or you're studying and that phone can there's one name that can break through there's one name that will that will be honored and respected more than any other name in your contact list and whatever that name is that is a hallowed name for you it may be a spouse maybe a son or daughter or a best friend and maybe or maybe most probably that name is your own name the name that desires to be set apart and highly prioritized and the name that gets the most respect in fact we get this tension that exists between the name of god and our own name our own pursuits when we think about the difference between when jesus says don't do your charitable deeds before people to be seen by them that you would receive glory and the contrast that comes just a chapter before matthew 5 16 where he says do your good works before men that your light would shine and they would give glory to god what name are you living for what name is the pursuit of your religious activities of your business ventures what name is being elevated as the name as the bible
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.