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In the Secret - Mountain to Mountain - Matthew S2E4
March 2, 2026 · 51 min
In Matthew 6, Jesus warns us to beware of practicing our righteousness to be seen by others, reminding us that with God it’s not just what we do—it’s why we do it.
Giving, praying, and fasting can either be acts of worship or subtle performances for applause, and while we all know we must repent of our wretchedness, Jesus confronts us with the deeper need to repent of religious righteousness rooted in image instead of intimacy. When the Father is our audience, generosity reorders our hearts, prayer becomes communion instead of performance, fasting trains us to say no to our flesh and yes to Jesus, and the true reward isn’t recognition—it’s Him.
📣 Episode Mentions:
• Scripture Passage: Matthew 6:1-18
• Preacher: Pastor Joby Martin
📌 Supplemental Resources From This Week:
• The Faithfulness No One Sees
• Jesus Wants to Reward You - Deepen with Pastor Joby Martin: Matthew S2E4
• Matthew Season 2: Mountain to Mountain Sermon Series
The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas.
To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world click here.
Series The Church of Eleven22 March 2, 2026 · 51 min · The Church of Eleven22
In Matthew 6, Jesus warns us to beware of practicing our righteousness to be seen by others, reminding us that with God it’s not just what we do—it’s why we do it. Giving, praying, and fasting can either be acts of worship or subtle performances for applause, and while we all know we must repent of our wretchedness, Jesus confronts us with the deeper need to repent of religious righteousness rooted in image instead of intimacy. When the Father is our audience, generosity reorders our hearts, prayer becomes communion instead of performance, fasting trains us to say no to our flesh and yes to Jesus, and the true reward isn’t recognition—it’s Him. 📣 Episode Mentions: • Scripture Passage: Matthew 6:1-18 • Preacher: Pastor Joby Martin 📌 Supplemental Resources From This Week: • The Faithfulness No One Sees • Jesus Wants to Reward You - Deepen with Pastor Joby Martin: Matthew S2E4 • Matthew Season 2: Mountain to Mountain Sermon Series The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world click here. ...more Show the full description Show less In Matthew 6, Jesus warns us to beware of practicing our righteousness to be seen by others, reminding us that with God it’s not just what we do—it’s why we do it.
Giving, praying, and fasting can either be acts of worship or subtle performances for applause, and while we all know we must repent of our wretchedness, Jesus confronts us with the deeper need to repent of religious righteousness rooted in image instead of intimacy. When the Father is our audience, generosity reorders our hearts, prayer becomes communion instead of performance, fasting trains us to say no to our flesh and yes to Jesus, and the true reward isn’t recognition—it’s Him.
📣 Episode Mentions:
• Scripture Passage: Matthew 6:1-18
• Preacher: Pastor Joby Martin
📌 Supplemental Resources From This Week:
• The Faithfulness No One Sees
• Jesus Wants to Reward You - Deepen with Pastor Joby Martin: Matthew S2E4
• Matthew Season 2: Mountain to Mountain Sermon Series
The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas.
To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world click here.
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Joby Martin is the founder and lead pastor of The Church of Eleven22 in Jacksonville, Florida. Since launching the church in 2012, he has led a movement for all
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0:04 Amen and amen and amen. Welcome to church. What an incredible weekend that we are a part of. I want you need you to sit up, grab your bibles. We're gonna be in Matthew chapter 6. We're walking through the book of Matthew0:15 for the whole year and it it really is an exciting weekend. And I also just wanna say thank you before I dive in. I wanna thank you. Many of you have accepted the 1 year challenge to to just give us0:27 a year, to do what Jesus has told you to do for a year and see how it affects your life and that's why you're here, thank you. I also wanted to thank you for receiving the word of God so well. You're the best in the0:39 country. I get to preach all over the place and I'm telling you, you are the best. Now don't clap because we're gonna do a whole sermon about how it's not about us, alright? And there is gonna be a significant part of0:50 this sermon where I'm gonna rebuke you so I just want you know I love you so when I'm yelling at you later it's because I do love you. Last week was a hard teaching, no doubt. But I've just decided I'm the mailman, I'm1:02 not the editor of the bible, I just gotta teach what it says and you are ridiculous. You receive it, hard teaching and I appreciate that. And this weekend, with 1 weekend with what our students1:14 did, 3, 3100 students and leaders gathered in this place to make much of Jesus and it's a really, really, really big deal. And so I need you to continue to pray for our students1:26 because it's not over. In fact, the most important things are gonna happen now, because Jesus tells this parable, we'll get to it in a few months, that the word goes out like the seed, and it's not the1:38 delivery of the seed, it's the condition of the soil that it lands on that's gonna make the difference. And so the seed has gone out. The word of God has been preached. God is moving in the lives of our students and we
1:47 gotta pray against the enemy that he doesn't snatch it away and we gotta pray that they don't just get choked out by the concerns of the world and we gotta pray that they're rooted in the scriptures so this thing grows
1:57 deep and it's not shallow and we pray that it lands on good soil so that it produces a harvest that is miraculous. And let me tell you why it's such a big deal. I say this all the time, you have no idea what hangs in the
2:09 balance. Back in the 19 hundreds, 19 94, I was a college kid volunteering at my local church
2:21 and I was just a volunteer leader with tenth grade boys at a weekend. Not nearly as cool as the 1 we just had but we were doing our best. It was called Disciple Now back then. And I'm just sitting in the back and
2:32 the guy that we brought in to speak is up there slinging the gospel. I didn't even think it was for me. I thought it was for these kids. I was just there to serve. And I'm sitting in the back row of the church that was
2:44 hosting this event and that is where I heard the undeniable call of God in my life to surrender my life to a life of full time vocational ministry. And so
2:56 a part of the reason we're all here together is because that church in Richmond, Virginia in the mid 1990s cared enough about our students to help us encounter the living God. And so when I say you have
3:08 no idea what hangs in the balance on weekends like 1 weekend, That's the kind of thing I'm talking about, that's what we need to be in prayer for. Alright, if you got your Bibles.
3:20 We've been studying through all of Matthew. We're in a season right now called mountain to mountain where we're studying the greatest sermon ever preached, not my sermon. The Sermon on the Mount. Just a little recap if
3:32 you remember Jesus begins with what we call the beatitudes. In essence he begins with the gospel. He begins with blessed are you when you realize that you don't bring anything to your salvation
3:44 except the sin that requires it. Blessed are you when you are poor in spirit, when you realize I'm spiritually bankrupt, I ain't got this, God I need help. You're blessed. Blessed are you when you're mourned, your
3:55 spiritual condition of brokenness apart from God. Blessed are you when you are meek when you turn the reins over to Jesus and say I need you to run my life and not me to run my life. And then everything begins to change
4:06 from the inside out to the point where we don't fit in this world anymore. And blessed are you when you don't fit in this world and the world comes against you because you're leaving
4:18 his way and not the world's way. When we're discipled by the word and not the world. And blessed are you when you revile, when people lie about you and come against you. This is what he says. And then
4:30 he says, and listen, I didn't save you just for you to be saved. I saved you that you would be salt and light. I didn't save you so you can go just live in a monastery by yourself all the time. I
4:42 saved you so that we could impact this world and push back darkness because we are the light of the world. And then he goes on to say some crazy stuff. And unless your
4:54 righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees you're not gonna get into heaven. And everybody's like well we're screwed. And he says because here's the thing man, I don't just need begrudging
5:05 submission to a set laws that were written on a stone tablet. I want the word of God to be written on your heart and he goes after 6 particular things that we talked about. Like adultery is not just a
5:17 behavior issue, it's the lust issue of the heart. And he talks about greed and unforgiveness and not just liking people that like you back but loving and praying for our enemies, this is what he does.
5:30 And this is a shocking statement unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, then you will not inherit the kingdom of heaven and he's going to tell us how our righteousness is going to exceed
5:42 that of the Pharisees because it's not just going to be external moral modification to our behavior, it's gonna be an internal love of God that compels us to do everything we
5:54 do. This is what he's saying. See here's the crazy thing about the gospel. Everybody believes that we should repent of our wretchedness. Regardless of what
6:05 you believe about God and stuff, everybody thinks we should stop doing wrong things based on whatever you think wrong is. In this text Jesus says we've gotta repent of even our
6:17 righteous deeds if it's just religious righteousness to try to prove your right standing before God. This is why Isaiah says that even our righteous deeds are like filthy rags.
6:30 You see Jesus is gonna say to us listen, I'm not trying to lower the standard, I'm gonna fulfill it on your behalf. And so in chapter 5 verse 48 we need a little bit of a running start, he says you
6:42 therefore must be perfect as your heavenly father is Not simply external white knuckle submission to a rule that God is looking for but he's looking for a heart change. And so
6:53 in our text today in chapter 6 he's gonna take it to the heart level. And he's gonna talk about giving, praying and fasting. Take a breath, this is not primarily a giving sermon, I'm gonna talk about it a little bit,
7:05 but that's not, there's no offering at the end, okay, so just breathe. And it's interesting that these 3 things are put together, giving, praying and fasting. As has been mentioned, we are in a season of Lent.
7:18 Lent is just a tradition that the church made up which is a really good thing to prepare our crooked and wicked hearts so that we're ready to celebrate resurrection Sunday on Easter. And 3
7:30 of the primary things that the church has done for the last 2000 years to cleanse ourselves of this world, to be ready to celebrate a resurrected Christ is we give and we pray and we fast.
7:42 And for those of you that came to elder led prayer, I attended here at San Pablo. Our elders did a marvelous job. Elder Rusty clearly unpacked this idea that there are 2 kingdoms.
7:54 There's the kingdom of heaven that Jesus is preaching about, and then there's the kingdom of the world that we live in. And he simply asked, so which kingdom are you living for? And if we're living for the kingdom of
8:06 this world then we've gotta repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 3 of the ways we do this is giving, praying and fasting. And maybe the reason that these 3 things matter so much
8:17 and maybe the reason that the church grabbed onto these 3 things in the season of Lent is because money and our attention and our flesh are all in competition for the throne of
8:29 our heart. And so by the way, if you wanna deepen your relationship with Jesus these 3 things matter. These spiritual disciplines matter.
8:42 And we don't give and pray and fast so that we will be acceptable before God but we give and we pray and fast because in Christ we have been made acceptable and these are 3 things that help
8:53 build the kind of environment in our life whereby our heart for God grows and that relationship flourishes. But like everything else the human heart is corrupt and what begins to
9:05 happen is we confuse the means with the end. The reason that we give and pray and fast is not to give and pray and fast. The reason that we give and pray and fast is so that we can know Jesus better. And
9:17 the moment we say look how good I'm giving, praying and fasting then we jack the whole thing up because the human heart screams look at me. Let me tell you how
9:28 corrupt our hearts are. You ready for this? When you see a group photo where do your eyes immediately go? You don't like
9:40 well look at this group. No. You automatically find you and you evaluate whether it's a good picture or a bad picture only based on how you look in the picture.
9:52 This is a great picture. Let's use this 1. Tammy's not even looking. I don't care about Tammy. Look at me in this 1.
10:04 And so Jesus said that we're gonna do good works not so that people look at us so that people, we're we're salt of the earth, light of the world, city on a hill so that people see our good
10:16 works and give God glory. And so Jesus is gonna continue with how our righteousness will exceed that of the Pharisees at the heart level, not performative
10:28 for an audience of man, but as a response to the approval we have received in Christ. We're gonna dig it. Matthew six:one, beware. This is
10:40 a warning man. Yourself will creep up on yourself and you better pay attention to it. This is a warning after he's talking about adultery and murder and unforgiveness he's like not only
10:51 do you need to be on the watch out for things like this, you gotta watch out for your own religious activity because that might be the problem. That's crazy to think about, isn't it? Beware of practicing your
11:03 righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them. Do you realize that motives matter? Do you realize that the
11:15 intentions of the heart matter? I mean this will really mess you up. That the same activity could either bring reward or rebuke.
11:27 And none of us can tell because we don't know your heart. I mean is worshiping God, does he like that? It depends on what you're doing. If you're just trying to show off to
11:39 the people around you and you lift both hands because you think people will think you're more spiritual in doing that, you want people to worship you, you're not actually worshiping God. And yet, if you understand that
11:50 he's the only 1 worthy of our worship and he came and he bled and he died and you lift your hands because you say God I love you, I surrender, I want you, then the heart of God is warmed.
12:02 Is generosity towards God, does that bring rebuke or reward? It depends. The Bible says God loves a cheerful giver. So when you realize that God first loved you by giving
12:14 his first and best in the personal work of Christ and you can't get over the reality that God would trust you with all that he's given you and you bring back your first and best to him, then it is a declaration of
12:25 worship. But, if you've got a job interview this week and you think maybe I'll slide a little in the giving box and then maybe God will hook me up this week. You cannot put God in your debt and God
12:37 doesn't play well with idols. If you serve because Jesus served us, praise God for that. But if you serve to show everybody what a humble servant you are, you
12:48 ain't. Motives matter. So he says beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them. For then you will have
13:00 no reward from your Father who is in heaven. So when we do stuff to be seen by others God's like congratulations, you did it.
13:13 Tammy thinks you're awesome. That's what you got. I don't, Tammy does. That was your reward. If you really, what you were chasing after was the applause of man.
13:25 That's it, congratulations. Now the apostle Paul in Galatians chapter 1 verse 10, he would have the audacity to say am I still trying to seek the approval of man? Because if I seek the applause of man, I cannot
13:37 be a servant of Christ. And so then he's gonna talk about giving. He's gonna start with giving. He says, verse 2, thus when you give
13:49 to the needy. All right, as you should, let me explain this. He's, this past week, over the past 2 weeks I've gotten 3 legitimate heartfelt
14:01 email questions. People asking me how do I bring my first and best? I don't know if I'm doing it right and I wanna make sure I'm doing it right. Well the bible teaches us how to
14:13 do this, Old Testament and New Testament. And first and foremost I will say God is not a legalist. God loves a cheerful giver. If you are bringing him, even if you mess the details up, I think when you get to heaven
14:22 you'll get a high 5. You'll be like hey good try, you didn't do it exactly right but I know what you meant so appreciate you, alright? But in the Bible, so what Jesus is talking about here is like the third category of
14:33 giving. This would be called alms, this is giving to the needy. In the Bible there's 3 different categories of how we are to bless God with what God has blessed us with. The first in the Old
14:45 Testament and New Testament is called the tithe. Maybe you've heard this before. The tithe, in Hebrew it means 10 percent but it doesn't simply mean 10 percent. It means you're first and your best. And everybody
14:57 tithes to something. Everybody, everything you had and have is a blood bought grace gift from God. I know your name is on your paycheck but everything you have is a gift from God and he is trusting us with
15:09 all. And what we have been called to do as followers of Jesus is bring back to him not just 10 percent but the first. 10 percent is a great basement level way to start. And we bring it back to him
15:20 because it is his and it declares Jesus, you are first in my life. And the reason that you bring it to the local church is because Jesus is the head of the church and you bring it to
15:32 Jesus. Well, where is Jesus? He is ruling and reigning as the head of his local church. And so we bring that first and best to him. That's called the tithe. Then above and beyond the tithe are what is called
15:44 offerings. Now this is not just simply charitable giving. There's good giving and then there's gospel giving. This is above and beyond what your regular tithe is that you bring first and best.
15:56 And this is where, like in my family, we sponsor missionaries and we support compassion children. This is where we invest in organizations and people that are pushing back darkness and spreading the gospel over and
16:08 above what we're doing through the local church. And then beyond that is what the Bible would call gifts. This means you keep a little powder dry, you keep a little folding melee in your pocket and if the spirit
16:20 of God leads you to bless a person, to bless a family, to just give something away or you're at some kind of event where they're raising money and you're able to give a gift there, that's what you're talking about. This
16:30 is the kind of giving Jesus is talking about. When you give to the needy, when you give alms. And by the way, Christians should be the most generous people on the planet.
16:42 Statistically, Christians are the most generous people on the planet. By the way, voting to take money from other people to give it away is not generosity. That's called
16:53 socialism. That's a different thing. You are free to be generous. That's what we are called to do. And so Jesus says, but when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before
17:05 you. Don't be like, I'm about to give 10 dollars. That's not what you're supposed to do. Actually in the synagogue where you gave money, it was a big copper tube
17:17 thing, it looked like the top of a trumpet, and the Pharisees would go in and they would get all their money in pennies and they would spend there, and during the offering time they would just pour it out and it would
17:28 make all this noise and they were like look at me. That's what they would do. And Jesus is like don't do that man. Thus when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before
17:40 you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may be praised by others. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward.
17:51 Congratulations. Everybody saw you give money away and some people think you're generous. That's all you get. Verse 3, but when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. I think
18:03 he's being hyperbolic here too. How do you even do that? He says so that your giving may be in secret and your father who sees in secret
18:14 will reward you. So what's the reward? Here's the reward, he sees you. The almighty sovereign king of the universe who spoke everything into existence who by his very nature and power holds
18:26 all the cosmos in order, he sees you. This is a really really big deal. And 1 of the words you're gonna see come up over and over and over and over and over is this
18:38 word reward. Reward. That God wants to reward you. You ever notice every story you go in right now has a rewards program? Everywhere you go, you walk in, you're trying
18:50 to buy a thing, have you signed up for our rewards program? And I'm like I'm trying to get a light bulb man. How about here's the program I wanna be on, I'm a give you money, you give me my light bulb, we never talk
19:01 again. How about that program, can I sign up for that? And then, and then you pay and they're like would you like to round up to help 3 legged dog get prosthetics and everybody's looking at you like you hate puppies? I'm
19:12 like no. So when with right heart we bring to God what is his in secret not to make a big show but to show that we love God
19:24 to God we get reward. What's the reward? I will get I can tell you there's a lot of reward when you're generous when you bring back to God what is his. Let me just tell you this, in the natural, I can leave the super out
19:34 of it, in the natural, if you tithe, if you learn to live on less than you make, you will always have enough. Everybody lives on a percentage of their income. If you don't know what that
19:46 is, you're in trouble because most Americans live on about 108 percent of their income. It's not going good. You can't do that very long. Also, what happens is when you bring to God what is his,
19:58 you're not using God's money for you. And the guilt in enjoying your life begins to dissipate. Also, you invite God into your financial situation and trust me, he can do more with 90 percent than you can do
20:10 with 100 percent. All these things are true. And when you give to the needy, when the spirit of God moves you to give to the needy over and above the tithe and offerings, it's evidence that you
20:22 know Jesus. Later this year when we get to Matthew chapter 25, he says whatever you've done for the least of these, you've done unto me. Jesus says it's better to give than to receive.
20:34 So the reward is this, God sees you. And a rightly ordered life is declaring that Jesus is before all things and Jesus says where your treasure is there your heart will be also and he wants
20:46 your heart. And so here's the challenge at Lent. So many times the things that we grab on grab onto our heart and so throughout church history the church has
20:58 called it's people to live with extraordinary generosity during this time to try to to try to loosen the grip of this world as we prepare for resurrection Sunday. So if you're not doing this, I
21:09 dare you be super generous in your tithes and your offerings and here's my own little personal challenge. I dare you, I try to do this every month. Depending on your economic situation, you should keep
21:21 a little bit of folding money in your pocket, whether it's a dollar or 100 dollars. And you should pray like crazy, God, I want you to lead me to give this away this month. We do this at my house, okay? I try to
21:33 do this every month. Keep a little money in my pocket. It's the least amount of money we give away but it's kinda crazy, I probably pray more about that money than anything else. I got some fold money in my pocket and I
21:45 begin to pray about it like crazy because I'm trying to figure out who God wants me to give it to. It changes the way I eat. Every time I'm at a restaurant and somebody brings my food I'm like is it him God? God is that
21:54 him? Is it Not to make a show of it and I just go the Lord told me to give you this. So when you give,
22:06 you're not trying to impress anybody. You're leaning into this relationship with the Lord and there is a reward. Later we're gonna find out that when you trust God with your
22:18 money then what begins to happen is anxiety and worship begin to dissipate because he's a good dad and he's trustworthy. Now he's gonna move to prayer. Verse
22:30 5, and when you pray, not if you pray, because everybody prays. I mean nobody's an atheist when the building catches on fire. But the question is,
22:42 is prayer for you a first response or a last resort? And prayer's not nothing, prayer's everything. He said, so when you pray you must not be like the hypocrites. Did you know there's a wrong way to
22:53 pray? I know this is gonna make you so nervous when you pray in your disciple group now, but just buckle up, alright? Because here's what the hypocrites do. Here's what the 2 faced people do. Here's what the people that
23:03 wear a mask do. That's what that word means. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others. You ever hear anybody starting to pray but they're really
23:15 preaching? That ain't praying, man. There's a place for preaching. But when you try to use the name of God to tell somebody in your group, dear God, I just prayed for Tammy. What a
23:26 crooked and depraved soul. You know, you're like, well hold on, don't think you're praying anymore. If your name's Tammy, God loves you so much. I just, I don't know why I'm on that name right here.
23:38 He says truly I say to you, they have received their reward. Congratulations, you did it. You prayed a very eloquent prayer and now people think that you are smart and holy.
23:51 Only problem, God doesn't think those things. But you have received your reward. Verse 6, but when you pray go into your room and shut the door. Now this verse doesn't mean
24:03 what people think it I think it's very important to have a particular place, I think it's cool if you've a prayer closet at your house or you've got a spot that you go, a prayer room, but that's not what this was. What
24:12 actually happened is these jugglers would walk around with prayer shawls, I've worn them on stage before, it's this big thing, kinda wear over your shoulders, it's got these little tassels on the end, we'll talk about it
24:22 later in Matthew. And when you would go into the synagogue and all these people would be praying together, there's nothing wrong with public prayer, and the religious people were praying real loud, know, trying to show
24:31 off, and what you're supposed to do is you would lift up your prayer shawl and close your arms and it would make like a little prayer closet. This isn't like the room in your house where you keep the broom and the
24:43 shotguns and you make it into a prayer room, that's fine, but it just means you're not trying to make a show about this but when you pray go into your room and shut the door.
24:55 You pull up this prayer shawl in a public gathering because this is a secret between you and the Lord. This also means that when you do your quiet time, you don't post it on Instagram so that you could show everybody how
25:05 holy you are and that your view of the ocean is better than wherever the crappy place they live. God's like, neat, you did it, congratulations. Now listen, if you wanna teach the bible on
25:16 Instagram, sweet. But that's different than this secret time with the Lord. He says and pray to your father who is in secret and your father who sees in secret
25:28 will reward you. You get rewarded when you pray to God. But what's the reward? Answer prayers?
25:41 No, maybe, sometimes. God answers every prayer. Sometimes he goes no. Don't you remember the great 20 first
25:53 century theologian, Garth Brooks? Some of God's greatest gifts, unanswered prayers. Sometimes no, sometimes yes, sometimes not now.
26:05 But the reward you get is you get him. That's the reward. And he says so when you pray do not heap up empty phrases.
26:17 Like why are you praying these things? You're just praying them because you heard somebody else say them and they don't mean anything to you. Stop doing that. And I'm not trying to beat you up but quit being a parrot and
26:28 be a prayer. We pray the dumbest stuff. Say God I just thank you for this day. What does that even mean? God would you just be with me? Do you know how theologically inaccurate that is? Just be with
26:40 me. What do you, he's everywhere, where you gonna be, he ain't gonna be. And if you're a Christian, the spirit of God lives in you. You want him to leave? And just watch over, God watch over us. Don't watch over, live
26:51 in, please. And you know my least favorite 1, thank you for this food and the nourishment to our body. What, it's just what food does, you can stop with that 1. Like pray real things
27:02 man. And it's fine to parrot a prayer if like you're a little kid learning how to pray But at some point you gotta take the training wheels off and grow up and
27:14 pray. So don't heap up empty phrases like the Gentiles do. For they think that it will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them for your Father knows what
27:26 you need before you ask. You ever try to spend all your time in prayer trying to inform God? God I don't know if you know this but I got investments in the stock market and he's like I know.
27:39 And then this is crazy, this is how dumb we are. When the bible calls us sheep, it's because we're dumb. That's, this is it. Let me tell you how dumb church people are. And I'm a professional 1, okay, so I'm not talking
27:50 about you, I'm talking about us. Pray then like this, like this. And what he's just taught us is don't just heap up phrases because everybody else says them
28:02 and don't just say them in front of everybody else so everybody else can hear them and then Jesus is going to give us the model prayer. Let me give you a model on how to pray, and then what do we do? We take what is
28:13 known as the Lord's prayer and we memorize it and we recite it in front of everybody, and we don't mean a word of it and we just do it so everybody knows that we know it. It's literally the exact opposite. Now there's
28:24 nothing wrong with praying the Lord's prayer. I most often pray it like in my own personal quiet time, my soul is kinda like a diesel engine, kinda gotta warm up a little bit and I recite the words I try to slow it
28:36 down and think about them. So there's nothing wrong with doing this unless you don't mean it and you're just memorizing rote words. Do you know where I learned the Lord's prayer? It was not in a church, it was in a
28:46 locker room. This is before we played football games, this is what we did. We prayed the Lord's prayer. And we didn't even, we barked it. Our Father, we are in heaven, hallowed be in the name, our kingdom come, I will be
28:57 done, or as in heaven. And then at the end of it, our coach was saying, now let's go kick there, say a cuss word. I was like I don't think we're doing this right. I don't think the Lord heard our prayer.
29:12 So how should we pray? Jesus starts this way. When we pray I want you to pray like this. Our father. Now that is so routine to us.
29:24 The first century we went, wait what? Don't you mean sovereign Lord of the universe, creator of all things? And Jesus is like yeah, but he's your dad. 189 times
29:36 in the gospel Jesus wants us to know God as father, this is so personal, why? Because if you miss the first 2 words of this prayer, the rest of your prayer will be worthless. Because the way you see God will
29:47 determine how you interact with God. And if you just think he's your judge, you're always gonna try to make your case. And if you think he's distant, you'll be distant. And if you just think he's the man upstairs, then
29:59 you'll just go through rote religious routines to make sure you're okay. And if you think he's mad at you, then you'll just apologize all the time. And if you think he's a vending machine, then you'll try to get the
30:11 combination right so you can get what you want. But when you know that he's your dad and he loves you, you can come to him like that. By the way dads, this ain't fair,
30:22 it's just real. Your words towards and your face towards your children will primarily shape how they see God the
30:34 Father. Think about that. And God is not a reflection of your earthly father, he is the perfection of what it means to be a good, good father. And here's
30:46 what's crazy, in Christ Jesus God ain't mad at you man. God's face towards you is he smiles on us, why? Because this is love, not that we first loved God. God first loved us, that said his
30:58 son is the propitiation for our sin. Propitiation means a payment that satisfies which means God is not dissatisfied in you. Our Father in heaven, he's other. He ain't your
31:10 homeboy. He's other. He is creator and we are created. Hallowed be your name. This is how prayer starts. God, I wanna honor you, I wanna glorify you. I
31:22 want everything that I do and I pray and I say to bring your name glory. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Notice Jesus' prayer and preaching
31:34 aligned. Remember what he preaches, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And our prayer is God, would you align my life to your will and your way so that you could use me to bring heaven down to this crooked and
31:45 depraved generation? That's what I'm asking for God. Notice we haven't gotten to our own needs yet. It's only after we recognize who God is and we wanna hallow his name and we wanna be a
31:57 part of the family of God pushing back darkness at a crooked and depraved generation. Then finally he says give us this day our daily bread. Is it okay to ask God for stuff? Sure he's a dad, he's your dad.
32:10 But this one's very different than what we pray for. Anybody got a refrigerator? Then you don't really have to pray for daily bread. You might wanna look in your refrigerator and
32:21 just thank God for the food he's given you for weeks and weeks and weeks. This is a prayer of utter dependence. And then it gets tough. I mean, know we
32:33 say this, but nobody really wants to live this. And forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.
32:45 I wanna annunciate this, that's a big as. We pray, Lord, make a deal with you. I want you to dole out
32:57 forgiveness to me at the same level that I do to others. Okay, be careful what you pray for. Jesus is gonna double down on this in just a second. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us
33:09 from evil. Jesus wants us to know in our prayer time we are at war and we need God's help. Now here's the thing.
33:22 I'm very convicted about this right now. Jesus' ministry and the early church were built on prayer, saturated in prayer.
33:34 In the Gospel of Luke, all of Jesus' ministry in life was all about prayer. His whole life. In Luke chapter 3, Jesus prays at his baptism. Luke
33:45 4, he's praying through his temptation. Luke 5, he often goes along to pray, not just in the bad times, but in the good times. In Luke 6, he chooses his disciples, but before that he spends the night in prayer.
33:57 In Luke 9, after he asks the disciples, who do you say that I am? He spends the whole afternoon praying over his disciples. Again in Luke 9, He prays over His disciples. In Luke 18, He taught His disciples
34:09 to pray. In Luke chapter 11, the disciples come up to Jesus and say, teach us to pray. They've seen Him preach, they've seen Him do miracles, they've seen Him unpack the Bible. They don't say teach us to do miracles,
34:20 teach us more Bible and teach us to preach. They don't. They say teach us to pray, why? Because they realize if we're not connected with the power source of the heavenly Father, everything else is futile.
34:32 In Luke 22 Jesus says he'll pray for Peter's sifting. Also in Luke 22 Jesus prays in the garden of Gethsemane with such intensity that he sweats like drops of blood. In Luke 23 the
34:44 last thing that Jesus ever says on the cross is a prayer. Father, into the hands I commit my spirit. So if Jesus, God in the flesh, felt like he could do nothing on his own
34:56 and he was so driven to always pray then why do we go through our lives with so little prayer? We think we're more capable than Jesus. And it's not just the life of Jesus, it's the life of the early church.
35:08 If you read in the book of Acts, on every page it talks about prayer. In Acts chapter 1 they joined together in constant prayer. In Acts chapter 2 they devoted themselves to prayer. In Acts chapter 4
35:20 they prayed for an outpouring of signs and wonders. In Acts chapter 6 the apostles devoted themselves to prayer and the ministry of prayer and the ministry of the word. They thought preaching and prayer were on the same
35:31 level. In Acts chapter 9, Peter prays for the sick. In Acts chapter 12, the church prayed for Peter to be released from prison. In Acts chapter 13, they're praying when God raises up missionaries. In Acts chapter 14,
35:43 they appointed the elders through prayer. In Acts chapter 16, Paul and Silas pray when they are in prison and God shakes the walls down. Here's my concern church,
35:57 is what was fundamental to the early church has become supplemental to the modern church. I'm a tell you, here's the rebuke just in case you're so lonely up
36:08 take. Boy I was so mad at you this week. I mean I love you but boy I was so mad at you this week. Wednesday when we fast and pray, I had to run some errands so
36:20 I was riding around, was at another campus, I'm not gonna say which 1 because I'm about to kill them. And so I was somewhere, not here, and I was like oh I'll just go to Hour of Prayer. That campus runs 1500 people this
36:32 weekend. And I roll into Hour of Prayer and there's 2 people. And I was mad, I walked in there and said what's wrong with these people? We don't pray, what's wrong with you?
36:44 And I sat down, I began to pray about you, not for you. You ever pray about somebody? I was like Lord what's wrong with these people? They don't love you. They're probably not even fasting. I hope they eat lunch, get
36:54 diarrhea, that's what I pray. I was feeling real self righteous. I'm here, I ain't you know.
37:06 And I was praying Lord what's wrong with these people? And the Lord said they're exactly where you've led them to be. So I'm sorry.
37:19 I'm sorry that I have not prioritized prayer in our church. Listen, we're a generous church. We might be the most generous church in the whole country. We're a worshiping church.
37:31 Boy, when we sing, we rip the roof off, way to go. We're a bible church. I mean I bragged on you on the beginning for receiving the word, way to go. We're a serving church. If there's a need around the world or in our
37:42 community, we're the first ones to go. But we're not a praying church. 2 people showing up to an hour of prayer, that ain't it. And I know you can be like well I can pray at home. You pray about that but how about show
37:54 up? There's something about when an army of the children of God gather together and get on their face, not for a show, not to be entertained, but simply to commune with God, this is what I am calling us to. Because
38:05 prayer is the power source. You can't do anything without power. We see this every day. We walk around with these things in our pocket right? You wake up in the morning, you look at it, it's been
38:17 plugged in, you feel great, 100 percent. And then Apple hates us so they put demons in here and they come out with a new phone every 3 months and so your battery don't work. You know what I'm talking about? And it's 2
38:28 o'clock, go I'm at 11 percent. And you feel all anxious, you're like hey anybody got a cord, y'all got it plugged in? And we have unlimited access to the unlimited
38:40 power source and we don't pray. Jesus said that this is called a house of prayer. That's why I'm calling, listen on Wednesdays
38:52 let's show up strong man. Not because he needs us because we need him. We need him. And here's the thing I wanna warn you about. Oh my gosh. Please don't make God put you in aShow more
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