Matthew 6:1-18 (Teaching)

[0:00] David back in. Gospel of Matthew tonight, I'm just gonna lay these over here because I never use them on up there anyway.

[0:13] Back in the Gospel of Matthew, we'll be starting chapter 6 tonight. We wrapped up the 5th chapter last week and moving right along in all of this last week, the verses that we covered, we covered kind of quickly there towards the end. I'm not gonna go back and hit them again, but I would like to apologize for that and I will say that I'm glad that so many's here on the midweek. If you all didn't ask for it, I was concerned last week because I know I was kind of long winded. And I was like, I might have just drove them people away from midweek surfaces.

[0:57] But I am tickled that so many are here. But moving along in the sermon on the Mount, what we're going to read tonight is still in the same context that we finished up Matthew 5 in. When Matthew 5, starting at verse 20, when Jesus Christ tells the people that are all around Him that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall in no case enter in the kingdom of heaven.

[1:29] We're still in that context going on in to Matthew 6. I'm glad that in our translations, in our English translations that we have chapter markers and paragraph markers and verse numbers and all these things, that wasn't in the original Greek that this was written in. I'm thankful for them. But we're still in that context that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees and the scribes, then you shall in no wise or in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. So we need to keep that in mind as we go through this tonight.

[2:09] So we'll pick up in Matthew 6, starting at verse 1. Jesus says, take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them. Otherwise you have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thy alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you they have their reward.

[2:37] But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. We'll stop there and back up or I'm sorry we need to read one more verse 4. That thy alms may be in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. Now we'll back back up to verse 1. Take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them. And there are people just like I spoke last week and like I've talked about a couple of times going through the Gospel of John in the old Sunday school class. There's people that take things to extremes and talk about Christians, churches, sometimes whole denominations will take things to extremes. And this is one of those things that people do that with sometimes because Jesus said take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them. Well they like to leave off those last few words of this verse and they'll say you're not supposed to put your money in the coffer plate in front of people or it should be in an envelope of some kind if you're going to. It should be covered.

[3:41] It shouldn't be known. Folks I'm glad that Jesus didn't leave it off to take heed when you do your alms before men that you do not your alms before men that he didn't just leave it at that because he adds the words to be seen of them.

[3:57] That's the whole gist of what he is getting at in this. It's not the fact that on Sunday mornings different people come up at different times and this church here they'll come up they'll throw their money or their checks or whatever it is into the coffers. There's nothing wrong with that and there's nothing sinful about doing that.

[4:17] But now somebody's got a thousand dollar check or a thousand dollar bill for that matter and they come up the aisle and they're waving it around for everybody to see wanting everybody in the church to know what they're putting in the coffer plate, what they're sacrificing out of their own gains or out of their own means for that matter.

[4:37] That's not taking heed that men don't see what they're doing. They're wanting to praise them and they're wanting people to who and all. They want people to look around and say wish I had a thousand dollars to just throw in the coffer plate and stretching this out just a little bit I've never once preached on tithing. I've never once taught a lesson on tithing. I brought tithing up. I brought offering up and really what we do is a New Testament church really and truly isn't tithing at all. It's an offering. I mean the Bible makes it plain that we are to give according to our means, according to that which we are able as it states in Scripture.

[5:21] But there are people that will take this to extremes or people that will take that to extremes and folks there's no extremes to take it to. Jesus makes it plain why we need to take heed.

[5:33] Those words take heed. He's just saying they're basically be warned. He says take heed that you do not your wrong before men to be seen of them. And why is he saying this?

[5:45] Because it is in man and it is in woman. It's in human nature to want the approval of other men and other women. To want the approval of our peers even the fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. It is in our nature to want to want that and to want their backpats and to want their ooze and to want their awes.

[6:09] It's just part of our nature. But Jesus is saying to be careful otherwise you have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. In other words our giving and folks again I've never taught on tithing, never preached on tithing, if God ever lays it on my heart and I guess I will. But I've never done it.

[6:29] But the way I see it is if you all enjoy congregating here for a gift gospel mission 1025 Maple Street in Kingsport Tennessee and you enjoy the fellowship that you have with the other people that you congregate here with and you want lots and you want water and you want a working toilet and you want all these other things you're going to throw some money in the plane in order to have those things. Whether you give 10% or not that's between you and God. If you give 5% that's between you and God. If you give 80% that's between you and God. But if you want a place to worship, if you want this place to worship or anywhere else that you might attend, you'll throw some money in the comfort plate when it comes time to do so. But Jesus here says take heed that you do not these things before men to be seen of them. Otherwise you have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. In other words you're doing this just to get the praise of man or to get really the worship of man in doing that. He says if you do that you'll have no reward of your Father in heaven. If we give what does the Bible teach us? God loves a cheerful giver. Does the

[7:41] Bible not say that? In the New Testament no less. But if we do it for the right reasons we give our money, we give our arms whatever the case is for the right reasons with the right heart there's a reward for us in heaven for that. But if we're doing it for the wrong reasons folks we get no reward in heaven. Our reward is down here when we receive that praise of man. That's an earthly reward and I'm not interested in that. I want to please my heavenly Father and that's what the entire thing of this I really hope to get through verse 18 tonight. I don't know whether I will or not. But that's what all these verses are about is don't do that which whatever it is that you do, don't do it to please man. You do it to please God.

[8:29] You do it for God's approval and not for man's approval. Again verse 2, therefore when thou doest I know them do not sound a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may have the glory of men.

[8:45] Verily I say unto you they have their reward and that's exactly what I just said. And people were known for this. The Richard Jews were known for this. They were known in fact there's an accountant in Scripture, the widow and the two moths where the people with more money basically bragging about how much they were putting in and they were known for that Pharisees were known for that, scribes were known for that. And they would make a huge procession on their way to the bowl to put their offering in. And then the widow and two moths comes in and puts hers in but anyway we ain't teaching about her tonight. But in other words don't make a big deal over what you're doing. It's between you and God what you give to the church and what you're giving for the ministry and for the ministries that go forth out of that church. The church itself is a ministry but there's multiple ministries that should go out from every church. Just like us we're having a clothing drive or a clothing giveaway here for you soon. That's a ministry in and of itself. And you could actually do that separate from the church but that's one ministry flowing out from another one. But if you bring in a ton of clothing or two tons of clothing don't make a big deal over it. Just come in, set it down on the floor and go on your merry way. Don't say I brought in more clothing than anybody else did. For one reason quite frankly I really wouldn't care if you brought in more clothing than anybody else. But even more so

[10:21] God doesn't care if you bring in more clothing than anybody else. It's the heart that you're giving it with. If you bring in one T-shirt with the right heart and you bring in 500 bags of clothing with the wrong heart God's going to have a reward waiting in heaven for that one that brought in one T-shirt but he gave it with the right heart of it.

[10:41] Gave it to be donated. But when they'll do it, not the left hand but they'll know what the right hand do it. That's how secret that we're to keep it. That's keeping it to ourselves and not bragging to other people about it. Let not the left hand know what the right hand's doing.

[11:01] Folks, if my left hand, and I believe Jesus is using this figuratively, yes. But if my left hand doesn't know what the right hand's doing, none of y'all should know what I'm putting in the right hand, what I'm donating for a clothing drive, what I'm doing out there fading the homeless or clothing the homeless or whatever it is that I'm doing. If I'm going around to each and every person and I'm bragging to them, well I stopped and helped this and I stopped and helped that one.

[11:29] I gave away $100 yesterday to 10 different people so they could have a meal. There ain't going to be no reward for me in heaven for that. Really, it's nobody else's business that I'm doing that.

[11:41] Keep that to yourself. That thine alms may be in secret. That thine alms may be in secret. And thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward the openly. Now that does not mean God's going to reward us openly here in this life. But our reward's waiting on us. He may reward us openly here in this life.

[12:05] He's God. He can do that if he wants to. But if he wants to wait until 10, 20, 30 years when I'm 6 feet under and in the grave but my soul and my spirit with him he wants to wait until I receive a glorified body.

[12:21] Thereafter, however long it is God decides to wait on that is however long I'm going to have to wait on it. But folks I would rather wait for the reward that God has for me. However long that might be as to receive an instantaneous reward here on heaven from men.

[12:37] I want to please my heavenly Father. I want His approval. Verse 5, And when thou prayest thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men.

[12:53] Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou when thou prayest enter into thy closet, and when thou have shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward the openly. I'll stop reading there. So we've gone from giving alms to a different subject matter but it's still the same gist that Jesus is sticking with, pleasing God and not pleasing men. He says in verse 5 again, When thou prayest thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men. And remember in verse 1, He said, Take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them.

[13:41] So the whole thing is do things unto God that only God knows about. And don't worry about what man sees you doing. If you're doing things, if you're ministering to people or even in the situation of prayer folks, if I'm going into my prayer closet and I shut the door behind me and I'm praying to my heavenly Father a lot of times I'm ministering to myself when I do that. You know, I go in there and I get alone with God. Yes, I might try and intercess for a brother or sister in Christ. I might try and intercess. It's already been discussed tonight. Intercess on behalf of Israel or any other nation or a city or a community or whatever the case is.

[14:21] But a lot of times when I really want to get alone with God, when I feel like I have to be alone with God, it's because I need ministry. It's because I need to minister to myself. And when I minister to myself and I'm uttering my words to God and I'm praying to God, the Holy Spirit is the one ministering back to me.

[14:41] God's using the Holy Spirit to console me. And He's using the Holy Spirit to bring Scripture to my mind. And that to me is God's way of talking to me, His way of conversing with me. If I'm praying to Him and the Holy Spirit to bring Scripture to my mind to do with the exact same thing that I'm praying about, that to me is God ministering to me. And that's a ton more than 10 strong men of God could really do for me with physical presence.

[15:13] Consoling me and comforting me and telling me everything's going to be alright. That's great. But I'd like to hear it from God. I'd like to hear it from God. And it's not that I'm discounting having other people pray for you or people to console you or people to help you along this way, folks. It's one of the greatest parts about being part of a local body of believers being within a church is you've got that family sitting there of people to surround you in your time of need.

[15:41] People to uplift you in the time of need. Or people to praise the Lord with you in your time of praise. I mean the Bible teaches us we should weep when our brothers and sisters weep. We should mourn when they mourn. But we should also be happy when they're happy. We should have joy or be joyous with them when they have joy.

[16:01] I promise all these things pertaining to what we're getting at here. But it says, when thou praise thy shalt not be as the hypocrites are. Now all of us know what a hypocrite is.

[16:13] Hypocrite is somebody that says one thing and does another. Basically. But remember the context that we are still in from 225 and 20. That unless you exceed the righteousness of Pharisees and the scribe you shall no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. These would have been the very hypocrites that Jesus Christ was referring to here. Those Pharisees and those scribes. And they're the ones that were guilty of doing this. Like I said when they were giving alms. When they were making their donation if you will to the temple fund.

[16:49] They made a big deal. The more money they had the bigger deal that they would make of it. And they done the same thing with their prayer lives. You know they would dress up. They would stand on the street corners.

[17:01] They would say these huge, long, eloquent prayers. They would unroll their phylacteries. They would read from them. Just make a huge deal over what they were doing. Folks I've told I've told y'all before. Some of you may have heard me say it. Some of you may not.

[17:17] But one of the greatest prayers in all of scripture is when Peter steps out on the water with Jesus Christ. And he takes his eyes off Jesus and sinks down on the water. And he says Lord save me. Three words that man uttered.

[17:29] It didn't have to be nothing long and eloquent. He didn't add any these or thies or vows into it. Nothing long and blind. He said Lord save me. Folks we get alone in our prayer closet with God. It's the same way. We're conversing with our Father. We're conversing with the maker of the universe that saved our souls.

[17:53] And if he saved our souls and he sent his son that our souls might be saved and we go into our prayer closet as his child what makes us think that we have to utter these huge words or that we have to sound eloquent in our speech? What makes us think that? Just have a conversation.

[18:13] Take a heart out to God. Whatever is on your heart pour it out to him. And sometimes if you're like me you get to a point where you can't even utter the words that you want to.

[18:25] You can't even say what your heart's feeling but praise God for Romans 8 that teaches that the Holy Spirit knows our groanings. He understands those kinds of utterance and he takes those to the throne of God. He knows what our heart feels even when we can't say what our heart is feeling.

[18:41] And I thank God for that. But now when they'll press into your closet, when they'll shut the door pray to thy Father which is in secret.

[18:53] Pray to thy Father which is in secret. Folks, God is a spirit. Is he not? Do we not learn that from John chapter 4? God is a spirit. They that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. God is a spirit.

[19:05] God is unseen. God is unseen. He says here he talks about the Father which is in secret. We go into our closet and we pour our hearts out to a God that we've never seen.

[19:17] But it's still the God that saved our soul. It's a God that no man has ever seen. No man has seen God according to the Scriptures. But we pray to our Father which is in secret and thy Father which seeeth in secret. He sees what you're doing. He is in secret. He sees what you're doing in your secret. And I'm not talking about secrecy as an evil thing here.

[19:41] I'm talking about people don't know what you're doing or what you're uttering to God. And people certainly don't see God. And you can't see in there in your closet. But what you're doing in secret to this secret God he will reward you openly. He will reward you openly.

[19:57] Once again, that's not necessarily here in this life. We may have to wait our entire lives and own in to our physical deaths for that. But folks, some physical death happens.

[20:09] That's when life truly begins for the born again child of God. But when you pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Now this is another thing that some folks take to extremes as far as this whole thing about vain repetitions. How many of y'all pray not for you go to bed? I do. How many of y'all say the same thing many times? I do. I do. Is that the type of vain repetition that we're talking about? Now folks, if it just becomes a formal thing like now, lay me down to sleep and pray the Lord my soul to keep.

[20:52] If you're still uttering that little prayer just because you know, it got you by when you were five years old, they might be something wrong with your spirit to walk. But, and you can ask Missy, every time we sit down to eat at the table, a lot of times I pray the same thing. Now something's going on though, if we've been made aware of a certain situation or a certain person, we'll bring that into that prayer as well.

[21:19] Before we eat, before I go to bed at night. Hey, I pray for the same people. I pray the same things a lot of times for the same people. I praise God for the same things that I praised him for the night before.

[21:33] Folks, God ain't changed. And there's nothing wrong with praising him every day for the rest of your lives for the exact same things. There's nothing wrong with that. But what Jesus is getting at here is don't let it become a formality.

[21:48] Don't let it become the only thing that you do pray is the same prayer over and over if you're not meaning it. When he's talking about these vain repetitions, he says, as the heathen do. Well, who are the heathen praying to? They're praying to false gods, folks. He's talking in the verse before this of going into your prayer closet with the unseen God, with the secret God, and praying in your secret place and praying secret things to this secret God, to this unseen God. And he says here not to get wrapped up in vain repetitions as the heathen do. We're not praying to dead gods and we're not praying to gods made out of stone or wood or anything along those lines. We are praying to the maker of the universe and to the saver of our souls when we pray. He says, don't get caught up in the vain repetitions as the heathen do. What were the heathen guilty of in this time? Same thing that they're guilty of now.

[22:45] Folks, I've heard some wicked quote unquote prayers in my time. I ain't always been a born-again child of God. I've been into and I've seen some really evil stuff in my days. And how do those people pray?

[23:01] They chant and they chant the same thing over and over and over. It's a whole lot like a lot of worship music is nowadays. You get people saying, oh God, we exalt thee 40 times in one song.

[23:16] I mean, folks, you're getting borderline doing that. You're borderline doing what the heathen do. That's exactly what the Greeks did and that's exactly what the Romans did. Why?

[23:27] Because it was hypnotic. You hear the same thing and the same rhythm and the same tone over and over and over. Folks, it's like driving down the interstate at 65 mile an hour at 3 o'clock in the morning.

[23:39] If your eyes get fixed on the tellites in front of you or your ears get fixed on that road noise underneath you, it's hypnotic and it'll put you to sleep. It'll put you in a trance. That's what Jesus is getting at when he says, when he's talking about vain repetitions as the heathen do. That's what they did. They repeated the same things over and over and over again. So for somebody to say you need to change your prayer up every day, otherwise God ain't going to hear it, I don't completely agree with that. Folks, who of us throughout the course of the day goes through the exact same motions and the exact same things happens every day?

[24:20] None of us. Now, my job's pretty repetitious. Some of you all might have jobs that are pretty repetitious. Yes, I'm talking about your life in general. Nothing wrong with praying the same thing or praising God for the same things every day, but if something else is on your heart, make sure you put that in there as well. Make sure you give that to God.

[24:42] You pray to God about that, whatever it is. Verse 8, be not ye therefore like unto them, for your Father knows what things ye have need of before ye ask him.

[24:56] Before we even ask of God the Father what we need, he's already well aware of what we need. And some people will read this and say, well, what's the point in asking him? Because he wants to hear from his children.

[25:10] That's the point in asking him. Folks, it's a commandment in Scripture that we pray unto God, that we converse with God. It's not an option for the child of God. It's a commandment of Scripture that we do so.

[25:24] He says, be not ye therefore like unto them, like unto who, like to heathen, that he was just talking about. For your Father knows what things ye have need of. Once again, our Father knows what things we need of.

[25:40] Not some dead God, not some idol sitting on a shelf or in a closet somewhere. We are praying to our Heavenly Father, and our Heavenly Father knows what we need before we even ask of Him.

[25:51] Verse 9, after this matter, therefore pray ye, and now we're getting to what's popularly known as the Lord's Prayer. Ain't nothing wrong with uttering the Lord's Prayer, not a thing in the world.

[26:03] In fact, that's one of the first Scriptures any of us probably learned as a child. If we spent a couple of Sundays in church, we probably heard the Lord's Prayer at some point. All those probably know it by heart. But folks, Jesus ain't saying, just pray this prayer and you'll be fine.

[26:20] That's not what He's saying. He says, after this manner, in other words, I'm giving you an example of how to pray. And the first thing He says is our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

[26:34] So we need to recognize who it is that we are praying to. We need to recognize who it is that we're about to spill our hearts out to. We recognize that it's God that we're speaking to.

[26:47] After this manner, therefore, pray ye. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. What does that word hallowed mean? Hallowed basically means consecrated, sanctified, set aside. Holy is a really good synonym for the term hallowed.

[27:07] So we're recognizing who God is and we're recognizing just how high up God is. And that's a lot of the problem in the prayer life of Christians is they don't realize how high God says, how high God is.

[27:25] He's higher than the heavens. I mean, even Solomon in his great prayer, when he was dedicating the temple, he said the heaven of the heavens cannot contain these. Speaking of God. But folks, Jesus is telling us here how we are to pray, we are to recognize God and we are to recognize how holy that he is.

[27:44] And how sanctified his name is and how consecrated his name is, which speaks of his holiness. Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.

[27:57] A lot of people have issues with this verse here. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. Well, thy kingdom comes, no big deal to pray for most people. That second part of that line, thy will be done. A lot of people have issues with that.

[28:13] And folks, that's the hardest part of this whole prayer to pray and mean it. It's the most difficult part to pray and mean when you tell God, that will be done in my life.

[28:26] We pray for our lost loved ones, we pray for children, we pray God save their souls no matter what it takes. Folks, that's the serious prayer to pray. But we got to mean it when we say it and we got to be prepared for whatever comes our way.

[28:44] Or whatever comes their way for that matter. If that's the will of God and that's what it's going to take to save their souls, that's why I understand it takes the blood of Jesus Christ. But sometimes God takes things in people's lives.

[28:57] Sometimes God takes things out of people's lives. That's why I've said so many times, it's a dangerous thing for parents to use their children as an excuse not to go to church because God can take those children out of your life and you will be left without an excuse.

[29:14] God will remove what is between you and Him. God will take that out and it's a dangerous thing to use anything or anybody that is dear to you as an excuse not to go to church, not to worship God, not to do this, not to do that. I don't have time to pray, I don't have time to read my Bible.

[29:32] God can remove those things out of your life so that you have time for you and Him. But here He says, Thy kingdom come. We can all pray for that, praise God. Thy kingdom come.

[29:45] Brother Vernon was talking tonight about the different views of when that kingdom may actually come. Just to get off on a side note on what Vernon was talking about that. Honestly, I care less when anybody's view is on eschatology. I've got mine, y'all got yours.

[30:03] I don't argue with people about it. I have disassociated with groups of people that I was once very heavily affiliated with because that's all they wanted to talk about and they wanted to argue about it. Folks, eschatology won't get anybody saved.

[30:16] It don't matter if you're free, ah, or post-millennial, that has nothing to do with salvation. You can't present any of those things and get anybody saved. You present the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's the power of God and the salvation.

[30:34] People argue about that. People argue whether Jesus is actually going to reign for a thousand years or whether it's going to be more or less than a thousand years. People argue whether Jesus Christ is going to come back on a white horse or not when the Bible plainly says that He will.

[30:50] But regardless, one of the greatest things I ever heard another preacher say was, I'll care if He comes back riding Puff the Magic Dragon as long as He comes back. One of the greatest things I ever heard.

[31:01] I think I was about the only one that amened that fellow when he said that. But honestly, I mean, who cares about these things? They're irrelevant to salvation. They're irrelevant to the gospel.

[31:14] The gospel is the death, the burrow, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's the perfect life that He lived that led up to that death. And it's the burrow of Christ and it's His resurrection.

[31:27] And His resurrection includes the life that He is living right now making intercession and being mediator for those that have repented of their ways and believed His gospel. Praise God for that. Ascretology, you know we're in that.

[31:41] So don't worry about it. Don't worry about those things. And I didn't mean to get off on a soapbox or add to what Varan was saying or anything, but it irritates me when people get off of these silly little things.

[31:54] Thy kingdom come. That's no problem to pray that. Everybody that's born again child of God should want the kingdom of God to come. Granted, all of us should want to see some loved ones saved.

[32:07] I've got to say lost loved ones. Every one of us do. Everyone should want to see that, but we should want to see the kingdom of God come. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.

[32:19] Don't let this terminology of in earth, don't let that confuse you. When you hear people pray this prayer and they say on earth as it is in heaven, they're not praying it wrong. I mean a thing in the world wrong with them saying on earth as it is in heaven as opposed to in earth as it is in heaven.

[32:35] I've heard some people take that to extremes and they've said, well in earth, let thy will be done in earth. Well, we are the earth. We're made of the earth. So let thy will be done in us as it is in heaven.

[32:48] I don't think that's what Jesus Christ was getting at at all, but that's a very extreme view on that. It means exactly what it says. The Greek word there is n, e-n. And it's talking about a fixed place, time or state, just as the word n does.

[33:06] So there's nothing wrong with saying in earth or on earth. On earth as it is in heaven, in earth as it is in heaven. Let thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven, folks.

[33:19] And I want nothing more than the will of God in earth. His will, his will is perfect. His will is flawless. We know that it's not his will that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

[33:34] Why would we not be praying for that will to be done? Amongst other things, amongst other things, but why would we pray for the opposite of that?

[33:45] Jesus here is saying, pray to God, thy kingdom come and thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. And folks, these are difficult things to pray and mean.

[33:56] And mean because God's will for my life might not be my will for my life. So when I pray that, and I actually mean it, I need to be prepared for what may come into my life or what may go out of my life.

[34:10] But either way, God's got more than a sufficient amount of grace to dump out on me for whatever comes in or whatever goes out of my life.

[34:22] He's got more than enough grace to get me through whatever it might be. Give us this day our daily bread. I made the, or I give a scenario, I guess you could say, a little while back here at the church.

[34:37] I remember if I was preaching or teaching when I did it. But give us this day our daily bread. And I told you all then that we are acknowledging and saying that it's up to God whether we eat or not. We're acknowledging that He indeed has the bread.

[34:51] And we say, give us this day our daily bread. And I used the quote from Peter's writings where Peter says that we should be humbled under the mighty hand of God.

[35:05] He would exalt us and do time. And if we're humbled under the mighty hand of God, then we're dependent on Him for everything. We're dependent on Him for light. We're dependent on Him for food. We're dependent on Him certainly for salvation.

[35:17] We're dependent on Him for protection. We're dependent on Him for absolutely everything. So when we say give us this day our daily bread, we acknowledge that God has got that.

[35:28] But we are also acknowledging that our good God, our Heavenly Father that we are praying to, that He will give us that which we need to sustain us, both on the physical level and the spiritual level.

[35:42] I promise you, once God's finished with you here on earth, He ain't going to keep you around. He ain't going to keep you around just to be idle.

[35:53] Once He has done, once His will has been accomplished in your life, you'll be out of here. We will be out of here at that time. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

[36:07] This is another one that is horribly, horribly misconstrued amongst church people. They forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And there are people out there that will say, God, I want you to forgive me just like I forgive my debtors.

[36:22] And I praise God He doesn't forgive like that. I praise God that He doesn't forgive like I forgive people. And you should praise God that He doesn't forgive like you forgive people.

[36:34] What Jesus is saying here in this prayer, how we should forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. You can go all the way back to the Beatitudes at the beginning of Matthew 5.

[36:46] It takes a meek person to do that, does it not? And the meek are the ones that shall inherit the earth. Remember, we're talking about kingdom people through this whole thing. And a kingdom person should be able to forgive their debtors with no problem, with no grudges, with no, well, I forgive them, but nothing like that.

[37:06] That's the attitude that we should have as kingdom people. Jesus here has given us a model of how we should act toward the world and toward God in this prayer.

[37:19] He says, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And once again, I'm glad that He isn't saying forgive the same way that we forgive. That's not why He's getting at it all. Verse 13, lead us not in temptation but deliver us from evil.

[37:32] For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Now, some people will read this verse and say, lead us not in temptation. They'll say, well, God wouldn't lead us into temptation.

[37:44] And they're absolutely right. God will never tempt us to sin. That goes against God's nature to do that. But, so what is Jesus getting at here?

[37:58] Well, people will say, well, He's saying, and lead us not into trial. Because trial and temptation are one of the same many times in the Scriptures.

[38:09] But that's not what the case is here either. That's not what Jesus is saying when He says lead us not into temptation. You read the whole line again, lead us not in temptation but deliver us from evil.

[38:21] He's saying, keep us away from the temptation. Of course, God's not going to lead us into temptation. But keep us away from the temptation. Keep us away from those things that will be tempting to us.

[38:33] Keep us away from sin. You know, help us out with this. But He says, but deliver us from evil. So lead us not in temptation but deliver us from evil.

[38:44] So if He's not leading us to temptation, what is that in turn? He's delivering us from evil. The folks that evil is not just this world that's around us.

[38:55] That's how we view it a lot of times. That's how we as Christians, we view evil. But folks, that evil, yes, it's all around us. It's in the world. It's in the worldly people. It's in the heathen of the pagans and the culture and all kinds of things.

[39:11] But folks, that evil is also within you, that wickedness, that sin nature is within you. And we need deliverance from that. When we're born again, yes, we get the spirit of God inside of us.

[39:26] But just as Paul says, the spirit and the flesh are constantly warring against one another. The Bible says the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak because there's a constant battle going on there.

[39:39] This is the evil that we're asking God in this prayer to deliver us from now. Keep in mind, Jesus has given us a model of what to pray here. Jesus didn't have to ask for these things.

[39:50] Jesus didn't have to be asked to be delivered from evil, especially not the evil of himself, but all the way to the cross, folks. Jesus never once asked God to deliver him from that evil that was all around him, from the evil people that were all around him, from the evil that was done to him there on Calvary's Hill.

[40:11] Never once did he ask to be delivered from that while because he was praying for God's will to be done. He wanted God's will to be done.

[40:22] So when we say, that kingdom come, that will be done. Just as Jesus meant it, we need to mean it as well. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

[40:35] Amen. We recognize again in saying for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, we recognize again who God is. The kingdom is His.

[40:46] And not only the kingdom that He has promised to come in the scriptures, but folks, the kingdoms of this world belong to God. Every kingdom that is here right now, the United States, the United Kingdom, all these places in the world, China, Russia, it don't matter.

[41:04] It all belongs to God. But for thine is the kingdom. It's all His and the power and the glory forever. So the kingdom slash kingdoms belong to God.

[41:17] The power of not only the kingdom that's promised to come, but the power of all the kingdoms of the world, they belong to God. It's just like Jesus told Pilate when Pilate said, don't you understand I have the power to release thee or to crucify thee?

[41:35] And Jesus said, you've had no power at all. We're giving you from my Father above. All the power belongs to God. And we are recognizing that here in this prayer. So the power and the glory forever.

[41:47] So not only the power, but the glory of those kingdoms as well. You got all these kings, you got these presidents, you got queens, you got everything else in this world. They think that they're something else.

[41:58] They think that they're high up and they receive the regard and the praise of men. Folks, not only does that power that they have belong to God, and He gave it to them, but the glory that is going to them from the people, it belongs to God as well.

[42:15] And while people might be ascribing glory to individuals here on this earth, one of these days, every bit of that glory is going to go to God. What are those people wanting to or not, whether anybody wants it to or not?

[42:29] All the glory belongs to God. And He ends that with amen, which just basically means so be it. Let's keep going for just a few more minutes.

[42:40] For if you forgive men, their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you forgive not their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

[42:51] What's peculiar about these two verses? Considering the Lord's prayer that we just read. This is the only thing that Jesus goes back and hits on again.

[43:04] Forgiving. Forgives our debts as we forgive our debtors. This is the only thing that He hits on again after He has just uttered this model prayer for the disciples and really for anybody to utter unto God.

[43:20] This is the only thing that He repeats. That's basically what it is, is a repetition. He says, for or because, if you replace that word for with because, for if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

[43:36] Now, don't misconstrue this to say, well, all I got to do is forgive men when they wrong me and I'll go to heaven. It's not what the Bible teaches. It's not what Jesus is teaching here. You're repenting, believe the gospel to go to heaven.

[43:48] Period. Period. But those of us that have repented and those of us that have believed once again, all the way back to the Beatitude, what a meek person would do.

[43:59] How a meek person should act, how kingdom people should act. We should be forgiving. We should be willing to forgive people their trespasses for if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

[44:11] But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. So if kingdom people are to forgive men their trespasses, who are the people that doesn't forgive men their trespasses?

[44:26] It's the opposite side of the coin. Non-kingdom people. Those have not been regenerated. Those have not been born again. Now, do any of us do this perfectly? Absolutely not.

[44:38] Absolutely not. And I'll be the first one to raise my hand to say, I don't forgive perfectly as I should. And sometimes good lords had to wear me out on more than one occasion for not doing so.

[44:53] But praise God that He does that. Because that lets me know, hey, I'm His. I'm His. If He lays that conviction on me and He shows me that I'm wrong in my thoughts and I'm wrong, He says, you may say that you forgave that person for whatever it was that they did, or whatever it was that they said, or whatever.

[45:15] But you sure ain't showing it. I know better. Hey, folks, He's the God that's in secret, and He knows all the secret things. He knows the hearts. He knows the intents of the heart. And I thank God that He does.

[45:27] Because when I act in such a manner, He will wear me out for it. So kingdom people are the ones that should be forgiven men of their trespasses. Non-kingdom people would be these others.

[45:41] But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Verse 16, Moreover, when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance.

[45:55] For they disfigure their faces, and they may appear unto men to fast, verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou when thou fastest anoint thine head, and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

[46:14] So back to verse 16, again, Moreover, when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance. Folks, when we're doing for God, I mean, if we're truly doing for God, why would we have a sad countenance about us?

[46:28] Be not as the hypocrites. They have a sad countenance. We shouldn't have a sad countenance about us. If we're doing for God, and we're doing for the ministry, and for the glory of God, to the glory of the kingdom of God, there should be nothing said about us.

[46:44] But he goes on to explain what he's talking about here, when he says that the hypocrites have a sad countenance. He says, for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. And what he is talking about here is something that the Pharisees and the scribes were very well known for in this day.

[47:01] They would fast, they would tell others they were fasting, and they would purposely, as Jesus said, disfigure their faces. They would dirty up their faces, they would throw dust and dirt on their faces.

[47:12] They would basically do that and then draw lines in their faces to make their faces look sunk in like they had missed the last hundred meals to make it look like, boy, I'm really doing something for God. Look how much I'm fasting.

[47:24] Oh, Jesus says, don't do it like that. Jesus said, anoint your head with oil. Wash your face. In other words, I mean, just in a real small condensed nutshell, Jesus is saying, go on like you normally would.

[47:38] Nobody needs to know that you're fasting. Nobody needs to know that. But what you do with your father in secret, he will reward you openly. If you're fasting, and once again, that's not just skipping a meal.

[47:52] That's not just, you know, I'm not going to watch the football game just Friday or Saturday or whatever. Instead, I'm going to go do something else. If whatever it is that you're skipping and you're calling fasting, if you're not spending that time in prayer and devotion to God, you're not truly fasting.

[48:10] If you skip a meal just to go out of a bowling, or you skip a meal to go for a nature walk, whatever the case is, but you're not spending that time with God and in devotion and in reverence to God, that's not fasting folks, you're just starving yourself.

[48:28] That's all you do. If you're skipping a meal, do that. You skip meals. And fasting is not something that's, you know, mentioned a whole lot in the New Testament.

[48:39] The Old Testament, you find it everywhere in the Old Testament. I mean, my goodness, Daniel fast. David fasted when his child, Bathsheba, was sick. Esther, she called for a fast amongst her people, so she called for a fast and that was corporate fasting then.

[48:56] The ruler of Nineveh, he called for a fast when Jonah came and preached. So here, there we have heathens fasting. So fasting is not something that was new to the New Testament thought, but it really ain't mentioned a whole lot in the New Testament.

[49:15] I'm not saying it's not as important, but folks, we all know some people can't do that. Some people, it's a danger to their health to do that, not that I'm saying that God can't do some miraculous thing to get around a situation like that.

[49:31] But fasting is between you and God. It's basically what Jesus Christ is getting at here. So Jesus says, anoint your head with oil and wash your face when you fast. In other words, don't let anybody know that you're fasting.

[49:44] Go on about your day. Go on about your business just as you normally would. Because that's what people don't. They anointed their head with oil quite often in these days.

[49:55] That sun over there, and what we refer to now as the Middle East, is brutal on the head, so that gives it some soothing. They would wash their face.

[50:06] They get all that dust that was blowing in the wind all day long off of their face. Jesus says, continue doing that while you fast. Don't be as the hypocrites. Don't be as those hypocrites already says, and thy father which seeth and seeeth shall reward thee openly.

[50:22] And I can't emphasize enough that reward may, likely I will say will not be here in this life, but that reward will be over yonder in glory.

[50:36] And it will be open when God does that. He will reward us openly for what we have done here in this life. That brings us to exactly where I hope to get tonight.

[50:49] Anybody got any questions or comments on any of that? Alright, God bless you. I appreciate your attention.