In the Secret - Mountain to Mountain - Matthew S2E4

Amen and amen and amen. Welcome to church. What an incredible weekend that we are a part of. I need you to sit up, grab your Bibles. We're going to be in Matthew chapter 6. We're walking through the book of Matthew for the whole year. And it really is an exciting weekend. And I also just want to say thank you before I dive in. I want to thank you. Many of you have accepted the one-year challenge to just give us a year to do what Jesus has told you to do for us. I want to thank you. I want to thank you. I want to thank you. I want to thank you. I want to thank you for accepting the challenge that Jesus has told you to do for a year and see how it affects your life. And that's why you're here. Thank you. I also want to thank you for receiving the word of God so well. You're the best in the country. I get to preach all over the place, and I'm telling you, you are the best. Now don't clap. Because we're going to do a whole sermon about how it's not about us. All right. And there is going to be a significant part of this sermon where I'm going to rebuke you. So I just want you to know I love you. So when I'm yelling at you later, it's because I do love you. Last week was a hard teaching, no doubt.

But I've just decided I'm the mailman. I'm not the editor of the Bible. I've just got to teach what it says. And you are ridiculous. You receive it, hard teaching. And I appreciate that. And this weekend, with one weekend, with what our students did, 3,100 students and leaders gathered in this place to make much of Jesus. And it's a really, really, really big deal. And so I need you to continue to pray for our students. Because it's not over. In fact, the most important things are going to happen now. Because Jesus tells this parable, we'll get to it in a few months, that the word goes out like the seed. And it's not the delivery of the seed. It's the condition of the soil that it lands on that's going to make the difference. And so the seed has gone out. The word of God has been preached. God is moving in the lives of our students. And we've got to pray against the enemy that he doesn't snatch it away. And we've got to pray that they don't just get choked out by the concerns of the world. And we've got to pray that they're rooted in the scriptures so this thing goes deep and it's not shallow. And we pray that it lands on good soil so that it produces a harvest that is miraculous. And let me tell you why it's such a big deal. I say this all the time. You have no idea what hangs in the balance.

Back in the 1900s, 1994, I was a college kid volunteering at my local church. And I was just a volunteer leader with 10th grade boys at a weekend. Not nearly as cool as the one we just had. But we were doing our best. It was called Disciple Now back then. And I'm just sitting in the back and the guy that we brought in to speak is up there slinging the gospel. I didn't even think it was for me. I thought it was for these kids. I was just there to serve. And I'm sitting in the back row of the church that was hosting this event. And that is where I heard the undeniable call of God in my life to surrender my life to a life of full-time vocational ministry. And so, a part of the reason we're all here together is because that church in Richmond, Virginia in the mid-1990s cared enough about our students to help us encounter the living God. And so when I say you have no idea what hangs in the balance on weekends like one weekend, that's the kind of thing I'm talking about. That's what we need to be in prayer for. All right, if you've got your Bibles. We've been studying through all of Matthew. We're in a season right now called Mountain to Mountain where we're studying the greatest sermon ever preached. Not my sermon. The Sermon on the Mount. Just a little recap. If you remember, Jesus begins with what we call the Beatitudes. In essence, he begins with the gospel. Blessed are you when you realize that you don't bring anything to your salvation except the sin that requires it.

Blessed are you when you are poor in spirit. When you realize I'm spiritually bankrupt. I ain't got this. God, I need help. You're blessed. Blessed are you when you mourn your spiritual condition of brokenness apart from God. Blessed are you when you are meek when you turn the reins over to Jesus and say I need you to run my life and not me run my life. And then everything begins to change from the inside out to the point where we don't fit in this world anymore. And blessed are you when you don't fit in this world. And the world comes against you because you're leaving his way and not the world's way. When we're discipled by the word and not the world. And blessed are you when you revile, when people lie about you and come against you. This is what he says. And then he says, and listen, I didn't save you just for you to be saved. I saved you that you would be salt and light. I didn't save you so you could go just live in a monastery by yourself all the time. I saved you so that we could impact this world and push back darkness because we are the light of the world. And then he goes on to say some crazy stuff. And unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you're not going to get to heaven. And everybody's like, well, we're screwed. And he says, "'Cause here's the thing, man, "'I don't just need begrudging submission

"'to a set of laws that were written on a stone tablet. "'I want the word of God to be written on your heart.'" And he goes after six particular things that we talked about. Like adultery is not just a behavior issue, it's the lust issue of the heart. And he talks about greed and unforgiveness and not just liking people that like you back, but loving and praying for our enemies, this is what he does. And this is a shocking statement, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, then you will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. And he's going to tell us how our righteousness is going to exceed that of the Pharisees because it's not just going to be external moral modification to our behavior, it's gonna be an internal love of God that compels us to do everything we do, this is what he's saying. See, here's the crazy thing about the gospel. Everybody believes that we should repent of our wretchedness regardless of what you believe about God and stuff, everybody thinks we should stop doing wrong things based on whatever you think wrong is. In this text, Jesus says we've got to repent of even our righteous deeds if it's just religious righteousness to try to prove your right standing before God. This is why Isaiah says that even our righteous deeds

are like filthy rags. You see, Jesus is gonna say to us, listen, I'm not trying to lower the standard, I'm gonna fulfill it on your behalf. And so in chapter five, verse 48, we need a little bit of a running start, he says, you therefore must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. Not simply external white knuckle submission to a rule that God is looking for, but he's looking for a heart change. And so in our text today, in chapter six, he's gonna take it to the heart level. And he's gonna talk about giving, praying, and fasting. Take a breath, this is not primarily a giving sermon, I'm gonna talk about it a little bit, but there's no offering at the end, okay? So just breathe. And it's interesting that these three things are put together, giving, praying, and fasting. As has been mentioned, we are in a season of Lent. Lent is just a tradition that the church made up, which is a really good thing, to prepare our crooked and wicked hearts so that we're ready to celebrate Resurrection Sunday on Easter. And three of the primary things that the church has done for the last 2,000 years to cleanse ourselves of this world, to be ready to celebrate a resurrected Christ,

is we give and we pray and we fast. And for those of you that came to Elder Led Prayer, I attended here at San Pablo, our elders did a marvelous job, Elder Rusty, clearly unpacked this idea that there are two kingdoms. There's the kingdom of heaven that Jesus is preaching, and then there's the kingdom of the world that we live in. And he simply asked, so which kingdom are you living for? And if we're living for the kingdom of this world, then we've gotta repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Three of the ways we do this is giving, praying, and fasting. And maybe the reason that these three things matter so much, and maybe the reason that the church grabbed onto these three things in the season of Lent is because money and our attention and our flesh are all in competition for the throne of our heart. And so by the way, if you wanna deepen your relationship with Jesus, these three things matter, these spiritual disciplines matter. And we don't give and pray and fast so that we will be acceptable before God, but we give and we pray and fast because in Christ we have been made acceptable, and these are three things that help build the kind of environment in our life whereby our heart for God grows and that relationship flourishes. But like everything else, the human heart is corrupt, and what begins to happen

is we confuse the means with the end. The reason that we give and pray and fast is not to give and pray and fast. The reason that we give and pray and fast is so that we can know Jesus better. And the moment we say, look how good I'm giving, praying, and fasting, then we jack the whole thing up because the human heart screams, look at me. Let me tell you how corrupt our hearts are. You ready for this? When you see a group photo, where do your eyes immediately go? You don't like, well, look at this group. No, you automatically find you and you evaluate whether it's a good picture or a bad picture only based on how you look in the picture. This is a great picture. Let's use this one. Tammy's not even looking. I don't care about Tammy. Look at me in this one. And so Jesus said that we're gonna do good works, not so that people look at us, so that people, we're salt of the earth, light of the world, city on a hill, so that people see our good works and give God glory. And so Jesus is gonna continue with how our righteousness will exceed that of the Pharisees. At the heart level, not performative for an audience of man, but as a response to the approval we have received in Christ. We're gonna dig in. Matthew 6, 1, beware.

This is a warning, man. Yourself will creep up on yourself and you better pay attention to it. This is a warning. After he's talking about adultery and murder and unforgiveness, he's like, not only do you need to be on the watch out for things like this, you gotta watch out for your own religious activity because that might be the problem. That's crazy to think about, isn't it? Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them. Do you realize that motives matter? Do you realize that the intentions of the heart matter? I mean, this will really mess you up. That the same activity could either bring reward or rebuke. And none of us can tell because we don't know your heart. I mean, is worshiping God, does he like that? It depends on what you're doing. If you're just trying to show off to the people around you and you lift both hands because you think people will think you're more spiritual in doing that, you want people to worship you. You're not actually worshiping God. If you understand that he's the only one worthy of our worship and he came and he bled and he died and you lift your hands because you say, God, I love you, I surrender, I want you, then the heart of God is warmed. Is generosity towards God, does that bring rebuke or reward? It depends. The Bible says God loves a cheerful giver. So when you realize that God first loved you by giving his first and best and the person and work of Christ and you can't get over the reality that God would trust you with all that he's given you and you bring back your first and best to him, then it is a declaration of worship. But if you've got a job interview this week and you think maybe I'll slide a little in

the giving box and then maybe God will hook me up this week, you cannot put God in your debt and God doesn't play well with idols. If you serve because Jesus served us, praise God for that, but if you serve to show everybody what a humble servant you are, you ain't. Motives matter. So he says, beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your father who is in heaven. So when we do stuff to be seen by others, God's like, congratulations, you did it. Tammy thinks you're awesome. That's what you got. I don't. Tammy does. That was your reward. If you really, what you were chasing after was the applause of man. That's it. Congratulations. Now the apostle Paul in Galatians chapter one verse 10, he would have the audacity to say, am I still trying to seek the approval of man? Because if I seek the applause of man, I cannot be a servant of Christ. And so then he's going to talk about giving. He's going to start with giving. He says, verse two, thus, when you give to the needy, all right, as you should. Let me explain this. This past week, over the past two weeks, I've gotten three legitimate, heartfelt email questions. People asking me, how do I bring my first and best? I don't know if I'm doing it right and I want to make sure I'm doing it right. Well, the Bible teaches us how to do this, Old Testament and New Testament. And first and foremost, I will say God is not a legalist. God loves a cheerful giver. If you are bringing him, even if you mess the details up, I think when you get to heaven,

you'll get a high five. You'll be like, hey, good try. You didn't do it exactly right, but I know what you meant, so appreciate you, all right? But in the Bible, so what Jesus is talking about here is like the third category of giving. This would be called alms. This is giving to the needy. In the Bible, there's three different categories of how we are to bless God with what God has blessed us with. The first, in the Old Testament and New Testament, is called the tithe. Maybe you've heard this before. The tithe, in Hebrew, it means 10%, but it doesn't simply mean 10%. It means you're first and you're best, and everybody tithes to something. Everything you have is a blood bought grace gift from God. I know your name is on your paycheck, but everything you have is a gift from God and he is trusting us with all. And what we have been called to do as followers of Jesus is bring back to him, not just 10%, but the first. 10% is a great basement level way to start. And we bring it back to him because it is his and it declares, Jesus, you are first in my life. And the reason that you bring it to the local church is because Jesus is the head of the church and you bring it to Jesus. Well, where is Jesus? He is ruling and reigning as the head of his local church. And so we bring that first and best to him. That's called the tithe. Then above and beyond the tithe are what is called offerings.

Now this is not just simply charitable giving. There's good giving and then there's gospel giving. This is above and beyond what your regular tithe is that you bring first and best. And this is where, like in my family, we sponsor missionaries and we support compassion children. This is where we invest in organizations and people that are pushing back darkness and spreading the gospel over and above what we're doing through the local church. And then beyond that is what the Bible would call gifts. This means you keep a little powder dry, you keep a little folding mini in your pocket, and if the spirit of God leads you to bless a person, to bless a family, to just give something away, or you're at some kind of event where they're raising money and you're able to give a gift there, that's what you're talking about. This is the kind of giving Jesus is talking about. When you give to the needy, when you give alms. And by the way, Christians should be the most generous people on the planet. Statistically, Christians are the most generous people on the planet. By the way, voting to take money from other people to give it away is not generosity. That's called socialism. That's a different thing. You are free to be generous.

That's what we are called to do. And so Jesus says, but when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you. Don't be like, dun-da-da-da, I'm about to give $10. That's not what you're supposed to do. Actually, in the synagogue, where you gave money, it was a big copper tube thing that looked like the top of a trumpet, and the Pharisees would go in and they would get all their money in pennies and they would spend their, like during the offering time, they would just pour it out, and it would make all this noise, and they were like, look at me. That's what they would do. And Jesus was like, don't do that, man. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. Congratulations. Everybody saw you give money away, and some people think you're a generous. That's all you get. Verse three, but when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. I think he's being hyperbolic here, too.

How do you even do that? He says, so that your giving may be in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. So what's the reward? Here's the reward. He sees you. The almighty sovereign king of the universe who spoke everything into existence, who by his very nature and power holds all the cosmos in order, he sees you. This is a really, really big deal. And one of the words you're gonna see come up over and over and over and over and over is this word reward. Reward, that God wants to reward you. You ever notice every store you go in right now has a rewards program? Everywhere you go, you walk in trying to buy a thing, have you signed up for our rewards program? And I'm like, I'm trying to get a light bulb, man. How about, here's the program I wanna be on. I'm gonna give you money, you give me my light bulb, we never talk again. How about that program? Can I sign up for that? And then, and then you pay, and they're like, would you like to round up to help three-legged dog get some prosthetics? And everybody's looking at you like you hate puppies. I'm like, no.

So when, with the right heart, we bring to God what is his in secret, not to make a big show, but to show that we love God to God, we get reward, what's the reward? I will get, I can tell you, there's a lot of reward when you're generous, when you bring back to God what is his. Let me just tell you this, in the natural, I can leave the super out of it, in the natural, if you tithe, if you learn to live on less than you make, you will always have enough. Everybody lives on a percentage of their income. If you don't know what that is, you're in trouble, because most Americans live on about 108% of their income. It's not going good. You can't do that very long. Also, what happens is, when you bring to God what is his, you're not using God's money for. You, and the guilt in enjoying your life begins to dissipate. Also, you invite God into your financial situation and trust me, he can do more with 90% than you can do with 100%. All these things are true. And when you give to the needy, when the Spirit of God moves you to give to the needy over and above the tithe and offerings, it's evidence that you know Jesus. Later this year, when we get to Matthew chapter 25,

he says, whatever you've done for the least of these, you've done unto me. Jesus says it's better to give than to receive. So the reward is this, God sees you. In a rightly ordered life, is declaring that Jesus is before all things and Jesus says where your treasure is there, your heart will be also, and he wants your heart. And so, here's the challenge at Lent. So many times, the things that we grab on, grab on to our heart, and so throughout church history, the church has called its people to live with extraordinary generosity during this time, to try to loosen the grip of this world as we prepare for Resurrection Sunday. So if you're not doing this, I dare you, be super generous in your tithes and your offerings and here's my own little personal challenge. I dare you, I try to do this every month. Depending on your economic situation, you should keep a little bit of folding money in your pocket, whether it's a dollar or $100, and you should pray like crazy, God, I want you to lead me to give this away this month. We do this at my house, okay, I try to do this every month. Keep a little folding money in my pocket, it's the least amount of money we give away, but it's kinda crazy, I probably pray more about that money than anything else. I got some folding money in my pocket

and I begin to pray about it like crazy because I'm trying to figure out who God wants me to give it to. It changes the way I eat. Every time I'm at a restaurant and somebody brings my food, I'm like, is it him, God, God, is that him? Is it? Not to make a show of it, and I just go, the Lord told me to give you this. So when you give, you're not trying to impress anybody, you're leaning into this relationship with the Lord, and there is a reward. Later we're gonna find out that when you trust God with your money, then what begins to happen is anxiety and worship begin to dissipate because he's a good dad and he's trustworthy. Now he's gonna move to prayer, verse five, and when you pray, not if you pray, because everybody prays. I mean, nobody's an atheist when the building catches on fire. But the question is, is prayer for you a first response or a last resort? And prayer's not nothing, prayer's everything. He says, so when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. Did you know there's a wrong way to pray? I know this is gonna make you so nervous when you pray in your disciple group now, but just buckle up, all right?

Because here's what the hypocrites do, here's what the two-faced people do, here's what the people that wear a mask do, that's what that word means. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others. You ever hear anybody start to pray but they're really preaching? That ain't praying, man. There's a place for preaching, but when you try to use the name of God and you try to tell somebody in your group, dear God, I just pray for Tammy. What a crooked and depraved soul she, you know, you're like, well, hold on, I don't think you're praying anymore. If your name's Tammy, God loves you so much, I just, I don't know why I'm on that name right now. He says, truly I say to you, they have received their reward. Congratulations, you did it. You prayed a very eloquent prayer and now people think that you are smart and holy. Only problem, God doesn't think those things. But you have received your reward. Verse six, but when you pray, go into your room and shut the door. Now, this verse doesn't mean what people think it means. I think it's very important to have a particular place. I think it's cool if you've got a prayer closet

at your house or you've got a spot that you go, a prayer room, but that's not what this was. What actually happened is these jokers would walk around with prayer shawls. I've worn them on stage before. It's this big thing, you kind of wear it with shawls. It's got these little tassels on the end. We'll talk about it later in Matthew. And when you would go into the synagogue and all these people would be praying together, there's nothing wrong with public prayer. And the religious people were praying real loud, you know, trying to show off. And what you're supposed to do is you would lift up your prayer shawl and close your arms and it would make like a little prayer closet. This isn't like the room in your house where you keep the broom and the shotguns and you make it into a prayer room. That's fine, but it just means you're not trying to make a show about this. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door. You pull up this prayer shawl in a public gathering because this is a secret between you and the Lord. It also means that when you do your quiet time, you don't post it on Instagram so that you can show everybody how holy you are and that your view of the ocean is better than wherever the crappy place they live.

God's like, neat, you did it, congratulations. Now listen, if you wanna teach the Bible on Instagram, sweet, but that's different than this secret time with the Lord. He says, and pray to your father who is in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you. You get rewarded when you pray to God. But what's the reward? Answer prayers? No, maybe, sometimes. God answers every prayer. Sometimes he goes, no. Don't you remember the great 21st century theologian, Garth Brooks? Some of God's greatest gifts? Unanswered prayers. Sometimes no, sometimes yes, sometimes not now. But the reward you get is you get him, that's the reward. And he says, so when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases. Like, why are you praying these things? You're just praying them because you heard somebody else say them and they don't mean anything to you, stop doing that. And I'm not trying to beat you up, but quit being a parrot and be a prayer. We pray the dumbest stuff. Dear God, I just thank you for this day. What does it even mean? God, would you just be with me?

Do you know how theologically inaccurate that is? Just be with me. He's everywhere, where you gonna be, he ain't gonna be. And if you're a Christian, the spirit of God lives in you. You want him to leave? And just watch over him, God, watch over us. Don't watch over, live in, please. And you know my least favorite one? Thank you for this food and the nourishment to our body. What, it's just what food does, you can stop with that one. Like, pray real things, man. And it's fine to parrot a prayer if, like you're a little kid learning how to pray. But at some point, you gotta take the training wheels off and grow up and pray. So don't heap up empty phrases like the Gentiles do, for they think that it will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask. You ever try to spend all your time in prayer trying to inform God? God, I don't know if you know this, but I got investments in the stock market, ain't I? He's like, I know. And then this is crazy, this is how dumb we are. When the Bible calls us sheep, it's because we're dumb. That's, this is it. Let me tell you how dumb church people are. And I'm a professional one, okay? So I'm not talking about you, I'm talking about us.

Pray then like this, like this. And what he's just taught us is don't just heap up phrases because everybody else says them, and don't just say them in front of everybody else so everybody else can hear them. And then Jesus is going to give us the model prayer. Let me give you a model on how to pray. And then what do we do? We take what is known as the Lord's Prayer and we memorize it and we recite it in front of everybody and we don't mean a word of it and we just do it so everybody knows that we know it. It's literally the exact opposite. Now there's nothing wrong with praying the Lord's Prayer. I most often pray it, like in my own personal quiet time, my soul is kind of like a diesel engine, kind of got to warm up a little bit, and I recite the words and I try to slow it down and think about them. So there's nothing wrong with doing this unless you don't mean it and you're just memorizing rote words. Do you know where I learned the Lord's Prayer? It was not in a church, it was in a locker room. This is before we played football games, this is what we did. We prayed the Lord's Prayer. And we didn't even, we barked it. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And then at the end of it, our coach would say, now let's go kick their, and say a cuss word. I was like, I don't think we're doing this right. I don't think the Lord heard our prayer. So how should we pray? Jesus starts this way. When we pray, I want you to pray like this. Our Father. Now that is so routine to us. The first century, we went, wait, what? Don't you mean sovereign Lord of the universe, creator of all things? And Jesus is like, yeah, but he's your dad. 189 times in the gospel, Jesus wants us to know God as Father. This is so personal, why? Because if you miss the first two words of this prayer, the rest of your prayer will be worthless. Because the way you see God will determine how you interact with God. And if you just think he's your judge, you're always gonna try to make your case. And if you think he's distant, you'll be distant. And if you just think he's the man upstairs, then you'll just go. through rote religious routines to make sure you're okay. And if you think he's mad at you, then you'll just apologize all the time.

And if you think he's a vending machine, then you'll try to get the combination right so you can get what you want. But when you know that he's your dad and he loves you, you can come to him like that. By the way, dads, this ain't fair, it's just real. Your words towards and your face towards your children will primarily shape how they see God the father. Think about that. And God is not a reflection of your earthly father, he is the perfection of what it means to be a good, good father. And here's what's crazy, in Christ Jesus, God ain't mad at you, man. God's face towards you is he smiles on us, why? Because this is love, not that we first love God, God first loved us, that's it, his son is the propitiation for our sin. Propitiation means a payment that satisfies which means God is not dissatisfied in you. Our father in heaven, he's other, he ain't your homeboy. He's other, he is creator and we are created. Hallowed be your name, this is how prayer starts. God, I wanna honor you, I wanna glorify you. I want everything that I do and I pray and I say to bring your name glory, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Notice Jesus' prayer and preaching aligned. Remember what he preaches? Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

And our prayer is, God, would you align my life to your will and your way so that you could use me to bring heaven down to this crooked and depraved generation, that's what I'm asking for, God. Notice we haven't gotten to our own needs yet. It's only after we recognize who God is and we wanna hallow his name and we wanna be a part of the family of God pushing back darkness in a crooked and depraved generation. Then finally he says, give us this day our daily bread. Is it okay to ask God for stuff? Sure, he's the dad, he's your dad. But this one's very different than what we pray for. Anybody got a refrigerator? Then you don't really have to pray for daily bread. You might wanna look in your refrigerator and just thank God for the food he's given you for weeks and weeks and weeks. This is a prayer of utter dependence. And then it gets tough. I mean, I know we say this, but nobody really wants to live this. And forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. I wanna annunciate this, that's a big as. We pray, Lord, make a deal with you. I want you to dole out forgiveness to me at the same level that I do to others. Okay, be careful what you pray for. Jesus is gonna double down on this in just a second.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Jesus wants us to know in our prayer time we are at war with God. Jesus wants us to know in our prayer time we are at war. And we need God's help. Now here's the thing. I'm very convicted about this right now. Jesus's ministry and the early church were built on prayer. Saturated in prayer. In the Gospel of Luke, all of Jesus's ministry in life was all about prayer. His whole life. In Luke chapter three, Jesus prays as a baptism. Luke four, he's praying through his temptation. Luke five, he often goes along to pray. Not just in the bad times, but in the good times. In Luke six, he chooses his disciples. Before that, he spends the night in prayer. In Luke nine, after he asks the disciples, who do you say that I am? He spends the whole afternoon praying over his disciples. Again in Luke nine, he prays over his disciples. In Luke 18, he taught his disciples to pray. In Luke chapter 11, the disciples come up to Jesus and say, teach us to pray. They've seen him preach. They've seen him do miracles. They've seen him untack the Bible. And they don't say, teach us to do miracles, teach us more Bible, and teach us to preach.

They don't. They say, teach us to pray. Why? Because they realize if we are not connected with the power source of the heavenly father, everything else is futile. In Luke 22, Jesus says he'll pray for Peter's sifting. Also in Luke 22, Jesus prays in the garden of Gethsemane with such intensity that he sweats like drops of blood. In Luke 23, the last thing that Jesus ever says on the cross is a prayer. Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit. So if Jesus, God in the flesh, felt like he could do nothing on his own, and he was so driven to always pray, then why do we go through our lives? with so little prayer. We think we're more capable than Jesus? And it's not just the life of Jesus, it's the life of the early church. If you read in the book of Acts, on every page it talks about prayer. In Acts chapter one, they join together in constant prayer. In Acts chapter two, they devoted themselves to prayer. In Acts chapter four, they pray for an outpouring of signs and wonders. In Acts chapter six, the apostles devoted themselves to prayer and the ministry of prayer and the ministry of the word. They thought preaching and prayer were on the same level. In Acts chapter nine, Peter prays for the sick.

In Acts chapter 12, the church pray for Peter to be released from prison. In Acts chapter 13, they're praying when God raises up missionaries. In Acts chapter 14, they appointed the elders through prayer. In Acts chapter 16, Paul and Silas pray when they are in prison and God shakes the walls then. Here's my concern, church, is what was fundamental to the early church has become supplemental to the modern church. And I'm gonna tell you, here's the rebuke, just in case you're still on the uptake. Boy, I'm so mad at you this week. I mean, I love you, but boy, I'm so mad at you this week. Wednesday, when we fast and pray, I had to run some errands, so I was riding around. I was at another campus. I'm not gonna say which one, because I'm about to kill them. And so I was somewhere, not here, and I was like, oh, I'll just go to Hour of Prayer. That campus runs 1,500 people this weekend. And I roll into Hour of Prayer, and there's two people. And I was mad. I walked in there, I was like, what's wrong with these people? We don't pray, what's wrong with you? And I sat down, I began to pray about you, not for you. You ever pray about somebody?

I was like, Lord, what's wrong with these people? They don't love you. They don't love me. Lord, what's wrong with these people? They don't love you. They're probably not even fasting. I hope they eat lunch, get diarrhea. That's what I pray. I was feeling real self-righteous. I'm here, they ain't, you know. And I was praying, Lord, what's wrong with these people? And the Lord said, they're exactly where you've led them to be. So I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I have not prioritized prayer in our church. Listen, we're a generous church. We might be the most generous church in the whole country. We're a worshiping church. Boy, when we sing, we rip the roof off, way to go. We're a Bible church. I mean, I bragged on you on the beginning for receiving the word, way to go. We're a serving church. If there's a need around the world or in our community, we're the first ones to go, but we're not a praying church. Two people showing up to an hour of prayer, that ain't it. And I know you can be like, well, I can pray at home. You pray about that, but how about show up? There's something about when an army of the children of God gather together

and get on their face, not for a show, not to be entertained, but simply to commune with God. This is what I am calling us to, because prayer is the power source. You can't do anything without power. We see this every day. We walk around with these things in our pocket, right? You wake up in the morning, you look at it. It's been plugged in. You feel great, 100%. And then Apple hates us, so they put demons in here and they come out with a new phone every three months, and so your battery don't work. You know what I'm talking about? And it's two o'clock, yeah, I'm at 11%. And you feel all anxious. You're like, hey, anybody got a cord? Y'all gotta plug in? And we have unlimited access to the unlimited power source. And we don't pray. Jesus said that this is called a house of prayer. That's why I'm calling, listen, on Wednesdays, let's show up strong, man. Not because he needs us, because we need him. We need him. And here's the thing I wanna warn you about. Oh my gosh. Please don't make God put you in a desperate situation so that you would understand your desperation for him. Please learn it now.

Please don't have to pray, as the deer pants for streams of running water, so my soul longs for you. Please don't make him walk you through the valley of the shadow of death so that you'll know he's with you. Please understand it. Please don't make him hold you under the water and long for him like you long for breath. Please just plug into him and let's be at praying church. And when I say pray for our students in one weekend, I ain't talking about before you go to bed. Just be like, be with the students. No! I'm talking about, I wanna rattle hell. I want hell to crap their pants because of what's happening around here. I want the historians to write about the great revival of the 20s. And they'll be like, where did it start? It started with a student ministry at 1122 who caught on fire for the glory and the renown of Jesus. And the Great Commission was accomplished. And all behind that, there was unseen thousands and tens of thousands of us on our face, crying out to God to move in a mighty way. That's how we gotta pray. And listen, man, and I'm sorry that I have not led us well there. May we be people of prayer.

Because what you get, man, when you pray is you get Him. And that's what we need. We need Him, not just rote ritual, praying, fasting, giving. No, man, those are means to the end, and the end is Him. Do you love Him? I just want you to love Him. And everybody I know that loves Him, they got a significant, quiet, secret prayer life. Because they want Him, not just what He can give them. And so when you pray, pray like this. You don't have to pray this word for word, but pray like this. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And 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. Now, if you grew up in church, you're like, well, isn't there some more to it? You know, and thine is the kingdom, and all that. That's not in there. Somebody just made it up. You can pray that if you want to, but it's not in the Bible. I think they just added it so the song would be better. Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory. You know that part? So, I don't know.

Add that if you want to, it's fine, but it's just Jesus didn't tell us that part. And then He doubles down on this, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And He says, 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 yours. So, I'm not gonna spend any time trying to make it say what it doesn't say. But it just means this. If you get run over by the grace train, it changes everything. And if you ain't giving it, maybe you ain't got it. That's what Jesus is saying. And then He ends with fasting. Giving and praying and fasting. When you fast, it will reveal who you are. Fasting and board games will reveal who you are. Yeah, have you ever played a board game with your family? You figure out immediately who the rule keepers and the rule breakers are? Yeah. So, if you have justified to yourself why you don't have to fast or whatever, I mean, I get it. People will be like, well, actually, my heritage is from the Philippines, so I'm doing the Filipino fast,

and their time zone is while I sleep, so that's when I'm fasting. One dummy told me I'm fasting from fasting. Stop, just stop. The whole point is to tell your flesh no, so you tell Jesus yes. And as your body reminds you of how much it wants food, then you beg God that He would remind you how much you want Him. It's crazy, dude. Sometimes I get so busy, I do an accidental fast, you know what I'm talking about? Like, I just get up and get going, I'm like, it's three o'clock, I haven't eaten, I should probably eat. But when I declare a fast, I'm fasting on Wednesday, I wake up, I'm like, oh my, I'm starving. What happened? It's my flesh. And when you fast, just tell your flesh no. Because here's the thing, man, if you get up a couple of victories in this area, when your flesh tells you you have to have some other stuff that God says no to, then you will have in your history, you know what, I've told my flesh no before. I think I can do this again. And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces. That they're fasting may be seen by others, that they're fasting may be seen by others,

and they post it on Instagram, oh my God, I'm sorry. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. Congratulations, you posted about your fast, you got six likes. Only problem was, God wasn't one of them. It's between you and him. But when you fast, anoint your head with, anoint your head, wash your face, take a shower, don't look miserable. That you're fasting may not be seen by others, but by your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. The reward to giving and praying and fasting is that you get God. Do you realize? an incredible invitation that's in our Bible in James chapter four verse eight. I talk about it all the time because I can't get over it. The brother of Jesus on behalf of God says this. He says, hey, listen. Draw near to me and I will draw near to you. Think about all the people you're trying to get an appointment with and you can't get them to call you back because they're so important. The king of the universe just says, come here. So the reason that you give and you fast and you pray is not for the sake of the giving and the fasting and the praying. The reason is because if you draw near to me,

and those are great disciplines to help us draw near to him. He will draw near to us. In John chapter 15, Jesus gives a very similar invitation. He says, come here, stay close to me. Abide in me and I will abide in you. And they're like, how do we do that, boss? He goes, listen, abide in my word and I will abide in you because apart from me, you can't do anything. But when you stay close to me, I'm the source of power. I'm the vine, you're the branches. The things that you do are to just stay connected. They're a means to an end and the end is that you would know me and that I'm going to produce fruit in you that you cannot produce in yourself. You want a reward? God begins to produce in you things like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. So here's the point. When we give and when we pray and when we fast, the point is not performative. The point is to point our hearts to him because of what he's done for us. It's not to impress others. It's about intimacy with him. And so of course we need to repent for our sinfulness. And we need to repent. And we need to repent when we just religiously practice rituals

for the sake of the ritual. And it has nothing to do with being connected to him. So how do we close? Here's how we close. We sing. I need you to start thinking about this. Singing is like a big corporate prayer. We're all gonna sing to him. We're gonna sing true things about him. We are declaring who he is. The way we're gonna close today, we're gonna talk about how good our dad is. He's not empty-handed. He's got everything we need. And while we're rebuking, this is not the time to scoot out. And again, man, I ain't trying to guilt you. I'm just trying to shepherd you. And I get it, I get it. It takes forever to get out of the parking lot. There's a lot of people here. What, do you want to be less disciples? You want less people to go to heaven? This part of the service is the whole point. Because here's what's about to happen. I'm about to shut up. Thanks for not amening that, you know, amen. And the real preacher's gonna start preaching in your soul. His name is Holy Spirit. Don't do what I tell you to do.

Do what he tells you to do. And I need you to kind of like soak and saturate and be like, all right, Lord, I've received the word. Now, what are you telling me this week? What do I need to repent? What do I need to do? So we're gonna sing and we're gonna bring, we're gonna once again remind the temporary things of this world it can't fully and finally satisfy. We're gonna tell God, God, I try to justify all the time of why this money is mine, but I need to be reminded. It's yours and your kingdom that I'm seeking first. I'm gonna bring my tithes, my first and my best and my offerings. And it's an act of worship. And we're gonna pray. And I know you can pray way back there. I get it, I get it. But there is something about making your way down to this sacred space here and getting on your knees before the King. And says, all right, King, what's my part this week in your kingdom? If I'm going, if I'm gonna say not my will, but your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, I need some instructions and I need help because I can't do it on my own. And if you're on the struggle bus, maybe your only prayer is, dear Jesus, have mercy on me.

And if life is a big blessing right now, you just come get on your face and say, thank you, thank you, thank you. How do I steward it to push back darkness in the advancement of your kingdom? And I don't mean come and say prayers. I mean, come and pray. And the reward is God sees you and you get him. Would you stand, let me pray for you. Our good and gracious heavenly Father. Lord, I repent. I am so sorry. I have led us in growth, I have led us in events, I have led us in Bible study, I have led us in missions, and I have not led us well to be a praying church, an in-the-secret, on-your-face, praying-to-God kind of church. So God, would you help us? Not that it would be a program, but it would be a part of the personality of this church that we just want to sync up with the power source, which is you. God, I thank you that by the blood of Jesus, you hear our prayers, and you see us. And so God, as we sing, and as we bring, and as we pray, even though we do it every single week, God, we repent if any of us, if it's just become religious rote activity, and it's not deeply connected to the heart of you. And Jesus, I thank you that you and you alone are the reward. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. So church, let's sing, let's bring, let's pray, let's respond.