This is a rush transcript.

[00:00:02] I drove by a church yesterday, and I don't know what you think when you drive by churches, but I pay a lot of attention because I'm a pastor. Church is kind of a big deal to me. So I. I drove by. This church was probably like a surfer might be checking out waves or perhaps like that experience shopper can sense the deals that the rest of us walk on by.

[00:00:24] But I noticed this church was a happen in place for a Saturday, like the parking lot was packed.

[00:00:29] Not only was every spot full, but there were people parked behind. People like this church was double parking on a Saturday right after lunch. There was a little bit of grass in front of this church and there were cars parked on the grass.

[00:00:45] And I'm thinking revival is breaking out in Huntington Beach. What is this? I got work of the Holy Ghost. Is this some kind of prayer meeting from a day gone by, like what could be happening at this church? And I see a sign as I'm driving by free bingo every Saturday.

[00:01:05] I'm just like, yeah, isn't that where we're at? Isn't that where we're at? All right.

[00:01:11] Give him free space and they all want to come in. I thought church was a place we were supposed to go because God was there at church. The church was exciting enough in and of itself that we could go together as a group of people, that we could gather like in the presence of God and worship him in spirit and truth to me. That's what I thought. Church was supposed to be about. But as you can see from looking around what's going on?

[00:01:39] Church has become about something else. A lot of corruption.

[00:01:43] We're trying to appeal to people just as they are to come and join us at church rather than saying churches is close to heaven as you're going to get this side of death. And that's why you should be here. There a lot of corruption back in Jesus, his day in this place called the Temple, it was supposed to be this place where people could go and they could pray to God and they could get their sins atone for and they could have a right relationship. And there was this holy place in the middle of the temple. And so that's what it used to be about. But when Jesus came and he saw the temple and what was going on and there was all this selling and they had turned it into a den of robbers. He said, my father's house, which is supposed to be a house of anybody. Remember what Jesus said? A house of prayer.

[00:02:28] Prayer.

[00:02:30] A place where people are going to talk to God and you've turned it into something else. And so what did Jesus Christ do?

[00:02:36] You made a whip.

[00:02:38] And he overturned the tables and he ran people out of the temple because he was so upset about what the worship of God had.

[00:02:48] Come say. Why are we here today? What are we here to do?

[00:02:55] Is talking to God, is having a relationship with God. A passion for you that not only brings you into this building on Sunday morning, but something that you exercise freely. All of the time where you talk to God in prayer. Is that a passion that you have shared with me? Matthew, Chapter six. And I want to go to a special sermon, a special passage for us here at Compass Bible Church, Huntington Beach. An important day for us as we're going to turn now to Matthew, Chapter six. And here in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is going to teach us how to pray. We got to prayer last week in First Thessalonians, Chapter three, where Paul expressed how he was praying for those people.

[00:03:38] And we started talking about prayer. And it's very clear as we interact with people here at our church that for a lot of people, prayer maybe isn't really a big priority in their current schedule. Or there might be some people, I would imagine, here this morning that feel like I don't really know how to pray as I ought to pray.

[00:03:57] You know, anybody like that may be here today. Say one good thing is Jesus Christ. He taught us exactly how we are supposed to pray. And I think teaching this is going to be so important because if we can see the number of people who truly pray according to scripture in Jesus name, that's gonna be the best thing for our church to be built up. So read with me, Matthew, chapter six versus nine to 13. And let's see what Jesus says here.

[00:04:26] Pray then like this. Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

[00:04:33] Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

[00:04:40] Give us this day 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 evil. So there and just a few verses, just kind of a pattern here, an outline. Jesus gives us an example of how you and I should be praying. And if you were here last week, we looked at verse six, look back at birth six, Matthew, chapter six, verse six, where it says, But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father, who is in secret grip, and your father, who sees in secret will reward you. There is an assumption here. There's an expectation that if you're one of Jesus's people, if you're one of his disciples, you will have a time where you block the rest of the world out. You close the door and you go into a secret place, a place where it's just you and God and you will talk to him. That's the expectation here. And now he's giving you an idea of what that time should look like between you and your father in heaven as you meet in this secret place. Now, everybody, if you've got a you've got a handout here. You've got the Lord's Prayer printed out. And I just want to break it down into three little parts here, OK? First, we've got first we've just got the first line there. The Who, our father in heaven. If you could just circle that. OK. First thing we got to figure out is who we're talking to. And so we'll we'll break that down in a minute. But then I want you to see that really we could summarize the rest of the prayer into two parts. There's really three requests that are your requests and three requests that are our requests. And so you can see there, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So if you want to just block out that part of the prayer. And right next to it, the your part of the prayer. We start with three requests that are God's requests, things that we were praying for him to do that are really all about him. Then if you can keep going down, we get to give us this day our daily bread and then forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. So the basic idea here is we get to your God's requests before we get to our requests.

[00:07:05] And that's going to be different than a lot of us naturally pray. I know for myself and I'm speaking here a little bit from personal experience, but when I come to God, I often start with how I feel with what's going on in my day. And I just kind of bring to him the things that I have that I need. And that's basically often how I started my prayer or at least how I used to. And still, I learned that I was doing it all wrong.

[00:07:29] I had a completely backwards.

[00:07:32] When I pray, I'm supposed to be so thinking about who I'm talking to that I'm not starting with myself. I'm focused on him. So prayer is the closest to heaven you're ever going to get before you die and actually go there if you're one of Jesus's people. I mean, now, if I ask who wants to go to heaven when they die, I would imagine everybody here would raise their hand. Prayer is who wants to go to heaven.

[00:07:56] Now, while you're still alive. That's what prayer is.

[00:08:00] Prayer is you getting out of everything that's going on here on the horizontal level. And you now focusing your eyes on the throne room.

[00:08:10] Where God is no, if you've ever read about Heaven in Isaiah, Chapter six or Revelation, Chapter four.

[00:08:16] Chapter five. But heaven seems to have a focal point. It all seems to be centered around one thing, and that's God on his throne. And everybody's crying out.

[00:08:24] Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of what his glory.

[00:08:31] They're worshiping in.

[00:08:33] It's very it's very God centered there. And then we know that at his right hand, the one who is making it possible. God's presence is so holy. People like us, we couldn't even dare to go there. But who's made a way for us to go into there?

[00:08:47] Well, there's Jesus Christ. He's at the right hand of the father and he's interceding us. It's like he's our high priest coming into God's presence and saying, hey, these are my people. I died for them. My blood cleanse them. They can now come into this place and they can talk to God freely because of what I've done for them.

[00:09:04] You can go to that place. You can leave Huntington Beach, Southern California, the four oh five your bills.

[00:09:11] You can leave it all behind at any moment and you can go into the throne room of heaven and talk to the God of the universe.

[00:09:21] Why would we not want to do this? Why would this not be the passion, the exciting. The highlight of our day. So now let's just break it down. Let's start with our father in heaven. That that's who we're talking to. And I love that because it's both. It's both intimate and then also transcended at the same time. Right. A father that sounds like somebody that you can talk to. That sounds like a close personal relationship. Right. But in heaven, that's a little intimidating because I've never been there. I wouldn't know how to get there. Right. But I love this. Our father in heaven. God wants to be your father. And I don't know. We got some dads here and everybody who's a dad here. You naturally know that when you've got a kid, you want to do good things were bad things for your kid, right?

[00:10:11] You want to do good things.

[00:10:13] You want to give him good gifts. Like yesterday was my daughter. Her sixth birthday party. Right. And she starts coming to me and my wife and she starts saying, I want to have a birthday party where I invite friends from school because I'm in kindergarten now and I want everything to be pink and I want it to be Hello Kitty themed, you know? No, it doesn't take me long. You know, I'm maybe the smartest guy in the world, but it doesn't take me long to realize that's exactly what I want to do, too. That sounds amazing.

[00:10:40] That sounds awesome. And all of a sudden, my wife and I were getting totally into this. We're like, there's pink goldfish you can buy. Well, we've got to have those at the party. Right. The ceiling's covered in pink balloons. We got a bounce house that's got Hello Kitty on it. Right. I mean, we're painting. We even did sewing it. And we were getting totally into this party. It's like this is my daughter. She's decreed she wants a party. This will be the best six year old party on our block. You know what I mean?

[00:11:08] That's how you get it. But here's the thing. You're ready to do whatever you want for your kid.

[00:11:13] But at the end of the day, when all the gifts have been opened and all the tantrums have been had and everybody's tired and everybody's gone home, you know what I mean? Serious argument broke out about who would get to sit next to my daughter while she was eating her cupcake with a hello kitty on it. You know, I mean, I was like, oh, yeah, I like this. You know, they want to sit next to my girl. I love it. Right. But when it's all said and done, what does she say? She she's laying in mom's arms at the end of the day.

[00:11:39] And she says the best part of today was being with my family. That's what she says, and we're all like, oh, that's so cute, right? But how many days has God been so good to you? Like, way beyond. Like he gave you even what you wanted. He satisfied your heart's desire. And you couldn't say the best part of that day was being with him. You can say the best part of that day was going into his presence and talking to him and saying, wow, you're such a good father to me and I love you and I want to be with you. I don't just want the gifts. I want the giver. With me over to just a Matthew Chapter seven. Just the next page, right over.

[00:12:22] I mean, Jesus still in the same sermon. He gets into this idea of. Prayer, again, is so important. Look at Matthew, chapter seven, verse seven, he says, Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find knock and it will be open to you. I mean, this is somebody who's praying like they're going to get what they're asking for. They're praying with persistence. They're knocking on the door for everyone. Check this out. Look at the promise here. Everyone who asks receives the one who seeks finds to the one who knocks it will be opened. Now, which one of you, if he has a son, if his son asks him for bread, we'll give him a stone. Or if he asks for a fish, we'll give him a serpent.

[00:13:05] No, if you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will your father, who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask him?

[00:13:18] Do you believe that God is a gracious, loving heavenly father who wants to give you things that will satisfy your heart's desire? He wants to bless you in ways that you don't even know are gonna be the best ways to be blessed in your life. Do you believe that God is good? Do you believe that you can come to him and that you cares for you? See, it's part of the reason we don't pray is we don't really believe that God wants to give us good gifts and he wants to satisfy our heart's desire.

[00:13:48] We kind of think we can figure out a better way to be happy. Right.

[00:13:53] If your kid came to you and they said, I know more than you, mom or dad, about how to be happy in my life, you would laugh at them, say, but so many times we think we know better than our Heavenly Father and we can figure it out for ourselves. We can get there by ourselves. But no, we need to come to him and he wants to give us good things. We have to ask him, it says he will give good things to those who ask him.

[00:14:20] I would encourage you to come to your father and express your heart's desires, pour out your heart behind before him. Be honest with him. Tell him how you really feel. Now, you need to hesitate a little bit when you do that, because it's our father who is in heaven.

[00:14:34] Turn with me into Isaiah 66 through with me to the Old Testament. Excuse me. Isaiah, Chapter 66.

[00:14:43] And you'll see here that we are on Earth and God is in heaven. And Ecclesiastes five says if we're coming into the temple of God, if we're coming into the presence of God, then we should let our words be few. We should consider what we're going to say as we come to God's presence. It would not be wise for us just start pouring out everything that we might think or say or or feel to a holy God in heaven.

[00:15:10] Isaiah 66 puts it like this as we get to the end of this great prophetic masterpiece. That is the book of Isaiah. This is how it concludes. Thus, says the Lord. Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. I mean, our entire planet is just a place for God to put his feet.

[00:15:26] He's so high above us.

[00:15:29] What is the house that you would build for me and what is the place of my rest? All these things, my hand has made it so, all these things came to be, declares the Lord.

[00:15:38] But this is the one to whom I will look. Here's the kind of person I'm looking for when they come to me in prayer. He who is humble, lowly thinking, little of ourselves contrite and spirit repentant over our sin, confessing our sin, and trembles at my word.

[00:15:57] This is in someone who's just gonna walk into the presence of God and act like everything's cool and and we're our brose. This is someone who's gonna get down in a place of humility before God, and he's gonna come to him and acknowledge his glory and his splendor that he is holy, that he is other than us. And then he's going to get humble before him and worship him.

[00:16:18] So we are going to have to take some time to think about who God is. Might have to read a little bit of the Bible. We're gonna have to set our mind on the things above and consider who God is before we just begin talking to him. Let's get that down for point number one.

[00:16:32] You need to consider who you have a relationship with. You need to consider who you have a relationship with.

[00:16:39] I mean, you need to think about who you're talking to, you are talking to a god in heaven who is so big and high above what we can comprehend, that the earth, a vast planet to us, is his footstool.

[00:16:55] And he asked to look, he has to incline himself to even listen to us. We need to come to him with a degree of humility. But then there's an intimacy here where I can come to him as my father.

[00:17:07] I would imagine as as a parent, anyone here who's ever had a child, you know, that you want your son or your daughter to love you, do you not? Does everybody you want your son or daughter to love you. Do you want them to come and talk to you? Is it the delight of your heart when they come to you and they tell you what they think? And you don't have to prompt them. You don't have to guilt them into it. Like you don't have to buy them something to get their affection right. When they come and they freely seem to express to you gratitude when they come to you and they freely express to you when you're when your daughter comes up to you and gives you a hug for no apparent reason.

[00:17:45] Tell me, Dad, does it get much better than that, Nancy? Now, when our heavenly father love for you to come to him and for you to express to him your love and your gratitude to him. Wouldn't it be great if you could just offer to him freely your heart and have a regular conversation with him? There are so many people who claim to have a relationship with God that they don't even talk to. We got a marriage event on Friday night. How does that work in your marriage when you don't talk to your spouse? Right.

[00:18:16] How does that work within your family when you don't talk to your kids? My relationships assume communication can be all right, that their relationships assume communication. So you're going to claim to be a Christ follower here this morning.

[00:18:29] And that means that you have eternal life, that you know God because of this relationship that you have with him now through Jesus Christ. How can you claim to have a relationship with God that you do not talk to? Does anybody see the hypocrisy in that statement?

[00:18:43] Right. We have a loving heavenly father who is waiting for you to come to him and you can go to him at any time because Jesus Christ has given you complete access. Right. And what do we want to do?

[00:18:57] Well, we want to play bingo. We want to win prizes. We want it. We're like greedy kids who want more stuff for ourselves. All right. When we should be coming to our father and expressing to him, God, you have given me so many good things, how could I even thank you enough?

[00:19:15] The best part of my day, God, is that our that I have to wake up early for that I have to stay up late for that. I have to fight to keep in my schedule. The best time of my day is those few minutes when I get to come into your presence and talk to you. Who here can say that to God?

[00:19:32] That's the kind of people that he's looking for.

[00:19:35] Now, we have kind of birthday up here in February at my house, because yesterday was my daughter's birthday and two days before that was my birthday. So I just turned thirty five here and my son comes bursting into my room before I can even wake up.

[00:19:52] And he's like, Dad, I wrote you a birthday card.

[00:19:56] Right now, the guy is in third grade now and he's been working on his writing assignments and his writing has greatly improved and he stands there and he has a page that he has written and he reads it to me. It's got paragraphs. It's got complete sentences. And it basically says, hey, dad, I know that you're a pastor and I love you and I love how you want to see people get saved.

[00:20:22] And sometimes that means you have meetings and sometimes that means you can't come home because you're talking to somebody about Jesus. But see, Dad, when I see you come home and you're happy because somebody got saved. That makes me happy, Dad.

[00:20:35] And he sang that to me now as a father, is that what you want to hear from your kid? Right. He said some other stuff, too.

[00:20:41] He said, Dad, I love it how you take us out to restaurants and I don't even have to pay one cent and said that he said stuff like that, too.

[00:20:52] But my favorite part is that his heart is lining up with my heart. And what I'm passionate about is now being passed down to my son that nothing but nothing makes a father happier.

[00:21:06] How happy is your heavenly father with you as one of his kids?

[00:21:11] How much is your heart aligned with his heart? How much? Think about this. You can bring joy to God every day by talking to him.

[00:21:22] Think about the. How much joy does the father in heaven have from you coming to him as one of his kids and expressing to him your love in a respectful, reverent way?

[00:21:36] Now, look, now here's the heart of God. The next three requests give us requests that are not about us, but they're about God. Look at this. It says, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done. These are massive requests that really affect almost the entire planet. Let's let's break them down a little bit. Hallowed be your name. First of all, how load you could write down means to make holy to set apart. That's what hallowed means. Not really a word we're using a lot these days in your name isn't just like we don't. We might choose a name for our son or daughter because we like how it sounds because it feels a little hipster. Or maybe it was because it was our grandpa's name. Or maybe some of us like good biblical names. We might choose names for different reasons. Names in the Bible incorporate everything about a person.

[00:22:24] The name is supposed to tell you. They're not just. What you would call them, but it's their character. It's their reputation. It's all that they are summarized in their name. So hallowed be your name is me thinking about all that. God is that name. Let's write that down. All that God is. I'm not just calling on his name. I'm not just hoping that people stop using his name in vain. No, I'm thinking about all that God is and I'm asking that it would be set apart. I'm asking that everybody here at this church, everybody on my neighborhood, everybody at my workplace, everybody in the city of Huntington Beach, that's all people on planet Earth. God's name would be in a unique and special place and they would know who he is. That's what that request is saying. Hallowed be your name. You're basically asking for God's glory to cover the Earth as the water covers the seas. You're asking that God's name would be lifted. So I that no one could not notice it, but even the person who refuses to turn from their sin and trust in Jesus Christ would have to admit that God is an awesome God. That's what you're bringing. They're hallowed be your name. I want it. I want your glory to be the driving passion. And I want everybody to see it.

[00:23:40] I want the whole world to worship you. Now, that's a pretty powerful request. Toormina, John, Chapter 14. John, Chapter 14.

[00:23:55] Look at John, Chapter 14. John, Chapter 14 versus 13 and 14. Check this out. We we try to pray according to God's name. We pray in Jesus name. Anybody else say that at the end of your prayers in Jesus name. That's how I like to end my prayers. Was that just like a tag line? Like signing off, like over and out. See you next time. What does that mean?

[00:24:17] In Jesus name is that just somebody say so everybody can know. Wake up now. You know, I mean, why do we throw that on the end? Right. A man wasn't long enough, so he threw on a Jesus. I mean, what what what is the deal with that? Look what Jesus says here. This is powerful. If you really start to think about this, John, Chapter 14, look with me at verse 13. Here's a promise. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do that.

[00:24:41] The father may be glorified in the sun if you ask me anything in my name. I will. What does he say there? I will what? That's crazy. He's promising to answer the prayers.

[00:25:00] I mean, a lot of times we say things like, well, you know, when we pray, sometimes the answer is no, sometimes the answers wait. We're not kind of sure what response we're gonna get to God. And that's definitely true about a lot of things that we might pray.

[00:25:11] But he says when we pray things in his name, he's going to do it. We can know he's going to do it. There's a confidence of faith that we can have that he will answer prayer if it's prayed. And here's the deal. In Jesus name, according to all of the character and reputation of Jesus Christ. So, see, there's a style of praying here that Jesus is trying to teach to his disciples. There's a way where you can pray with such a confidence that, you know, what you're asking for is God's heart, what God wants to do. And you can know that your prayer is already in line with the father.

[00:25:49] And it's already going to happen even while you're praying it before you're even done, he says. Here's what I want you to know. Whatever you ask in my name. I will. What does he say?

[00:25:58] Do it. Do you pray with a confidence like that?

[00:26:01] Do you pray already thinking that the things you're asking for are going to happen? He may be. We're not thinking about prayer the right way, and that's why it's not that exciting to us. If I told you today that you would get the answer to the prayers that you asked. Do you think you would maybe pray a little bit more if you really thought it was gonna do something? I didn't tell it to you. Jesus Christ just told you. Ask anything in my name and I will. What does he say?

[00:26:29] So what does it mean to ask something in Jesus name?

[00:26:32] Now, on the back of your hand out, if you're taking notes on the back, there's a book I recommend. The Power of Prayer by Oratory. And he's got a great chapter in this book. Oratory. He was a preacher in the early nineteen hundreds, founder of Moody Bible Institute, founder of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. We've got some students from BIOL here with us this morning. And this is a school that he founded and he gives such a great analogy about what it means to pray in Jesus name. Let's say you needed some money, you needed something, and you said, hey, pastor, I'm hurtin. I need some help. Can you help me? And so we went down to the bank. Right. And I was going to write you a check. And I was going to say, here, let's write this check. And because I don't got any cash, but if I write this check, we can cash it here at the bank. And then you can take the money. Now, hopefully, we would go to a chase bank because that's my bank, because if we went to Wells Fargo, I wouldn't be able to help you at all. You know what I mean? But fortunately, there's chase banks on every corner all over America. Have you guys noticed that? They're like everywhere I go in other Chase Bank. I'll have to walk across the street to get to the next one. I mean, it's ridiculous right now. If you went to meet with me and you needed something and I was going to get try to give it to you and I was going to sign my name at the bottom of that check, we would be very limited in the amount of resources that I could offer to you.

[00:27:48] All right. However, here's what it means to pray in Jesus name. It means that basically you have a blank check and the name at the bottom of the check has already been signed. And the name is Jesus Christ. That's basically what it's saying.

[00:28:05] It's saying that you are not coming to God on behalf of your own resources, you're not coming to God because you're a good person and you think God should listen to you because you're trying to do more right things that bad things.

[00:28:14] You know, it means that you are coming to God in the name of Jesus Christ based on how God sees his own son, Jesus.

[00:28:23] And you're coming to him in all the resources and in all of the access and in all of the power that Jesus has with his own father.

[00:28:32] Someone who lived a perfectly righteous life, who died for the sins of the entire world, who now reigns in glorious splendor with the father above. That's the name that you're signing on the check of your prayer. That's the level of resources that you have.

[00:28:45] So when you pray, you can ask, could Jesus do it? And you pray like that.

[00:28:53] Who's praying those kind of prayers here out imagined even the most seasoned of saints among us, even those who have been prayer warriors for decades. We could all use with a little more. In Jesus name, injected into our prayers, say. I don't want to pray like I'm coming to God based on me, because if it was up to me, I can't even go to a holy God see?

[00:29:14] But I'm coming. In Jesus name.

[00:29:16] And all that he is and all that he did, that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God who died on the cross for my sins and rose again, and the father is so pleased with the son that he wants to put in the name above every name that every need is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is what are they going to confess? He's bore to the glory of who?

[00:29:37] God, the fathers. That's the name that you're common in when you pray.

[00:29:42] And so you're thinking about who God is, you're thinking about who Jesus is, you're thinking about. What do they want? What do they want to accomplish?

[00:29:51] And you're praying, hallowed be your name. Let's get on board with what you're doing on planet Earth and let's pray for more of that and let's pray for it. With the power of Jesus who perfectly fulfilled everything, the father plant.

[00:30:06] See, the power that we have that's waiting for us in our closet, that's waiting for us by our bedside and we would rather sleep in. We would rather watch TV. We'd rather go argue with another member of our family than pray to our father in heaven about his name.

[00:30:23] Then it says, you're your kingdom come. If you look back at the Lord's Prayer, the next thing it says is your kingdom come. I mean, what does that mean? It sounds mysterious. It sounds.

[00:30:33] It means we literally want Jesus to reign as king over the Earth. We believe and this might sound futuristic and this might sound a little bit crazy here, but if you read the Bible and if you're a Christian person, you believe that Jesus Christ is going to come back and he is going to reign over the Earth. And I think personally, he would do a little better job than the guys we got now.

[00:30:56] Can I get a man from Indiana? I don't care where it is on the planet, what the weather's like. There's a country where Jesus is king. I want to live there. That's the we believe that's going to happen.

[00:31:06] We believe that's a part of the end times. We call it eschatology, the study of the future, the study of the last things.

[00:31:14] We believe there's coming a time where Jesus is going to reign, where the knees are going to bow and the tongues are going to confess.

[00:31:20] And so we're praying. Oh, sure. In that great time when every wrong will be made. Right. When finally the world will work in the way that you intended it to work. And it won't be this broken, fallen thing that we're experiencing now.

[00:31:34] And Jesus will be in charge, as he's supposed to be. I mean, are you praying for stuff like that?

[00:31:41] Are you print Jesus? I want you to come back. Jesus, we need you down here. Jesus these people aren't getting the program that it's all about you and your glory here in America. We think it's about us. Come back and make it all right. Show them who you really are. Does it bother you, my friends, that people can live their lives in our nation?

[00:32:01] People can go to church and not be obsessed with the glory of God, and they can think life is about them. Does that bother you? Does it bother you when you do it with me? First, Samuels, Chapter 17. First Samuel, Chapter 17. I want to talk about this guy named David and a big friend he had named Goliath. Anybody ever heard about this story before? Oh, the classic underdog story. And that's how we describe it today. Oh, man. You know, wow. Look at this football game we got coming up. You're a real David and Goliath match up coming on here today. That's what we use, right? What do we mean? David is the underdog. Right. And we can all relate to the underdog as we're all nobody coming from nowhere. And so we get on board with the underdog story. And that's who David is. He's some punk kid from nowhere. And you got this big, tall, giant trash talking who can kill a bunch of people. He looks really big. And so you think David's the underdog? Let me just tell you, if you think first Samuel, 17, David and Goliath is as a story of an underdog, you haven't understood the story. This isn't Hoosiers anyway. Ever seen that old movie, Hoosiers a basketball or Rudy, the guy who like you, dude, your your short, slow white guy. You shouldn't be playing sports. Right. But he makes it on the team. You know what I mean? We're like Free Willy. Anybody ever seen that movie. Right. Let the orca go anyway. Underdog stories. Right.

[00:33:23] As well, we compare David and Goliath to the underdog fighting the man, sticking it to the machine, showing them who's boss. We all relate to what this is about. OK, there is one very clear reason in this story that David threw a rock into the school of the Giant and cut off his head in front of everybody, OK? And it gets back to the trash talk because Goliath was coming and it says, here's what he was doing. He was defying the armies of the living God in the Old Testament when two nations went to war. It wasn't just my armies better than your army. It was, my God is better than your God. That's who they thought was going to help them win. Whoever had the better God would end up winning the war. So when Goliath comes and he trash talks, he's not just calling them a bunch of mommy's boys. He's insulting your way. That's what he's doing. And David's looking around like, why isn't anybody standing up for your way? Surely our God is better than their false God. We have the living God. Their God is an idol. We should be able to create these guys.

[00:34:32] And he's looking around and he's like, why isn't anyone standing up for God's glory?

[00:34:39] Why isn't anybody making a big deal about the kingdom of God that's going to reign on the earth? See, look what David says. This is before he he kills the giant. Look at verse 45 for Samuel 17, verse 45. Then David said to the philistine, you come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin. But here's how I come to you in the name. That's all who God is, his character, his reputation, everything about God. I come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the Armies of Israel. Whom you have defied. You spoke against my God. That's why I'm here to fight you. This day, the Lord will deliver you into my hand and I will strike you down. And I'll cut off your head and I'll give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day.

[00:35:27] To the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the Earth. Here's why that all the Earth may know.

[00:35:33] There is a God in Israel. That's what motivated David. I want everybody to see God reigns. And he says in verse 47 and all this assembly, I'm talking to every single person in the Israelite army, the Philistine Army, that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves. Not with sword and spear for the battle is the Lord's. And he will give you into ah. And say, do you live each day with the confidence that Jesus wins, that he will come and he will reign in his kingdom, and that the battle has already been won.

[00:36:10] Do you live like that, my friend?

[00:36:13] Does it bother you when people are talking bad about God? Does it bother you that the world thinks God can move on from him?

[00:36:20] So you pray for his kingdom to come. You pray for his name to be hallowed. That's the heart of David. That's why God says about David that he is a man after his own heart, see, because he cared about what God cared about, which is the glory of God being known to all men. That is the point. That is the prayer request that every one of us should have. Top of the list every day, God's glory being known. Hallowed be his name. His kingdom come and then it says your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Now, there are many things that we could say that are God's will, that are things that we could pray for.

[00:37:00] But heaven. We've already said, is a God centered environment where everyone is doing exactly what he wants to do. There is no sin there. There is nothing in heaven that goes against God's name. His character and who he is.

[00:37:13] And so the idea is that Earth would start to become like heaven. That there would be so much of God's will being done here on earth. That it would start to feel like things are really changing down here.

[00:37:26] How is that going to start? How is it going to happen? Domina First Timothy Chapter two. Domina First Timothy. Chapter two.

[00:37:36] First Timothy, first Timothy, chapter two, verse four. God tells us something here that he says he wants. This is his will. This is something that he wants to see on the planet. And if God wants it, then that's the kind of thing that we should be praying for. And it starts here, it's starts it's a passage on prayer first Timothy, chapter two, verse one. It says, first of all, then I urge that supplications prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings or in our case, presidents and all who are in high positions, Congress, the Supreme Court, governors, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. So we're supposed to be praying that the world would run in the way that it's supposed to run. This is good and it's pleasing in the sight of God, our savior. Who desires who wants all people to be, what does it say they're all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth? What is one thing that we can definitely say is God's will is for people to be saved. That's what God wants to do. In fact, you could write down another verse, second Peter, chapter three, verse nine says that the reason God isn't judging the world right now, the reason the Kingdom of Jesus hasn't been established today is so that more people can reach repentance.

[00:39:03] The reason God didn't send the end it into motion this morning. The reason Jesus isn't back and raining right now is so that today in this moment that we're living in. More people can turn from their sin and put their faith in Jesus Christ and be saved. That's what God wants. Every day you wake up and God gives you another day. The point of the day is that somewhere somebody in the world is getting saved and we're leading to more people coming to know God through the mediator between God and man Jesus Christ.

[00:39:36] So who's starting out their day, their prayer time, praying for God's glory? Praying for his kingdom to come and then praying that his will will be done, and that needs to start with people getting saved.

[00:39:47] And it can get as specific as your family, your neighbors, your your coworkers, and you're praying for people to get safe.

[00:39:55] In Jesus name, I can't think anything that's more fitting with the name of Jesus Christ than the salvation of souls.

[00:40:03] Is that what he did? Is that what he purchased already by dying on the cross, by rising again to offer what is everybody to offer on the table right now? For every person in this room, every person in the city of Huntington Beach, in the cities around here? Eternal life is on the table right now. The limited time offer a little bit better than bingo. Anybody with me on that? Got eternal life. You can no God Jesus paid for your sin. You can come to the father.

[00:40:33] That's what we should be praying for.

[00:40:35] Let's put it down like this, point number two. You need to flip your prayer list to put God's requests first. Flip your prayer list to book God's requests first. I know that naturally we have a lot going on, it seems to us at least as busy Orange County people, and we think we need a lot of help. And it's very tempting to come to God and just start spewing out, wake up. And early in the morning, you're feeling tired. You're already feeling the stress of the day. You can just in. Just start dumping all your requests right there to God.

[00:41:10] How much better would it be for you?

[00:41:13] And for our church and for the world as a whole, if instead of getting into your requests, notice our requests are there. It's great to pray for the things that we need. It's great to pray for our spiritual walk.

[00:41:23] But whose requests come first? Pott's to see.

[00:41:27] And that would be a much better way for all of us to start our days and thinking about ourselves than to think about what God is doing on a massive worldwide scale, what he's doing in our church, what he's doing in the lives of our loved ones. And then get to ourself.

[00:41:42] But there's one more thing we got to clarify, because I just don't think we fully understand it, because I mean, a lot of people at church and they know they've never even been taught how to pray. Maybe for some of you guys, you're like, wow, I've never, never had really anybody say, here's how we're supposed to pray before. And one way that we do learn how to pray, a lot of us maybe who've gone to church is we learned this ax, this little this little acronym here for T. S. Hoo hoo learned. Let me just make take a servant who learned to learn that before you get all these people, ACTC, who's learned that these are these are church people right here. Keep your keep your distance from their people. People grew up going to church. So, look, here it is. It's just this is how I was taught to pray. AICTE as a is for adoration. Let's just. All right. This that is for adoration that we're supposed to start by adoring God, not getting to our self when we do get to ourself. C is for confession. C is for confession. Then we come when we confess our sins. We start with a high view of God. Then we come humbly contrite in spirit. We start to confess our sins before God. T is Thanksgiving and we're thinking God for all of the good things that he's doing among us. And then s is word that we never use anymore supplication. So then s means we actually start to get to our requests and we start to ask God for things. So. So that's how, that's how it is. Adoration, confession, Thanksgiving supplication. Now, can you see some good things about that, about that system right there? Is that better than just coming in, talking about yourself to the holy God and your father in heaven right away? I can see some great advantages of praying this way. But there's also a weakness here that all of us who just raised our hands and learned how to pray this way, we need to clearly see the supplicating, the asking God to do something comes at the end. And what prayer becomes is it becomes me praising God for already who he is for things he's already done. And I'm just talking to him about how awesome he is. And I think that's what people think prayer is like. I'm stroking the ego of God or something like that. Like I'm just supposed to sit down and I'm just supposed to tell God how great he is, because that's good for me to think about how great God is. And and he must like hearing it.

[00:44:05] But I think there's a mistake there in our thinking.

[00:44:09] We're not we're asking God all the way through our entire prayer. Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done. We're asking God to do things their prayer. Let's even put this down as our definition of prayer here at our church. Prayer is asking God to act. That's what prayer is. Prayer is not just us going in, adoring God and confessing our sins to God and thanking God for things that he's already done. We are asking God to act acts. We should be thinking about a little bit differently. The acts that we are asking God to do for his glory, for his kingdom, for his will. That's what prayer is. When you come to pray, what do you want God to do? At the end of your prayer, what are you saying? In Jesus name that God needs to accomplish because he's great and awesome and we adore him because he's so worthy of our praise. Let's ask him to show that glory to us. Now let's ask him to act.

[00:45:14] I love reading the Bible, my friends. I love learning about things that God did 3000 years ago, two thousand years ago. But the reason I'm here. The reason I'm the pastor of this church. The reason we're sitting here on a Sunday morning is I want to see God do awesome things right now.

[00:45:28] See? It's not just what he did in the past. It's what is he doing now? And I know we're in for some. Sorry about the coffee. We're in for some awesome stuff. When Jesus comes back. I mean, that's going to be amazing.

[00:45:44] With Jesus Christ riding on the clouds and the whole earth mourned because they're so overwhelmed by the glory of Jesus Christ, that could be happening any day now.

[00:45:53] But until it happens, here's what we're supposed to do. We're supposed to be praying that God would save people. This is the day of salvation. This is the time that God has set aside for the great harvest of souls, for people to see what Jesus Christ did and to put their faith in him and to be changed, to be transformed. Every day that you don't pray is a wasted day that you didn't get on God's agenda. That you didn't see what his purposes and get on board with that, the very least thing you could do to be a part of God's plan for our world right now is to ask him to save people right now in the history of the world. And go big, ask for a revival. Ask that we could pack this room. Don't leave it. What God's going to do by our weak faith. Let's ask God to act. Does anybody want to see God do something right here, right now in our lifetime? That's what prayer is about. That's what prayer is about. It's not just you repeating the same old things. No wonder we don't want to pray. If we don't think anything is going to happen afterwards. What's the point? Now we're asking God to do big things in Jesus name, and we think the world might even change because we're having a conversation with her father in.

[00:47:19] Now, the rest of the prayers there, you can see Universe Eleven give us this day our daily bread, forgive us our debts and lead us not into temptation. Now, there's no point three on your paper, but let's just throw this down four point number three, that we need to then declare our dependents every day. Declare your dependents every day. We need to let God know that we need him. And we need to ask him to act in the physical ways. We need to ask him to act, to forgive us for our sins and to make sure that we don't sin again. And you can see those practical requests. I'm not trying to minimize our need for God to provide everything that we have. In fact, Jesus gets to that. If you go back to Matthew, Chapter six and just look with me real quick here as he continues the thought after he teaches us how to pray. He eventually gets to the concerns that we're gonna have about physical life every single day and literally in our culture here and the Jewish people that he's speaking to 2000 years ago, what they were going to eat, what they were going to wear, these were these were pressing concerns on a on a daily on a weekly basis. Matthew. Six twenty five. Therefore, I tell you to not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body. What you will put on is not life more than food in the body, more than clothing. So, hey, we're not supposed to worry about it. Look at the birds of the air. They neither so nor reaped or gather into barns. And yet your heavenly father, look how good he is. What a good dad you have. He feeds even the birds. Are you not of more value than they me. And you mean so much more to God than than an animal in which of you, by being anxious, can at a single hour to his span of life. I mean, how much has worrying really helped you out, my friend? There's all that freaking out about what's going to happen. Change it when it actually does happen, you say. And what's the point of being anxious? Why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field. Look at the flowers, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon, in all his glory, he wasn't arrayed like one of these, even King Solomon in his glory and splendor as one of the great kings on Earth. He didn't look as beautiful as a flower, it saying. But if God so close the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you? Oh, you of little what we don't we don't believe.

[00:49:44] And if your problems are so big that God can't solve them, you're thinking way too small.

[00:49:49] We're talking about someone who's going to reign over the entire Earth, we're talking about someone who's saving people across the planet. We're talking about the God who is the center right now of the heavenly worship.

[00:50:02] And I'm starting to wonder if I'm an absolute they eat or something to wear my requests in my life are now a big deal that God can even meet them. And I'm anxious and I'm worried.

[00:50:14] No heat, no, I don't have a little faith that says, therefore, do not be anxious, saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear for the gentiles seek after these things? Anybody can worry about those things. But your heavenly father knows you need them all. Seek first, pray for first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things. Check out this promise here, my friends. All these things will be added to you. The promise is here. Seek Jesus first. Seek his kingdom first. Seek his righteousness first. Start praying for his kingdom and his will above your kingdom and what you want. And you just watch how God adds everything you need.

[00:50:56] We got to flip our prayer list upside down and declare our dependance on God. Everything good that we have. Where did it come from? Our father in heaven. Let's not be greedy kids who think I earned that. I got that for myself. I deserve that. Now, anything good that we've got, it's come from our father. And so we come to him and we say, give us this day our daily bread. We acknowledge our need before him and we give him an expectation that he will satisfy us, that he will provide what we need. Verse 30 force as ends it like this. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow. For tomorrow, we'll be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. If you find yourself, my friend, anxious or worried, you should right away. Think to yourself. I'm not praying. I'm not praying. It is impossible to be anxious and to really come to God in prayer. At the same time you could write down Philippians four, six to seven where we get a command, be anxious about nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication. Bring your requests to God, lay them out and you can have so much confidence of his kingdom and his will come first. Then you can know that God is going to meet your needs and you can just say, give us this day our daily bread with an expectation that God will provide for you. So what does it mean? My friends.

[00:52:16] What does it mean to you?

[00:52:18] Why are we here this morning? Are you here for the for the freespace? Are you here for the prizes that you might get?

[00:52:25] Or are you here for God and for what he is doing among us? Let us be praying and let's be asking for him to do great things. We pray for you guys right now. Got to thank you. We could come and we could try to learn a little bit today and the time that we have. About how Jesus taught us to pray and God, we just want to start by coming to you in humility and acknowledging that our prayers fall short of this standard. They got a lot of times our needs are so big to us and our sin get so in the way that we can't even come to you. And we can't even start thinking about your name being exalted in your kingdom, spreading in your will, just taking over Earth as it's perfectly done in heaven because we're so busy trying to think about our little kingdom. We're so busy trying to be king rather than worshiping King Jesus. We want to confess that to you. And we pray that today you will flip our prayer lists upside down and then we'll have more of a passion, more or more of a desire to pray. We have had perhaps ever before. So now we give her this this teaching up to you, asking that you would use it in our life, that you would teach us how to pray, pray this in Jesus. Name a man.

[00:53:37] Hey, I just want to draw your attention to the back real quick. And I want to give everybody a challenge. You've heard the sermon. Here's what I want to challenge you to do. You can see on the back the heading there, a one hour prayer challenge. We know that Jesus said to his disciples on the night before he died. Could you not watch and pray one hour? So I want to I want you to try to use the Lord's Prayer as a theme for your prayer. And I gave you some scripture here to hopefully inspire you. And I want you to try to pray for one hour whenever you can, set aside an hour and try to talk to God, your your father in heaven based on this this sermon. Also, if you look in the handout, you'll notice when Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night, right here in this room, we're gonna have a good old fashioned prayer meeting. So if you're like, wow, I've learned some things today, don't really know how to pray like that. Please come here Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday night. And let's practice. Let's let's learn how to pray like this together. So some ways that you can pray throughout the week. Let's all stand and worship the Lord together.