From Our Hearts To God's Throne | Frank Brancato

It's wonderful to be here with all of you today.

We have a wonderful crowd for which we're thankful.

And as has been mentioned, we have some visitors.

We have those from other congregations and perhaps those

from the community, and we appreciate your presence.

We're grateful that you're here and we say welcome as always as

the case. I do consider it an honor to

speak concerning the word of God, and we're continuing our

series on the Great Sermon on the Mount.

The Sermon on the Mount is the greatest masterpiece of our

Lord. It was the first sermon ever

preached. It's found in Matthew Chapter 5,

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

Matthew Chapter 6, and Matthew Chapter 7.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention Matthew 7 · chapter mention

We've now made it through chapter five.

We began chapter six last time, when Jesus dealt with the

concept of doing good to please God.

And one of the great things that we learned from the master in

our last sermon and that being Jesus is we learned that the

motive behind the ACT really matters.

But so it does with prayer too. Today for a little while, as you

can see the title of our lesson from our hearts to God's throne,

Jesus going to teach us about the principles of proper prayer.

What a great blessing that it is, Prayer for the child of God.

Our text is found in Matthew chapter 6, beginning there in

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

verse 5. Jesus says, And when you pray,

you shall not be like the hypocrites, For they love to

pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the

streets, that they may be seen by men.

Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have

shut your door, pray to the Father who is in secret place,

and your Father who sees in secret, will reward you openly.

Verse 7 And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions, as the

heathen do, for they think that they will be heard for their

many words. Therefore do not be like them,

For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask

him in this manner. Therefore pray our Father in

heaven, hallowed be your name. Prayer is the divine

communication that emanates from the heart of the believer and

ascends to the throne of God. I realize the Bible tells us to

pray. We're actually commanded to

pray. It is a duty and a

responsibility to pray. But it's so much more than that.

I hope that we are people that are instant in prayer.

I hope that prayer is part of our daily life.

And I don't mean just every once in a while.

I mean I hope and pray. That prayer is that for us.

That prayer is something that we're ready to do and ready to

go to God in prayer. In fact, if you look at verse 5,

Jesus says when you pray, now remember he's going to compare

the prayer of hypocrites and we'll talk about what that

actually means, the prayer of hypocrisy and what not to do

when you pray. And then he's going to talk

about what to do when you pray and who's he talking about?

Jesus still living under the law of Moses?

He has a Jewish audience on the Great Sermon on the Mount, but

he's talking about principles that will exist in the Kingdom

or when the church would come. He's going to talk about things

that apply in the Christian age, and the first thing he says is

about prayer. When you pray, in other words,

Christians are going to pray. That's the assumption.

And not only that, Christians are going to pray often.

It's going to be part of our life.

Then he said this. When you do that, don't be like

the hypocrites. I know that it's easy to define

hypocrisy with actions, in other words, in manner of life.

And we know what a hypocrite is. It's a play actor pretending to

be something he never intended to be.

We know that. And last time Jesus dealt with

hypocrisy. When you talking about works and

deeds, if you do it for the wrong reasons, it's

hypocritical, right? But if you ever stop to consider

that it's entirely possible for us to pray in a hypocritical

manner, Jesus said there is a way to pray in a hypocritical

manner. He says don't do that.

Let me talk about prayer in the Jewish culture for just a

moment. Prayer in the Jewish culture was

very important. It was really part of their

life. In fact, they would stop all

activity, whatever they were doing, three times a day, nine

AM, 12:00 PM, and 3:00 PM. Now, I got to tell you, it's a

good thing to block out time in your day.

I don't mean ritualistically at a specific time every day.

I'm just saying it is a good thing to block out time and stop

all activity. Go to your private place and go

to God and word of prayer. It's a great thing to do, right?

And it was a great thing to do back then when they would do it

in intervals. Here was the problem during the

personal ministry of Jesus that lasted about three years.

It got worse and worse and worse.

What the problem is they took something that was holy,

something that was special, something that was wonderful and

private, and they turned it into a public spectacle.

Jesus says don't be like that, don't turn it into a public

spectacle. Religious leaders were making

long public prayers and they were doing it for the wrong

reason. They were doing it for show.

They were doing it to be seen by men.

And it's the same thing, by the way, to do things, to be seen by

men. Whether you're praying or

whether you're doing works or deeds, it's the same thing.

Don't do it that way. Jesus says in a minute he's

going to say it about prayer. He said it last time about works

and deeds. They have their reward, meaning

they're getting nothing from God.

Whatever praise for men that they get, this is what Jesus

said that they were doing. They calls them hypocrites in

their prayer. This is what they did, for they

love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of

the streets that they may be seen by men.

Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

OK, first of all, I want to talk about prayer posture for just a

moment. The usual prayer posture or the

usual posture of a Jewish prayer was standing.

That was the usual one, in fact. That's why Jesus says they enjoy

standing in the synagogues and standing on the corners of the

street when they pray. But if you look in the Old

Testament, there were other things that they did.

For example, we have examples of when they knelt down to pray.

We have other examples when they laid prostate on the ground like

this face down in humility when they prayed.

We're also going to find that there were other times when they

lifted up their hands in prayer, Literally.

In the Old Testament, we have, by way of customs, traditions.

We have different ways that we pray too.

Sometimes we kneel down, sometimes we stand up, sometimes

we sit down. When I'm driving down the road

and I'm praying to God, I'm praying to God, sitting down in

my truck, driving When I pillow my head at night, I don't kneel

down by the side of my bed. I could if I wanted to and I'd

be fine. I don't do that.

I lay down and I pray to God before I go to sleep.

What's the point? The point is the prayer.

Posture doesn't matter. There is no specific prayer

posture that God accepts, and there is no specific prayer

posture that God rejects. And we need to be very careful

that we don't bind with the Lord is not bound and we don't want

to bind our practice on someone else when the Lord has not bound

that practice or reject the practice that the Lord has not

rejected. OK, the average prayer or the

most Jewish prayers was done standing.

Here's another custom that we have, by the way, closing our

eyes. Closing our eyes.

I I asked myself, why do I close my eyes when I pray?

I don't. If there's a passage in the

Bible about closing your eyes, I don't know where it is.

But I asked myself, why do I close my eyes?

The only thing I can think of is focus and concentration.

That's the only thing that I can think of.

So is it OK to close your eyes? Absolutely, if that helps you

focus and concentrate. Do you have to close your eyes

to focus and concentrate and pray?

A scriptural prayer? No, years ago, and maybe I've

mentioned this to you over the years.

From time to time. I don't know if I have or not,

but I was a little boy and I remember after services I got in

the car and I said, Dad guess what Brother so and so had his

eyes wide open during the prayer.

He said, how did you know his eyes were open?

Man? I walked right into that one.

Busted. And then he said something else

I will never forget. I was a little boy.

He said, Son, prayer is not from the eyes, it's from the heart.

It just doesn't matter. Prayer posture doesn't matter.

And by the way, I'm setting the stage.

I'm making these points because I'm going to make a point later.

The 1st place that they would pray though standing is in the

synagogues publicly at the place of worship at the House of

worship. And instead of praying for the

glory of God and the edification of others, they were doing it

for their own praise. They were praise seekers to

receive the patch on the back. And I got to ask you a question

because I've heard this all my life.

Is there a prayer that doesn't get higher than the ceiling?

Why do I ask it like that? Because I've heard that phrase

my whole life. Oh, that his prayer didn't get

any higher than the ceiling. Is there a prayer that does not

ascend to God? Well, this is what some people

would say. Well, in John Chapter 9, the

John 9 · chapter mention

Bible says that God does not hear the prayer of a Sinner.

That's true. The context of the passage is

this. Jesus heals a man that was born

blind. The Pharisees grill him and they

said Jesus must be a Sinner because he performed a miracle

on the Sabbath day. The man says, and I love this.

He says, well, Sinner or no. All I know is this.

I was blind. Now I can see and then he says,

but we know God does not hear the prayer of a Sinner, but he

that is a worshipper of God and does his will him he hears.

OK, my best way to wrap my head around that is this.

God does not listen to those who don't listen to him.

That's the best way to put that. If a person chooses a life of

sin away from God, God is not listening to those that don't

listen to him. Some people say, well, wait a

minute, A Sinner there in John Chapter 9 is anyone that is not

John 9 · chapter mention

a baptized believer. Be careful with that.

Now please, I want you to listen closely to what I'm saying.

Be careful with that. I'm going to tell you why.

Acts chapter 10 here was a man that was a gentile.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

He was a good man. His name was Cornelius.

He did many good things and alms and all of that for the people.

You know what the Bible says? He prayed to God always.

And the Scripture says God heard that prayer.

Did God save him in his condition?

No. Was he OK in his condition?

No. You know what God did?

He sent a messenger and the messenger said, hey, go down to

Joppa, send some guys down to Joppa, and you get old Peter and

you tell Peter to come and tell you what to do.

And Peter came and preached the gospel.

Guess what happened? Cornelius and his household were

baptized for the remission of sins and became Christians.

God does not listen to those that don't listen to him.

So here's my question. Is there a prayer?

Is there a prayer that does not ascend to heaven and only gets

as high as the ceiling? The answer is yes.

And it's this prayer right here. When you pray for the glory of

men, for the wrong motive to be seen of men, for the praise of

men. That's the prayer that God's not

listening to the second place, by the way that the Pharisees

abused. Prayer was on the street

corners. And really in historically

speaking in Jewish life and economy, it revolved around the

outdoor market. They would have these big main

thoroughfares, OK, all these people up and down walking up

and down the thoroughfares. And what they would do is they

would find these thoroughfares, They would stand on the corner

of the street so that everybody can hear.

And with long winded prayers to be seen by men, they would pray.

I'm going to tell you something though.

Jesus is not prohibiting public prayer.

In fact, there's sometimes public prayer is good, it's

warranted, it's merited and scriptural.

What does the Bible say in First Timothy chapter 2 and verse

1 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

eight? I desire therefore, that men

pray everywhere. Now I do know, and I do

understand that some commentators would mean that

everywhere means everywhere in the assembly, because the

context of the chapter is the assembly and all of that.

But I'm going to tell you, I disagree that it's exclusive to

the assembly. I think everywhere means what it

says. I think everywhere means

everywhere. There are times in the

scriptures when there's a distinction between the assembly

and not in the the assembly. For example, I'm gonna give you

one example like I can't spend time on this.

When Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, remember what Paul

said? He talks about roles of men and

women and he says in the church he makes a distinction.

You know what that means in the assembly of the church.

So there's a distinction there. So I think that in this case,

everywhere means or includes the assembly, but it's not exclusive

to it. I think everywhere means

everywhere. OK.

Then he says this lifting up holy hands without wrath and

doubting what is holy hands mean in this passage.

Lifting up holy hands means hands of men who are living holy

or righteous lives. The lifting up of the hands is

merely an allusion to the ancient practice of presenting

the uplifted hands in respectful petitions to God.

And I'm going to give you 3 Old Testament passages in just a

moment. But let me just suffice it to

say, what Paul was doing here in this passage is he's referring

to an Old Testament literal practice to make a New Testament

figurative application. Here's the Old Testament

passages, Nehemiah 8 and verse 6.

And Ezra blessed the Lord the great God.

Then all the people answered Amen, Amen, while lifting up

their hands, and they bowed their heads and worship the Lord

with their faces to the ground. Passage #2.

Psalm 141 and two let my prayer be set before you as incense,

the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

And finally, #3 Lamentations 3 and 41 let us lift up our hearts

and hands to God in heaven. OK, Paul was not giving a

command for posture when he says lifting up holy hands.

Men pray everywhere lifting up holy hands.

He means holy lives. OK, is there anything wrong with

lifting up your hands literally when you pray?

Absolutely not. Prayer posture doesn't matter.

And remember, let's not bind what the Lord is not bound, and

let's not prohibit what the Lord has not prohibited.

It was an Old Testament practice to elevate your hands when you

prayed, literally. It's a New Testament principle

to elevate holy lives, not literal hands.

OK, but if somebody decided they wanted, when they prayed to lift

up their hands toward the heavens when they prayed,

there's nothing unscriptural or wrong about that.

Can I share something with you? I didn't mean to.

I didn't plan on it, but there was one time, about five years

ago, I was so distraught. I was in tears, and I went to

God in prayer. I fell down privately on my

knees, and I reached my hands up toward the heavens, reaching for

my God. Anything wrong with that?

How can that be wrong? Prayer posture doesn't matter.

You know why? It's the posture of the heart

that matters. It's the reverent posture of the

heart that matters. And whatever posture that a

person decides in order to achieve that is entirely up to

them. All right, So Jesus is not

condemning public prayer, he just contemning condemning the

improper attitudes or for the wrong reasons.

So before we pray in public, we need to examine our motives.

OK, Jesus says that the only reward that they're going to

receive is whatever praise that they get from men.

But I got to tell you, remember last time when I said that one

scholar actually said when Jesus says they have their reward, the

actual rendering of it from the original is they have in full

their reward. And the idea is this really,

there's a thin veneer of hypocrisy.

There's a thin veneer of whatever it is.

There's hypocrisy underneath, but there's a thin veneer of

piousness, or whatever you want to call it.

When people actually do see through the little veneer of

what we really are, you don't even get the praise of men

anymore because they see who we are.

And the same is true with prayer.

It's like that story I told you a few years ago.

I was traveling at 5:00 in the afternoon and a very busy St.

coming West of Bakersfield High School came to the that

intersection there and there was a guy standing there with a

microphone and a great big speaker.

It was so loud that I had my windows up, my AC blasted on my

and my my radio going and I could hear it.

He stopped the young lady and he asked her what was going on in

her life. You know what she did?

She shared some very personal things.

How do I know that? Because I heard.

I heard him shared some very personal things.

You know what he does? He starts praying for her

personal things, naming what they are out loud with a

microphone and a speaker. Why not take that young lady

privately and pray? Why do that?

There's only one answer to be heard and seen of men.

Why at 5:00? Why the microphone?

To be seen of men and the glory of men.

OK, Jesus says this in verse 6. But after he said all that, he

said. But when you pray, go into your

room and when you've shut the door, pray to your Father who is

in secret place. And your Father who sees in

secret will reward you openly. OK, this is the opposite of the

Pharisees prayer. By the way.

He shows that private prayer is to be private.

But let me just say, whether it's in the inner closet

privately or whether it's publicly, when you approach God

the Father with the right motive from your heart, the right

desires from your heart, God is present with you, and God is

listening. He's hearing and He's listening.

What he says is when you pray, this is a private prayer and God

will remove you, reward you openly, now in verse seven, He

continues. And when you pray, do not use

vain repetitions, all right? What is a vain repetition?

A vain repetition refers to stammering, thoughtless chatter,

or a meaningless repetition of sounds or phrases, according to

Mr. Robertson. Now then, he says this as the

heathen do, for they think that they will be heard for their

many words. Here's some examples, by the

way, of the heathen he was referring to.

It's the allusion to the Pagan religionist who practice

repeatedly calling on their deity's name in order to force

him into action. Here's an example.

The worshippers of Baal in the Old Testament did this on Mark

Mount Carmel as they crowd cried from morning till noon.

O Baal, hear us first Kings 18 and 26.

The Apostle Paul encountered a very similar problem as the

Ephesians cried out to Diana for two hours.

Here was the idea. The idea is that the value of

prayer is found in the quantity of words and not the quality of

words. And I'm going to tell you, you

don't have to pray a long prayer for your prayer to be good.

You don't have to wear people out with a long winded prayer.

You just don't. When you pray it privately pray

as long as you want, but you don't have to pray long for it

to be heard by God. That's the point.

The heathens that Jesus is talking about is people with

vain repetitions, repeatedly saying words that their idle God

has to be woke up or their idle God has to be alerted so that

they hear. That's not the God we serve.

And by the way, I think the greatest example of this, I

don't have time to go deep into this, but the greatest example

is the Pharisee and the tax collector.

It's beautiful. Remember, the Pharisee goes in.

He's praying all this stuff. God, you did a great job with

me. Congratulations.

Really. That's kind of what he was

saying. And I thank you that I'm not

like all the people in the world that are terrible.

And I thank you especially. I'm not like this poor tax

collector. You know what the Bible says

that the tax collector does, as he won't even look up toward the

heavens. But he bowed his head and he

smote his breast as an outward side of inward anguish.

And he said 7 words, God be merciful.

And in the original this is what it says to me.

The Sinner. That was it.

You know what Jesus said? That man went away justified.

That means to have acquitted, that means forgiven. 7 Words

doesn't have to be a long prayer, just has to be from the

heart. What's a vain repetition today?

Memorized words that are just recanted over and over and over

and over and over and over and over again.

That is a vain repetition. We don't need to do that.

God hears us in Isaiah 59 and one behold, the Lord's hand is

not shortened, that it cannot save, nor his ear heavy that it

cannot hear. OK, so that being the case,

there's no reason to think that our many words will tell God

something he doesn't already know.

But I got to talk about repetition and prayer.

Is there anything wrong with being repetitious in prayer?

Absolutely not. And Jesus is also not saying

that our words from prayer to prayer need to be artificially

dissimilar to the previous prayer.

He's condemning vain repetitions.

What if you use the same words you remember when Jesus was in

the Garden of Gethsemane? Bible says he was in agony.

My soul was exceeding sorrowful even unto death.

His sweat buzz as it were, great drops of blood falling to the

ground. He goes in the Garden of

Gethsemane and he prays to God. Notice what the Bible says in

Matthew chapter 26 and verse 39 and verse 44.

Matthew 26 · chapter mention

He went a little further and fell on his face and prayed,

saying, Oh my father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from

me nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.

So we left them, went away again and prayed the third time.

Notice saying the same words. The words don't have to be

artificially dissimilar to the previous prayer.

It just has to be coming from the right place.

It's got to be coming from the right heart.

OK, let me talk about something that we do every day.

Hopefully we do this every day. Hopefully we do this every meal,

and that is offering thanks or asking God when we thank God for

our food. Why do we do that and do we have

to change the words? Well, first of all, in First

1 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

Timothy Chapter 4, This is why we do that for every creature of

God is good and nothing is to be refused if it is received with

Thanksgiving. In other words, the privilege of

eating all kinds of food is the condition of how it's received

Then in verse 5, for it is sanctified by the word of God in

prayer. What is sanctified means.

Sanctified means to be set apart or devoted for righteous use.

OK, under the old law, Moses, we understand this, right?

We know that there was food, that there was considered

unclean. There were animals that were

considered unclean. They couldn't eat.

If it didn't chew its cud, and it didn't have a cloven hoof,

they couldn't eat it. That's why they couldn't have

pigs. Now we can have man.

We can have bacon and sausage and ham and all kinds of stuff.

You know why? Because everything's OK.

Because it's sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

And nothing is to be refused if it's received with Thanksgiving.

That's the reason why we offer thanks for our food.

It's not a ritual. It's not a ritualistic activity.

It actually gives us the right to eat it.

Thanksgiving and prayer. What else?

Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 20.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the

name of our Lord Jesus Christ, meaning by His authority.

Another passage Colossians 317 And whatever you do in Word or

deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God

the Father through him. OK, now that's the reason that

we pray for our food. But if we say the same words,

relatively speaking, is it wrong and does it make it a vain

repetition? Sometimes we think we got to

pray for everything under the sun just to make the prayer for

our food different so we're not saying the same thing.

A vain repetition is this. Do you remember when kids are

told this little, they call it saying grace, which, by the way

is not the Bible, but saying grace when kids are little.

You remember that little memorized thing.

God is great. God is good.

Let us thank him for our food. Amen.

Pain, repetition. Here's another one for which we

are back to receive. Let us be everything thankful.

Amen. There's no thought behind it.

There's no meaning behind it. That's not what a prayer is.

That's a vain repetition. So even when you use the same

words, if it's from the heart speaking to God, it's not a vain

repetition. Jesus said remember in the

Garden of Gethsemane three times saying the same words?

What else? How about persistence in prayer?

Persistence in prayer is commended by Jesus.

Jesus was all about persistence in prayer.

He gave 2 parables about it. Remember the friend at midnight?

Remember that one? How about the persistent widow?

You got a widow and she's persistent.

She goes to an unrighteous unruly judge who doesn't follow

God. He doesn't recognize God nor man

doesn't have any respect, right? She goes to him to get some sort

of justice because of her adversary or from her adversary.

The judge doesn't want to hear her.

Finally, as I paraphrase, he says something like this man,

this woman is wearing me out. She's driving me out of my mind.

And so he gives in. And notice what the Bible says.

Because of that, Jesus says, Shall not God avenge his own

elect to cry out day and night to him, though he bears long

with them. That's persistent in prayer.

OK, so when it comes to vain repetitions, Jesus says this.

Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things

you have need of before you ask Him.

So when we petition God in sincere prayer, several things

happen. This is what happens a great

blessings. By the way, #1 we're

strengthened as we cast our cares on him. #2 We come to more

fully understand our dependence on Him. #3 We are reminded that

we are His children through the blood of Jesus Christ.

These are great blessings that come when we go to God in

sincere prayer. Martin Luther said it this way.

He said it's not about us telling God something He said by

our praying we are instructing ourselves more than we are

instructing God. OK then Jesus says this in verse

9. In this manner, therefore, pray

our Father in Heaven hallowed be your name.

So after instructing the disciples how to pray, Jesus

explains or how how not to pray. He then gives them the

principles of proper prayer by focusing on eight points.

OK, this is not a ritualistic prayer by the way.

That's to be memorized and recanted.

Please understand that he's giving an example to disciples

as a model on how to pray, not words that are to be memorized

and stated over and over again, because prayer needs to be

spontaneous and prayer needs to be thoughtful.

This is commonly called, by the way, the Lord's Prayer.

But if you want to know what the Lord's Prayer is, go look at the

prayer that the Lord prayed just a little bit ago, Darren prayed.

That was Darren's prayer. We listened and we agreed with

that prayer. If we agreed with that prayer,

and I'm sure we all did, we said Amen, right?

So it became our prayer too. For something to be a prayer by

a person, and it is their prayer, they have to be a prayer

that they prayed. If you want to know what the

Lord's prayer is, look in the Garden of Gethsemane.

That's the Lord's Prayer. This is more commonly known as a

model for the disciples prayer. There was another time when

Jesus dealt with this too. Do you remember in Luke Chapter

Luke 11 · chapter mention

11? I don't have time to go there.

We won't go there. They came to Jesus and they said

Lord teach us how to pray as John did his disciples.

Jesus says this OK in like manner.

Pray this in this manner. Therefore pray.

Our Father in heaven hallowed be thy name and so on and so forth.

It was a model prayer, not something to be memorized and

spoken recanting the words. I want to spend a lot of time on

this because this is one of the greatest blessings that we have.

Please focus on this because I want to talk about the

relationship that we have with God when we pray.

It's not just words that we're speaking to some far away deity.

Jesus says pray our Father. What does that mean?

The word father here expresses God's fraternity, not only the

almighty creator, but get this, but also our Father.

Paul said it this way, we cry ABBA father.

By the way, it's probably they say is better, better

pronounced, Ababa don't talk like that.

So I'm going to say ABBA OK, we cry ABBA father, give you a

Bible passage. I think that that phrase, by the

way, is found I think three times in the New Testament.

One of them is in Galatians chapter 4.

Galatians 4 · chapter mention

And because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his

sons into your hearts crying ABBA Father.

What does that mean? Well, obviously it is Father

Father. But this phrase, ABBA is an

Aramaic term of endearment used by children to their own

personal father. Here's the example.

I have children. People would say Frank Brancato

is a father because I have children.

But to Taylor and Tanner, I am their dad.

When they were young, I was daddy.

Now I'm pops. Relationship.

Relationship. When you approach God the

Father, you're not just approaching him as the almighty

creator in heaven, you're also approaching him as your father.

Your dad. I'll never forget.

Galen Osberg stood right here one day and stood out.

He said he's your daddy. Never forget that.

Doesn't it just make you feel better about God?

That's a relationship. That's the God we serve.

Having that relationship with him, we talk further about a

relationship for just a moment. I think we spend a whole lot of

time and we have all of our life.

We spend a whole lot of time on what it means or what it looks

like to be a church member, but we don't spend enough time

talking about what it means to be a Christian.

What does it look like to us by way of relationship with God and

Jesus Christ? Because if we can take that to

the level of a personal relationship that we have with

God and Jesus, I'm going to tell you you'll serve him a whole lot

better. Everything falls into place

better. What is a Christian?

Very simply, do you remember in Acts chapter 2 when the gospels

Acts 2 · chapter mention

preached for the first time with the opportunity to respond and

3000 souls were saved? They were baptized for the

remission of sins. Do you remember what they were

called all the way up until Acts Chapter 11?

Acts 11 · chapter mention

They were called disciples. What is a disciple?

A disciple is a follower of Jesus.

OK, what happened in Acts Chapter 11 and verse 26?

Acts 11 · chapter mention

They had assembled for a whole year and then the Bible says and

the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.

What's a Christian by definition?

It's the word Christianos. And the word Christian, by the

way, means true learner. It means follower, and it means

Christ. Like that's what it means to be

a Christian. Put it all together.

What's a Christian, a true learner of Jesus, following him

by the word of God that directs our steps every step of the way.

It's got to be the word of God, all in our great pursuit of

becoming Christ like or being more like Jesus.

That's the personal part of what it means to be a Christian and

have a relationship with God, Jesus says when you pray though,

remember that God is in heaven, so God is in a lofty position.

So because God is in a lofty position, we speak to him as

such with respect. And then we say this Hallowed be

your name, meaning we honor the name of God with reverence,

addressing him as Heavenly Father, Revelation 4 and eight.

We have a song about this too. Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord, God

Almighty. I hope when people understand

what Paul said to the Colossians, he was talking to

people that were already Christians.

They were already baptized for their admission of sins, but

they had some growing to do, he said.

I labor among you again as a as a woman labours in birth.

Until when? Until Christ is formed in you.

When Jesus Christ is formed in you, everything falls into

place. When Jesus Christ is formed in

you, you recognize your relationship that you have with

God and Jesus Christ. You recognize that it's not by

your own strength, it's by God's strength.

And that's OK. Isn't it OK to say I'm nothing

without God? I think God wants us to say that

I can't do this without you. Bible talks about being strong

and courageous, but the strength and the courage comes from God.

And when that happens, and you lean on God in every aspect of

your life when you pray without ceasing, as the Bible says.

And that doesn't mean one long continuous prayer.

It means that's part of your life every day.

Remember that song we used to sing ere you left your room this

morning? Did you think to pray?

Oh, how praying rest the weary. Prayer will change the night

today. So when life seems dark and

dreary, don't forget to pray. Prayers.

Everything for us, folks. And I'm going to tell you, you

may be going through some things in your life.

I don't know, maybe it's true and you just sometimes don't

know where you can turn. I'm going to tell you there's a

place where you can turn. You could turn to God the

Father, but he's also your Father and you can reach out

with loving petitions to him and he's going to listen to you.

He's going to hear you. He's going to answer you.

Pray it with the proper way. So in closing, I'm finished.

In conclusion, what have we learned about the principles of

proper prayer from Jesus Christ today?

Never pray to be seen of men #2 Don't be ashamed though.

Don't be ashamed. Pray publicly, but always with

the right motive. #3 Do not use vain repetitions, which refers

to a stammering, thoughtless chatter or a meaningless

repetition of sounds or phrases. And finally #4 address the

Father with reverence and make all petitions in Jesus name.

Principles of proper Prayer and you know something.

It doesn't matter if it's 100 words, 7 words, 1000 words.

God hears us and He answers us. And sometimes I'll say this

finally and I'm finished. Sometimes the answer is no, and

we don't like his answer. But remember in first John it

says if we pray anything according to his will, he hears

us. The word here there predisposes

a response. It's better translated.

He answers us. But sometimes the answer is no.

But when you have the proper relationship with God, and you

pray according to God's will, which means you're not bending

God's will toward you, you're bending your will toward God,

and you're saying whatever you decide I'm going to be OK with.

When you have the proper relationship with God and trust

and faith in Him, you're OK with that response.

You're OK with doing it just that way.

Remember, if you're a Christian, you are God's child and God is

yours. Father, maybe you're here today

and you're not a Christian. We never close the time that we

assemble without extending an invitation to somebody that

might be subject to the gospel call.

The steps to become a Christian are very simple.

You must hear the word of God. Romans 10/17 So then faith comes

by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

After hearing the word of God, you have a choice to make.

Hebrews 11 and six says we have to believe with all our heart.

Without faith it's impossible to please him.

For he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he

is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

We must repent of our sins. Acts 17 and 30.

Truly these times of ignorance, God overlooked, but now commands

all men everywhere to repent, and then to be able to make the

greatest statement you will ever make to confess Jesus Christ as

the Son of God. Acts 837 And Philip said, if you

believe with all your heart, you may.

And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the

Son of God. Upon taking these steps, you're

now a fit candidate to go to the point of salvation, to contact

the blood of Jesus, have your sins washed away, and that's at

baptism for the remission of sins.

Mark 1616 He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he

who does not believe will be condemned.

If you've never taken those steps of obedience, we would

love to assist you in that. We stand ready, willing and able

to do that. Maybe you have taken those steps

of obedience. And maybe there's just something

on your heart now. Maybe there's something that you

request the prayers of the congregation.

If we can assist you in either way, come forward while we

stand. And while we stand, we thank you

for. Listening to our podcast put on

by the Church of Christ at 2215 Plans Rd. in Bakersfield.

If you would like any additional information or you would like to

receive a free Bible correspondence course by mail,

please e-mail us at [email protected].

Our service times are Sundays at 10:30 AM and 5:00 PM and

Wednesdays at 7:30 PM. Please make plans to join us.

We would love for you to be our honored guest.