Hope Church LV Sermons
the Real Thing :: authentic prayer
In the late 1980s, a new pop dance group hit the scene and hit the world by storm. Their lead singers or their two front men were named Fab and Rob. Some of you are showing your age this morning. In this group, and these two lead men became household names all over the world. Their faces were on magazines, and they were on talk shows. And they became world famous in a matter of days and weeks, almost overnight. The group's debut album called All or Nothing sold over 6 million copies, earned them a Grammy Award and Best New Artist in 1990. The album included such hits as Blame It on the Rain and Girl You Know It's True. However, their success and stardom turned to shame after it was revealed that the two lead front men were actually not musicians at all. And in fact, the voices that were heard on their recordings and even while they were on stage were not even their voices. This became known in the first sign that the group was lip syncing happened during a live performance before a worldwide audience on MTV, not a good day. As they performed on stage live in front of this audience, the recording of the song Girl You Know It's True jammed and began to repeat the same line over and over and over again. And now the world knew the truth once and for all that this group had simply been pretending to be something that they were not. And it had all been a show. Anybody know who the group is? Millie Vanilli. Millie Vanilli had simply appeared to be something they were not. Everything they had done before the crowd was simply to please the crowd and for the applause of men, but they were far, far from the real thing. This morning, we continue in a series here at Hope. If you're visiting with us, we're right in the middle of a message series entitled The Real Thing. And we're taking these truths this morning and we're going to look at together straight from Matthew chapter 6 and the Sermon on the Mount. You can go ahead and turn there in your Bibles this morning or the words will be on the screen in just a moment. But we're taking some truths from the greatest message ever preached, from the greatest preacher of all times, Jesus Christ Himself. And we as a church family are asking this question of ourselves. What is genuine authentic faith? What does genuine authentic faith look like in our everyday lives? And we've been taking the truths of these scriptures and laying them down over our lives and asking the question, are there some areas in my life that I may be doing things just for show? Or maybe just for the applause of those around me. It was my faith authentic and real. And we've used a couple things over the last few weeks to be little reminders and to be word pictures for you. Maybe you remember a few of these. A couple weeks ago, we gave you this little coat can. Remember that? Of course you do. You came to church and got a coat can. What a great deal that was. And we gave you this really to be a reminder of this is what we desire to be as Jesus followers. We want to be the real thing, right? We want to be the authentic genuine Jesus follower. And that's Jesus living his life out through us. It's not us trying harder or doing better. It's Christ living his life through us. We want to be the real thing. It's been encouraging to hear some of you say you've taken these and placed them in your house somewhere on your desk at work just as a reminder. We want to be the real thing. And then last week, how could you forget when Pastor Vance wore his mask on stage? You remember that one? The idea was Jesus uses a phrase throughout this text. And in that day, in the day of Jesus, there were actors on a stage. And these actors on a stage would wear a mask. And the reason they would wear a mask is they were simply pretending to be something they were not for the approval of the crowd that was watching. And those actors in that day, the term that was used to describe them was "Hupo Cretace." Remember that? And we give the English word what? Hypocrite. Jesus is saying it's very possible. It was going on in that day, and it goes on in our day, and it goes on in our hearts that we're simply wearing the mask, that we're simply doing some of these outward manifestations of godliness, and we're simply doing them for the approval of those who are watching. It's not the real thing. So this morning, we're going to continue to ask ourselves these questions, and take the word of God, and apply it to our lives, and say, are we the real thing? Are we wearing a mask as a church family? Now, Jesus begins this passage here in Matthew chapter 6 with a very strong word. If in time you come across this word in Scripture from the lips of Jesus, you need to stop and say, "Jesus, why are you saying this?" Matthew chapter 6 verse 1, he says this, "Beware. Beware," Jesus says. And the word "beware" literally means look out. Be on the alert. Be conscious. Be vigilant. Be constantly aware of something. Watch out for something. What is it, Jesus? What are we to watch out for in our own lives? He goes on and tells us, verse 1. He says, "Beware of practicing your righteousness, or your outward demonstration of your godliness. Beware of living out your Christian faith simply to be noticed by men. Beware of living out your Christian life and the motivation being just for the applause and the attention of others." Jesus says you may do that. That may sneak into your life from time to time, but if that is your motive, he says in the end of verse 1, "otherwise you have no reward with your father who is in heaven." Jesus says it's possible to live your life in such a way to impress those around you. It's possible to conduct your life in such a way, and your motivation is to impress others. And they're impressed, and they applaud you, and they pat you on the back and tell you how godly you are, but your heart motive is simply for the applause of men. And Jesus says, "You may get that applause, but that's all that you're going to get." He says, "Beware, watch out." And Jesus says that this morning, because he knows some things about me and you. He knows some things about our heart. He knows your heart better than you do. He knows my heart better than I know my own heart. He knows some things like this. He knows that the opinions of others matter to us, right? I mean, don't look at me so spiritual. That's true of all of us, right? The opinions of others matter to us. Others' thoughts about us matter. We love recognition. We like to be noticed. We long for the praise of other people. I mean, how much time did you spend this morning getting ready to come to church and get your hair just right and your makeup on and everything looking just right? And by the way, we thank you that you were makeup this morning, that's, we appreciate that. But anyway, how much time did you spend on that? One of the reasons may be simply that the opinions of others matter. And that's reality and Jesus understands that. And that's why he says this here, "Beware because as Jesus followers, we live with a constant, ongoing, dangerous drift in our hearts toward impressing those around us that we can see instead of pleasing the God we can't see. That's a subtle drift. It's a subtle shift in my heart and your heart all the time. It's a constant battle. Jesus said, "Beware of this, there's a drift in your heart to go to pleasing the people we can see and impressing the people we can see instead of the God we can't see." Jesus said, "Watch out." He says, "This is very subtle. The hypocrisy in our own heart is very subtle." You know that, right? In fact, it's much easier to spot hypocrisy in somebody else's life than your own life. In fact, this morning, if you know somebody that's living as a hypocrite, would you just stand up and point at him this morning? Would you kid him? No, please. Especially if they're seated next to you. That's not a good idea. The point is, it's much easier to see this in somebody else's life than in your own life. It's subtle. Jesus says, "Beware. Beware that your heart hadn't subtly shifted to simply trying to please the crowd that's watching and you're wearing a mask. Something else we know about God is this from this text. God is more concerned about the motive of our heart than our outward religious activity. Do y'all get that? In other words, God is more concerned about the motive of our heart and the motivation of our heart than our outward religious activity. Say, "How do you know that?" First Samuel 16. But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or the height of his stature." Talking about the brothers of David. So don't look at his height or his stature because I've rejected him. For God sees not as man sees. God doesn't look at things like we do. Remember that? For man us, we look at the outward appearance. Simply what we can see, but the Lord looks at the heart. God's always concerned about your heart motive more than the outward religious activity. Now with that in mind, Jesus says these words here in Matthew chapter six to a culture that was full of religious activity. There was plenty of outward religious activity going on in Jesus' day. And Jesus steps on the scene and makes some radical statements here. Last week he talked about one kind of outward manifestation and it was the area of giving, if you remember that. And how even giving can become just for show. In a few weeks, we're gonna talk about another one during this day that was very important. It was fasting. And how in those days, the religious leaders, they were fasting and when they were fasting, everybody knew they were fasting. And it became a very public show. And this week, we're gonna talk about another very important part of the life of a Jewish man or woman or even of a Jesus follower. And that's the whole area of prayer. Prayer. That even in our prayer life, even in that most holy, intimate connection to the Lord Jesus prayer, we can begin to wear a mask. And we can begin to simply do things just for the approval of others. So I want you to look with me what Jesus says here beginning in verse five of chapter six as he tackles this whole issue of prayer and ask ourselves, are we the real thing? Are we wearing a mask this morning? Jesus begins verse five. The words will be on the screen. He says this, when you pray, when you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites, the mask-wears, the stage-performers, the milli-vanillis, says, don't be like them. For they love, they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners. And there's nothing wrong with praying in the synagogue, right? There's nothing wrong with praying on the street corners. That's a good thing. But Jesus says, here's why they're doing it. So that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have the reward in full. Verse six, Jesus says, but you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your father who is in secret. And your father, your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. Verse seven, and when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition, as the Gentiles do, for they suppose or they think that they will be heard, that God is going to hear them because of their many words. Jesus says again, don't be like them. For your father knows what you have need of before you even ask him. Now, Jesus is tackling a very important part of the life of a Jewish man or woman in this day. He's dealing with their prayer life. I mean, he's getting into their business. This was a very important part of the Jewish culture of that day. In fact, no nation on earth had a higher view of prayer than the Jewish nation. They were committed to prayer. Prayer was one of the most recognized expressions of godliness during that day. You knew who was godly because there were those people who stood on the street corners and lifted their hands high and they said these long prayers, those are the godly people. Those are the champions, the spiritual champions. That was the perception of that day. There were prescribed prayers that were prayed every morning. Northadoxed you had a prescribed prayer. They prayed every morning, a prescribed prayer. They prayed every night. They prayed it three times a day at nine a.m. They prayed it noon, they prayed at three p.m. And when they prayed, everything stopped. Man, don't be riding in the car at noon with an orthodox Jew because you may be in trouble. Everything stops at prayer time. And they believed the longer they prayed, the better. And these prayers were very public and very out in the open. There were specific places of prayer. Prayer was a big deal in this day. Jesus is getting into their business. He's not dealing with some little side issue. He's dealing with a major part of their life. He's getting into their business. That's no different for me and for you, though, right? I'm going as a Jesus follower, prayer is a very important part of our life. Our prayer life is very important as we walk with Jesus. In fact, the Bible instructs us and then you test them as Jesus followers were to pray without ceasing. Colossians says, "Devote yourself to prayer." In everything through prayer and supplication, make a request, be known to God. Jesus says, "Prayer, seek, knock, ask." We're to pray continually at all times to be men and women of prayer. Prayer is a big part of our life. We have prayer ministries and we call people prayer champions and prayer warriors and all of us say from time to time, will you pray for me, brother or sister? I'll be praying for you, right? Prayer is a big part of our life. As pastors, prayer is a big part of our life. I mean, you know, some people think it's part of the job description of a pastor that you pray. I mean, you're the professional prayer. That's what you get paid to do, right? Pastor is to pray. I'm gonna, if you're over at somebody's house and it's dinner time or it's time for some event and somebody needs to pray, all eyes go, whoop. Pastor, would you care to pray for us? That's what you get paid to do, right? I'd love to pray, thank you. Was that a house one time when a lady said we know it's time to pray, but since the pastor's here, we'd better let him pray. As if God were gonna throw down lightning bolts if anybody else prayed besides the pastor. What's the point, prayer is a big part of our lives. It's a big part of our walk with Jesus, but here's what Jesus is saying. And I want you to get this this morning. As important as prayer is in our life, Jesus is saying here in this text, this reality, because of the sinfulness of our flesh, because of our desire to be seen by others, even the most holy experience of prayer can become a show. And it can become wearing a mask. It can become simply performing in front of the crowd. Jesus says, "Beware." Says, "Don't be like that." You're missing so much, if that's the case. Look at your heart, check your heart motive. So this morning, I wanna ask a few questions about our heart. Taking straight from these verses here, we're gonna ask a few questions like this. How do I know, even in my own life, how do I know if in my prayer life specifically, I've begun to wear a mask? Is it authentic prayer as God calls me to do and experience and enjoy, or is it just a show? And we're gonna do that this morning by asking a couple questions straight from these verses. And the first question this morning we're gonna ask is simply this. How do I know if I'm wearing a mask? How do you know if you're wearing a mask in the area of prayer? I wanna give you two statements this morning. First statement is this, how do you know if you're wearing a mask? Number one, in prayer, we're wearing a mask when our motivation is the approval of others. If our motivation is simply the approval of others, we know we're wearing a mask. Look back at verse five. Jesus says, when you pray, when you are praying, you are not to be like the hypocrites for they, what's the next word? Love, that's a strong word. It's the word fileo, it means to have a fond affection for. They had a fond affection for prayer? No, they had a fond affection for the Lord Jesus, no. They had a fond affection for standing on the street corners and being in the place of public prayer to appear to be something they were not. Their love was not for God and not even for prayer. It was for the public demonstration of prayer, to be seen by others. Is it possible to be doing the right things and doing them with the wrong motives? Absolutely. Say, how do I know? Let me ask you a few other questions to kind of drill down into your heart a little bit this morning. Say, Pastor, you're kind of getting into my business. I know it's been getting into my business all week. I understand. But ask yourself this question this morning. Is my heart's desire, is my heart's desire to be a person of prayer, or to be thought of as a person of prayer? Now, this is very subtle in your life. You can apply this to any area of life, specifically in the area of prayer this morning. In other words, sometimes in our hearts, we are more concerned to appear to be following Jesus than to really be following Jesus. And we're more concerned if people think we're Godly, than if we're really walking in intimacy with the Lord Jesus. And then what we'll do is we'll begin to practice what can be called image management. Have I heard that phrase? And our concern is not having an authentic walk with the Lord Jesus. Our concern is looking like we have an authentic relationship with Jesus. And it simply becomes just for the approval and the eyes of others. And Jesus says, be where? It's subtle, it's a shift. And listen, our enemy will do whatever it takes to get your heart off of Jesus. He didn't care where your focus is as long as it's not on the Lord Jesus. These guys here, it says, they love, not their relationship with the Lord. They love to stand in the place of prayer. There were places in that day that were known as public places of prayer. And they love to go there and stand. So everybody knew what they were doing. Oh, there's the Godly guys, they're praying again, they're so Godly. And that's what they loved. How do you know if we're wearing a mask? Our motivation is the approval of others. Let me ask you another question. Does the audience around you affect the way you pray? In other words, is your wording of your prayer and the passion of your praying and the excitement of your prayer, is it affected by the people around you? It was in those days. And that's what Jesus is saying here in verse seven. He says, verse six, but when you pray, go into your inner room and close your door and pray to your father who is in secret and your father who sees in secret, what is done in secret, we reward you. Now, is Jesus saying the only way to pray is to go into your secret closet? No. In other words, throughout scripture, there's times of public prayer, there's times of private prayer, but here's what Jesus is saying. If the focus of our prayer life and the focus of our heart is Christ, our prayer will be no different in a room of a thousand or in a room all by ourself. Because the focus is him. He's the audience. Test your heart. Do we pray sometimes just in case someone asks us? In other words, I better have my time in the Lord with the Lord this morning. I better have my quiet time and my time in prayer because I'm going to meet my accountability partner and they're going to ask me if I'm in praying and I better pray so I can just tell them somebody might ask me about my prayer life and I've got to keep that image out there. That's a subtle shift in the motivation of your heart and Jesus says, be where? So the first one is are we motivated simply by the approval and the opinions of others? Second question or second statement. How do I know if we're wearing a mask? Secondly, our practice of prayer becomes a heartless, religious exercise. This is in verse seven. Jesus said, when you're praying, he's talking more about the practice of prayer here. Earlier he was talking about the motivation in prayer and now he's kind of talking about the practice of prayer. He says, and when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do. For they suppose that they will be heard for the many words. In that day, there was a couple words that characterized their prayer life. One of them was repetitious and the other was lengthy. They like these long prayers, kind of like preachers today. Some preachers think the longer they preach, the better, right? Aren't you glad none of your preachers and hope are like that except Pastor Travis? He loves those long prayers. Preach, preach, preach. The word repetitious here means much talk with no content. Does that ever characterize your prayer life? Something on the back of your mind you think, well, if I talk more and I say these phrases and I say these little catch words, then maybe I'll get God's attention. The more I talk, maybe then God will hear me. And we begin to measure the quality of our prayer life simply by the amount of our talking. When I think sometimes God's in heaven, something to do the effect of if you would just be quiet. I've got something I would like to say to you. Just be quiet, but we think we've got to talk more and say more and that's what was going on. Jesus said avoid this repetitious, meaningless vein repetition. Now, is there anything wrong with praying the same thing over and over? No. I mean, Jesus went into the garden before He was crucified and you know there He prayed the same thing three times over. Lord, not my will, your will, not Lord, not your will or not my will, your will, three times over and over. But it wasn't a vein repetition. His heart was fully engaged. The issue here is not really even what comes out of your mouth. It's the position of your heart because sometimes we can utter things that come out of our mouth and we call it prayer simply because our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed, but our heart is a thousand miles away. Jesus said these people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. The issue here He's talking about is your heart. Where's your heart? Listen, in those days in the synagogue service, they would have over 18 specific prayers that they would pray over and over in the synagogue services. Not long ago, I guess it was last year I was in Thailand and had the opportunity to go to a Buddhist temple there in Thailand. When you walk on the compound of that Buddhist temple, the voice that you hear over every voice is this Buddhist monk chanting this mantra over and over and over and over again. It's a meaningless repetition. The words are coming out of the mouth, but the heart is totally disengaged and aren't you glad that we never do that? Aren't you glad we don't have those little phrases that we just kind of lob up to heaven and we think they're like our lucky rabbit's foot phrases. If I can just get that phrase in there before God, everything will be all right, like this. Here's some of mine, I'll just be honest with you. I say these sometimes, I don't even realize what I'm saying. Lord, would you just watch over and protect us today? Or Lord, would you just bless this day? What does that mean? And sometimes I'll say this and you guys say this and stop looking at me so spiritual. I know you guys say things like this, okay? Lord, forgive me for my many sins, Lord, amen. I don't want to get too specific about it. Just kind of in general. Lord, would you just be with us today as we go about our day as if he were not to begin with? Oh, you want me to be with you? Okay, I'll come in. And the point's not even the phrase itself, the point is when you're praying, when we're before the Father, is your heart engaged with him or is it somewhere else? Has it become simply a meaningless religious exercise to check the box off and say, well, I got my prayer time in today. That's what was going on here. And Jesus says, if that's the case, you're wearing a mask. Well, Jesus goes on here and he kind of shows us what it looks like to wear a mask, but then think goodness, he shows us what the real thing looks like. What does the real thing look like? What is authentic prayer? And obviously prayer, we can devote weeks to the whole topic of prayer, but I want to show you just a few things straight from this text that Jesus talks about. What is authentic prayer? Second question is this, what does the real thing look like? 'Cause Jesus shows us some truth here, and I want to show you just three things that we'll be done this morning. What does authentic prayer look like in our lives? And he gives us a few things. The first one we see is this, authentic prayer is characterized by this. Authentic prayer is focused on the Father. Authentic prayer is focused on our Father. Look at verse six again. He says, but you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door, and pray to your Father. Who is in secret? And your Father who is in secret will reward you. He says, the focus of prayer ultimately is the Father. Prayer is primarily a means to commune with God. Prayer is an expression of a relationship with God. Prayer is how we deepen our relationship with God. It's fellowship with Him. We live with a constant, ongoing, dangerous shift of impressing others around us and taking our eyes off the God we can't see. And we miss the fact that prayer is first and foremost, our eyes and our heart and our lives to be focused on Him. Not those around us. Jesus says, beware. What is the focus of your heart? Is it on your Father? Now I have an incredible illustration that God's taught me of this. I have the privilege of one of the favorite things I do is I get to coach a flag football team of eight and nine year old boys. And we just happened to win yesterday, 38 to nothing, but that really doesn't mean anything here this morning. It's really not important at all, but it's felt like I need to share that with you anyway. So as I've coached these eight nine year old boys over the last six seasons, here's something that has become very evident to me about these young men. When these young men are out on the field and they'll do something really good, like they'll catch a pass or they'll make a first down or their score a touchdown, man, they love when the crowds cheer and form. And they even love when their coach is all excited for them. I'll run out on the field and we'll high five each other. 'Cause they're way to go and all that's really good. But I'll tell you something I've noticed almost without exception in these young men is when they're walking off the field and they've done something really good on the field, they love the applause of the crowd. They love the affirmation of their coach, but without exception, their eyes will begin to scan the sidelines and they're ultimately looking for one face. You know who it is? It's a dad. 'Cause the applause and the recognition of everybody else is important, but ultimately the only face that really means anything is dad, what did you think about it? And when I began to observe this and see this, I thought, Lord, that's the way I wanna be. God, I want the focus of my prayer life, the focus of my life to be your face. I want my attention to be on you. And Lord, if I'm in the place in my spiritual life or my walk with you where my heart has ever suddenly begin to shift away from you to anything else, please show me. God, I don't wanna live there. Jesus said, beware of that. Jesus said authentic prayer begins with a focus on your father above everything else. He goes on secondly, he says authentic prayer is not just a focus on the father. Authentic prayer acknowledges, he has constant presence. Verse six again, Jesus says, when you pray, go into your inner room and close your door and pray to your father who is in secret and your father who sees. If you write in your Bible, you can circle that little phrase there, the phrase who sees literally could be translated, your father, the seeing one, your father, the one who sees all, he knows all, he knows what's going on in your heart, he knows your situation, he knows what you're struggling with, he is constantly aware and present in your life, child of God, you are never out of the presence of God. Clyde Cranford said it this way, we don't pray to get God's attention, we have God's attention. His eye is always on you, his presence is constantly with you and what that means is authentic prayer is not trying to conjure up God's presence. I'm trying to connect with God and if I can say enough and I can do the right things and I can be God enough, maybe God will turn his attention to me. Listen, biblically, you are never outside of the attention of God and prayer is a natural response to his ongoing constant presence in your life. It's like breathing. We breathe because of the constant air pressure that is upon our lungs, upon our chest, it enables us to breathe because of that constant presence of the air pressure, we pray because there's an awareness of the constant presence of God in our life. That's why prayer is not an event in a particular place at a particular time in the day, it may be, but it's also a way of life. It is a constant communion and conversation with God in the car, on the track, in the classroom, wherever you may be, your father is constantly with you, watching you, observing you, loving you and you can have constant ongoing communion with him. And Jesus says, that's authentic prayer. It's not an event, it's not a meaningless religious exercise. It's an expression of your relationship with your father and it's an acknowledgement of his constant presence in your life. Thirdly, Jesus says, authentic prayer is an expression of complete dependence on him. Basically what we're doing when we pray, Jesus makes note of it here in verse eight, he says, don't be like the hypocrites. Don't be like the ones who wear a mask. He says, don't be like them, for your father knows what you need before you even ask him. See the hypocrites pray to demonstrate their godliness. But authentic Jesus followers pray as an expression of our dependence. God, you have everything, I have nothing. God, you know the solution, I don't. God, I'm the one who's confused, you've got it all together. God, I'm the one who's lost, you're the answer. We pray out of an awareness of our complete and utter and total dependence upon him. Not a demonstration of our godliness, not to impress our neighbor, but because he is everything and we are nothing and we recognize in our hearts and prayer is an expression of our dependence. Right? Jesus says authentic prayer focuses on your father. Authentic prayer constantly acknowledges his presence and authentic prayer is an expression of humble dependence on him. Jesus tells a story and this will just take a minute or two and we're done, I know we're out of time. In Luke 18, Jesus tells a story that perfectly pictures what's real and what's wearing a mask. In Luke 18, he tells a story of two men who go up to pray. One of those men is a Pharisee, a religious leader of the day, the spiritual hero of the day or the perceived hero of the day. The other guy was a simple tax collector, a spiritual zero of the day or perceived. And Jesus says the two go up to pray and the Pharisee went up to pray and the Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself. God, I thank you that I'm not like these other people. Lord, thank you that I'm not like these people, these swindlers and unjust adulterers. Lord, thank you that I'm not like this tax collector over here. Can you imagine? He goes on and he says, Lord, I fast twice a week, I pay tithes of all I get, what was he doing? Prayer was a demonstration of his godliness. His eyes were on everything around him. Was that the real thing or was that wearing a mask? But the Bible says the tax collector, standing some distance away was not even willing to lift up his eyes to heaven but was beating his chest and saying, God be merciful to me, the sinner. Tax collector recognized the presence of God. Tax collector realized he was focused on his father who is in heaven and he realized his prayer was an expression of complete dependence on God. All he could even say was, God be merciful to me. One was a show, but the other is what Jesus would say is authentic, genuine prayer. Beware, 'cause we all had the tendency to slip into wearing the mask. What about you this morning? Real thing? Wear the mask. This power heads together this morning. It's challenging to go into a time of prayer after preaching on prayer, right there in your hearts before the Lord. Not worried about anybody else. Not worried about who's next to you. Not worried about the plans you have for today, I want you to spend just a minute and be courageous enough to ask the Lord. Lord, will you show me, is there any area in my life I'm wearing the mask? Or is there any area of my life that my heart has shifted to simply be doing it for show? God, will you show me this morning the condition of my heart and be willing to respond? 'Cause he'll show you. You may be here this morning and you hear all this talk about a relationship with God and for you, you realize that you don't have a relationship at all. You may attend church occasionally and you may think God's a good thing and boy, you've never had your life transformed by relationship with Jesus Christ. This morning, you can begin a new life-changing relationship with the King. He loves you. He died for you. He rose again from the dead and this morning his invitation to you is to come to me and I'll forgive you and change you and cleanse you from the inside out and make you a new person and begin an eternal relationship with you simply by faith. When we stand in just a moment, we're gonna have some pastors along the side of the room some prayer volunteers in the back of the room and this morning, you wanna begin that new relationship. Slip out from where you're seated and go take one of them by the hand and just go and say, tell me about a relationship with Jesus. For the rest of us this morning, do business with God. Listen to what he's saying and obey him. He loves you. Lord, we thank you for this time. We love you. Thank you for this truth. Change our hearts this morning in Jesus' name, amen.