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[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. It is our prayer that you'll be blessed by the preaching of God's Word. You'll turn to Matthew chapter number 6 verses 9 through 15. As you're flipping there, I'd like to congratulate Rachel McCurry.

[0:12] She graduated college this weekend. And next Sunday night we're going to honor our graduates with the time in the service and then a reception. She graduated with honors. I don't even know how to say the Latin words.

[0:24] I just know at graduation we wouldn't have been sitting together. But we're very proud of you and thankful for the time you put in it. And teaching is interesting in college because you have to put it into action before you graduate.

[0:36] There's that overlap in the last years. You begin to teach in a school. And so you can't graduate as a teacher knowing something that you can't put in the action. Some things you can.

[0:46] You can study it for four years and then never talk about it again. You go do something in another field. And a lot of times in our Bible study it feels like that. That we can learn something and we can walk away from here and major on something this morning.

[1:01] But not major on it the rest of the week. But when we come to prayer it's got to be something that's put into place in our lives. And it ought to be something that we want. I'm really glad they chose this song this morning because it comes from a heart that says, I need you.

[1:15] So if you look back over your week and you don't find that you were going to God in prayer and talking to Him. It was just a way of saying, I don't really need you this week. Maybe next week or maybe if something comes up I'm going to need you.

[1:29] But I'm doing pretty good right now without you. And that brings deep conviction to my heart. Because there's never a day of my life that I'd want my Heavenly Father to think that I got it without you.

[1:39] And so as we look at prayer we think about that. And then as we think about mothers being Mother's Day. And I said it in my prayer but moms in here there's nothing that you're going to instill in your children that can be seen that will be greater than unseen prayer.

[1:56] Prayer is a difficult thing because nobody sees it. Nobody knows you're doing it. Your kids don't come to you and thank you for it often. Mostly because they don't thank you for much of anything. I know.

[2:06] I'm a child as well. My mom. I'm not as grateful as I should be. But prayer is one of those things we really take for granted that there's no bigger impact you're making in the life of your kids. No greater influence than you're praying for them.

[2:18] Because what it's doing in your life as you try to mother them and also what it's doing in their life helps them know that our lives are supposed to propel around God. That He is the center of all things and that we are not.

[2:29] Our families are not. But He is. Matthew 6, 9 through 15 has just been a great passage in my life. It's helped me so much. And I don't want to walk away from these truths. And I pray that you won't either as we look at them today.

[2:42] Matthew 6, 9 through 15. Let's read those together. Then pray. After this manner, therefore pray ye, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

[2:55] Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

[3:06] For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. For if we forgive them their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

[3:20] Heavenly Father, we come to you this morning. Lord, we thank you for an opportunity to call you our Father. We thank you that we can find all that we need in you. That you're all sufficient.

[3:31] You're all powerful. But you're also always caring about us. And we come to you today collectively asking that you will be with us as we study your word. We want to accept what you have in your word for us.

[3:44] We want to say yes to what you say to us today. We do not want to walk away being indifferent. We ask that you will work in our hearts, Lord. That you will draw us close to you. That you will continue to transform us into your image.

[3:57] So that we'll leave here today being better mothers and better fathers. Better children. Being better brothers and sisters to one another by responding to your word.

[4:08] And we want to show you in all that we say and do today. We want you to be honored and glorified. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. So I read a quote this week that said, Christ went more readily to the cross than we do to the throne of grace.

[4:25] And I think about that. How often do you find yourself enjoying just a secret prayer life? In Matthew chapter number 6 we're told how to go about it. We see the disciples get to a place where they say, You just have to teach us to pray.

[4:38] We've been with you and we've been watching you. But unless you tell us how to do it, we won't know how to do it. Meaning that it's not intrinsic. Meaning you're not just born with the knowledge of how to do it.

[4:49] But you need somebody to teach you. The disciples had God in flesh and Jesus there to model it for them and show them. And today we have the word of God that you hold in your hands. That shows us how to go about praying.

[5:01] Because it ought to be expression of our heart. Martin Luther called the Lord's Prayer the greatest martyr in Christianity. Because it gets abused more than any other thing. Because most of you probably could say it with me.

[5:13] Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And you recited it. Maybe you're on a football team that said it before you went out to the field. Maybe you were at a school at one point that said it.

[5:24] Or part of some group. But it's said many times. It's often said many times of people that have never prayed in their life at all. Just by repeating these words doesn't mean that you're really praying.

[5:35] Some people call it not the Lord's Prayer but the Disciples' Prayer. Because it was them that he was showing how to pray. And he was setting a pattern for them. And I pray even though we have a sermon today on Mother's Day that starts with our Father which art in heaven.

[5:50] I hope mothers see how this will apply to you. Because if you're a believer in here, the word of God makes application. But also I'd encourage you mothers that you ought to be people of prayer. And there's pressures to be a mother that can do everything.

[6:03] There's a product that's sold to you to get you to do something a little bit better. And every commercial with a minivan. They're always trying to tell you it will make life easier for you. If you want to sum up 70% of advertisements, it's a person coming out and saying, Moms, if you will buy this, your life will get easier.

[6:22] And it's a pretty good selling technique because if there's anybody in the world that needs life to become more simple, it's a mom with all that they're doing. And I want to tell you, I'm not trying to add to your burden in here.

[6:32] But I want to remind you that you have an incredible refuge in going to speak to your heavenly Father. And you should not try to rear children or to live your life without taking full advantage of the fact that you can speak to him on a daily basis.

[6:49] And so at the end of the service, at the end of the sermon of the day, I would like to make some applications specifically for you moms. So let's dive into the passage. You see it here in Matthew, but also in Luke chapter number 11 is the same prayer that we see.

[7:03] Jesus talking there, another record of the same story. In chapter number 11, the disciples, they say that they were in a certain place and we had ceased. One of the disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples.

[7:17] That was what their heart was craving. It was the response to their heart saying, God, tell us how we can communicate with God. And it's this specific response to the human heart that requires all humans that we want to hallow his name.

[7:29] We want to show honor and reverence and esteem him and admire him and value him as a treasure that he is. And it's our prayer that puts words to that desire in our heart.

[7:41] It's like, God, we want to communicate with you. Show us how to do it. And it's through prayer that we have this opportunity to do it. When a person tells you that they're going to pray for you, we often don't take comfort in it.

[7:54] Let's all be honest in here. It is church after all, right? When somebody tells you in a hard time they're going to pray for you, sometimes it doesn't really bring much comfort to you because you know yourself. And you think, if you're as faithful to praying for me as I would be for praying for you, then I am not going to be prayed for.

[8:13] Are you in agreement with me today? It's not exciting to think about, but it is true. And it becomes just a cliche that we say to people because we have no other words to say. So we pat them on the back and we say we will pray for you.

[8:25] But we often don't. John Newton, who wrote the great hymn, Amazing Grace, he said that, I don't know if he wrote Amazing Grace. He wrote something, all right? I'll leave all that up to Eric and them.

[8:36] But we all know who John Newton is. Yeah, he wrote Amazing Grace on a ship. Are you with me? Did he write Amazing Grace? Yes or no? The crowd, the mob says yes. That will be my final answer is that he wrote Amazing Grace.

[8:47] But he said of himself, and if you read the hymns that he writes, he just seems to have such a strong relationship with the Lord. And he could put it so well. But he said this.

[8:57] He says, the buzzing of a fly in the room is an overmatch for my strength. Have you ever felt like that? You want to talk to the God of heaven and it doesn't take but a buzzing of a fly to distract you from doing it?

[9:11] You know, I have preached many messages that weren't very good and you've been the victim of some of them or many of them. But can I tell you that I have never forgotten that I was preaching when I was standing up here?

[9:24] I have never. You might think I have, but I haven't forgotten. I am very much aware of the fact that I am standing in front of a bunch of people that are looking to me as I try to show them what the Word of God says about something.

[9:38] But in prayer, we forget what we're doing. We fall asleep. We think about something else. And our strength is no match even for the smallest of distractions. And we give up on prayer, especially when we come to it in a wrong manner because it doesn't feel like it works.

[9:52] It's a system that is broken. And so we're going to try a different technique if it isn't going to work. And we have these false ideas. The world thinks about it. One person said, one must quite soberly make one's mind that it's really only a matter of talking to oneself for the purpose of clarifying and composing our minds.

[10:10] That's a tragic way to think about prayer. Prayer is completely different than what you can learn at your yoga and meditation class. Prayer is not centering yourself and having a conversation with yourself.

[10:24] That's called being schizophrenic if you're having a conversation with yourself. That's not an inward conversation. There is a God that we are speaking to. There is a personal God that wants to hear from us.

[10:37] There is a God that's invited us to talk to Him. And that's what makes prayer so wonderful and so necessary in our lives. I believe it's called the Talak in Hinduism where they put the mark.

[10:50] James and Jennifer love it when I butcher words like that from India. But it's the marking upon their head and based upon maybe which God they had prayed to or where they had prayed that day.

[11:01] They would have a different marking. Maybe it's just a dot or maybe it's a U. But it's a symbol. In Islam, they have a time of day that's really inconvenient. So they walk out of the room and they tell everybody, I have to go pray.

[11:13] And in Christianity, that really speaks to the creator of the universe. It is a secret, intimate thing and you get no recognition for it. If we were to create the prayer badge, me and Brother John were going to create this yesterday.

[11:25] If you could give us some type of sticker system so that other people could see that we were praying, we would be much more interested in it. Because it's not seen by man, it's often ignored by us as well.

[11:38] Because people don't know that we're doing it. And we desire to spend time with God. And it shows what our heart craves. Have you ever tried to witness to somebody and talk to them and they say, I'm not religious, but I'm spiritual?

[11:52] That's the thing to say today when you don't want to talk to somebody about the things of God. I'm spiritual, I'm just not religious. I understand that. But I understand how they could deny being religious because of all the atrocious things that have been done in the name of religion.

[12:06] But people know for the most part they can't deny being spiritual. Because all of us in here have a craving to communicate with the supernatural. We know there must be more to life than this.

[12:17] And we all want to talk to God. If there is a God, we want to talk to Him. We want to know, does He know what's going on in our lives? Does He care what's going on? And we get tired of technology and being tired of quantifying everything.

[12:29] We're tired of just being number. And we just want something real. And it's right here in front of us. Do you realize that your prayer life is the litmus test for your relationship with God?

[12:42] And I know that's a very strong statement. But it is true. Don't look at whether you witness day and night on the street corner. Don't look at whether or not you're a moral person. Don't look at whether or not you go to church.

[12:53] Don't look even at how much you just simply know the Bible. Because you realize that other people see that. And it's possible to be motivated by a desire to simply look good.

[13:03] I am motivated to study this word this week for many reasons. One of them is I'm standing in front of you right now. My wife motivated me to prayer when she decided to take my iPad a second ago and take pictures of our kids up here.

[13:17] And I was about to come up here without an iPad. And it would be the shortest sermon in Vision's history if that was to happen. And we get motivated by different things. There's always reasons to do things.

[13:29] Even to serve. People may not see you serve. But we can be happy when they see that we did serve. But people don't know about your secret prayer life. And the only motivation is that you really want to talk to them.

[13:41] I hope all of you in here have the day, have an opportunity if your mother is still living. You want to call them. Not as it's something that you check off. But you really have a desire to talk to them.

[13:53] My wife knows it's no struggle for me. Because I will talk to my mom today as I talked to her yesterday. And I will probably talk to her again tomorrow. I just have a desire to talk to my mom.

[14:03] Because I love my mom. She's been a wonderful mother to me. And that is the basis for our conversation. Is that she is my mom. And whatever I have to say, she's interested in hearing.

[14:14] And if that is not your basis to talking to God, you're not going to do it. If you go to Him as anything but as Father. And so why should we even bother praying, you might ask in here. What is it?

[14:24] I mean, does it really matter? God already knows all things. Before it says in Matthew 6, 8. But not ye therefore like unto me, for your Father knoweth what things are in need of, before you even ask them.

[14:35] So what is the purpose of praying if He already knows this? If He means He's not surprised about anything that you tell Him. You go to Him, you say, you're good. I know. God, I need this.

[14:45] I know. There's nothing you're surprising Him with. We love to talk to somebody. We love to give them information. I think maybe women less so. My wife is okay with talking about things we've already talked about.

[14:57] It's just comforting, you know, to go over them again. But it's always fun to give new information. If you know something in here, you know a secret, you're looking to tell somebody.

[15:08] When I found out my wife and I were expecting our third child out, I wasn't allowed to tell anybody. But I went to Ohio, and as I was flying there, I was telling random strangers that we were expecting our third child.

[15:20] One lady took the diaper bag away from me. I was helping Carrie. And she's like, well, that's nice. Let me have that. All right? She was creeped out a little bit because I just had something. I wanted to give information. I feel that way.

[15:31] I hope you are. When you go to the Word of God, you're like, I just got to give this information to somebody. You've been there before. A new believer comes to you, and they say, you're never going to believe this. And they're so excited.

[15:41] They're telling you something you know. But they've learned it for themselves. And it's awesome. But you don't go to God like that. He knows everything. But in the fact that He knows everything, He also knows that we need to pray.

[15:53] And He tells us to do it. So that excuse isn't going to work. You say, I don't need to pray to God because He knows everything. Well, the God who knows everything told you to pray. So do it because He knows you need that.

[16:03] God has committed to Himself to provide for His people. He intends to provide for us. In Philippians 4.19, God will meet all your needs according to His riches in Christ, which is the New Testament version of the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

[16:16] His name, His divine name is the Lord who provide. Jehovah Jireh in Genesis 22. So we know that He knows everything, but He still tells us to pray. But He provides everything.

[16:26] And then He has invited us to ask, to seek, and to knock, to open our mouth wide, and He will fill it. Our Heavenly Father already knows our needs and He invites us to make it known to Him in prayer.

[16:38] And we don't know what we really need. So He knows what we really need, but we don't know what we really need. Romans 8.26, but we do not know what we ought to pray for.

[16:49] And I will say, Thy will will be done. But God knew that we would often be baffled in prayer, so He sent the Holy Spirit who intercedes for us. And He prays for us when we don't know how to pray for ourselves or for anyone else.

[17:03] And we must know who we are ourselves. And this helps us return to our proper place and orbit with just six words. Our Father, which art in heaven are wonderful six words that ought to be said just like that or be said in some rendition all throughout our day because it places us back into the orbit and the way that we belong and we go to Him and say, I don't know, but you don't know what I need and I accept it.

[17:30] So first of all, praying unto our Father with emphasis on the word our Father. We have a shared relationship with it. Can you believe when they ask Jesus, how do we talk to God? He didn't turn to them and say, you don't, alright?

[17:43] Or He says, how do we talk to God? I've chosen a few people and you can write out your request and you can send it to them. He didn't say that. He didn't say, well, what do you want me to tell them? You know, He could have done that.

[17:53] He said, you want to pray to the Heavenly Father disciples? Why don't you write down what you want to say? I'll pick the best three statements and I'll tell God for you. He starts off and He says, our Father.

[18:05] That Jesus, the Son of God, used a plural possessive pronoun to say, you and me together are talking to God. And that ought to excite us here that it's our Father.

[18:17] That's the reason we pray together. And we say, will you pray for me? Because it's our Father that we pray to here. And can you believe that we get to speak to Him? But as many as received Him in John 1.12, to them He gave power, which means authority, legal status, to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.

[18:37] And we are the children of God, 1 John 3.1. Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. The word behold, this means be astonished by His love.

[18:50] That we ought to be amazed by it. Because if there's no friendship, if there's no lordship, it's because there's no sonship. When you recognize that you are now the son and daughters of God, you just behold how much He loves you.

[19:05] And it's a wonderful conversation you want to have with Him. We love God as He, in John 17.26, these are the words of Jesus. I have declared unto them Thy name, and I will declare it, that the love wherewith Thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.

[19:23] That Jesus said, because of my death upon the cross, you have the same legal status, the same ability, to be walking down the road, and to stop, and to speak to God.

[19:34] Isn't that incredible? The standing that we get at our salvation, and what He has done for us. Here, and He goes on to say that we do not pray as the hypocrites are. He says, when thou prayest, thou shalt not pray as the hypocrites are.

[19:47] Which is different than, as the hypocrites do, that we're different as we go to them. Hypocrites can't pray like Christians, but Christians continually fall back and pray like hypocrites or pagans.

[19:59] A person may come to God and be very selfish in what they're doing, but we get to call Him Father. So the difference between a hypocrite and a Christian, hypocrites and Christians both may repent of sins.

[20:10] The hypocrites do not repent, though, of their righteousness as we do. And because of that, that has changed our status to the God of heaven. We're not petitioning Him for somebody that we don't know that's not personal, but we are going to Him, and we get to say, Our Father.

[20:27] And that changes our prayer life. Those two words. If you're like me in here, and I've never known a Christian who did not say they wanted to be better at prayer, because our pursuit is to know Him better. So you're never going to be an accomplished Bible student and say, I wish I'm not going to get any better.

[20:42] And you're never going to be perfect in your prayer life, because it's not pursuit. It's those two ways in which we pursue knowing Him. Those two words will radically change your prayer life when you think about the significance of being able to say, Our Father, when you address Him.

[20:57] And you'll stop worrying about some of those things. Could you imagine that? You're intentionally being so worried. How do we talk to the mom? What should we say to her? Has she had her coffee yet? It's Mother's Day.

[21:08] Tell us how to talk to the mom. We don't want to ask her for breakfast, because I don't know if we should ask this. And I would say, She is your mom. However you talk to her will be fine.

[21:20] And just like little children, your prayer life today is different than it will be in the future. You're going to grow in it. But however you talk to your Heavenly Father, you should do it. And you may ask for some things that are silly, as my son does.

[21:33] But over time, you're going to learn more what you need from him and what he wants. But that doesn't mean you should stop talking. Could you imagine a kid that's to the side? Sometimes you have little kids around here, and they don't talk at all.

[21:44] And then one day, they just start. They have zero words, and then they have 500 words. They just wait a long time to talk. Could you imagine if somebody tried to do that, though, completely? They said, I'm not going to allow my children to talk until they can speak in perfect grammar, until they know that completely.

[21:59] I still wouldn't be talking today if that was the case. But you just start talking, and we learn along the way, he's our Father. He could have said, our King, because he is King. He could have said, our Creator, because he is Creator.

[22:10] He could have said, our Sovereign One, because he is. But he says, our Father, because he is our Heavenly Father. And just on a side note here, every time you see Jesus, he tells us to pray in his name.

[22:23] And you say, how come we're not told to pray in the name of Jesus here? When you say, our Father, you are praying in the name of Jesus, because the only reason he is your Father, is because you are in Jesus Christ.

[22:35] So when you go to him, the only way you can say, hey, you're my Father, is because a relationship had happened, to make them your Father there. We have a great God, who should be respectfully feared.

[22:47] When we go into his presence, Moses was told to take his shoes off. Pass through the night, will tell us in Exodus 19, don't touch the mountain, or if you do, you will die. He is to be feared, but he is not to be ignored.

[23:00] That this strong and powerful personal God, he doesn't stop, because he's still in heaven. That speaks of his authority, but he wants to communicate with you. He did not have to lower himself, and stop being God.

[23:13] He remains God, who is powerful, which means that you can go to him, and he remains being God, and we talk to him, for we are the children of God, by faith in Christ Jesus.

[23:24] Galatians 3, 26. If you are in Christ Jesus, because you put your faith in him, you can pray. If you're not a believer in here, there's one prayer for you to pray today, and that's the prayer of asking for forgiveness, of those sins, and making him your heavenly Father.

[23:40] It's not a business relationship. Our pastor spends a great deal of time, to tell you why it's not a performance, and why it's a relationship that we have, that we often feel like it is. And so we go to him, not just to spend time with him, but we go to him, because we're always asking something, because we think we have to perform.

[23:58] Brother John has a standing appointment, with his parents, I believe on Wednesday afternoon, at 4 o'clock. Could you imagine how heartbroken, he would be, if his mom always sat down, and said, what's the agenda for the meeting?

[24:09] What is it you want John? If you don't want anything, would you leave? I have stuff to get done. But that's not the case. He goes there for no purpose, but to spend time with them.

[24:19] He may even have something to ask of them, to invite them to something. He may leave and say, you know what, I didn't even remember to ask them for it. I just got so caught up, in enjoying my time with my parents, that I didn't even remember, what it is I went there to ask.

[24:33] But if he only showed up, and he didn't want to really spend time with them, then he wouldn't be enjoying, the relationship that he has in them. And so notice here it says, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, which means when we go to God, we don't go as the hypocrites are, we go as children do, and we address him as Abba, as Father.

[24:55] And you should be floored by the fact that you get to call the creator of the universe, Father. All things about him being king is seen in this prayer, but he says that we come to him, and when we call on him, we call him Father, the one that is personal, yet he is still powerful.

[25:09] And in those six words, our Father which art in heaven, it reminds us where our place is in this world, it reminds us who God is. You know, I have some memories growing up, where I went to talk to my father, and there was a window there, he was in jail, and I would go there, and I just wanted to talk to him.

[25:26] There really wasn't any agenda, there was just, you have a designated time, and a designated place, you could sit there, and talk to them. Nobody had to talk me into it, nobody had to tell me how to do it, I just knew I had an opportunity, to talk to my dad.

[25:40] But you understand that, that was limited by time, it was limited by space, and my dad was very much limited, on how much he could influence my life, for being on the other side.

[25:50] We have a heavenly father, and our conversations aren't limited by time, they're not limited by space, and there's not a window between us and him. He doesn't live in a different realm than we do, but he's our father, and he walks with us, we can talk to him through prayer, we can read from his word, and we can commune with him, and he's very much able to be involved in there.

[26:11] He doesn't miss your events, he's there. You don't have a graduation that he missed, you don't have a hardship that you missed, he is always there faithfully to him, so to have a relationship that is struggling with him, is always going to be in your court.

[26:27] It's always going to be on your side of the equation, because he is always faithful, and he always does right by us. And so there's a pattern that is set out for us. So we should plunge into God, accepting things that God has sent our way, asking him to give only what he wants for us to have, and letting us change.

[26:43] So we kind of have a pattern set for us. First of all, in verse number 9, is that we would adore him. After this manner, pray ye, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Fifty percent of this prayer is just simply about the doctrine of God, how he's heavenly, he's holy, and he's personal.

[27:00] David says, one thing I will seek after, one thing only do I need, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord, and inquire in his temple. It's that one thing. When you're running around moms, when you're going, trying to solve problems, men in here, different people in here, and you think, I just have one more thing to do, you'd be good like David to say, there's only one thing I need to do right now, and that is the gaze upon the greatness of God.

[27:24] And that's what we do in prayer, the portion of adoration, the example given of Job. Job brushes into the presence of God, and he starts to pray, oh Lord, why did you do this? Are you going to fix this? What's going on? He seems like he's going to, he's going to ventilate, or he's just venting there to God, he's going to hyperventilate, and there's a place in the book of Job, where he says, Job, sit down, buddy, don't you know that before you were even thought of, that I stretched out the foundations of the earth, and when I stretched out, where were you at when I stretched out the heavens, like a garment?

[27:55] Job running around, trying to deal with all the circumstances, God says, you need to take a moment, and stop looking at what you can see, and stop thinking about who you are, and you need to recognize who I am.

[28:06] Jonah, if you look at his prayer, he's in the belly of a well, and in Jonah 2, 3, it says, thou hast cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas, and the floods can pass me about, the billows and waves passed over me, then I said, I am cast out of thy sight, I will look again forward to the holy temple.

[28:23] So you may think in here that you're in a place, you don't have time for prayer, a real meaningful secret prayer with God. Jonah decides in the belly of a well, it's time to talk to God.

[28:34] And when he goes to talk to God, he starts out by adoring God, and says, God, I need to first look at you. So we come to God, and we just adore him. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

[28:46] You are wonderful, you are great, you are worthy of this. I know the problems that I'm bringing to you are small, of your fathomless wealth. I know what I'm coming to you in can be solved, you can heal me, you can do whatever is needed, but you are not limited.

[29:02] You need to know who it is that you're addressing, before you begin to talk to him. And then secondly, verse number 10, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in earth, as it is in heaven.

[29:13] That's accepting. You want to know him, you have to want to know him, rather than control him. So you come to God, and you adore him, but you can't control him, so you decided you would stop talking to him.

[29:26] The second part of a meaningful prayer life, is that when you come to him, you say, God, I'm accepting what you have for me in life. I recognize that you are Lord, and I would not want to change that, so whenever you come, I am surrendering.

[29:38] You cannot say, give me this, or I need these things, until you say, you know what, I need, I accept it. Could you see your kids, or children, thinking they know better, than you?

[29:49] And it's the same with an immature Christian, we think we know better, and we have anxiety about it. Prayer is realizing, that he is God, and you are not. And so you say, I don't know, but you do know.

[29:59] We can trust the God, who loved us so much, that he humbled himself, to a point, and he came to a garden, and he prayed that prayer, of surrender. He said, nevertheless, not my will, but your will, be done.

[30:11] And he sets the great example, to us. So first of all, we go to him, when we adore him, our hands are lifted up, and we say, you are great. Then we lift our hands out, and say, God, whatever it is, these are your hands, this is your life, I completely submit to him.

[30:26] And whatever is still in your hands, after you held up, and adored him, whatever is still in your hands, after you reached out, and said, this is him, that is what you ask him for. Give us this day, our daily bread, forgive us our debt, as we forgive our debtors, lead us not, into temptation.

[30:40] Look at where you come from, before you get to this section, you lifted up those hands, whatever is still there, in your heart, you come to him, with this petition, and he asks you, to do it. You may ask, does he want me, coming to him, and can I tell you, as I did in our, adult bible fellowship class, he definitely doesn't want you, going to anybody else, and going to somebody else, and asking for it.

[31:02] If my son, went to Andrew Pearson, and said, hey, my dad's not really feeding me, you know, could you help me out, a little bit, you know, it seems like, Natalie, she has some good snacks, and you don't really help me out, could you help me here, I would be embarrassed, I would be grateful, because Andrew would feed him, a free meal, save me on my monthly budget, but I would be embarrassed, by that.

[31:23] Could you, and so, if there's something, to ask for in life, you ask your heavenly father, it may be that down the road, you see that this isn't anything, I should be asking for, but you're going to ask somebody else for it, if you don't go to God, and ask him for it, either you're going to remove, the desire to have it, or you're going to go try, and get it on your own, so you'd be better off, asking the heavenly father, for it, and you may find that, in the asking, your heart begins to shift, and you recognize, that it is not where it belongs, in priority, and it realigns you, with where things should be, and the pattern here, thy kingdom come, that he was most concerned, about God's agenda, in this world, and not the other way around, that daily bread, as we've studied in Exodus, is that, I don't plan to go a long time, away from you, I'm going to talk to you again tomorrow, would you give me what I need, for the day, some of us could be honest, we go to God and say, hey God, I haven't talked to you, in about 20 days, and I don't really plan, to talk to you again, for another 15 days, would you give me what I need, my 15 day ration, from you, so that I don't have to come, and see you, so often, how crazy is that, how insulting would that be, that you didn't want to be there, so you pray daily, you pray for what you need, for the day, because you're going to talk to him again, in a little bit here, and he provides for us, don't be like the prodigal son, that goes to the father, and say give me all that I need, to live without you, and then take it and leave, when you go to God, to ask him to give you something, so you can live in a way, that isn't dependent upon him, that is something you don't need, if it is something in your life, that would allow you to live a life, dependent from God, it is something you don't need, and then lastly here, not only would you adore, and just praise him, not only do you say,

[33:03] I accept what you have for me in life, and then you begin to ask him, verses 14 and 15 says, we should adhere, to what he teaches us, for if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly father, will also forgive you, but if you ask, but if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your father, forgive your trespasses, the last part is not give me, but it is make me, make me a forgiving person, make me someone, who can handle trials, the indication, that scene here, is that you should be a person, who is willing to forgive, because of the conversation, you just had with your God, if you walk around feeling guilty, then you are not living forgiven, if you walk around mad, and bitter, you are not living forgiven, so as we go to God, and say, Lord forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly father, will also forgive you, and if you forgive men their trespasses, neither will your father, forgive your trespasses, what is being said is, after this conversation, I just had with the heavenly father, I am going to live, according to the truth,

[34:06] I know about him, and it changes my life, and we adhere to it, it is not asking for something, it is asking God, to make us something, God make me a forgiving person, because we don't pray, as the hypocrites are, we pray as the children of God, are, and we ask him, to make us more and more, into his image, so we adore, we spend time adoring him, praising his name, then after we do that, we say, Father your will be done, we accept it, and then we ask our petitions, for him, and he wants those, he tells us to bring them, to him, and then we adhere, and say, God you have heard my petitions, now make me, into the person, that you would have me to be, a forgiving, and loving person, that those four A's, are hard for you to understand, you can take these letters, P, R, A, and Y, spend time in praise, then realize your relationship, with him, then ask him, and then yield to him, praise, realize, ask, and yield, and so this isn't a prayer, that's given to us to repeat, without any thought, but there's a model here, and it's something that we need, and so the disciples said, teach us to pray, and he prayed this, and if you came in here today, and you say,

[35:17] I need to know how to pray, because I am not, and if you came in here today, and you're not spending time, in prayer with him, you need him to teach you, I did not teach you today, how to pray, but the God of heaven, through his word, is trying to teach you, how to pray, because it isn't like a math formula, like if you get it wrong, I won't answer you, it's that he's saying, that if you don't come to me, as our father, you're probably not going to talk to me, he knows that, if you come to him, as anything but our father, you're not going to talk to him, because if you go to him, and it's a business relationship, and he doesn't serve you, then you ignore the him, so some people go, and through vain repetition, they think they can demand, an action from God, and they give it up, I don't know how people, can live in a religion like that, where they say, I'm going to say this many prayers, over and over, and it demands something from God, there's another group of people, and they go to God, and they think that they're going to hear, audibly from God, and prayer, and they ignore the written word, that we have, he's already spoken to us, and if you want to hear God speak out loud, read your Bible out loud, alright, and he's speaking to you, and those people, but we're not those people, and so we don't pray, because it's a, we forget the relationship, that we have for them, how long will you continue, unsatisfied, with your prayer life, how long people vision, will you continue, unsatisfied, with your prayer life, pray through the Psalms, get something to help you, as you do this, do you see it's something, that you've been checking off, or do you see it as a grand opportunity, to speak to your heavenly father, that you have ignored, if you're sitting here today, and you feel incredible guilt, because you say, man I hadn't even thought about it, my prayer life, has it not been something,

[36:54] I've checked off for the last 30 days, then you have missed what I've said, and I have misspoken, and misrepresented the word, you have an opportunity, to pick up the phone, and speak to your heavenly father, and to thank him, for him, as you know you should do, on mother's day, and other days you may not, I pray on this day, you would know that it's a day, that you could communicate, with your father, from one brother to another, what is it about our heavenly father, that has caused you, to no longer to desire, to talk to him, if we were in a family, and I said, how long has it been, since you talked to dad, how long have you called, sometimes, I'll call my little brother, and we'll ask, how long has it been, since you went by, and you saw mom and talked, and it's been a long, long time, well a brother, to another brother, a brother to another sister, I'd say, well what is it about dad, that's bothered you, why are you so upset, with dad, and in an earthly story, I would have to take a side, but in this story, I'm not taking a side, it's very clear, where the problem lies, he has not done wrong, towards you, he has not stopped listening, he's not even ignored, your phone calls, you know he wants to talk, he wants to hear, from you his children, and he wants you, to read this word, have you forgotten, the wonderful joy, and privilege it is, to call him, by our father, and are you hindered, by your unwillingness, to accept his will, so you're angry, with him, you can't adore him, because you're mad at him, you can't accept it, you can't, you don't want to talk to him, because you don't want to say, thy will be done, if you're unable, to say the words, that are set there, in the Lord's prayer, then you're not able, to have a meaningful, secret prayer life, and so it brings us back, to where we belong, so mothers, here's a few thoughts, to you before we pray, nothing will have, any greater influence, on your child's life, and eternity, than how you view God, you know that right, if you think, you worship a mean God, then your children, will make a decision, if they want to serve, a mean God, if you have a loving, and compassionate God, they will want to know, you're loving, and compassionate God, well often it's hard, to know how we feel, about God,

[38:54] God, so are you praying, for them, your children, and how do you view God, is he a taskmaster, ignore, or do you see him, as a heavenly father, and if you want, to know the answer, to that question, of how you view God, men and women in here, here's the answer, it's your secret, prayer life, what you think of him, will be seen, in your desire, or lack of desire, to speak of him, if you see him, as our heavenly father, you want to speak the hymn, if you don't want, to speak the hymn, then you see him, as something else, and that something else, you see him in mothers, that is what you're, training your children, to worship, and that's a heavy, responsibility, that you have, just like in your home, a mother would have, the father, the greatest person, that has influence, on how the kids, think about dad, do they honor, do they respect, do they love dad, is the mom, and moms you also, have that responsibility, when it comes to our heavenly father, how do your kids, view God, based upon how you view God, and how do you know, how do you view God, do you want to talk to him, and I tell you,

[39:58] I'm encouraged, I want to talk to God, as my heavenly father, I read these passages, and I thought, I have missed, such wonderful opportunities, that I have missed out, on something, that even though, it's not seen, by this group of people, it's something, that I crave, you don't have to teach me, to want to pray, it is built into me, I want to spend, time with him, it is much harder, to pray for 30 minutes, than it is to preach, for 30 minutes, it is hard to do, the unseen things, in life, but can I tell you, when we start off, with those words, our father, it's going to make, that conversation, so much different, and so much sweeter, let's pray, as Kristen comes, to the piano, our father, which art in heaven, I thank you so much, that we get to come to you, in the name of Jesus, like that, that we get to pray, to you, as a heavenly father, I thank you today, for a mother, that showed me, even though I had, an absent earthly father, for so many years, I had a constant, and loving, and faithful heavenly father, that was always there for me, that was at every event, and that would listen to me, at any time, that I wanted to speak, father,

[41:06]  I've asked that you, would forgive me, because I've went, and served in this many, and many times, without asking you, or talking to you, about anything, and I am excited today, Lord, to be reminded of this, as the disciples, Lord, I've asked that you, would teach us to pray, this message, was recorded, at Vision Baptist Church, in Alfred, Georgia, for more information, log on to, www.visionbaptist.com, where you can find, our service times, location, contact information, and more audio, and video recordings,