6. Matthew chapter 6. And starting with verse 7. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask him. Well, we know that we are preparing soon to have some weddings in our church. Weddings are glorious things. we get to see so much in them. And everyone has their favorite part about a wedding, right? For some, it's the dress, the moment when the bride comes in and everyone stands, and that's their favorite part. For others, it's the moment when the two become one and it's sealed with a kiss. Kids usually like the cake. I like that part. But I think my favorite part are the vows. Now since I'm standing on the other side of weddings where I'm actually privileged to lead them, if you will, sometimes I will write vows for the bride and the groom where they repeat after me. That's not a bad thing. It's not a bad thing at all. Sometimes they write their own and you see them there, their hands are trembling on this wrinkled piece of paper that they've been working on all week or all month, all year. Now, you don't have to be a prophet or the son of a prophet to see the major difference between someone who is just repeating after what I tell them to say, or just reading what's written, and someone who means every syllable of every word that they're saying. Right? You can feel the depth as they commit in these vows to do all that they are being told to say or that they have written for themselves versus someone who is merely mouthing the words that they're being told. Because to have the most beautifully written vows that have ever been written or spoken, but for it to be nothing more than a script or reciting words, that's a mockery, isn't it? Because the heart isn't involved. Now, in a situation like that, we can recognize it. You can almost tell it immediately. And yet, I wonder, do we see it in our own context? When it comes to worshiping God, it is possible to worship him without the heart. And the Lord Jesus, all of his kindness, wants us to be kept from doing this when we worship him. And when you pray, verse five and verse seven, and when you pray, Prayer is approaching God, right? Prayer is the dependence on him. We were looking at this last week, the need to come with him without hypocrisy, where I'm not thinking about you and you're not thinking about me, but we're going to the king without any other thought but him, because we desire him. But now that we do that, now that we've come, right? That was verses five through six. coming without the hypocrisy, coming without trying to get other people to notice us, trying to get other people to be impressed with us. Now that we're here, now what? Now that you are before Him, what is the lesson now? Jesus is still teaching about how we approach God. That is the main thing that He is dealing with here. Verses 5-15. is dealing with this. He's far from being done with this subject. I mean, Lord willing, we're going to be getting into the Lord's Prayer, and you're going to see, this is all about how we approach our God in every area of our life. And He's just getting started, but before He launches into the Lord's Prayer, He's teaching us how we approach Him. Because God is very concerned with how you approach Him. Now, some minds may be thinking, Isn't God everywhere? I mean, isn't that part of the question and answer, the catechism that you go through with your children? Where is God, children? God is everywhere, right? How can you approach the God who is everywhere? I mean, doesn't the psalmist say, where can I go from your spirit or where can I flee from your presence? For if I ascended to heaven, you were there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, you were there. So how can we approach the one who is everywhere? Amen. Our God is omnipotent. And he tells us to approach him. In fact, he has actually made us able to approach him by his own power. Jeremiah 31, 21 says, I will make him draw near. This is God speaking. And he shall approach me, about us. For who would dare of himself to approach me, declares the Lord. And you shall be my people and I will be your God. You see that? None of us would dare to approach the God who dwells in unapproachable light on our own. We would be consumed. But God says, I will make him draw near. You know why you draw near to God? Because God makes you. In other words, he enables you, he allows you, and he shall approach me. He allows us to approach Him. All of us, like Esther, come into the throne room of the King, but not trembling and afraid that He's going to destroy us, but welcome and commanded to come. God wants us to approach Him. James 4, 8, draw near to God and He will draw near to you. You see, there is a reality where though God is omnipresent, though God is everywhere, there's still a reality where you can draw near to him. You can get closer to him. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. You see the imagery, the picture of the born-again believer, arms open, running towards Christ, smile across his face. focused on Jesus. He's drawing near, and there's Christ with open arms ready to receive. This is this beautiful reality that you can approach Him. You can draw near to Him. You can get close to Him. This is what He wants. This is what He commands. This is what you're able to do. And yet, as wonderful as it is to draw near to Him, as tear-producing as it may be, seeing the Christian running towards the open arms of Christ, it's not enough to approach Him. Because we know that we can approach Him in a wrong way. And the Lord said, because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips while their hearts are far from me. See, they were drawing near. They were coming close. There was a distance that was shortened, and yet, in spite of all of the drawing near, it was not pleasing. It was not right. It was not correct. So I say that to say, it's not enough to draw near if we're not drawing near the way He says to come. And when you pray, that's what we're talking about, drawing near to Him. approaching Him, coming close. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do. This is not with a desire to be seen. He's already addressed that. Notice that there is no, they have their reward. And here, because that's not what this is about. This is once you're no longer thinking about the rewards of men, you're there, you're before the King. What do you do? Don't heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Heaping up empty phrases. King James says, vain repetition. This word that Jesus uses, it gives the idea of uttering meaningless words. Vain repetition, being long-winded to babble on and on empty chatter. That's what that word means. Jesus says, when you approach God, when you pray, when you come to Him, don't just babble on, uttering empty things, repeating phrases. Don't speak to Him without meaning. Because that's what the Gentiles do. That's how the Gentiles act. And they act that way because of what they think about God. You see that? For they think they will be heard for their many words. Gentiles. Now, there's one sense in which the Bible uses the word Gentile to just mean someone who's not a Jew. Either you're a Jew or you're a Gentile. What is Romans 1 16? I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it's the power of God and salvation for everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek or to the Gentile. But that's not what this means. Here the Gentiles is meant as unbelievers. as pagans, as heathens, as worshipers of other gods. He says, don't pray like them. They heap up these things. Why? For they think. There's a connection between how they pray and what they think. That's extremely important to get a direct line how they approach their gods and how they think about their gods. So a quick study of the gods of the Gentiles will show the same thing. Whether you're talking about the gods of the Canaanites and the Philistines, whether you're talking about the gods of the Greeks and the Egyptians and the Romans, whether you're talking about the gods of the Hindus or the Muslim, You find the same thing. Their gods are angry, cruel, uncaring, constantly demanding to be appeased. And so the people who worship these gods are constantly under the weight, our brother was talking about weight earlier, the weight of trying to please them. It's a constant ceremony, ritual activity of trying to win the favor, of trying to appease an angry god. And this is not something that they will deny. Our time in Haiti, speaking to the people who practice voodoo, they're not ashamed of this fact and will tell you, this is why we do these things. These spirits need to be satisfied. When I was in India, going into the Hindu temples, seeing the same thing. Why are they doing these things? Because they're God's need to be appeased. Why were they offering children to Molech? Because their gods need to be appeased. It's the same thing. Religion, religion, religion. Growing up as a Muslim, you know, this was my life. And the reality was all of these laws are because there is an angry God who was going to judge every single thing you do. And if you do not let your good outweigh your bad, you have no chance. And even then, on the day of judgment, hopefully he's in a good mood and he'll let you slide. So their prayers, their worship, is a mixture of mumbling, babbling, repeating phrases, chanting, uttering all manner of holy words in hopes that one of these many actions will satisfy their gods, will get their gods' attention, And so whether you look at the Native American or you look at the African, and the drums are beaten for hours and hours and hours until their hands are red, not simply because they like the music, but because this is part of the worship ritual in hopes that their God will be pleased. The dances are done until the sweat pours. The shouts are made until the throats are sore. And all of it is with the hope that they will be heard by their gods." Now, they didn't just stop with words. It wasn't just what they said. Because the Gentile and the heathen had all manner of ritual associated with it. As the saying goes, actions speak louder than words. We see it in our own Bibles. Here's Elijah. 300 prophets of Baal. Why are they screaming and praying and shouting all night? And then what do they begin to do? They take lances and begin to cut themselves and the blood is gushing out. Why are they doing this? Because they want to get their God's attention. And they believe this is the way to do it. They wanted their gods to answer them and they knew it was completely up to them. It was completely up to what they said and how they said it and what they did and the measure that they were willing to go to. Just this year, the beginning of the year in Mexico City, they uncovered this massive wall of skulls, human skulls. And as they began to dig more, they even found children's skulls. Well, what was this? It was the Aztecs. And they weren't the only ones who did this. This was a very common practice. They literally, you can look this up, they had walls of human skulls. What was this all about? Well, they were doing human sacrifice. Why were they sacrificing humans? Because their mindset was their gods are hungry. and the blood of these humans would satisfy them. And so they looked even to their children. Here's a drought, here's a famine. Here we feed you in hopes that this will satisfy you and give us the things we need. We need rain. We need victory in a battle. We need prosperity in our land. Keep these conquistadors away from us. Here are more sacrifices. The Greeks, the Romans, the Egyptians, the Vikings, on and on the examples go. And we know that this is not ancient history. To this very hour, there are tribes that are still stabbing themselves, whipping themselves, all in an effort to win the favor of their gods. All of these rituals, all of these actions are done with the same hope. Their gods are seen as reluctant. Their gods are seen as undesiring to do anything for them, and so they have to win their favor. And the greater the sacrifice, the greater the pilgrimage, the greater the offering, the better hope they have in their mind that their God's ear will be reached. That's why they did and do all that they do. And so we can look at all of this. the strange clothing of the pantheist or the vibrant colors of the animist, the meaningless chanting of the modalist, the repetitive prayers. And we can just shake our heads. We may find ourselves looking at all these Gentiles and all their worship and say, I'm so glad I'm not like them. I would never do anything like that. Never have, never will. And the danger of this is that we do this, right? We tend to find the most extreme examples to make ourselves safe. If this is what this looks like, this is what Jesus is talking about. I don't do anything close to that. I'm safe. What he's talking about here does not touch my prayer life. It doesn't touch my worship, because I don't sacrifice goats, and I don't cut myself, and I'm not doing all that, and I don't beat drums in my bedroom, and I don't just chant for hours and hours and hours, so I must not be guilty. But think about this, was Jesus really warning the Jews? Now think of the Jewish mindset, right? The temple, they're ready to die, give themselves, to protect the temple, to protect the things in the temple. Was he really warning the Jews of his day against going into Roman temples and offering sacrifices to Nero? I mean, was that really what they were in danger of doing? Probably not, right? They hated the Romans and they hated the Roman way. And the thing they despised most about the Gentiles was the way that the Gentiles worshiped. And Jesus knew this very well. And yet, even though the Jews would be far, far fetched for them to walk into one of these Greek temples and offer some sacrifice to Mars or Zeus, Jesus still said these words to them, which means even though it may not look like that, they were still very much in danger. And so are we. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think they will be heard for their many words." Think about it. What comes to your mind in our day when you hear these words? the nonstop chanting of the Buddhists? Do you think about, you know, do you see the guy in the orange robe, the monk with the head shaved, and here he is in the temple just chanting nonstop? Do you think of the Hare Krishnas? What about the Hail Marys of the Catholics? Is that kind of what comes to your mind? And, oh, they're just with those beads, and there they are. Or the frenzied tongue-speaking of the Pentecostals, and they like, well, they take that way too much. There's no meaning to that. But about the hypnotizing singing, how three hour long songs and some of these so-called Christian churches, they just keep saying the same thing over and over and over. Like, yeah, you need to read what Jesus said. Now, these things indeed do qualify as what Jesus is preaching against, but think about in our circles where we love the Word of God. We hold high doctrine and proper theology. When was the last time you were tempted to do some Buddhist chant? When was the last time you actually considered picking up a rosary and going through the Hail Marys about 20 to 30 times? When was the last time you said, I'm gonna just start shouting Allahu Akbar for two hours I mean, that's not where you're tempted, right? We don't find ourselves in any way tempted in that way. And so again, think about it. If that's what comes to our minds when we hear this, and you're never even closely tempted to do that, then you could read these words and just read right over them and say, this does not apply to me. And that's exactly what Satan wants us to do with these verses. But if we look closer, We see the real issue is not mainly about mantras and chanting, but something that we may find ourselves guilty of every single day. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. He's dealing with two things, at least, in this verse. What is being done in prayer and why? Do not heap up empty phrases. Think of the word empty, or King James, vain. It means without any real substance, without any real meaning. We talk about taking the Lord's name in vain. Don't say, oh my God, without really meaning it. Don't say the Lord's name as a curse word and talk about saying his name in vain. But imagine an entire prayer in vain. What would that be? When you pray, are any of your words vain? Empty? Without real meaning? Are you just talking? We may rebuke the Catholics for their empty phrases, but let me ask you, when you're done praying and you say, in Jesus' name, do you know why you say that? Do you know what that means? Do you know what the importance of saying in Jesus' name is, or is it just something you say at the end of the prayer? Is this just a vain repetition? Think of all the prayers you've prayed, prayer after prayer after prayer, and you always say, in Jesus' name, in Jesus' name, in Jesus' name. But do you know what it means? Do you say it because it means something to you, or is that just what you put at the end? Like in grammar, you learn, you put a period at the end of a sentence, you put a Jesus name at the end of a prayer. Now again, we may hear vain repetition or empty phrases and think, oh, it's empty, it's vain because the thing they're saying doesn't mean anything. It's just meaningless, it's just blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, there's that too, but We would say that the Lord's Prayer has been used in this way, and none of us would dare say that the Lord's Prayer are empty words. So it's not just the thing you're saying. You could be saying the most powerful, the most important, the most theologically sound words, but are they meaningful? Do you know why you say Amen? Do you know what it means? Does that word mean just as much to you as the rest of the words in your prayer? You see what he's pointing out here? We can be praying to the true and living God with a heart free of hypocrisy, not thinking about anyone else in the room, not thinking about what anyone thinks about us, and still offering up emptiness, vanity, meaninglessness. What do you call God when you pray? And why do you choose that term? Why do you choose that title? Why do you say Father? Why do you say Lord? Are you mindful of what you're saying to him or are these just titles and terms you're supposed to say when you pray? So you say them, they're doctrinally sound, they're in our Bible, but if they're not meaningful, then it's just vanity. It's empty phrases. They're meaningless. Maybe you have a book of prayer. I have one, I love, and maybe you have the same one that I have. And so you read those words and you're like, wow, these are so, these prayers are amazing. And so you try to memorize them. You start mouthing them off. But do they mean anything? Are they from the heart or are they just on the page? Because we can do the same thing when it comes to memorizing scripture, singing hymns, and everything else we do to approach God. I remember my wife and I, we were watching a Bible beat. It was like this show and these kids, they were memorizing huge chunks of scripture. And there they were just mouthing them all, verse after verse, after verse, after verse. And you could tell by the communication, by the method, all of it, this was vanity. It wasn't heartfelt. It wasn't from the heart. It wasn't, I'm saying the words of God. It was, I memorized this and I'm just rattling it off for a contest and hope that I win a prize. And we might recoil at that, and yet, we might be doing the exact same things. We might be praying because it's a certain system. We find formats for our prayer meeting. First we pray this way, and then we pray about that, and we do this. In our devotion, I have this devotion, and then I read this, and then I do that, and it tells me what to pray, and I pray it. In our methods of meditation, all of it can be devoid of any real meaning, any warmth, any heart. But if anyone hears us, they say, wow, that's amazing. Look at what they're saying. But we're saying it devoid of depth. We heard about the breastplate of righteousness earlier. I remember a time, my Christianity, I don't know if you were as foolish as I was, but I would pray the armor of God. Anybody used to do that? put on the armor of God every morning, and what was I doing? I was quoting the verses, I had memorized that section, and I would just say those words. Okay, armor of God's on me, I said them, but no, I was doing nothing more than the very thing that Jesus is warning us against, vain repetition. Jeremy came once, he led a prayer meeting, taught you all, it's a wonderful tool, anybody remember that? Acts, yeah. Adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication. There are others. Pray, praise, repent, ask, yield. These are these acrostics, I believe I said that right, that are intended to be tools to help you to pray. Wonderful if they're not mechanics. Is this the natural outflow of your heart? Are you saying words of adoration because that's what comes first on the list, or because you actually adore him? Do you praise him because he's worthy to be praised, because he's so exceedingly good, or because that's just the first letter in the acronym? Do you see how we can be just as guilty of vain repetition as the Gentiles, all the while pointing to the unbelievers saying, look at them and all their rituals and all their emptiness and all their chants, and we are just as guilty. We need to look in the mirror. I think we have reason to repent here. We can do this simply by imitation. Trying to sound like someone that we admire. Again, am I saying there's something wrong with looking up to somebody, and I'm not saying that. But there's a difference between a child sounding like his father and a parrot sounding like his owner. And you listen to John Piper or Tim Conway or Al Martin, and then you try to sound like them. trying to imitate their voice and imitate the way they pray. They say things like this. And so I need to say things like that, but it's not from the heart. It's not genuine. It is merely parroting what someone else has done. And if all we're doing is just parroting what we've heard from our favorite preacher or what we've read from our favorite book, then are we really praying? We're only uttering a bunch of meaningless words, not that the word itself is meaningless, but it's meaningless because it's not coming from our hearts. And while there may be glorious things that we are saying, the truth is it could be nothing more than reading a vow with no heart in it at all. And it's not just in the big things, it's even in the small things. Sometimes when people talk, They use sentence fillers. Anybody do that? Growing up, I used to say, you know what I'm saying? That's what I was mine. I used to say all the time. It was annoying. I watched a video one time, and I think I said, you know what I'm saying, like 15 times in two minutes. Oh, my goodness. Whoa. I was saying nothing. No one knew what I was saying. That's annoying. But, you know, it's a normal thing. When we speak, you know, people say things, uh, or like, or that's not a sin. And we do that sometimes because we want to silence this awkward. So I don't want there to be silence here. And the person I'm talking to may not have the patience to let me actually process my thought. So I just need to fill in the blank here with just some words. They don't really mean anything. They're just until I get the next thought out. That's one thing if we do that with each other. It's another thing if we do that in prayer. Do you just keep saying, Father God, Father God, Father God? Why? Are you actually mindful of his fatherliness? Every time you say, Father God, are you actually thinking about him being a father and he is God, and God is your father, and that actually prompts you to pray in a different way, or is Father God just a sentence filler? Are you thinking of Him as His child and worshiping Him with a child heart? Or, Father God, that's, I can't think of anything else to say, so I'm just, I'm not even thinking about it. It just rolls off the tongue. But do you see what I'm saying? Not thinking about it. Meaningless, empty phrases. We're just saying stuff and we're talking to the King of the universe. Do you realize that you keep calling him Lord? Are you saying, okay, I'm going to call him Lord intentionally because he's Lord. And right now in my heart, I'm not really feeling very submissive and I need to remind myself who he is and who I am. So I'm going to say Lord, or is it just a sentence feeling? Are these terms of affection? Are these terms of surrender? Or are these just terms of routine? So there's the empty phrase part. But remember, it doesn't stand alone. There's a reason why the Gentiles just do all of this. And this goes to his second point in this. Why? Do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do. Now, why do they do this, Lord? He says, for they think. they will be heard for their many words. That's huge. This practice from the Gentiles is connected to what they think about their gods. They think they will be heard for their many words. That's why they pray that way, because of what they think about their God. He's dealing with their mindsets, and we must not follow their thinking, not just about empty words, but about why they think they'll be heard. They think they will be heard for their long prayers, for their many words. Well, that's them. Why do you think you will be heard by God? That's a really heavy question I had to wrestle with when I was going through this. Why do you think God will hear you? There you are before him. You've approached him. Now you begin to speak. Why will he hear you? For your many words? For the amount of time you spend? the certain words you use, the style, the tone, the posture, your location. Do you think that a prayer said in the church building is more powerful than the prayer said at the dinner table? You think it makes it louder to God's ears? Oh, they said that at the altar versus their bedroom. They said that with 15 people versus by themselves. Elijah prayed by himself. The Lord heard. This asks the question, why do you think he hears you? What will make him hear you? What will raise the tone of your voice? What brings the volume up? What causes him to notice you? Because everybody who prays wants the Lord to hear them, right? Otherwise we wouldn't be praying. And we have to ask ourselves, what do I think is going to make him hear me better? And whatever you think impacts the way you pray. Mark it down. Your thought about him affects how you pray to him. So when you approach God in worship, what do you think will bring you more favor? Jesus says, the Gentiles think the amount of words, but this isn't just them, right? The question of long prayers enters into our minds. He will hear me if I pray for a long time. So where's the hope in the clock? The longer I spend in prayer, the more likely it is for my prayer to be heard. Is that your mindset? They think they will be heard for the many hours. Jesus prayed all night and you can read about the saints of old and of today who are always in prayer. But why? Why were they always in prayer? Were they always in prayer because they thought, well, if I spend a lot of time in prayer, this is gonna make my voice louder to God, or was it because they were actually just enjoying the presence of God? I mean, don't we do that with each other? We go over to somebody's house for a fellowship, and you only plan to stay there for an hour or two, and then you're like, it's 1 a.m., how'd that happen? You weren't looking at the clock. You were just enjoying the fellowship, enjoying the communion. And you said, wow, look at all the time we spent. That's a very different thing than saying, OK, we're about to have a fellowship, we need to do this for at least two hours. How long has it been? It's been an hour and a half. All right, well, we need to do something else with this 30 minutes. Oh, I don't know. We got charades. I mean, that's a very different type of thing than just enjoying the presence of somebody. And so it is with our God. There's nothing wrong with praying long prayers if you're praying them so long because you just get caught up in who he is and you're just enjoying his presence and you just want to know him more before you realize that you forgot everything. You forgot you were hungry. You forgot that you had an appointment. You're like, oh man, I'm so sorry. I lost track of the time. That's a different thing than hoping and trusting in the clock and the amount of time and hoping that that is going to lets you be heard. Someone said, oftentimes the shortest prayers have the most prayer in them. I think there's truth in that. Other religions, it's not just the amount of words. They think they'll be heard because of the amount of suffering that they go through. And so look at the prophets of Baal as they cut themselves and bleed all over the place, and yet we might have the same mindset. Why will He hear me? Well, I've done wrong, I've sinned, and so I need to punish myself. And if I can make myself suffer enough, He'll hear me. He's not going to hear me unless I cut myself. Not literally, hopefully you're not flailing yourself like the Catholics do, but we might be cutting ourselves in other ways. You know what? I'm just not going to eat. And I'm going to make myself hungry, and I'm going to make myself sick. because I did wrong, and then God's gonna see me suffer, and when He sees me suffering and making myself suffer, when He sees the blood all over the place, then He'll hear me. Christians don't do that, right? Do you see the point? This is so tempting for us to think, He will hear me because of this. What makes Him hear you? What do you trust to make him hear you? Do you think you need to punish yourself? Do you think you need to beat yourself up, talk bad about yourself, go without something that you're completely free to have? And you think that that is what's gonna get his attention? For they think they will be heard for. Maybe the reason you say in Jesus' name and amen and father and lord and all these other things is because you believe deep down that this is what makes you heard by God. Not even that you really are thinking about the words or what they mean, you just think, if I don't say these things, then this prayer doesn't actually count. Little kids used to play games like that when they grew up. Oh, but you didn't say, Oh, right, I didn't say. I want the front seat. Yeah, but you didn't claim it, so it's not yours. Oh, you're right. And we can have this mindset when it comes to prayer. Well, it's a prayer only if I say Father, and if I say Lord, and if I say in Jesus name, and I have to say amen, because if I don't say amen, then it's not a prayer. And yet you look at Jesus and you hear his prayers, and did he always say amen? Why do you say the things you say when you pray? You think he won't hear you unless you say this certain term. Now we look at the Gentiles and the heathens with their incantations and their magic spells, and they have to say them perfectly in order to bring their God up or in order to bring about this curse or this blessing. And we say, what foolishness? And yet we may be thinking, I have to have these certain words in my prayer in order for it to work. What is that more than a magic spell? Other religions teach their followers to bring oranges or pecans or mangoes or other gifts to their deity and they put them in front of them and we walk by and see this moldy fruit with flies all over the place and say, what? Don't they know? Don't they know better? You don't have to bring gifts to God. in order for Him to hear you, and yet, do you think that you need to have a good week? I had a good week this week. He's gonna hear me now. I had a bad week this week. He's not gonna hear me as good. What is that? Here I'm bringing my good gifts, and now God will hear me. Look at God. You see my prayer life this week, and do you see how nice I was to my wife? And look, I was submissive to my husband. I didn't yell at my children once, all week. Look at this. Now will you hear me? Now my prayer is going to be far more listened to. What are you trusting in? These gifts. We laugh at the moldy oranges, and yet we bring our righteousness before him, our own works. Like, now you'll hear me. They think they will be heard, but there are many words. It's the same idea. What do you think will make God hear you? Do you think you have to be all cleaned up, read so many pages of your Bible before you can approach Him? Because if you don't, He's not going to hear you. Is prayer a recipe? Add some titles, a little Bible verse, Some self-abasement, no less than 30 minutes and now he's all ears. Is that how we treat prayer? Like it's a mathematic equation, this plus this equals this? Is that intimacy? Is that how we want our marriages to be? Is that how we want to be treated in our relationships with this mechanical robotic type formula? No, we want spontaneity. We want heartfelt. We want reality, don't we? And we're created in His image. To do all of this is no different than Gentiles thinking they'll be heard for their many words. And we may mock them and we may make memes about them and talk about them and shake our heads at them, but we may be doing the exact same things. So that's the wrong way. He says, do not be like them. For your father knows what you need before you ask him. He goes directly to the point. Do not be like the unbeliever when you pray. What are they trying to do? They're trying to twist the arm of a reluctant God to do something for them. But that is not us. And that is not our God. We are coming to who? Our father. Don't be like them. Your father, you see how he said, don't pray like the unbeliever. They think they're gonna be heard for their words. You're going to your father, Christian, to your father. He knows what you need. He knows what you want. He's your father. This is a quote from Martin Lloyd-Jones, he says, If only we realize that this almighty God is our father through the Lord Jesus Christ. If only we realize that we are indeed his children and that whenever we pray, it is like a child going to his father. He knows all about us. He knows our every need before we tell him. As the father cares for the child and looks at the child and is concerned about the child and anticipates the needs of the child, So is God with respect to all those who are in Christ Jesus. We must remember that he is our father. The great, the holy, the almighty God is our father. He cares for us. He has counted the very hairs of our head. He has said that nothing can happen to us apart from him." Why will he hear you when you pray? Not because you say all the right words. Not because you say things in the right order, but because He is your Father. He loves you. He knows what you need before you ask, and you are to approach Him with this mindset. What do you think about God? Are you trying to buy His love? Are you trying to manipulate His heart? Are you trying to make Him feel bad for you? Are you trying to invoke Him with some magic spell? What do you think will make Him hear you? Are you trusting in the fact that before the foundation of the world, He chose you in adoption, not because of you, but because He is love? Are you hoping in the fact that you are in Christ And that is all you need for His ears to be wide open to you, because the righteousness of Christ covers you like a breastplate, because the Spirit of God indwells you. Why will He hear you? Because He's your Father. God sent His Son to bring you out of sin, out of darkness, out of wrath, out of death, out of selfishness, to bring you into his marvelous light, into his righteousness, into his family. You've been adopted by him through his son, if you're a believer. God is your father. You are his child. And why? Why is this the case? Why are you a child of God? Because you deserve to be in his family? We know better. We have not earned a place at the table of God. It's not that we were better than the rest. We were the worst. It's not that we suffered more, and he just saw how bad we were suffering and said, oh, poor kid, come and be my family. That's not what it was. It's not like we were more faithful than every other sinner. Oh, look at that. That one is a fake. Come, I want you on my team. No, God doesn't choose teams. You know how it was when you were growing up, and it was a horrible thing to experience. But there'd be those two teams, and the kids are captains. They say, OK, I want you. And they're picking the strongest and the best, you know, it starts getting less and less. And there you are kind of standing as you and like somebody's shadow and like, I'll take the shadow and like, Oh man, nobody wants me. Hey, that's not how God does it. He doesn't say, okay, I'm going to choose the best of the best. And you could really do me. No, God chooses not based upon anything in us in spite of us for his own will, for his own purpose, because God is love. He brings us in. He came to his own and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Who were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. It's not based upon blood, who your family is, no matter what the Hebrew Israelites scream on the corner. This isn't by the will of the flesh or the will of man. It's not by our works, no matter what every other religion preaches. We are brought into the family of God by adoption, by grace and faith in Christ alone. You are in the family because of his love to you. What do you need for him to hear you? You already have. It's a gift. And so when we approach God, we don't need to try to earn his ear or to gain his attention by something that we do by a perfectly crafted prayer, sentence fillers. He doesn't hear us any louder on our best day or our worst day. As long as you come to him without hypocrisy, As long as you're actually coming to Him and not coming to Him thinking about others. As long as we come in faith as a child. How are children with their parents? They're dependent. They trust them. You could tell your two-year-old child that you could fly. And they'd be like, really? Children believe their parents. That's faith. And we're to come to God believing everything He says. He is our father. Jesus says, come to your father with your heart fully set upon him and worship him. Don't get caught up trying to impress him with your prayers. He's not impressed. You can't impress him with anything you do. He is only impressed with his son and his son has given you his righteousness. Come, come. Every parent in here, ask yourself, does your child need to call you by a certain title in order to be heard by you? In order to be loved by you? In order for you to give them what they need? You said you were hungry, I was gonna feed you, but you said dad instead of father, so no food for you. I mean, we don't do that. That's not how we treat our children. And Jesus said, if you know how to give good gifts to your children being evil, how much more will the heavenly father give The Spirit give good things to those who ask Him. He says don't pray like them. Don't do it like them. Because you have a Father who knows what you need. So what does this look like? Some of you, when you come to God, you just want to say, Father, I'm scared right now. I don't know what to do. Can I say that? Yeah. He knows what you need. You don't need to put a whole bunch of colorful terms that you're not even honestly saying from the heart, you can come to him honestly, like a child to their father. You may say, Lord, I really feel like sinning right now. Please help me to stay away from this. That is far more meaningful than, A 10 hour prayer filled with the most colorful and most sound language that you can muster up. That simple prayer of agony from a heart looking to Him for help. He hears that because you're coming to Him as a child to their father. Sometimes you need to pray, Father, I'm so angry. I want to punch someone. Keep me from doing what I should not do. Help me. That's real. He knows what you need. He knows what you're thinking. It's not like you're catching them off guard. Come to him honestly. You don't have to put a bunch of these and thous. If that's how you talk, amen. But none of those words will make him hear you any more or any less. He hears you because he's your father. Now I'm not saying treat him like your buddy. God is king. He is sovereign. He is the ruler of all. He is worthy of utmost respect and honor. But when we come to our father, if you've been raised halfway right, you know, you come to your father with love and respect. Likewise, approach him with the reverence he is due. Remember that he is father who cares for his children. When you pray, Do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them. For your father knows what you need before you ask him. Lord willing, we'll be looking at the Lord's prayer soon enough. Father, you are our father. If we are in Christ, The only reason we can say, Father, is if you have saved us, if we've been born again, and we've been born of the Spirit and born above, you've given the right to become children of God. And only the children can call you Father. And Lord, all those who are your children, Father, help us to not pray like the heathen who doesn't have a father to pray to. Help us to remember these things. In Jesus' name, amen. Dismissed. Again, fellowship.