The Village Church
Where is your security? Prayer, pt 2 - Audio
And grace that saved a wretch like me and everyone else here. Lord, we are indebted to You. Your grace is beautiful. The gospel is wonderful. And Lord, we thank You so much for it. We thank You for Jesus because it's only through Him that we get this grace. It's only because of His sacrifice that we are enabled to sing about this grace. So Lord, we thank You for Calvary. We thank You for His wounds that by then we are healed. We thank You that by cost of Him we are made right with You. We thank You that because of Him we are righteous before You because His righteousness have been given to us. Lord, we thank You for it. We thank You, Lord, that in this life our sins are no longer held against us. Why because of Calvary? Because of the cross. We thank You, Father, for security. We thank You for Your love, for Your presence. Thank You that in years to come, Lord, one thing we can know is that our God will always be faithful to His beloved. For all eternity. And we thank You, Lord, for that. In Christ's name, amen. We're going to now have a ministry moment. Wayne Blocker is going to-- one of our deacons is going to come share with you something that we're going to have the last Wednesday this month. Up to 6, and we're going to be looking at verses 11 through 15 this morning. The question I asked you last week is this, where is your security? In particular, I ask that question in terms of your prayers. What is your security that your prayers are heard? You remember the answer from last week, sermon? The security that our prayers are heard rest in who God is. Not in the format or style of our prayers, but in who He is. He is our holy, Kingly Father who is in heaven. And He personally knows what you need even before you ask Him. And when you believe this and live in this, it changes your whole prayer life, to pray like Jesus prayed in the Lord's prayer. And as I said again last week, this prayer, the Lord's prayer, it does two things for us. First, it is God, it's all to God honoring God's center. It's focused on Him. And what flows from that is the second half of that prayer, which deals with us petitioning the Lord to meet certain needs in our life. You see, Him meeting our needs flow out of who He is. You can't divorce that. He is Father who is in heaven. Hallelujah be His name. His kingdom come. His will be done on earth as it is in heaven in nine hours. So open your bowels to Matthew chapter six, beginning in verse 11. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we have also forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Well, if you have forgiven others, their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive yours. This is God's word. Please pray with me. Father, we pray for your spirit to come and take your word, your very word, the word that is the air that we breathe, and that He will apply to our hearts. I can't do that. I can't apply to my own heart, be the only one else. The spirit has to be the one to bend our hearts to your word, to humble our hearts before your word. And so Holy Spirit, you know where we are. You know where each person is this morning, what they're dealing with, what they're struggling with, whether they're a believer or not a believer. And so my prayer to you is that you will meet their need this morning, that they will receive a word to give them encouragement this morning, empowerment this morning, or even conviction this morning. So spirit, spirit of truth, our counselor, our helper, come, Christ in my prayer, amen. The meaning of our needs is a work. It's a mighty work of our Father. It's His provision to His people. This first petition for provision says, give us this day our daily bread. Now as you was talking about a loaf of bread that you get from Publix, no. You see, as human beings, we are holistic creatures. Well, Alex, what do you mean by that? This is what I mean. We're more than just spiritual. We're more than just intellectual. We're more than just emotional. We're more than just psychological. We all are those things together. Every last one of them. We are holistic creatures. And when you petition the Lord to give us our daily bread, you're requesting Him to meet your need in all those different areas of who you are, your emotional needs, your physical needs, your psychological needs, and your spiritual needs. Lord, give me my daily bread in all those areas. As Martin Luther once said, he says, daily bread was a symbol of everything necessary for the preservation of this life. Everything. Food, a healthy body, good weather, house, wife, children, good government, peace, everything that's necessary for the preservation of this life. That's daily bread. Do you believe that the Father cares about every single inch of your life? From head to toe, your marriage, your kids, your welfare, your job, every area? Do you think He only cares about the spiritual? Is it just the spiritual that He cares about? It's every single area. He wants to redeem your whole person, mold it more into the image of His Son. It begins with the spiritual because we're all dead before we come to Christ spiritually. But once you receive Christ as Lord and Savior, it all begins the transformation of Him transforming you more into the image of His Son. And so when you petition the Lord, give us our daily bread. Say, Lord, I'm praying for your provision. I'm praying for your blessings to my whole body. And you give my whole being all the things that's necessary for this life. Prayer, as I said last week, is two things. Prayer is humility before the Father. That's one of the points of the first three petitions in this Lord prayer that we approach the Father in the spirit of humility because of who He is, our Father in heaven. Hallelujah, your name, your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The second thing prayers is dependency. Dependent upon the Father to meet your needs. These petitions that we're going to talk about this morning is you acknowledging and accepting that dependency upon His provisions. You know in prayer, Lord, prayer, that's what you're doing. If you're not just requesting Him to do stuff, you're always saying Lord, I'm dependent on you to meet those needs as well as my provider. For the question is, who is the bread running in your life? Is it you? Who brings home the bacon in your family, in your life, in everything you have in your life, who gave it to you? If your answer's not Jesus, then you don't get it. He's the breadwinner. He brings home the bacon because it's his stuff. Amen. Everything about you belongs to Him. He knows what you need even before you ask Him. If you need security, He knows it. If your marriage needs counseling, He knows it. If your children have issues and they need help, He knows it. The question is, all you depend upon Him to meet those needs. One seminary professor that teaches us seminary in St. Louis, he says, "God gives us our daily bread, not our daily greed." God gives us our daily bread, not our daily greed. So the question is, the things that you want, is it a need, or is it greed? Is it a need, or is it greed? What do you think? The thing you gotta have, the dreams that you have, the stuff that you want, is it truly a need, or is it that you've been greedy, and discontent with where you are and what you have? So I lived in South Carolina before we moved to Alabama, and I got into this conversation with this guy. He's been a Christian for some years, and he asked me a question that was very, very convicting. He says, "Alex, are you seeking God for God, or simply for what He provides you?" There's a difference. Are you seeking the Father for who the Father is, or because of what He can give you? I was convicted by that, 'cause most of the time, well, that's what He can do for me. What can you do for me today? Because that question still convicts me because I end up loving and worshiping the bread, and not loving and worshiping the giver of the bread. Do you struggle with that? Worshiping the bread, and not the giver of the bread. Or is it just me? Y'all not saying anything, so I guess it's just me. My eyes, your eyes are never satisfied. Alpha types are never satisfied. We're always demanding more and more, but never, please. But never, please. We're Americans. We know that's true. We live in a culture that's never satisfied. Instant gratification, gotta have more. We can return, we think we deserve it. Dave Ramsey, he hosts a radio show that offers financial advice and counsel to those who call in, and one of the times I will listen to his show, he says, one of the most beautiful human character traits is gratitude, being grateful for the things you have received in life. He says your attitude should be that of gratitude, and he's right. When you look at your life and what the Father has provided you, the daily bread that you do have, are you grateful? Or are you saying Father, I want that bread, not the bread that I already got? Or are you ungrateful? Which is it, for me? Am I grateful for where I am? Or am I ungrateful because I think I deserve more? Where's your heart when it comes to that? You see, when you have an attitude or gratitude, you understand that you are just a steward or everything you have in your life. You are a steward of the daily bread that you have, a steward, nothing more. So what do you do if you're ungrateful? What do you do if you're a bad steward or what the Lord has given you? We simply move to the next petition in the Lord's prayer that says what? Forgive us our debts as we forgiven our debt. I love how this prayer just flows. We all need forgiveness, right? Because none of us are perfect. This petition of forgiveness, it serves as a reminder of our continued struggle with sin. Yes, we know through Christ, believers have been set free for being enslaved to sin, but we also know that we still struggle with it. We all do. We're either sinning against other people or people sinning against us in your life. Have you sinned against someone this week? Have someone sinned against you this week? Yes. So this petition not only reminds us that we still struggle with sin, but it also reminds us that we have a constant need of receiving forgiveness and extending forgiveness. Now, when you read verse 11, forgive us of our debts as we forgiven our debtors, and you also read verses 14 and 15, if you forgive others that trespasses, you're having a father also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others that trespasses, you're having a father will not forgive you or yours. Now, when you look at that, it appears that there's a condition attached to the Lord's forgiveness. There a parent condition is if I don't forgive Richard for what he did to me, then the Lord's not going to forgive me. This is an example. Not real cool. Okay. So what does that mean? First, you've got to realize that forgiveness here is not talking about the initial forgiveness that you receive at a point of salvation. It's not talking about that. It's not talking about that. The forgiveness of debts and the forgiveness of trespasses is talking about and talking in the contents of restoration of our fellowship with the Father when it's been hindered by our sin because our sin stills hinders that. And the second thing here is that there's a relationship between the forgiveness that we get from the Father and the forgiveness that we stand to others. You see, if we have a gratitude for forgiveness towards us, what flows from that is you extending forgiveness to other people. So if you don't understand your own forgiveness, if you don't understand how much you've been forgiven of from by God, then guess what? You're not going to extend forgiveness to other people? You're not. So there's a natural overflow of me understanding the forgiveness I get from the Father and the forgiveness I extend to my neighbor. It will happen if you truly understand forgiveness. What happens to a person who holds on to hate? What happens to them? What happens to them? What does an unforgiving spirit do to a person's being? It weighs you down. It can blind you to your own sin. It can become a big burden. It can eat at your soul. Your whole identity becomes trapped. You see, we all know that receiving forgiveness for the Father is a need, but do you realize you at extended forgiveness is also a need that you have? Have you ever thought about that? That extended forgiveness is a need? And through the Father's spirit working in us, He enables us to do that. The Father knows what an unforgiving spirit can do to your soul. If someone's truly sin against you in a heinous way, then you are trapped. It eats at you. You're identity is lost. Your whole world is wrapped up in what has happened to you. You wouldn't realize that when you forgive that person, it sets you free. And when you hold on to it, it doesn't. So the Father knows that when you truly forgive someone who's truly hurt you, your soul is free. Forgiveness is hard. Dependent upon the degree of the pain, yes. And I know there's still going to be issues, there's going to be consequences when it comes to sin, and this way it does not have to control your identity. Forgive those who sin against you. It will set you free. We all have a need of forgiving them, it's in extended forgiveness. So the question is, do you need to have a coming Jesus meeting today with somebody? Is there someone in your life that you have not forgiven? Well, Alex, that person did this to me. That person hurt me. That person said this to me. The question is, the Father forgave you. He forgave you. Now, are you willing to forgive that person for what they did to you? Now, that ain't easy. That's hard. I don't even going to tell you about, I don't even going to use it itself about Joseph, because Joseph didn't meet his brothers the next day, and it was years later. But the point is, he forgave him, because of what? What the Father did in his heart. The Father did in his heart. So the prayer for us is, Lord, forgive me on my dead here. Forgive me for having an unforgiving spirit, and so I pray that through your spirit, you will enable me to extend forgiveness to those who have sinned against you. That's the prayer. You can't checklist that. Checklists don't change hearts. Only the spirit does. You have to pray the spirit would change your heart. One person says, God's forgiveness is underneath our forgiveness. It creates our forgiveness. It supports our forgiveness. So if we do not give it to others, and if we go on in an unforgiving spirit, what it shows us is that the God, God, the Father is not in our lives. It's not in our lives. Because if he's in your life, you're going to resemble him in every area of your life. One of my favorite pictures of forgiveness is the one that took place between Jacob and his brother Esau. If you know the story, you know what Jacob did to Esau. Jacob was kicking stew one day. His brother Esau came in from hunting, and he was hungry. He asked Jacob for some of his red stew, and what did Jacob say to him? "Sell me your birthright." Esau said, look, I'm about to die. What is good is the birthright to me if I die? But Jacob said, swear to me first. So Esau swore an oath to him, selling to his brother his birthright. Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and stew. He ate, drunk, then he got up and left. So Esau despised the birthright going forward, and later Jacob deceived his father as well into thinking that he was Esau. So he can also steal his brother's blessing. And he took it, and Esau was mad. He said of his brother, he is rightly named Jacob. He has deceived me two times. He took my birthright, now he has taken my blessing. And Esau held a grudge against his brother. He said, the days of my morning, my father, near. Then I would kill my brother, Jacob. He wanted to kill him. So what did Jacob do? Jacob fled to his uncle's house, because he thought it was going to be a safe place. But if you know the story, it wasn't safe. Because what happened to Jacob at his uncle's house? His uncle did to him where he did to his brother. He got deceived. He got tricked. He got taken advantage of him. And the father used that to shape Jacob. Because when he eventually left his uncle's house, the Lord called Jacob to go back to the land of Canaan. But Jacob was afraid. You know why was he afraid? Esau was there. Years have passed. I mean years have passed. But he was still afraid. Because he feared his brother was going to try to get revenge on him. And when they finally met, when they finally met, when they saw each other in the distance, Esau ran to meet Jacob. And he embraced him. He embraced him. He threw his arms around his neck, and he kissed his brother and they wept. What is that a picture of people? Forgiveness. Reconciliation. And Esau said, and Jacob, you know, he wanted, in a sense, get back what he stole. He even offered his brother a gift. But Esau said, "I have plenty, my brother. Keep what you have for yourself." And Jacob kept on his system, "No, please take it. If I have found favor in your eyes, accept this gift." And listen it is. For to see your face is seeing the faith of God. What is that? Now that you have received me. Now that you have forgiven me for what I did to you. Seeing your face is like seeing the face of God. You see repentance. Forgiveness. It also brings hell into the person that sent against you as well. It releases them too. You don't think Jacob carried that with them? He did. And his brother forgave them. And they reconcile. That's wonderful. Wonderful picture of forgiveness. Again, do you need to have a coming to Jesus' meeting? Someone with your spouse, with your kids, or whoever. Do business with them. Forgive us of our dead's father, as we have forgiven our deaders. So the father gives us daily bread. He gives us repentance. And finally he gives us a provision of deliverance. We get verse 13. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. This final petition is us acknowledging that we need the father's protection and deliverance in this life. And fighting the different temptations that we face. Notice that the prayers lead us not into temptation. Give us strength not to fall into it. It's not, don't let me be tempted at all. Because that ain't going to happen. I don't care how much you pray that prayer. You're going to face temptation. If you don't want to be tempted, then you've got to cross over and go to glory. But as you live here, you're going to deal with temptation. All the days of your life. Many believe in space temptations. No amount of pressure is going to stop there. James says each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Because of the sin that dwells in us still, the flesh, we're going to always deal with temptations. Temptations are enticement to sin. And their aim is to steal our affection and dependency from the father. And temptations are a talk to every area of life. Every situation, every circumstance, every relationship we face. How are you being tempted in your life? Or do you think I'm too holy to be tempted? I read the Bible every day. I pray every day. I remember our scripture. I know I'm not being tempted, Alex. Well, that statement just proves you wrong. You're already giving in the pride. So, come on. We know obvious temptations. You know, adultery or being tempted to watch things on TV or the internet. Being tempted to steal from other people or to lie. You accept all of a bad situation. We can recognize that. But what about materialism? The American dream. The good life. Gluttony, pride, selfishness, hoarding money and resources. Coverting what your neighbor has. Judging and slandering other people. I always hear people say, Satan is tempting me with bad things. He's tempting me to be in more. But you know, I never hear them once say, Satan is tempting me with good stuff. He's tempting me with my job. He's tempting me with to have all this money. No, because we always assume all the good stuff is good stuff. Now, I can't be tempted by that stuff. It's only the bad. No, it could be tempting me with the good. And for a lot of us, he already has us. He already has us. You need to realize that the bread the Father gives you is a blessing. They can also become a temptation for you not to love them. Because you can worship the bread. And that's how messed up we are, man. That's how messed up we are. I was talking to Waikita about a conversation I had with a friend. And he was telling me about the sermons. And he said, Pastor Alex, whenever you get up and you talk about not loving your family and repenting, you know, he said, that really spoke to me. But you know what thing is in my hand? Man, I'm such a great guy that I honest about my sin. I'm such a great guy that I show to be humble. I'm such a great guy that I can get up and confess the things that I've done. You know what that is? Pride. Even in that. You can be surprised for even trying to be humble. You see how messed up that is? Yeah, thank you. You need to understand your heart, your heart will latch on to your shoe if you can get glory from it. If you can get something from it, your heart will latch on to anything so it can feel good about itself. Even in things that are good. Even if such thing is humility, your heart will try to turn it into an idol to make you feel good about yourself. And so what do you do? Father, forgive me of how messed up I am. Forgive me of my sin. Forgive me. We are tempted by both adversity and prosperity. All those things. In the midst of adversity you can be tempted and in the midst of prosperity you can be tempted to turn your heart away from the Father. You see there are going to be times that you don't give any temptations. There are going to be times that you do. And that's just the Christian life. It's like this. It's never up here all the time. It's going to be down the valley as well. And we have a hard time accepting that. You're never going to get to a place where you move to this level of Christianity. There is no such thing as Christianity 101 and Christianity 500. There is no such thing. It's this. All the days of your life. It's only going to get here when you die and go to glory. But here it's up and down people. That's it. Up and down. That's why it's faith and repentance. Not how well I'm doing. Faith and repentance in Christ. That's what it's about. So we pray that the Spirit will create our hearts. A more affection for the Father. Help me, Spirit. That's what we need. We depend upon the Father for our daily bread. For our daily forgiveness. For our daily protection. You know when we come to the table. This table. Do you know what it represents for us. This morning. It's a reminder of the Father's greatest provision for our greatest need. You know what that is. It's a picture of the gospel. This table is a picture of what Christ did upon the cross. That He defeated sin and death on our behalf. He purchased reconciliation between us and the Father. And guess what we are depending upon that. All the days of our life. Our sin debt. All of our sin debt was paid in four. And Jesus has closed that account people. That account is closed. That is what God wants pay for and you no longer have to live in fear of that. It's paid in four. And if you have saving faith in Jesus this morning, then guess what this table is for you. And if you don't have saving faith this morning, guess what Jesus wants you to have it. Through His Spirit. We will call you into saving faith. And what is saving faith? The hell is it? Is you resting and trusting and depend upon Christ for your salvation. And so if you have that, this table is for you. Now there is a warning that the Apostle Paul reminds us. He says first is merely for believers and second believers are to examine themselves. And so that means if you know you need to have a come to Jesus meeting with someone, then you need to let the table go by today and do business with that person. That's what that means. Go do business with that person. So before we pass out the elements, let us now have a time of prayer. Ask the Spirit to examine our hearts.