Teach us to Pray - Part 10

Good morning 3 CI. It is really good to be here.

You know when Paul writes, there's times where he he'll say

things like I thank my God for you as he writes to the letter,

Hey, when I walked in here, it was just that phrase that came

up. I thank my God for you.

And, and it's like, I just feel like I want to say I thank my

God for you. You are beautiful.

And and this, this church is so deep in our hearts.

And it's, I suppose when we come here, we realize it more than

when we're away. But my life was changed.

Yeah. And my family was changed.

Yeah. We we were shaped by the gospel

that was preached in this house. And so I thank God for what is

meant over the years. And I thank God for what I see

here today. I thank my God for you.

You know, I think the last time I preached you, I was standing

over there somewhere. I wasn't.

Yeah, it was over there. It was like a circus tent.

Who is who is here for the circus tent?

Beautiful. I've always wondered about that.

My departure and that and the bringing down of the circus tent

was kind of in the same same time, exactly, but got a little

bit older. I mean, I'm wearing glasses now.

Ayers, man, jeez. Turned 50.

You know, there's a story of a lady that I know well, I'm not

going to mention any names, but she went for an eye test and she

very confidently stared into that machine where you got to

read like the number, the letters.

And so she starts reading BFM and she's going strong Z K32M

and she just realised as she's reading these letters art,

there's a little bit of A and the lady that was doing the test

had a mouth like a head in front of her mouth.

And so she like kind of came out from this machine that you're

staring into and kind of like did a what's wrong?

She's like Donny Dorsty, no missiony.

It's just letters, no numbers here.

But our, our eyes start to fail as you, as you get a bit older.

And it's a good reminder that life is short.

Life is very short. And I mean, six years, I can't

even believe it. You know, so much has happened

in six years. It's like just like that.

And I, and I think it's good for us to realise that life is

short. It's good for us to think in

these ways. The Bible thinks in that way.

Yeah, the Bible writes in that way.

There's geez, darling, how's it been?

There's so many faces that I'm seeing.

It's beautiful. But I think there's a culture, a

culture today which almost realizes that.

And it's kind of like you need to make the most of now, live

your best life now because because life is short.

In fact, I think there's a, there's a book like that by a

Christian author. And I think it's wrong because

the Bible doesn't tell us to make the best of this life now.

The Bible tells us to live your life now so that you will live

your best life then. It was a different way of

viewing it. And prayer is actually so

important to that end. And I want to just speak today

about the fact that we live in light of eternity, which means

we should we should be praying in light of eternity.

I want to say prayers is for our benefit.

It's not for God's. He can operate without our

praise. He's not tied down where our

praise like allow him to do stuff.

He can do whatever he wants. Praise for us and pray carries

eternal significance. And so I want to just read a

passage that talks about eternity.

It talks about us living our lives now in light of eternity.

And then I want to just mention a few things around pray and how

God is so wise in how he's given us.

Pray to help us in this journey. SO1 Corinthians 3 if you want to

turn in your Bible from verse 10 is where I'm going to be reading

from. So this is the following.

By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert

builder and someone else is building on it.

But each one should be careful how he builds.

So Paul is using picture language.

He's talking about the fact that the church can be a likened to a

building and this building has a foundation.

And then we build on top of that foundation.

And he's saying he came and he laid the foundation and now it's

up to them as a church to continue to build on that

foundation. But he says be careful about

this. The new King James Version

actually uses the phrase take heed.

So quite like each one should take heed how he builds.

The fact that he says that means that we can be careless.

If he's saying be careful how you build it means we can be

careless. So we got to take this 1st and

say, OK, Lord, what are you saying?

What does this mean for us? He goes on for no one can lay

any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus

Christ. It's one of the marks of Paul

and how he writes. He just says, hey man, I'm I'm

about Jesus and Jesus crucified. That's what I've come to preach.

That's what I'm proclaiming. That's what I'm going to stick

with. There's nothing else that I need

to say. I'm proclaiming that message.

That's the foundation that I'm bringing to you.

And so Jesus is the foundation. Verse 12 Any any man builds on

this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay

or straw. His work will be shown for what

it is because the day, the capital DD Day, will bring it to

light. It will be revealed with fire,

and the fire will test the quality of each man's work.

It's quite sobering, right? I mean, it's in the Bible, so we

need to preach it. But there is a day that's

coming, the day of the Lord. And for unbelievers, that's not

going to be the best day. It will be a day of of

condemnation for them. But for the believer, it's

actually a day of commendation, not condemnation.

It's commendation like there's reward ceremony that's going to

take place. We're not facing judgement.

We're on the other side of judgement as believers, you, you

just therefore reward for reward ceremony.

For unbelievers, different story, amazing high in verse 13,

it just it mentions three times in one verse that it's going to

be shown, it's going to be shown, it'll be brought to light

and it'll be revealed by fire, but by God's holiness, by his

glory, it will be tested the authenticity of the work.

And so there's two potential outcomes for believers when it

comes to reward. The 1st is in verse 14, it says

if what he has built survives, he will receive his reward.

What is that reward you ask? Well, the Bible doesn't give us

too much in terms of the detail of that, but certainly the

eternal validation of God, the words from Christ, well done,

good and faithful servant, that just echoes into eternity.

There might be privileged, there might be authority.

We're going to rule and reign in heaven.

So there's reward and God wants to give us reward and that's if

we've built well, then verse 15 gives us the second option if it

is burnt up. So he's listed the whole, you

know, it's gold and and silver costly stones, wood, hay, straw.

So the wood, hay, straw that that's going to be burnt up, the

gold, silver, costly stones that'll be refined by that file.

The beauty will come through. But if it is burned up, he will

suffer loss, which is why Paul's saying be careful how you build.

Take heed. This is, this is, this is in the

Bible. This is real.

Like we're going to, we're going to walk this walk with something

of it. We must be careful how we live.

Careful how we, we, we live out this incredible salvation that

God has given us. If it is burned out, people

suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but

only as one escaping through the flames.

I love Paul's picture language that he uses.

Can you see it? Can you see a house on fire and

a guy just like jumping out, like he's just made it like all

of his possessions gone poof, but he's made it.

He's OK, he's saved. And, and so that's the other

option. The other outcome is that

everything will be burnt, but you yourself will be saved.

So, so be be comforted by the fact that the gospel means that

if you're a believer, if you're a believer in Christ, you will

be saved come what may. But there is something of a

reward. There is something of us wanting

to live our lives for this reward.

We we should have it in mind and we should be careful about it.

So let's talk about the promises that we we see in this passage,

because there's two promises that come through.

The 1 is a promise of eternal life and the other is a promise

of eternal reward. So eternal life is you're going

to be saved with reward or you're going to be saved without

reward. And there's degrees of reward.

One star differs from another in glory.

So it will be with the resurrection of the day, the

Bible says. So there's there's differences,

but you'll be saved, You will have eternal life.

That is not within question, that is rock solid.

It's a certainty. But there is this other aspect

of reward where there's a measure of divine scrutiny, like

God is going to test the work and he'll reward you

accordingly. So eternal life is the one,

eternal reward is the other, and God promises both.

But I think the best way to make sense of the promises of God is

to know that there's there's a pathway that needs to be walked

towards every promise. That pathway is either going to

be walked by Jesus or has been walked by Jesus, or it's walked

by us. So often we read of promises in

Scripture and we don't really know that we need to discern

between what was Jesus walk and what was ours, what has to be

ours. And so Jesus came to walk the

pathway of eternal life. He came to walk that.

So if this is a pathway, yeah. And at the end of that is

eternal life. Jesus came to earth.

He lived a perfect life, perfect obedience, perfect godliness,

perfect righteousness. He lived it.

Then He died a death that is actually ours to die.

It was meant for us, but He came as a substitute, and He died on

our behalf. And so He takes all of our sin

upon himself. He bears the weight of that

judgement, takes the punishment for it, dies a cruel death, and

then he's raised again three days later with a resurrected

body, and he is resurrected in heaven today.

He's our only man in heaven, and he walked that path.

Now, the path that we're walking on outside of Jesus before we

come to know him is in the complete opposite direction.

It doesn't matter how religious you are, it doesn't matter how

often you go to church, doesn't matter how often you read your

Bible, It doesn't matter if it is excluding Jesus.

You're on the wrong pathway. If you think you're going to be

doing this in your strength, you're on the wrong pathway.

And this pathway is a pathway of sin in our lives, and that sin

translates to eternal destruction, eternal torment.

Now we get to hear about this message of the Gospel where

Jesus walked a pathway that led to the promise of eternal life

on our behalf. And what happens while we

walking this pathway of complete destruction?

What's what's lying ahead? It's bad news.

And we need to know that it's bad news because the greater the

bad news is, the better the good news is.

Like, if we don't understand how vast a problem this is, we'll

never fully appreciate the gospel.

But we're on a pathway of destruction here.

And then God opens our eyes. He brings life in our hearts

because the Bible describes us as being completely dead to him.

And our status on this pathway is that we're enemies of God.

You know, some people think, oh, I was born in a Christian home.

That doesn't make you a child of God until you put your faith in

Jesus, you're an enemy. There's hostility between you

and him. And and God opens our eyes and

he softens our hearts. And the Spirit of God comes and

does a work in US, brings life here because we were previously

dead. And we get to see that we're on

a pathway that means trouble and that the sin in our lives is in

desperate need of attention and, and, and there's a solution.

We hear the message of the gospel and, and we turn from

this pathway and we look to Jesus.

That's called repentance. It's like I'm going to let go of

this life that I'm living. This is getting me nowhere other

than destruction. I can't fix this.

The sin in my life is too big for me.

But I can turn to the one who walked a pathway that secures

eternal life for me, and I will look to him and look to no

other, and I will believe. I will believe that this is what

God meant when He sent Jesus was that he would send him to walk

the pathway that would give us eternal life.

And through repentance and faith, I get united to Christ in

a way where I am with him, where He is now.

I have eternal life. I'm there.

I mean, the Bible talks about us as believers, as being citizens

of heaven. We are seated with him in

heavenly places. Eternal life is secured through

repentance and faith. And if you think that that's too

good to be true, welcome to the gospel.

Like that's why it's good news. Like what's required?

Do I need to be obedient? No, the gospel doesn't require

obedience. It produces obedience, but it

doesn't require it. Do I not need to be more godly?

Now? The gospel doesn't require

godliness, just produces it. But he walked this path for us.

Do you realise, do you realise just how amazing that is?

He, he lived the life that we would never be able to live.

He died the death that was actually meant for us.

He was raised to life with the resurrection body.

And that puts us with him. When we put our faith in him in

a, in a moment, it's just an instant, like when our hearts

are turned to him and we put our faith in him, our lives are

changed forever. And in an instant we have a new

identity. We're no longer an enemy of God.

We're now a child of God. It's changed and, and, and we

have right standing with the Father.

The, the, the Bible uses the word justified.

We've been justified. And you know, I got saved 35

years ago. I'm no more justified today than

I was the day I got saved because it's a completed work

and it comes through repentance in the place.

It's like in an instant, I will never be more justified than I

am today. I'm not more justified than

Stephen. Like this is this common

salvation that the Bible talks about because of what Jesus did

and because of our repentance and faith, When we put up a

faith in Him, we get taken to that place and it is fully

secure and it's the status we have new status.

We are children of God and as far as heaven is concerned, we

are fully redeemed. We have, right standing with God

in a moment where we just put our faith in Him.

I am so excited. I could punch an elephant.

So what about this other promise?

So there's a promise of eternal reward.

But let's say that's a different pathway that we're now walking.

And Jesus walked that pathway for us so that we can walk this

pathway. We don't walk that pathway that

He walked. Can I tell you what it means

when you walk on this pathway that Jesus walked?

Can I tell you what it's called? Religion.

When you try and live your life in a way that you're trying to

please God and find favour with him, that's called religion.

That's you being legalistic. If you live your life in a way

where there's some of the old things that's coming, even

though you're on this new pathway, but you actually look

like the rest of the world, that's called licentiousness.

But but you can't walk on this pathway.

It's already been walked. You know what the how liberating

that is. I don't have to walk this

pathway. It's been walked.

Jesus has walked it. Eternal life has been secured.

Now I get qualified for a race, I get put on a new pathway and

on the end of that is eternal reward.

And what is this? Well, this is a, a life that is

Christ like and becoming more like him and, and becoming like

missional in our hearts doing the work of the Father.

Like that's what Jesus I came to do the work of the Father.

So if we're going to become like Christ, well, we, we're doing

his work. So we're becoming missional.

We're becoming people who are gripped with the Kingdom of God.

We're changed, we're forever changed.

We're no longer living this old life.

This, this is one of rescue. We've been rescued.

This pathway is one of renewal. It's like we, you know, when you

get saved, you're fully saved. But then for the rest of your

Christian life, you're just catching up with your

Christianity. Do you understand what I mean?

Like Rosie once broke her foot, fractured her foot playing rugby

with the boys. That's why she's tough today.

But we, we go to the hospital and they take an extra and that

shows the fracture in a, in a foot.

They put a half cost like at the back.

And this is just before our December holiday.

We're like, oh, the timing couldn't have been worse.

But I, I said something, Hey, let's just pray that God's going

to heal her. So we prayed and we go back a

week later for them to check. They do another scan gone,

fracture's gone. So instead of putting a full

cast on, they take the half cost off.

Instead of her walking out with crutches, they say, no, it's

fine, you can go. But did she walk out without

crutches? No, she walked out with crutches

because she spent the whole of the last week walking with

crutches because her foot's broken, There's a fracture.

So now she experiences healing and it's whole, it's, it's

complete. But in her mind, in her heart,

she's still, she's got to catch up to it.

We're saying, hey, Rosie, it's fine.

You can put the crutches down. You, you, you're OK.

And slowly but surely she went from 2 crutches to 1 crutches

and, you know, crutch. And she was like limping.

And then she started to walk and, and eventually she was

like, oh, OK, this is all good. Let's go have a holiday.

But it took her a whole week to realize now you're healed.

That's what I mean. Like we're saved in a way where

it is complete. Like we, we have been redeemed

because it's based on the work of another.

It's based on the life of another.

His name is Jesus, and that is the foundation that we live

upon. And then we walk this life with

God in fellowship with him, and we become more on earth of the

status that we carry in heaven. But so often we're so consumed

with feelings and experiences and how we're doing that we

start to think differently about whether we actually are saved or

not. But you see, you're putting

yourself in the picture. When we stand before God, we

have the choice of either standing there on the merit of

our own life and what we've done with our lives, or we get to

stand before Him on the merit of what Jesus did with his life.

And that's why Paul says, I've laid a foundation.

You can't lay this foundation again.

Stop trying to lay it again. Build on top of it.

And as you do, you will spend your life in a way with complete

liberty and absolute certainty, knowing that you are saved

forever and that liberty allows you to live differently.

And there you will be building onto this foundation being used

of God, not wasting your time trying to walk a pathway that's

already been walked for you. I thought I looked at my notes

and I can see it's going to become a problem.

Yeah. I didn't mean to talk and pray,

but you know, the, the, the middle phrase of this incredible

prayer that Jesus gives us is on earth as it is in heaven.

Walk this pathway here on earth in line with your status in

heaven, on earth as it is in heaven.

We need to be so clear on this. You know, the the gospel is, is

this object of truth. It's factual.

Jesus died like we're not, we're not trying to figure out what's

what, what was this all about? We, we need to be sure about

what it is we, we need to be grounded in the gospel.

We need to know and, and the more we know the gospel, the

more we live with this absolute freedom and, and like we need to

become resolute with us. We need to know this is the path

that I was on. This is the path that Jesus

walked for me, which then qualifies me through repentance

and faith. That puts me on a whole new

trajectory where I don't just get eternal life, which is

absolutely secure. There's this promise of reward

and it's like there's good news, but there's a but wait, there's

more. It's like we we got to we got to

be so resolute in this, like, you know, like when you when

you're trying to make the decision for your, your son as

to whether he must play rugby or football.

Have you ever had that challenge?

I'm going to give you a tip. This is how you do it.

You put a ball on the ground. This is like when he's a lighty.

If he goes up to the ball, picks the ball up and runs with it,

it's rugby. If he goes to the ball and kicks

it, it's fly off, no questions asked.

Hey, TomTom, simple. Why are we complicating this?

Why are we making this so hard for ourselves?

It's settled, you know, I mean, we sing these songs.

Christ is our firm foul. Is he like I know he is, but

sometimes our lives would suggest something else.

It's one thing to sing it when it's know it in our hearts.

Live it out and and you see, yes, we're the beauty of the

Lord's pray comes in because God in his wisdom has grounded us.

He grounds us in the gospel. You know, like we need we need a

confidence. Think about the very first line

of the Lord's pray our Father in heaven.

The best way to pray the Lord's pray is to not say that much.

In fact, Jesus said don't, don't Babble.

It's like declare the words of the pray and then just let it

marinate. How farther I've had times where

I've I haven't got through the whole of the Lord's pray, but

I've spent a significant time just on the first line and I was

like, oh jeez, I need to go. Off you go.

It's like sometimes you just need to stay there, but it's

like, what? I was an enemy of God.

What am I now? I'm a child.

I'm a child. How's this even possible?

Through through faith, through me just coming to a point of

realizing that Jesus has done it all and that I'm living my life

on the merit of his life that I I don't, I won't just stand

before God one day on the merit of what he did with his life.

I come into the presence of God on the merit of what he did with

his life. That's what allows me to come

into his presence. You know, sometimes we, we

struggle with prayer because we don't know if we even deserve to

be in his presence. You've never deserved it.

That's why it's grace. That's why it's called grace

because you've never deserved it.

This is this was your old life. Jesus comes, gives you a

resurrection life. He sees you in heavenly places.

It's because He's done it and just because we get to pray our

Father. It's just, you see, the wisdom

of God, He puts the foundation of the gospel there.

He allows us in a simple prayer of seven lions to know every day

Jesus has done it for me. This is how I get to be in your

presence. This is how I get to address you

as my Father. You're our Father in heaven,

which speaks of His vastness but also His nearness, like heaven

came to earth, right? Too many of us are thinking that

life is this linear path that we need to walk, and at the end of

it, God's going to assess whether we've done OK or not.

That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says heaven came to

us. His name is Emmanuel.

He dwelt with us. He lived the life on our behalf.

He gave us perfect righteousness.

He took our sin and He dealt with it with this atoning death.

We just receive it. It just becomes ours through

believing and and through the simple faith that this is now

ours. Our Father in heaven.

What wisdom that God gives us that we can pray a prayer like

that and in an opening line can just stay there.

And John Piper said, preach the gospel to yourself every day.

If you want to know how to do that, pray our Father and then

just sit there. How's this even possible?

It's possible because of Jesus. We need to live this life with

humility, right? I mean, because as we walk this

pathway, what will be rewarded is when we make much of him

where it's not about us. You know, like the world was

saying, no, you ought to promote yourself.

No, the Christianity is like deny yourself and how how prone

are we to make much of our name and look after our name and and

try and get our name to be lifted?

And what does God give us in this pray hallowed be your name.

You see, when I pray that pray, it reminds me that this life

that I am living is not for my name.

It's to point people to him. It's to make much of him.

And God gives us this incredible line, hallowed be your name,

when we get to pray a prayer that grounds us in the humility

of the gospel because it's not about us, it's about him.

What about Kingdom values? Just living with the priority of

the Kingdom of God, your Kingdom come.

You know what you're saying? You're saying, yes, Lord, you

are my savior, but I want you to be Lord.

Too many Christians today want him a saviour, but they're not

so sure about whether they want him as Lord.

Lord, would you be Lord over every aspect of my life?

Your Kingdom come over my finances, Your Kingdom come over

my time. Your Kingdom come over the gifts

that you've given me, the talents that I have.

It's yours. You be Lord over it.

Do you see how that pushes you on the right pathway?

Because you're praying the right pray your Kingdom come in the

hearts of people that don't know you.

All of a sudden, you're starting to pray for all the people that

you know your Kingdom come in their hearts, Your Kingdom come

in their hearts, and you can list the names and you know

what, as you do that 12:50, God will use you to be the vessel to

bring them to faith. It's like we want to do a course

on how to witness. No, just pray your Kingdom come

in the hearts of those who don't know you.

And all of a sudden the missional realities of the

Kingdom start to work in you because now you're conscious of

these people that you're praying for.

Just praying for His second coming.

Your Kingdom come changes your entire posture.

I want to live in light of eternity.

I've run out of time. Your will be done.

Not my will, your will. I mean, if God's prepared good

works for us, best we ask Him what those are.

Your will be done. You know I don't want you to

bless my life and my plans. I just want to know what are

those works that you have prepared for me?

Your will be done. You know when you pray, pray

those three prayers. It's God's prayer list.

It kind of reshapes what comes after that because then when

you're praying for daily bread, you just say, Lord, you give me

whatever I need to live that life.

You're not praying, Lord, I want that holiday home and I want

that car. You know, you're not praying

that. Like what's that going to do as

far as this pathway? Like if God blesses you with

those things, wonderful. But you see how it shapes your

pray give us this daily breach. Just give me what I need to live

that life. I might be end with this.

We need to live our lives in a way where we do it as a family.

Our inheritance, that reward is actually locked in one another,

which is why we need to actually be as a family.

Why the word of God speaks so strongly about not neglecting

our gathering to to be together. There's A1 anotherness in the

New Testament and and the more we want another, the more we on

a pathway that brings reward. Think about the Lord's Prayer.

Our Father give us Our Daily Bread deliver us.

I'm still challenged by that. I I find myself praying, you

know, well to start and then it becomes about me.

But you see how God grounds us in community.

We need to be us, our Christians, not me, my

Christians. All of what God has given us

allows us to know that this is the solid foundation that has

already been laid and we have eternal life.

And as we pray, God molds and shapes our thinking, our heart,

our priorities, all in line with a life where we will have

eternal reward. Paul says take heed how you

build on this foundation. We can't do it on our own.

It comes through coming to God in prayer.

And as we pray the the prayer that he taught us to pray, our

lives get shaped for a life that will be rewarded and where we

will live our best life then, as opposed to getting caught up

with what this world has to offer and trying to live our

best life now. Amen.