Hope Church LV Sermons
The Real Thing :: pray with dependence
I want you to begin this morning by thinking about an area of your life that you're passionate about. Now, as I say that, I don't want you to immediately think about your church answer, all right? Because I don't want you to go there yet. I want you to just think in general about an area of your life that you're passionate about. Maybe it's something in the area of sports, maybe it's in the area of politics as we're approaching election day, maybe it's in the arena of history or sailing or hiking or whatever it may be. Think about something that you are passionate about. And I want you to think about if there was one person past or present from that field that you're passionate about, that you could spend an entire day with, who would it be? For me, to be honest, it's pretty easy. For me, especially this time of year, I'm passionate about is college football. I'm passionate. I mean, if you know me very well personally, you know about my passion for college football. As a matter of fact, I had to confess to the Saturday night service last night, it's this time of year every year that I have to really get my heart right on Saturday for that Saturday night service because I'd sometimes rather be home watching the football game on TV. You know, I have to wrestle with that stuff. The pastor wrestles with that stuff too. I'm passionate about college football last night during the service my team was playing. So I DVR and then I go home and watch it late at night and try to make sure nobody tells me to score. Our staff knows if you breed the score, I'll kill you and fire you and all the rest, you know. I'm passionate about college football and so if I could spend one day with a person from the field of college football, I would spend an entire day with Paul Bear Bryant. Yeah, there we go, some Alabama representatives in the house. Even put a picture up on the screen for you this morning, Paul Bear Bryant. Paul Bryant was a head football coach for four different colleges, he started at Maryland and went to Kentucky and then Texas A&M and then landed his prestigious job at the University of Alabama and I was born and raised in Alabama and where I grew up, literally I think some people worshiped Paul Bear Bryant. They thought he was something more than just a man but Paul Bryant was a great football coach at the University of Alabama. He was there 25 years, won six national championships, 13 conference championships. When he retired was the winning his coach in college football history with 323 victories and I can remember as a little kid on Sunday nights watching the Paul Bear Bryant show on TV. I mean everything stopped when it was time to watch the Paul Bear Bryant show on TV and it was always sponsored by Coca-Cola and Golden Flake Potato Chips and man right there on the counter in front of him. The last time I went to an Alabama game in Tuscaloosa somebody had gone to his statue and left an offering of Golden Flake Potato Chips. I'm serious, Golden Flake Potato Chips and Coca-Cola in a bottle right there, you know like he, it was some kind of a worship experience for them to go and leave this offering. It's sad in Alabama, it's kind of a religion a little bit. Paul Bear Bryant's who I'd spend a day with, I want you to now think in the spiritual realm. I want you to think about if the field or the subject matter was prayer. I think all of us this morning would acknowledge we wish our prayer life was better. How many of you would say this morning, "Man I just, I wish I could grow in my prayer life, let me see your hand." That's what I thought right? And you know what's amazing I did that last night too and as I look out I saw some people raise their hand that in my estimation I'm wishing I'm my prayer life was like theirs. These are people that I consider to be prayer warriors, prayer giants, and yet they go, "Man I wish my prayer life was better," which makes me think, "Man mine is way off." But it didn't matter where you, it's one of those things that were never really satisfied. We always want that area of our life to, because there's always room for it to grow and to deepen, and if you could spend a day with someone to learn from them, to watch them, to observe them, to question them about the arena of prayer, who would it be? It's okay to say the obvious answer, Jesus. Is there anybody who more modeled dependence on the Father through prayer than Jesus? As you read the Gospels, I challenge you read the Gospels. If we're not careful, sometimes we read through the Gospels and we've read them so many times that we just can almost read on autopilot. You know we can read a few chapters and not even really pay attention to what we're reading because we know what it's going to say next. We know the story. We know how it ends. Right? Cross, resurrection, empty tomb. Got it. Know the deal. You can just read right through it and not pay attention. I mean these are holy and precious things, but sometimes we get so familiar with them that we can just run through them. I encourage you as you read the Gospels to examine the personal life of Jesus. How did he interact with people? What are the kinds of things that he said? How did he relate to believers, how did he relate to non-believers? And one of the dynamics as you read through the Gospels understanding and examining the life of Jesus that you find out is Jesus lived his life out of the overflow of intimacy with the Father. And one key dynamic of that was the vehicle of prayer. Let me give you a couple of examples. Look at Mark chapter 1 verse 35 on the screen, it says, "And in the early morning while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was, what does it say?" Praying there. You know I read that, and you know what I think? Man, if Jesus needed to get up while I was dark and find a secluded place. And pray, what does that say about me? Look at the next one, Luke chapter 5 verse 16 says, "But Jesus would often underline the word 'often' slip away into the wilderness and pray." As you read through the Gospels, you know what you find? You find these kinds of statements over and over and over and over. In Luke chapter 6 you read where Jesus went out before he chose his twelve disciples, and the night before the Bible says he prayed all night. When's the last time you or I spent the entire night in prayer before a major decision? This was Jesus. In John 17 we have recorded for us what we know is the high priestly prayer, that prayer in the garden which is so filled with truth. What if we could spend the day and just talk to him about prayer? Well, in the greatest sermon ever preached, we call it the Sermon on the Mount, it's located in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, Jesus brings us in close and gives us great detail about this arena of prayer. He does it in what we normally call the Lord's Prayer, haven't you ever heard of the Lord's Prayer? Everybody, right? We all know the Lord's Prayer, we grew up hearing it, didn't matter if it was in church or school or whatever it was, we've all been exposed to the Lord's Prayer. But really it's probably better called the disciples' prayer because he was really giving it to the disciples as a model, as an example for them, almost a template that they could lay down over their own prayer lives to examine, to see if our praying was in accordance with what God desires. Now this section of the Lord's Prayer is found right in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount and it's found, it's very important in the context of something that we've entitled, a series that we're going through, called the real theme. And in chapter 6, if you don't have, if you have your Bible, you can go and open it to Matthew chapter 6 and Matthew chapter 6, Jesus is describing what authentic faith looks like, what it looks like for our faith to be fleshed out in our lives. And he's contrasting what it looks like, the real thing, with wearing a mask, pretending. You see the natural tendency of our flesh is to drift towards just some actions on the outside, some pretending, some religious activity, and not to be living out of the overflow of intimacy with God. Jesus describes the real thing as his life being pressed out through our lives out of the overflow of intimacy with him. But then there's wearing a mask, there's putting on the show, there's performing spiritually, so that others think I'm spiritual and walking with God. Look at it in chapter 1 or chapter 6 verse 1, let me read you that verse, come to set this up. He said, "Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them, otherwise you have no reward with your father who's in heaven." Jesus warns us to beware, to pay attention to what it looks like as our faith is lived out in our everyday lives. And then what Jesus begins to do through the rest of chapter 6 is give us some examples. He starts in verse 2 with the example of giving or generous living. And he says, "Hey, when you live generously, here's what it looks like to pretend, here's what it looks like to just be going through the motions, and here's what authentic faith, authentic giving looks like." Then in verse 5, he gives us the example of praying. And he begins to talk about what it looks like to pray, putting on a mask, going through the motions, versus what real authentic prayer looks like. Now, it's right there in describing what authentic praying looks like that Jesus gives us the Lord's Prayer. Let's read it. Matthew chapter 6, beginning in verse 5, says, "When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites. That's the word that means to wear a mask. You're not to be like the hypocrites, the ones that are performing on the stage. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men, truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door, pray to your Father who's in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. When you're praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do. Isn't it amazing that the Lord's Prayer in so many instances has become exactly what Jesus said, don't use it for to introduce the Lord's Prayer? Jesus said, don't do meaningless repetition. Jesus wasn't giving us in the Lord's Prayer a mantra for us to come together and recite together, corporately, to somehow create some energy in the room. Jesus wasn't giving us a creed for us to repeat. Now, I'm not saying it's wrong to repeat the Lord's Prayer, but if we simply are repeating this prayer verbatim going through the motions because we've got it memorized, we've missed it, we're violating the very essence behind which Jesus gave it. He just said, prayer is not meaningless repetition, it's not going through the motions. Then look what he says. Verse 8, "So do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask, and pray then in this way." Verse 9, "Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done. On earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread, forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors, and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen. For if you forgive others, their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions." Now, we began looking at this passage of Scripture a couple of weeks ago, Travis continued it last weekend, and Travis gave us the first two aspects, if you will, or principles that we find in the Lord's Prayer. I want to give you those by way of reminder, and then we're going to jump into the last three. Okay? Here's the first one. Authentic prayer is centered around the character of God. You hear how the prayer began? "Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be your name." Prayer at its very core is not man-centered, it's God-centered. Jesus begins this prayer with this theological statement about who God is and where God is as a reminder that as we pray, if we're not careful, we come to the arena of prayer and guess what it becomes? It becomes about me. It becomes simply a wish list, a list of requests that I have for God, and there's no mention of who God is. And yet Jesus reminds us that authentic praying is centered in the very character of God. The second thing that we looked at last weekend is that authentic prayer aligns my heart with His activity. And that's where He says, "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. If we're not careful, prayer becomes not about God's will, but my will." When I pray, it's not about me aligning my heart with what God's doing, it's about me trying to convince God to get in on what I think needs to be done, right? I want to give you a quote that you looked at by Henry Blackaby because it so captures it. Listen to what He said. Prayer is not designed to change God, it's designed to change us. Prayer is not calling God into bless our activities. Rather prayer takes us into God's presence, shows us His will, and prepares us to obey Him. Now, that's what we've looked at so far. There are three more that I want to share with you this morning, all right? Here's the first one. Authentic prayer expresses my absolute dependence on God. Authentic prayer expresses my absolute dependence on God. And I'm going to be honest with you this morning, as I've been studying this and as I watched Travis's message from last weekend and as I've been praying through and studying for this weekend, let me tell you what God's done in my heart. These five statements have really become a template that I'm using in my own life to make sure that in the area of prayer, I'm following the model of Jesus and I'm balanced. If we're not careful as you hear these five things, there may be, you may go, "Oh, yeah, that's in my prayer life." But if we're not careful, we tend to get weighted to one or two of these five and Jesus gives all five of them to make sure that we're balanced in our communication with the Father. Authentic prayer expresses my absolute dependence on God. Where do you see that? It's in that next phrase in verse 11. Give us this day our, what? Daily bread. I learned something this week I'd never seen before, never read this before, but in studying that phrase, there's an important little word in there and it's the word daily. Up until the last century people thought Matthew had invented or created that Greek word because if you read Matthew to Revelation, the only place that word is used in the New Testament is in Matthew chapter 6 verse 11. And as they began to survey extra biblical writings from the same period, guess what? Up until the last century, there was no record anywhere of that word ever being used in any other Greek writings, not counting the Bible, but in all of Greek literature. But in the last century, a papyrus fragment has been found and guess what? Found that papyrus fragment is this very word and you'll never guess what the fragment was. It was a woman's shopping list for the market. The only other place that they've ever found this Greek word, so Matthew did invent it, not that it would have been wrong for him to create a new word, but it was a common word that was used but it was on her shopping list and here's what it was describing. Her trip to the market to get those things, you see, they didn't have refrigeration, they didn't have the ability to buy to go to the grocery store, you know, go to Sam's and load the truck up and come home and eat on it for the next month. They would go to the market every day to get the things that they needed for that day daily. You see, this simple request is an expression of my total dependence on God daily for the most basic necessities of my life. Here's what Jesus is reminding us, "I need God for everything in my life." I want you to say that, I'm going to put that up on the screen and I want you to say this out loud with me this morning. You ready? Here we go. One, two, three. "I need God for everything in my life." Now I want you to say it again like we're awake this morning. Here we go. "I need God for everything in my life." How many of you believe that? Let me see your hand. Now, the problem is that although we say we believe that and even intellectually and theologically, we know that that statement is true. The lives that we live don't demonstrate what we say we believe to be true specifically in the arena of prayer. Let me ask you a question. When do you pray the most? That's the answer, right? When you're the most desperate. A few weeks ago, first of September, I was invited on a trip to go meet with some diplomats in Washington D.C. And one of the people that we went to meet with in Washington D.C., there were nine of us pastors and we were going to meet, have a meeting with the head of the Islamic Society of North America. It's a leading Muslim organization here in our country. It's been a key counsel to the White House in both the Bush and Obama administration and Muslim-American relationships. We were going there to have a meeting, to have a conversation, to build a relationship. One of the pastors had known this gentleman for a number of years and he's the one that had invited us to come. We go to this building in downtown Washington D.C., the Islamic Society of North America. We find the door. We go in. They're kind of doing some construction so it looks a little bit abandoned. Their office is up on the third floor, the first floor seems to be pretty much abandoned. So we go in and we go to get on the elevator. Now when we go to get on the elevator, there's nine of us pastors. We all got our suits on, you know, we're there to go represent. We come up to this elevator and it's one of these elevators, it's kind of small. And you know, sometimes you get on the elevator and the last guy has to take a deep breath to let the doors close because you know you're only going to be on there about 35 seconds and you're going to get off, right? So the last guy on takes a deep breath, the door closes, everybody's kind of holding their breath, you know, because it's tight quarters in there and we get about a four and a half up and the thing slams to a stop. Now normally when I'm in a setting like that, I'm leading a group of people. I've either got my family with me or I've got a group of people from a church or a ministry and so I'm usually kind of looked at as the leader. So when you're the leader, you know, you kind of realize in that moment, okay, my job's to calm everybody down, my job's to me. Well, in this moment, I wasn't a leader and I came as close to a panic attack as I've ever had in my life because I mean, as soon as that thing stopped, it's like the oxygen left the elevator and you could begin to feel, I mean, here these nine heavy breathing guys with suits on standing in their shoulder to shoulder and the air begins to get thin and I begin to examine the elevator. I mean, I'm beating the top, there's no Jack Bauer exit in the top of the elevator. I'm trying everything I can try because I'm standing there in my mind, here's the conversation I'm having. I can't get a deep breath. I can't get a breath. You know, and then when you start feeling that and all of a sudden, it's downhill fast, man. And now for about 35, 40 seconds, I'm panicking thinking, oh God, I'm going to die right here. Now, we're in there almost an hour, yeah, then they call the fire department, they have to scale down the elevator shaft and all the while we're down there, the little Muslim guy up on the third floor, he's shouting down, hey Pastor Bob, pray to Jesus, he will help you. I'm not making this up. Now we call the lady, you pick up the phone, you call the operator, you know, useless. We're talking her on the other line and she's trying to be all calm and she takes information from one of the pastors and then she says, anybody else on the elevator like to give me their information and we're all thinking, look, long as you call him, you got us all. We're all in the same box. Let me tell you what I did during that hour. I was praying, man. You know why I was praying? Because I was desperate. The reality is, we're always that desperate. If you received a telephone call in the morning that said, you have one month to live, would it change the way you pray? John 15-5, look at it on the screen, Jesus said, apart from me, you can do what? You know the problem, right? You think it says, apart from me, you can't do big things. If we really believe nothing, it changed the way we pray. How often do you stop in your day and say, God, I need you. God, before I have this conversation, before I have this meeting, before I drive this car, God, I need you. God, I'll never love my wife and my kids today the way you desire unless you do it through me. God, I need you. God, I won't make it through today. God, there won't be one ounce of my day that's honoring to you. God, I need you. That's what Jesus is saying here with give us our daily prayer. We need God. Let me give it to you in a life changing perspective. Look at this on the screen. Prayer is the ultimate expression of dependence on God. Prayerlessness is the ultimate expression of dependence on self. See how wicked our flesh and our pride is? It takes control. We don't even realize it. You know who the antithesis of this was, right? Jesus lived his life in dependence on the Father so much, so look at John 5, 19 on the screen. Jesus said truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of himself unless it's something he sees the Father doing for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also doesn't like manner. You know what Jesus did? He modeled for us the life he was calling us to live. He wasn't calling us to go live for him. He was inviting us through intimacy to depend on him and allow him to live through us. Look at John 1410 on the screen. Jesus said the words, I say to you, I don't speak on my own initiative, but the Father abiding in me does his works is what Jesus is saying. You see something in me, it's not Mr. Father in me. He lived in dependence on the Father and one of the primary vehicles of dependence was the arena of prayer. You and I as people of God are to be a people of prayer, walking in dependence on God and authentic praying acknowledges my deep desperation for God. Am I putting on a mask? Am I walking in dependence on God? Let me give you a second one. We got to move on. My time is almost gone. Authentic prayer pursues rightness in my fellowship with God and with others. That's verse 12, right? Give us our debts as we also forgive our debtors. Authentic prayer pursues rightness in my fellowship with God and with others. Let me give it to you in two aspects. Number one, I must constantly pursue rightness in my fellowship with God. Forgive us our debts. Jesus said a part of our prayer life is constantly pursuing rightness in our fellowship with God. Forgiveness. Isn't that a great word? What a beautiful Bible word, forgiveness. It's literally a compound word, it comes from the words to send and the word from. So when you put it together, the word forgiveness means to send away from or to let go from oneself, to set free from an obligation to wipe off. Now in one sense, as a child of God, you and I are forgiven. Amen? Isn't that good news? We are forgiven. Let me show it to you in the Bible. If he's chapter one and verse seven, in him, we have, that's past tense, right? It's not future, it's past tense. We have redemption through his blood, the what? Forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace. In him, we have past tense, forgiveness. Here's what that means. The moment you and I trusted Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, positionally before God, we were forgiven of our sins. He removed our sin from us. He separated us from our sins so that now when God sees me, he sees me as righteous and as sinless as the son of God himself. Now let me show you how far he removed it. Look at Psalm 103 and verse 12. It says, "As far as," read it out loud, "the east is from the west. So far has he removed our transgressions from us." Now, hey, that's real important. It's important that he didn't say north and south, right? You know why that's important, don't you? Because you can measure that distance. If you head north, guess what? At some point, you're heading what? South. You hit the north pole, now you're coming back down the other side. You are now heading south. We can measure the distance from north to south. You take off east. You can go east forever until you decide to turn around, start heading west. You can always be going east. Isn't it interesting that the Scripture writer in the book of Psalms before they ever discovered the earth was round, describe the distance that God has removed our sins from us with a distance that is immeasurable, it is infinity. Let me tell you what it's describing, "I am forgiven by God." But in another sense, I must seek God's forgiveness. I say, "What do you mean by that?" You see, my position in Christ is that I'm forgiven. But practically day in and day out, I need to seek God's forgiveness. Here's what I mean by that. My relationship with God cannot be changed. Me being God's child is not based on my performance, it's not based on my obedience, it's not based on me keeping all the laws. My relationship with God is established by sin hinders my fellowship with God. Think about your kids, right? There's some days my kids do some things, and they're still my child. I'm still dad, they're still son or daughter, right? But there's something in the fellowship now. You know what I'm talking about, right? Look at those times when, "Hey, that's still my kid," but there's a fellowship problem going on here, and until we deal with that and move that out of the way, the relationship hasn't changed, but there's a fellowship problem going on. I am forgiven by God, but as I begin to walk in disobedience, as I pick up sin in my life, it creates a fellowship problem between me and God, and I must daily constantly pursue God's cleansing, embracing the forgiveness that God has already given me, and removed that fellowship barrier. What Jesus is talking about here is that fellowship forgiveness. You see, sin erodes our intimacy with God. Let me show it to you on the screen, 1 John 1, verse 6, says, "If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and yet walk in darkness, we lie, and we do not practice the truth." Look at that in verse 9, "If we confess," the word confess literally means to say the same thing as, "If we agree with God," here's what that means, "when the Spirit of God points that out in my life," and here's what I do, I say, "God, you're right, I'm wrong." God I recognize that's not right, forgive me. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, restoring the fellowship with Him. Jesus says that part of our prayer life is getting honest with God. Can I let you in a little secret? You're not hiding it. The issue is, are you going to get honest about it and restore the fellowship? Are you going to hang on to it and keep it as an obstacle to intimacy with God? That's what the Psalmist prayed when he said, "Search me, oh God." God, is there anything in my life? How often do you just go before God and say, "God, is there anything in my life?" Stop pleasing to you. Here's the second aspect. In order to constantly pursue rightness in my fellowship with God, I must constantly pursue rightness in my fellowship with others. Isn't it interesting how He linked that together? Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And then He really piled it on in verses 14 and 15. Look at those. He said, "For if you forgive others, their transgressions, your father will forgive you. But if you don't forgive others, then your father will not forgive you." Wow. What does that mean? Here's what it means. If I hadn't made it right with you, guess what? I hadn't got honest with God yet about it. It can't be right with Him if it's not right with you. If I've got a fellowship problem in my life with a brother, a sister in Christ, guess what? I've got a fellowship problem in my life with God. To the point that He links our fellowship with Him and our fellowship with others directly together. Look at this quote by William Barkley, "Human forgiveness and divine forgiveness are inextricably intercombined. Our forgiveness of our fellow men and God's forgiveness of us cannot be separated. They are interlinked and interdependent. Another part of my prayer life needs to be God. Is there anyone in my life that I need to forgive? God, am I harboring anything? Let me give you the last principle and I've got to be done. Authentic prayer engages in the battle for my testimony. Authentic prayer engages in the battle for my testimony. Get the last praise and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." But then notice what He says, "For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory." You hear what He's saying? God don't allow me to be led into temptation. God deliver me from evil, but God don't do that for my sake. Do it for your sake. Yours is the kingdom. You deserve the glory. You see what He does? He circles the wagons and ends right where He began. It's centered in the character of God and He ends this by praying for personal purity and protection of my testimony, why, for the sake of the glory and the character of God. You see the reality is we have an enemy. We have an enemy in this world and although our enemy cannot do one thing to take away our salvation, let me tell you what He can do. He can destroy our testimony. Our testimony is that which allows our lives to be a platform for the glory and honor of God. The enemy cannot take away my salvation, but He can destroy my testimony and He can do it in a moment. And Jesus says we are to engage in the battle for our testimony through prayer. Let me show you a verse on the screen, 1 Peter 5, 8, it says, "Be of sober spirit. Be on the alert. Adversary means enemy, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to what, what does it say? Devour. Hey, He would love to destroy your testimony." And the Bible says He's like a roaring lion and I think sometimes we misunderstand what He's saying by that. We hear that phrase, "roaring lion." Who can miss a roaring lion, right? I've been to, you know, I've been to Africa many, many, many times over the last 12 or 14 years, sometimes two times a year and had never until this last year, though, made a trip up to a game park. Last year my son, Caleb, went with me and we extended our trip three days and we drove north from Johannesburg, South Africa to a place called Kruger National Park. It's the largest game park on the continent of Africa. It's a game park so large you could fit the nation of Israel inside of the game park. That's how big it is. Massive. It's a game park around for three days and in this game park, it's not a zoo, okay? It's a game park. I mean, you are in the wild. They've got it quartered off with fences so the animals can't get out of the park but in the park, you and their house. And there's no guide. You're just in a car riding around looking and we were riding up a road and we came on this scene. I want to put this picture up on the screen. There was some cars stopped and we couldn't really see what we were looking at. If you look very carefully in the bush, you can just see the face of an animal in this game park. Now, I took this picture with my cell phone so it's not the best picture in the world. But we're sitting there and we're probably 15 feet from this bush and in between our car and the bush, another car goes by not paying any attention, not realizing that there's something there and what was in the bush came out of the bush with a swipe at that car and a, "Wah!" I don't want you to look at what came out of the bush. How to bless you, won't it? Let me tell you what I learned about a roaring lion. When they roar, it's too late. They don't come prowling down the road. "Wah!" It's not like that at all. They're undercover. And when they roar, they got you. Thank God for a car, it's all I can say. You see, the enemy's out there and he very subtly all over the city has traps laid for you and for me. And he would love to destroy our testimony. He would love to mar the very character and image of God and Las Vegas by ruining your story and mind. And Jesus says, "Part of our prayer life is to engage in the battle for our testimony." Oh, God. Today, God, my heart, hey, you can destroy in one day a testimony that's taken you into 30 years to build. God, guard me. I don't pray it every day, but I try to make a routine of my life to pray. In Romans 6, I pray God, take the members of my body, my hands, my eyes, my ears, my mind, my feet, my attitudes, my actions, my reaction. God take the members of my body and use them as enemies. Use them as instruments of righteousness for your namesake. And God, don't let me in my flesh, use them as instruments for unrighteousness, for my flesh's sake. Are you engaging in the battle for your testimony? You know why we don't? It goes back to the first thing I said, we don't realize that's how desperate we are. Hey, listen, listen to me, listen to me. You and I sitting here at Hope Baptist Church with our church face on. We are as capable of any sin under heaven as anybody in this town. And the moment you think you're not, he has you right where he wants you. The minute you begin to look down a nose of self-righteousness, it says, "I'm better than them." Condescension that I've grown past some of those issues, the enemy's got you right where he wants you. But if we live desperate before God, we'll engage in the battle for our testimony. Think about those five things centered in the character of God. It's about his activity in the world. It acknowledges my desperation for him. It's about pursuing rightness in my fellowship with him and with others. It's about engaging in the battle for my personal testimony. And ask the question, "Am I living the real thing? Or am I wearing a mask? Am I meaningless repetition? Am I phrases and mantras? Or am I crying out to him? Jesus invites us to the real thing. Let's pray. God, would you have your way with us this morning? Lord, would you speak to us? Even now, take these truths, God, and bring change and transformation. As you sit quietly before the Lord, I want you to do a couple of things. First of all, I want you to kind of lay those areas down over your own personal life. And I want you to do some self-examination. Where's your prayer life? Hey, we all want it to be better. But let's get honest. Let's get transparent with God this morning. I'll be honest, it's been challenging this week as I've studied it thinking about my own life. Are you living a life of authentic prayer? Are you desperate for God? It's been the last time you just said, "God, I need you." Do you need to seek God's forgiveness this morning? Is there an area in your life that's hindering your ability to fellowship with God? Do you need to seek forgiveness in your relationship with somebody else? Do you need to give forgiveness? You said they hadn't asked yet, it doesn't matter. You need to give it anyway. Are you engaging in the battle for your testimony? Hey, there's a powerful principle there to pray over your family, over your kids. I beg you to pray it over your pastoral team. The enemy would love to destroy our testimony. He'd love to destroy your testimony. Maybe you're here this morning and you do not have a relationship with God through Jesus. You don't know what it is to be forgiven of your sin and become a Christian. In just a moment, we're going to stand and sing and I want you to respond today if you need to be saved. If you want to give your life to Jesus Christ this morning, when we stand to sing, you leave your seat. Come to one of these pastors at the front or go to a prayer volunteer at the back and say to them, "I need to give my life to Christ today." And they'll show you from the Bible how you can experience God's forgiveness. Maybe you just need someone to pray with you. You go to one of these pastors or prayer volunteers, "I need you to pray with me this morning." They'll pray with you. They'll encourage you. For the rest of us, maybe you just need in this simple time of singing to cry out to God in dependence on Him. Lord, have your way. We bless you, O God. It's in the name of Jesus Christ we pray.