Long Live The King: A Life Devoted To Christ - Paul Washer (FCNY2024 #2)

for me to be with you tonight um maybe I'm a bit too casual but I got here this morning at about 8:30 but the fellowship was so wonderful the families I stayed with had such beautiful children that I just couldn't pull myself away to put on my preacher clothes so so here I am so open up your Bibles to the book of Philippians chapter 2 and let let's pray before we read father I come before you in the name of your son and father I pray that you would help your people that you would um

even through me speak and explain your word that your people might be helped Lord so many today are storm tossed and Afflicted battered and [Music] beaten Lord teach us to pray as you taught your disciples to pray so help us Lord please please in Jesus name amen so in Chapter 2 of Philippians verse 5 have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus Jesus is our example in absolutely everything he's our example now this is very very hard for for us to understand because we always can fall back on the thing well yes

he's my example but I mean come on he was God he was perfect I'm me so yeah I I I know he's my example I know that he's the pattern that I should look for and when we have that kind of attitude it we're acknowledging that he was the pattern but we're draining all the power from it because there's something that we need to understand about our Lord's Incarnation that although he was God in the fullest and most complete sense of the term and that his deity was never diminished you must understand that he emptied

himself not of deity well I let my dear friend uh John MacArthur explain it I want to read something that I I actually wrote what he wrote in my Bible because it was so clear if you go on in verse six it says who although he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasp equal with God but emptied himself now when it says that he emptied himself it doesn't mean that he ceased being God or that he became something between God God and man like a demog

god but that he was truly God in the fullest sense of the term and truly man in the sense of the term but what does it mean that he emptied himself Dr MacArthur wrote Christ emptied himself completely of every vesage of advantage and privilege the advantage and privilege that would come from being God he also he refused to assert any divine right on his own behalf so without ever diminishing his deity what we need to understand is that he became the second Adam all right in a sense we can say the Bible Well maybe Dickens

kind of you know Dickens wrote about The Tale of Two Cities well the Bible is the tale of two men two Adams the first Adam he f fell and all of us fell with him now we could spend an entire conference seeking to explain exactly how that happened but the fact of the matter is it did happen whether we fully understand it or not now in order to raise Fallen Humanity there was a need for a second Adam a second man a last Adam to come and to undo the works of the first Adam so

when Christ came to the Earth He Walked on this Earth as the last Adam He Walked on this Earth as a true man and everything he did he did as a man in the power of the Holy Spirit he lived in absolute dep dependence upon God his father and he drew all his strength and wisdom from God his father through the scripture and the power of the holy spirit so do you now see how he can be our example he did what he did as a man now just quickly we're going to have to hop

around a bit at first but I want you just for a moment to go to the book of Isaiah and I want you to go to chapter 50 it's one of the servant songs and this is about Messiah undoubtedly it's about Messiah it's Isaiah 50:4 says the Lord has given me the tongue of disciples that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word he awakens me mourning by mourning he awakens my ear to listen as a disciple the the Lord has opened my ear and I was not disobedient nor did I

turn back now if you study the Isaiah in the classics in the reformers and the Puritans and in modern scholarship there is a consensus that what we have here with the the boy and the man Jesus that mourning by mourning his father taught him now I want you to think about this for a moment he did everything he did in the power of the Holy Spirit he did everything he did in the wisdom of God that was communicated to him much in the same way that it's communicated to you and the relationship that he sustained

in his Incarnation with his father it was akin to the relationship you now have as a son and a daughter his young life was lived mourning by mourning hearing from God being taught of God drawing strength from God that's you that's me or at least that's supposed to be you and me you know I could go through all the scriptures you know we could go to to John 15 and back to Isaiah again that that Christ is the vine and you are the branch and if there is any separation and communion then there is no

fruit there is no life there is no power now tonight we're going to talk about prayer and we're going to use Jesus as an example because he's always an example but you have to understand that he put himself in a similar if not very situation that you must sustain every day of your life that all your spiritual life all your wisdom all your power it comes from communion it comes from a relationship of absolute dependence now there's something about absolute dependence it's very difficult to achieve I think you probably know that by now now at

the same time many of you probably sit there and go I know I'm a Christian but why do I go through so many trials why is there so much pain why are there so many things that I can't overcome so many things that make my life so difficult it's to demonstrate to you God is love lovingly demonstrating to you your weakness not to leave you in your weakness but so that you might run to him and then there will be times when he will sustain you in power and then all of a sudden it just

leaves why once again to remind you lovingly not in judgment not to hurt you but lovingly to remind you once again you're forgetting that this life and power comes from communion with me everything is about communion with him I love I I love the 1689 Baptist confession I'm a Reformed Baptist but my wisest brethren in that camp will recognize that although Doctrine is essential it's not enough it's communion its Fellowship its relationship with Christ and all the hardship and all the pain and all the things you cannot do it's God working weakness in your life

so that you will become more and more dependent upon him there's a song from Keith Green that I would always sing to my children uh when they couldn't sleep at night my son my daughter I am weak and I'm trembling for the Lord I am always remembering oh what a strong Shepherd holds you in his arms he will break you and make you his own but the wounds of the shepherd are wounds of love and all of it is intended to teach you stay by my side stay with me apart from me you cannot you

cannot and so he takes strong men and he breaks them and he takes Wise Women and put them in situations where their wisdom cannot help them any longer you see your problem is not that you're not strong enough that's never the problem the problem is always that we do not recognize how weak we are you know years ago so many many years ago so it was a red flag day on the beach south of Lima and everyone is surfing and of course going try my hand at surfing I was never any good at it but

but I didn't know what a red flag me and so I go out there with my surfboard and all of a sudden I notice that the waves are horrific they're chopping they're cutting across and I'm going to be pulled to Japan and I was very afraid and all of a sudden I heard a noise behind me that sounded like a sea lion and I became more afraid because they can be rather vicious but it was a young boy on a boogie board he was terrified he was absolutely terrified and I swam towards him because he

looked like he was going down for the count but when I got ready to grab his rope I realized something I pull this young boy into me he's going to kill me now I was twice his size I was a lot stronger than him but I knew I pull him close he's taking me in he's going to take me down like a wrestler so I called about eight other Surfers and they all ran over it took a half an hour to get him out of the water and everyone was afraid even the guys who really

knew what they were doing now I want you to think about that for a moment he was half my size the kid probably couldn't bench press a milk jug so why was I so afraid you see it wasn't his muscles it wasn't even his will it was his need he would have grabbed a hold of me with a force that I could not pry off of me do you understand that and again it wasn't his muscle it wasn't his senu it was his need he knew that if he didn't grab a hold of something he

would would die and that's what made him so strong and see you see people who maybe pray a lot or they read their Bible a lot and you know our hearts are idolatrous so we're always attributing that to the person that person's will that person's strength their spirituality no at least not in in my case I it's not that I have nothing but him with regard to Salvation I have nothing but him with regard to anything I will apostasis I will commit immorality I I am capable of anything so it's not strength when you look

at a man and say oh he prays or he fasts or he reads his Bible all the time time it's not because of some piety it's because of a recognition of weakness I cannot I must read my Bible I'm not like other men they may be strong I am not I must pray I'm not like other men I'm not as strong as they are I must pray I must stay as close as I possibly can to him see that's it there are no Great Men of God that is one of the most pathetic statements oh

he's a great man of God there are no Great Men of God they're only weak tiny puny sinful Little Men of a great and a merciful God and all the trials and all the failures and everything in your life you go oh the devil no the devil may be used but it's God orchestrating it to teach you your need of him to teach you your desperate need of him now when we look at our Lord I mean he was a man and everything he did in the power of the Holy Spirit and he had a

keen wisdom undefiled by the corruption of sin he had an heart Keen for God and yet he lived in absolute dependence upon his father he did what he saw his father doing he drew strength from his father in the power of the Holy Spirit uh go back for just a moment to the New Testament uh and and look in just quickly at Luke Chapter 5 17 one day he was teaching and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there who had come from the village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem now

look what it says and the power of the Lord was present for him to perform healing he did what he did as Messiah as this last Adam as a man drawing upon the strength and wisdom of God and for that reason he can be your example he is your example Temple now I want to look at our Lord's life of prayer and I want to begin in Luke so let's just stay there and I want you to see some things now this is not going to be profound in any shape form or fashion but we're

going to try just to let you see something and let the scriptures speak for themselves in Luke chapter 5 verse 15 but the news about him was spreading even farther and large crowds were gathering to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses but Jesus himself would often slip away to the Wilderness and pray I think it was toer who said that a young man will be converted and then there'll be a special sense of a call on his life and he will give himself in an extraordinary manner to communion with God he will

just just feed upon God's word hours a day and he'll pray and he'll fast and because of those things he'll begin to become quite useful to his master but then he becomes so useful that he neglects the very things that made him useful let me give you an example this just came to mind it may be helpful have you ever wondered why there was this one case that the disciples they couldn't cast out the demon I mean Jesus had given them authority over demons and they couldn't cast out the demon and then there's an enigmatic

kind of answer this kind comes out only by prayer what does that mean you need to pray more after years of looking at that passage I think that one of the hints to understanding what's going on is that when he gave them Authority over the Demonic they had come to believe that somehow that Authority was now inherent that it was in them and did not flow from the throne through them they became independent we've got the power it was given to us it's ours and I think that's what's going on there but look at Jesus

so news about him his spreading every everywhere I mean it it's it's phenomenal I mean you can only imagine what the crowds were like and in the very height of his ministry he did the very thing most people would never do most ministers would never do most sincere ministers would never do it says what but Jesus himself the crowd let them do their thing but Jesus himself would often slip away to the Wilderness and pray when I told my pastor that I believed God had called me to preach he was the most powerful preacher to

this day that I I've ever known the most I I've never seen a demonstration of the power of the holy spirit in any other man more than him and when I told him that he turned around he was a big kind of intimidating man 65 with his silver hair pulled back and he looked at me and he just said this boy can you be alone and I thought he meant that if I preached the truth no one would like me and I would be alone but that's not what he meant what he meant is while

all the other boys were running to Retreats and running around in Bachelor groups and going to Christian conferences could you live alone with God just you God your Bible and prayer could you be alone with God and I think every sincere I'm not talking about false prophet every sincere minister of Christ would say if there is a place where the devil is attacking them it's there there was a a famous psychologist psychiatrist who years ago it's the only thing I've ever agreed about with a psychiatrist he said this he said said busy is is is

not of the devil it is the devil that men are too busy to be the very thing that they were called to be alone with God and that doesn't just apply to ministers please understand that it applies to all of us because all of us have been called into the same communion there's not a special communion granted ministers that's not granted The Minister's Wife or The Minister's child if they're in Christ or any congregant and the fact is we're all neglectful in this area we get busy I remember one time someone asked me a question

what's one of the what's the greatest problem in Christian sanctification and I said most most of our problems would clear up if we just spent time in the word and prayer and a young man rose up and he was angry and he accused me of superficiality but it quieted very his arguments stopped when I asked him can I ask you a question he saides I said how much time do you spend every day in the word of God in prayer and it was minimum think about it now I don't want to hurt you well I

do want to hurt you a little but in love I want you to think right now how much time every day do you spend in thoughtful time with the Lord in the word and in prayer you see I'm a very very simple person that sees no need to mow the lawn if the house is on fire there are simple things that were simply not doing and and these trials in your life and these feelings of emptiness inside you and bewilderment and everything it's God wooing you calling you wounding you to come to him to come

to him now if you go on and I want you to look uh go to chapter 6 verse 12 and it was at this time in the choosing of the 12 that he went off to the mountain to pray and he spent the whole night in prayer to God maybe at least we should find it somewhat unusual if this never happens in our life to any degree with regard to the decisions that we have to make here is this [Music] perfect mind without corruption this perfect heart with perfect communion to God and yet in this

major decision he decides I must spend the entire night in prayer and yet we can make decision so quickly can't we and then we're wondering God why didn't you help me why did it backfire why do you see so let's go on from there look at chapter nine 18 and it happened that while he was praying alone the disciples were with him and he questioned them now that's just a reference I know it really doesn't add to anything that we've studied thus far but what I want want you to see is again prayer again prayer

now look in verse 28 some eight days after these things he took along Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray his life was a life of prayer a life of communion with God a life I am sure in the Hebrew fashion that included things like Thanksgiving giving and praise and worship of pouring out his heart because we see that in Gethsemane the way he prays in Gethsemane is not as a man untrained in pouring out his heart to God he poured out his heart to God over the last several

years my life has been so broken with operation s and and heart attacks and resuscitations and open heart surgeries and and so many battles on the mission field and every day and I suppose that that can't be unique that to some degree all of you must go through this if I if my lips were not trained to just pour my heart out to God and then as you get older you know the saying of the old sages is that when you're young life adds gives you so many things and as you grow older life begins

to take them away and you begin to realize there's so many dreams that will never be realized so many things that will never happen so many Hollow spots so little sanctification so and where would you be if you couldn't be there in the night watch just explaining all these things to God and what a comfort it is to be alone I will let you into the most powerful prayer in my life the prayer that has saved me so many times maybe missionaries are being persecuted uted or we have to move orphans out of a war

or enemies or slandering something to get out of bed there's a window by my bed to get down on my knees and just to look up and say this you you know you know you know you know and because you know I can go to sleep now you see it's it's this is what he Longs for is communion with you and he will I even think he will destroy even a good Ministry if it becomes the idol everything flows out of this being alone with God now how important is it I want you to go

to mark for a second I want you to see something Mark chapter 1 Scholars tell us that if you read the book of Mark all the way through and you do so accurately that you will be exhausted because the Book of Mark is like these just shutter snapshots rapid fire of Jesus's Ministry and it's true I I challenge you read through the Book of Mark you'll be exhausted after the first few chapters because it's just going he did this he did this he did this he did this he did this now in chapter 1 I

want you to see the use of the word immediately verse 12 immediately the spirit impelled him to go out into the wilderness Verse 18 immediately they left their Nets and followed him verse 20 immediately he called them verse 21 they went into cap Capernaum and immediately on the Sabbath day he entered the synagogue and began to teach verse 28 immediately the news about him spread everywhere into all the surrounding District of Galilee verse 29 and immediately after they came out of the synagogue they came into the house of s and Andrew with James and John

verse 30 now Simon's mother-in-law was lying sick with a fever and immediately they spoke to Jesus about her can you see this immediately immediately immediately he's just moving moving ministering ministering and when you read another portions of scripture you realize that virtue or power is going out from him now I think most ministers can identify with this for example after you preach something sometimes it's literally like your bones are dried up that so much virtue and energy and life have gone out of you or three or four hours of counseling with a couple that are

having problems in their marriage and you're counseling and counseling it's like virtue goes out of you there's nothing left you can't even Raise Your Arms anymore that's what we're looking at now I want you to look at verse 32 when evening came after the sun had set they began bringing to him all who were ill and those who were demon-possessed and the whole city had gathered at the door and he healed many who were ill with various diseases and cast out many demons and he was not permitting the demons to speak because they knew who

he was now what's going on if if a medieval artist were to paint this you would see Jesus standing quiet ly in something of a a glorious robe and then maybe a line of people waiting patiently as he healed them well that's not what happened many many years ago when I was working with the mountain peoples in Northern Peru very destitute amazing people God did amazing work among them but a rough worn people with no no hospitals no doctors no medicine no no hope of anything if there was an illness or a broken leg or

or an other ailment and one day at a conference and a lot of times a, 1200 people would show up they'd walk three days to get to a conference and they discovered that I brought a doctor with me I saw those gentle people become so agitated and aggressive the doctor and I were basically shut up in a hut day and night for three days as they stood out in line they they laid in the dirt they would be holding their sick children and screaming out help help even having problems among themselves who's first in line

who gets a it was exhausting it was one of the most exhausting experiences I have ever been through that's what we're seeing here people with children that have no hope whatsoever they're willing to tear off a roof to get to Jesus there are the demon possessed there are so many problems and they're coming at him like a squadron but look and and I'm sure that it went until the at least for us it went to the early hours you know 1 2:00 in the morning we would stop and we were exhausted I just slept in

my clothes on a horse blanket you just couldn't even move anymore but look what it says in verse 35 in the early morning while it was still dark Jesus got up left the house and went away to a secluded place and was praying there now I am not using this text to say that you should deny your body's sleep if there is one great error or sin that I have made against my body is denying its sleep and I have paid for it what I'm trying to show you that in this extraordinary circumstance this abundance

of ministry he still would not allow it to take him away from communion with his father he would not allow it doesn't that drive a state into the heart of your busyness you and I have no excuse and again I'm talking to you as a fellow I'm talking to you as a fellow weeper I'm talking to you as a fellow failure and I have to be Stern with myself and and Stern with you we never have a reason to neglect communion with him in the word of God in prayer and yet often times even among

ministers and again sincere and godly ministers who love God's people there is many times this is the first to go isn't it it's the first to go and sermon preparation is no substitute for this do not kid yourself it's not we need this Leonard Raven Hill used to say this Peter preaches one sermon on the day of Pentecost and 3,000 people are saved we preach 3,000 sermons and not one is saved now of course you can you can run with that so many wrong ways but here's what I want you to see do you not

realize that the greatest thing that we can do for this lost world and God's people is to maintain our communion with God because if that's not there we're useless he said I am the vine you are the branches he said apart from me you can do nothing I have to confess that I have I love reading the reformers the Puritans the early Baptists the early evangelicals some of the pietists and others I I love books I have friends that are great theologians and and great expositors I was just with a dear friend of mine Steph

Lawson and there's probably no one who cares about and studies preaching more than that man but even with him as we sat and talked we both agreed that preaching and Ministry and the Christian life is not less than Doctrine it's not less than sound theology but it is much much more it's life it's fruit it's a Well springing up in US it's more than knowledge it's not less than knowledge but it's more than knowledge now look at verse 36 and verse 37 Simon his companions searched for him they found him and said to him everyone

is looking for you now I don't want to read too much into this but I would not be surprised if there is a bit of rebuke here we can become so self-righteous so quickly especially when we realize we may have the upper hand on someone more righteous than us and we've got the capacity and the opportunity to point out a flaw Jesus why are you out here all alone when all those hurting people are back there everyone's looking for you there are people hurting back there what are you doing here alone and if if ministers

And if every Christian on the face of the Earth can grasp this I am no good to myself I am no good to my wife I am no good to my children I am no good to God's people I am no good to the Lost World unless I maintain my communion with God I'm no use they don't need my words they don't need my wisdom they need God's word and God's wisdom that comes to us through diligent and consistent study and meditation and memorization and then also within the context of the church as we compare

spiritual truths with spiritual truths and we can correct and rebuke one another and teach one another it must be God's wisdom but then again without the power of the Holy Spirit we should be constantly studying God's word and I hear that from my reformed Brethren constantly studying the word what we need to hear more of and we also ought to be constantly crying out for greater and greater manifestations of the life and power of the holy spirit in us both those things we should constantly be crying out for them that when I speak I speak

your words and I do it in your power and more importantly I live your words in your power in front especially of those closest to me Look what Jesus says in verse 38 and he said to them let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby so that I may preach there also for that is what I came for now it switches from Ministry of healing and demonstrations of power and signs and wonder to what what we all know is a priority is the priority Proclamation and how's that how how well is that going to

go for any of us without prayer I want to be very careful with what I say you can teach a parrot to speak out sound theology but it doesn't mean that any of it has impacted him let me say something else and this is hyperbole it's a bit exaggerated but I want you to see it as a main point I have two young men in front of me both of them have the same sound theology both of them speak the same and one of it one of them got it from reading all the best systematics

and the other one got it from reading the word of God and then comparing what he learned to other books I can tell the difference look it's not just about knowledge even the good knowledge that I found in many find in many of the systematics it's about the Bible the Bible is the Living Word of God it is alive it is Supernatural it is transformative and yes I love the Puritans and the reformers and John Gil and so many people but their writings are not the same they're just not and so you must spend time

with him now before I go on I want to say this so someone who hasn't worked out for 20 years comes to my garage and they say brother Paul I want to work out with you and I want to do everything you do the next day well the next month they can't walk they're like a spider that's been stepped on they're so sore that they're never coming back again now why did I give you that illustration if you're sitting here tonight and you're going I neglect the word all the time I neglect prayer all the

time I mean if I even read a chapter a week it's amazing and and I'm always on the run then I don't want you first of all running out of Hill here thinking that God has scolded you terribly and is waiting to judge you I want you to know that what I'm speaking are words of Love secondly I don't want you going home and or getting up tomorrow morning and reading 35 chapters and trying to pray for two hours because it won't last it never lasts what I want you to do is start where you

are I want you to go back to your pastors or go back to other men are women and say hold me accountable I have seen that this is absolutely essential and I need help until I get moving in this if next week you are reading one chapter a day every day and you are praying 10 minutes it's still better than the zero of this week grow talk to your pastors talk to other men make commitments with each other to get in the word of God and study it make commitments to pray make commitments to simply

walk with him in communion and everything in your life will begin to gradually change and he'll become real he'll become real brothers you'll know tomorrow not to do this no one did it today but I want to share something with you I'll see there's a church services about to start in some place a church service is about to start and people are talking and everyone's happy and the music people come up and that's all of that's wonderful and then you'll see the start of the service and someone will come up and go it is so

wonderful to have you with us here today in the house of God isn't it wonderful to be here in the house of God Amen let's go to the Lord in prayer Our dear heavenly father I know that man does not spend much time in the presence of God God because no one approaches him that way who knows him it's disgusting and you've seen it you've seen it go to talk un to you and then just like that and I go that man does not pray much he's not much in the word when you know him

oh you can say all those things to the congregation it is so wonderful to have you here today you are such a blessing and as your Pastor I want you to know it fills my heart to see your faces now let's go to the Lord in prayer let's go to the Lord in prayer father do you see the difference you don't approach him like some ring leader in a circus but this this comes from just being in his word you know for a lot of you young and I know I'm kind of dancing around you

need to understand that the Bible is more than the book of Romans and Ephesians it's the entire book and it's reading it from cover to cover over and over and over and you say I'm really not understanding just keep going and keep going and then all of a sudden little by little spiritual truths will begin to be defined by other spiritual truths and the Bible will become the best commentary of itself and something that you read in Romans you'll go oh I know what he's talking about because I've read Isaiah 66 but it's spending time

with him you know there's probably nothing more heartbreaking in human relationships than a wife coming to a husband and and saying spend time with me is would would that is is that so bad could you imagine your wife tears running down her spend is it is it something I've spend time with just me talk to me can you just sit here Spurgeon said he'd rather teach one man to pray than 10 men to preach and I guess the prince of preachers can talk to that way oh he loves you so much you say I'm dirty

okay go to him go to him you know when I tell people when you see sin in your life it should break you it should even bring tears to your eyes but here's the thing break you and bring tears to your eyes not so that you go run to some dark corner of the world where he's not it's so that you turn around run straight to him and jump in his arms and there's where you cry there's where you cry now I I need to because I only have one time with you I I want

to go just quickly to the Book of Luke back to Luke 11 verse one it happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place after he had finished one of his disciples said to him Lord teach us to pray now notice they didn't interrupt his prayer Raven Hill would tell a story about walking in on a saint that was a man of prayer walking into his room and there he is praying and Raven Hill just quietly backed out and he said I backed out because you don't turn your back on royalty he was a

man of prayer you knew when you listen to him that he was doing business with God and that everyone else they were just gone the greatest reality when he hit his knees was God not men and you would just as soon you would destroy the Mona Lisa or a work of D Vinci before you would interrupt something like that now here's what I want you to see I want you to notice that the disciples never came to Jesus and said teach us to preach they never came to Jesus and said teach us to cast out

demons they never came to Jesus and said teach us to walk on water or teach us to heal the sick what does that tell me the fact that they came to Jesus and said teach us to pray I believe it means that the most extraordinary facet of the Life of Christ when you looked at him was his life of Prayer the most extraordinary thing about him was the way he communed with God now imagine we know that when he was a temple in the temple as a young boy he was already taught of God in

a magnificent way so now we know that he's near 30 we're assuming that the greater part of his life except for Bare infancy he communed with God and it was an open communion unlike anything any of us would ever know exponentially beyond what any of us could know and I believe that when he prayed I don't believe there was eloquence show I believe there was Simplicity of speech but there was something there that was different from everything else they'd ever seen and that's why I brought up the thing about the pastor comes to the pulpit

and is is praying like a ring leader in a circus that man does not pray much he's not been taught in the School of prayer now he said teach us to pray and again I I I don't want to take you on very long but I want you to listen is there such a thing as unbiblical preaching there is is it dangerous yes is there such a thing as unbiblical praying yes and yet I want to be very very careful because although we must learn to pray biblically I would never want the SM smallest weakest

immature child of God to not go to God with full confidence because they feared that they did not know how to pray as they ought now he says teach us to pray and he does what we know to be the model prayer or the Lord's Prayer I want you to go to Matthew for just a minute in chapter six where we have the more complete version of that prayer and I want you to see something in verse n he says pray then in this way dear sister dear brother now think about this especially you ladies

because you hear this more than we do your child asks you something you tell them exactly what to do and then they don't do it right and I know that's the case because then when your husband like me comes home at 5:00 you're standing at the door fuming and tell me to go up and deal with the child they say how do I do this and you go do it this way and they completely ignore everything you just said do you not realize that our neglect of this teaching is doing the very same thing and

it is possibly because of our reaction to the abuse of this Prayer by Catholicism but nonetheless when he was asked teach us to pray he said okay pray this way how many of you order your prayers according to this model prayer almost no one now think about that and yet as I've studied through the prayers of Psalms the the prayers of the Epistles I find they all fit within this model now I don't have time to go through it in an extraordinary fashion nor do I have the intellect to do so or the spirituality but

let's point out a few facts first of all when you say Lord teach me to pray he says okay and he gives you this now the first thing he says Our Father who is in heaven what does this mean this is the perfect psychology it's what I call it the perfect psychology of prayer it's ATT tension Our Father in heaven now our father and you will hear in America someone say well you know ABA father means Daddy no it doesn't it does not mean Dad daddy don't call it Daddy now let me just give you

an example it does carry endearment endearment but when we use the word daddy the reverence is not there now if you go to Nigeria or you go to zomia it's quite an amazing thing that you'll see um especially among the Christian and the traditional families dad's pretty much a big deal okay and when a child a daughter a son comes to their dad and they say father they'll stick out their hand like this now I'm not going to do it it changes a little from culture to culture in Africa but they'll stick out their hand

they'll take their dad's hand they'll put their other hand here or here and then they'll do something of a courtsy a sign of respect there's an in inclination so it's a term of endearment your father who loves you with a love see the love of God is the most painful Doctrine in the Bible for the preacher and the poet because even you can't grasp it and even what you can grasp you can't tell and it makes you at time hate words and just want to push over the pulpit and walk out and never preach again

the hardest thing you will ever have to do as a Christian is to believe that God loves you with the quality of love with which he loves you you can't fathom it because there's no other example of it not a father not a mother nothing it's the kind of love that that that in our deficiency Is So Glorious that it almost feels like it's wrong when Peter sees Christ manifest his glory and he says depart from me Lord I'm a sinful man what he's saying is this is wrong a man like me should never see

something like this and that's the love of God a man like me should never see what this is so unconditional so strong so unbending and Unbreaking he loves you with a standard that that is it goes beyond every other standard if I could do anything in preaching it would be to show God's people how much he loves them that is the key because it's the love of God that compels us not our love for him but his love for us that compels us so on one sense it's our father our father but then remember your

father is in heaven he's the king of glory and worthy of great fear now between the in the fatherson relationship and I know this well there can be two types of fear one of them is devastating the other one is wonderful so a child that has an inconsistent father so one day the child comes and says look at Daddy what I drew and the dad looks at it and goes this is wonderful I'm so proud of you but the next day the man's having a bad day and the little child comes and says look daddy

what I drew and he smacks the kid upside the head tears up the paper and throws it away that inconsistency the child never knows what am I going to get that's not the love of God it is a love so consistent immutable so pure so you say what is love brother Paul I spent a great deal of time trying to understand what it is and it's actually quite simple it is self-giving for God so loved the world he gave his only son he gave himself husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave

himself he gives himself to you if he gave you every perfect world he has ever created it would be nothing compared to him giving himself to you I want you to picture this there's a picture of John F Kennedy in the Oval Office and he's seated behind the desk and the most powerful desk most powerful man in the world and the picture is being taken from across the room this is a room where if you're called in there you could tremble if you're a leader of other nations you could tremble because now you're before the

desk of the most powerful man in the world and the beautiful thing about this picture is the whole going through where the legs pass you see his little son in that hole playing with a toy so here you are coming across the crystal sea through the blood of Christ perfectly and completely loved while sarapin bow their heads and cry out holy he loves you but keep this tension it's it's a beautiful thing once you start grasping it not only doctrinally but experimentally you begin to grasp it is this wonderful amalgamation this wonderful flow of two

currents of of this extraordinary security I'm loved by God and this extraordinary reverence not just in his greatness and his power but his his beauty that is literally incapacitating I believe that we must be trans formed to go to heaven because if we were to catch one glimpse of even his Beauty one glimpse of even our his love it would fracture our minds and break us in a thousand pieces the beauty would be too great to behold and that's why there's always a Ting of Madness in a prophet cuz his mind has been fractured not

just by the greatness of God but the beauty of God the love of God Our Father who art in heaven Hallowed Be Your Name Your Kingdom Come your will be done this is a trinity of sorts it is one petition it's three facets it goes in and out and flows all of them together and yet each of them is distinct Hallowed be thy name holy be thy name what is the chief prayer once you acknowledge who God is what is the chief prayer Hallowed Be thy name what does that mean hallowed you could identify it

as holy but that doesn't go far enough because there's different I facets of the doctrine of Holiness what what we're talking about here is separateness to say Hallowed be thy name is that God your desire is that God's name be placed in a category all to itself and above every other category of names of persons places or things one of the most ridiculous things you can ever say is keep God first keep God number one don't ever say that because you're Assuming he's in the same category with everyone else you don't keep God number one

God's in a box all to himself there is no second he's not like us just bigger he's in a category completely distinct from everything else that exists and he's there alone and your great desire the greatest desire of your heart the greatest Petition of your heart should be oh God in my life my great desire above all other prayers is that you be esteemed by my heart without any competing loyalties above all else you are there separate and distinct from everything and Lord that this same thing be in my wife that my wife see you

this way is above all other things and esteemed above all other things and that my children and that my fellow church members see this that the world sees it that's the great Petition of my heart how many church prayer meetings have you ever heard that's even said that and yet Jesus said that was the number one thing that God be esteemed in my heart your heart their heart above all other things with no other compe in loyalties and then we pray this way and you know what else we labor this way I labor in my

own heart to drive out other loves I teach to teach my wife and my children he alone I look at my church members and I say Brethren no competing loyalties let us get a greater vision of him that he might be singular in our hearts and I go to the world and I say stop it you're you're Sports and your entertainment and all this take all the beauty and everything you think of great importance and put it all in a bowl and it moves the scale not one inch it's worthless compared to one glimpse of

him and you go out with that kind of gospel not just you're a sinner but look turn around took around and look at what's really beautiful let me tell you about him thy kingdom come that the advancement of his rule would come into my life and take more and more territory you say oh brother Paul my heart that's all my heart belongs to him no it doesn't I have walked with him now for a little over 40 years and every year I find more and more Chambers where there are idols and that's why so much

of my life has been just broken so many embedded Idols that only years in his surgeon hand can Expose and it's this prayer oh God that your Reign that you would be the only King and the Zion of my heart in my wife in my children in my church in these people across the world into the RO remotest islands of the sea and that your will would be done on Earth as it is in heaven perfectly and completely now there there's 10 sermons and all of that but let's let's hurry on verse 11 give us

this day our daily bread if there is ever a verse that is misinterpreted and misapplied it is this sometimes I think sometimes if I hear one more preacher say now the big meaning here is that he says Daily Bread to give you daily bread he's not telling you to give you 20 years of bread or 30 years of bread it's Daily Bread trusting him daily that's not what this means what does it mean and this will change your life what you're basically saying is this Lord my passion my the drive of my life is that

your name be hallowed the drive of my life I give my life if I'm a preacher a missionary a mechanic a janitor a housewife the drive of my life is that your name be counted above every name that your kingdom come and that your will be done now give me every resource I need including material resource food clothing whatever I need not to do my own thing not to hunt my own desires not for my own Ambitions I have none give me what I need so that I can devote my life to carrying out the

very thing I prayed for do you see how that changes everything I ask you to give me the resources I need to be an instrument in answering the three prayers I just prayed do you see that I don't want food just to eat I want food for strength to labor for these things to give my life for these things if I'm a teacher if I'm a mechanic if I'm a computer programmer every it doesn't matter because if you're a Christian there's nothing secular in your life even the pots and pans in your house are now

ho everything is to be living in the occupation you've been given according to the gifts everything to carry out the these three things Lord give me bread that I can eat to energize my body because I've devoted myself to this have you ever wondered why maybe God answers so few prayers because what you've got to realize is everything he gives you is in order to strengthen you capacitate you and move you toward these three things things you've prayed about and then Lord forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors Lord I cannot

labor for these three things if there's unconfessed sin in my life forgive me and Lord if there's not unity in the body of Christ we can't carry out these things together teach me to forgive as I have been forgiven and then Lord do not lead me into temptation because in this I am going to be fought against the the devil is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour and principally he wants to devour those who have devoted themselves to these three things Lord lead me not into temptation give me Grace to overcome for

yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever do you know what that says to me for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever do you know what that says to me that with my dying breath I cry out long live the king long live the king I've rehearsed this so many times I thought when I was in Peru in different places you know I thought I believe that I will go out as a martyr what will be the last thing I say when they turn toward me long live

the king and young men why are you alive in Peru we say to the only reason you're alive is because air is free you don't do anything young men do you not see the glory here did you not see it there's something to live for I was young now I'm old I was strong now I'm weak but to have poured out this life for him you see young men everything you have is a gift and you should pour it out for him you should pour it out for him there is a passage that if I

were to remove it from the biblical text and I read it you would think it was Spartan because it goes like this it describes the believer as this to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for Glory and Honor and immortality eternal life now that's the goal of a man to hang your shield in heaven to fight every breath to give everything you've got to him to him I remember one time walking out the door and I was going to walk into a very bad situation and I said goodbye to my wife I said

I'm leaving I'll see you when I get back if I get back she said bye husband she hugged me I walked out the door and all of a sudden I heard the door open back up and she looked at me and she said Christian come back carrying your sealed or carried upon it but do not give way there's something to live for eternal glory and that's what this prayer is all about because what you need to understand is that preaching and everything witnessing preaching on the streets going into Mission areas that's cleanup that's cleanup that's

batting cleanup the battle is fought on your knees the battle is fought on your knees so long live the king long live the king God bless