If you'd open your Bibles this morning, we're going to look into the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6. Let's begin a series this morning entitled, Finding Hope in a Hopeless World. Finding Hope in a Hopeless World. And the title of my message this morning is, Praying Hopefully. Praying Hopefully. Matthew, chapter 6. We'll begin reading in verse 5. The Bible says, 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. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy father which is in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do. They think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them. For your father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him. Let's bow our heads in a word of prayer. God, I pray that it would be the desire of each one of us here today that as long as we have breath that we would seek to praise the Lord. But I'm not foolish enough to think that that is the case this morning. And so my prayer, Lord, is as we look into your word that the Holy Spirit would so speak to our hearts and to our lives Here in a few more moments, we would leave here a changed people. God, that we would not look at being in your house this morning as something that is just what we do on Sunday mornings, but Lord, that we would truly desire to worship you, to enter into your presence and to leave here having drawn closer to our heavenly father who provides for us a living hope. For we ask all these things in Jesus name, amen. How many of you would like to start off the year 2014 with the assurance that every single one of your prayers will be answered? I know that's my desire, and yet how many of us would at the same time think of times when we have prayed and wondered whether or not our prayers are going to be answered? Perhaps there are those who have not prayed because they have not seen the results that they desired in the past, so they consider it almost as if it were an exercise in futility, or at best, something you do only when you have a spiritual rather than a personal need. I can't help but think at the beginning of this year, in 2014, how easy it is for people to make dietary goals, and this is what I'm going to do, and this is what I'm going to eat, and this is what I'm not going to eat, and this is how much of it I'm going to eat. And I think sometimes we have these wonderful aspirations, and then a few weeks into the year, well, you know, she did make my favorite crumb topping deep dish homemade from scratch apple pie and that's kind of hard to resist so I think I'll have to indulge myself a little bit and well we did get invited over to so-and-so's house and you know I couldn't offend her and since this lady has spent all this time preparing this meal that I think it's only right that I let her know that I really enjoy this food. And of course, when she offers me a second, I can't be rude to my hostess, so I'm going to indulge in that. And we quickly see that all of those things that we were bound and determined to do very quickly erode. And you say, how do you know that? Because I've lived it on more than one occasion. But I want us to think this morning From a spiritual standpoint, we're asking God in 2014 to reveal to us that living hope and to cause each one of us, young and old, to live every day of our lives in light of that living hope. Of course as we defined last week from the book of 1 Peter, in fact we'll be looking at it again this evening, we understand that the living hope in the direct sense of the term refers to the hope that is found because our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ rose from the grave and He is alive today. But when we think about praying hopefully, I want to ask this morning for you to answer in your heart how many of you This last week, over these last seven days, on a daily basis, spent more than ten minutes in prayer before God. If we really say, yes, I am all about walking with God, I'm all about growing in the Lord, I'm all about praying, I'm all about reading my Bible. And very quickly, any of us in a church service can readily say, amen, as I give assent to that. That's what it's all about. But are we living that? We say, yes, we want to see God do great things in our homes. We say, yes, we want to see God do great things for us in our hearts. And we say, yes, we want to see God do great things in his house. But are we praying hopefully? Or could it be that perhaps we have come to a place in our spiritual lives where we say, oh, I'm beyond that. Now that's just really not worth my time. I don't see the results that I had anticipated. Yes, I was excited and yes, when I got saved and I began to think about the fact that I could pray to God and He would hear my prayers, boy, I was all on board and that was what I was eager to do on a daily basis and now I'm a little too busy, and now I've been saved a little bit longer, and now I've read my Bible a little bit, and now in fact I've got this new position at work, and it has new demands on my time, and now the kids are getting under my feet, and so I've got to tend to them. And what we do is we cease to pray, hopefully. Well, the Lord puts forth before us this morning some exciting words. But the only way these words are gonna do any good in any of our lives is if each one of us will, at the beginning of this message, say, God, please, I beg of you, do not let me leave here in some 25 to 30 minutes without having allowed you to speak to me. If I come with a preconceived notion, if I immediately put up my guards, if I immediately say, okay, all right, yeah, that's for somebody else. And you know what's going to happen? At the end of the year, you're going to weigh more spiritually than you did at the beginning of the year because you never got in shape. with what God had to say about the most important exercise that you and I can engage in as God's children, and that's the matter of communicating with our Lord. What is the foundation of our prayers? Well, this is what Jesus Christ is here starting off with in this passage. He's letting us know that the one that we are praying to is a heavenly Father. We looked a little bit over the Christmas holidays at the fact that we do serve an everlasting father and we are so grateful for who he is to each one of us. But I want us to just think this morning a little bit about the attributes of that heavenly father. When we say that we are praying to God, who is it that we're praying to? Look back in the book of Job if you would. We all know the story of Job, those of us that have been saved for any length of time. He was a man who was tried and tested by all of his friends. Every single one of them found him guilty, and yet God came at the end and set the record straight. Job certainly sought to do what he thought was right. He sought to be a man of integrity. In fact, God was the one who used that adjective to describe him. I'd love for God to use that adjective to describe me, and I trust that's what you desire as well for your life. But here, at the same time, after all of Job's friends have exhausted their arguments, they've tried to explain away why everything bad has happened to him, why he's lost his family, why he's lost his health, why he's lost all of his possessions, and they've tried to tell him, hey, there's something that's horribly wrong there. It's interesting to note how God comes and sets the record straight. And God, the Bible says, answered Job out of the whirlwind in Job 38 and verse 1 and begins to have this dialogue with him. He sets him straight on a few things and I think these things are very important for us if we're going to be praying hopefully to be cognizant of every time we go to God in prayer. First of all, I want us to understand that we are praying to a God who sees everything. The Bible says in verse 4, where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? Or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the cornerstone thereof, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Skip down to verse 16. Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? Or hast thou walked in the search of the depth? Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? Or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death? Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? Declare, if thou knowest it all. Where is the way where light dwelleth? And as for darkness, where is the place thereof? That thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof, and that thou shouldest know the paths to the house thereof. It's important if I'm going to go to God in prayer, if I'm going to pray to this Heavenly Father, that I keep in mind that that God literally sees absolutely everything. And this is what God was trying to help Job to understand. He says, seen it. So if I'm going to be praying hopefully, how does that impact my prayer life? Well I have to keep in mind that when it comes to my God, that my God has seen me in every state of being. My God has seen me first of all in my wickedness. The Bible reminds us in Romans chapter 5 and verse 8, but God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet what? sinners, Christ died for us. God has seen me at my worst, in my wickedness, in the condition in which I was born, in which every man, woman, boy, or girl has also been born, a state of sin. My God has seen me in my wickedness. But my God has also seen me in my willfulness. Sometimes you and I tend to think, okay, Lord, I know this is what your word says, and I know this is what I'm supposed to do in this situation, and I know this is what God is impressing upon my heart to do, but if you don't mind, I'm gonna take a different path, a different route, and I'm gonna do things my way. And of course, the Bible lets us know that the one who has not yet received Jesus Christ as his savior, who thinks in vain that he has found a better way to heaven, Solomon reminds us in the book of Proverbs chapter 14 and in verse 12, there is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. And so in my willfulness, if I am bound and determined that I'm going to do things my way, well, God has already seen that. God is already mindful of that. And at the same time, when I think of what God has seen of me, he has seen me in my wickedness, he has seen me in my willfulness, he has also seen me in my worldliness. Now when we think about all of the temptations the devil can put before the child of God today, one of the greatest temptations he can put before us is that we will be attracted more to the world than we will to the Word. That we will be attracted more to entertainment than we will God in his excellence. That we will look more about what we can accumulate here and now. forgetful of the hereafter when we will spend an eternity with our Lord. When everything becomes a matter of what's in it for me, how can I have something bigger and better rather than what does God desire for me? How can I use these resources to further the cause of Christ so that more souls will be saved, and so that in turn more people will be rescued from the flames of hell. God sees me in my worldliness. God sees the decisions that I make regarding my finances, regarding my time, regarding my talents. Some people can get all excited at a ball game and put their whole heart into it and they're thrilled about what's taking place and when it comes to The house of God, oh well, I've spent all my energy and now I'm just kind of giving God a little bit of the leftovers that are here. But you see, God sees us in our worldliness and God also sees us in our weakness. We just preached a few weeks ago the importance of learning the principle that we can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us. But sometimes when we talk about seeking to do things, we can forget about the importance of depending upon God. God sees the struggles that you and I have with this flesh, with this world. The struggles that we have as to whether or not we're going to put God first in our hearts, or whether or not He's going to be second or third. Whether or not we're going to allow Him to speak to us. The blessing is that you and I can pray hopefully because God knows exactly who I am. But God not only sees everything, but he hears everything. He hears the cry of the orphan. He hears the cry of the offended. He hears the cry of the penitent heart. He hears the cry of the contrite. And he also hears those who would try in vain to talk to him, not out of contrition and sincerity, not out of a repentant heart. You know, sometimes we forget about the fact that, hey, as I cry out to my God, he is the only God that has ever or will ever be capable of hearing my prayer. There's not one other God out there that can. The psalmist reminds us of this when he says, Who is it that we're praying to? Who is it that we want to answer? We're praying to the one true God. We're praying to the one who sees exactly what you need. We're praying to the one who hears your inmost cry. But we're also praying to a God who knows everything. Look with me at what we found here in our passage before us this morning in verse eight, the last verse of our text in Matthew chapter six. Be not ye therefore like unto them, for your father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him. I am so glad that when it comes to praying to God, yes, he sees me. He can see me when I enter into that closet. Yes, he hears me. He's concerned that I not go before him with those vain repetitions and simply go through this mechanical exercise. But also, He is a God who knows exactly what my needs are. And He knows that my needs are different than your needs. And He knows that your needs are different than your spouse's needs or your children's needs. But nonetheless, He knows exactly what every single one of us does need. Let's keep in mind that he also knows what we do not need. As James reminds us in chapter 4 and verse 3, He knows that sometimes when we talk about praying to God, we may be misguided. We may be praying for something that is going to cause us to stray from the Lord. Now we may not see that on the surface, but God knows everything. And God knows full well if that is going to cause you to draw closer to Him or to distance yourself from Him. And God, of course, also knows whether or not what I am telling him is a need truly is a need. The Bible says in Luke chapter 12, as Jesus Christ is speaking, seek not ye what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, neither be of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after. And your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. I'm grateful, the foundation of our prayers. How can I pray hopefully? Well, I can pray hopefully because I'm praying to an omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent God who sees me, who knows my need, and who truly can and will hear my prayer. What about the confidence of our prayers? How is it that we can pray confidently? Look with me if you would in 1 John chapter 5. 1 John chapter 5, and Jesus himself makes brief reference to this in the prayer that is here before us in Matthew chapter 6, which we're not going to dwell on specifically, but he tells us there, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven, that that should be an element of our prayer as we go before God. But in 1 John chapter 5 and in verse 14, the Bible says, this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. What is it that He hears? Well, it's a blessing to know that as Jesus also reminds us, He hears our plea for forgiveness, and He's the only one who can forgive us of our sins. but I can pray confidently to God knowing, yes, He will forgive me of my sins. I don't have to carry that burden around. I don't have to constantly be confronting that over and over again because I have the confidence as I pray according to His will that He's going to hear me. I'm grateful for the fact that he also is the one who heals the wounded. Now, he does this according to his will, but I can pray with absolute confidence that, Lord, if it is your will for him to heal a brother or sister, that he will do so because I'm praying to an all-powerful God. He's the one who lifts the fallen. I am thankful to the Lord that, yes, I have confidence that my God is capable of lifting any of those who have fallen by the way. And of course, I'm equally grateful as I pray to God that he is the one who loves the forsaken. It's very easy for any of us to come to a place where we get so involved and we may be so surrounded by others, and yet at the same time, inwardly, we may be crying out. We may be saying, but is anybody concerned about my specific needs? Does anybody know how I'm hurting, how I'm feeling, what I'm going through? And I can tell you with absolute certainty and confidence this morning, our heavenly father is very much aware of that. And so as I think of praying hopefully, as I say, okay Lord, in 2014 things are going to be different, I can and should and furthermore must, on a continual basis, come before that God and say, Lord, I need to see you work. God, here's the burden of my heart. God, I know that what I'm doing right now is not just simply wasting time. It's not just a matter of going through an exercise. But Lord, as I pray to you with a sincere heart, desirous of God's will being done, I have absolute confidence that my prayers will be answered. Of course, when we think about our Heavenly Father, we realize that His perspective is unique to ours. And that as a result of that, that He can see things that you and I can't see. And sometimes that answer to prayer that He may give to us may be that He wants us to wait a while. Sometimes that answer to prayer may be that that's not appropriate for us. But I have the absolute confidence as I pray for God's will to be done in my life, for God's will to be manifested to me on a daily basis, for God's will to guide both the major as well as the minor decisions that I make in my life. I have the confidence that He will answer those prayers according to His perfect will. The last thing I wanna remind us of as we think of praying hopefully is not only the foundation of our prayers, the confidence of our prayers, but hindrances to our prayers. And if you'd look back in Matthew chapter six, Matthew chapter six. I want us to also keep in mind that there are certain things that can impede our prayers from being heard. And I think one of the first things there is in the matter of uncommitted service. Let me explain what I mean by that. I'm talking about the person who engages in what on the outside may look like a good religious or spiritual activity. but they're not doing it from their heart. And if I engage, I sing, or I teach, or I serve, or I work in the nursery, or I help in the greeters, or I'm engaged in any form of ministry, if I'm not doing it out of a commitment to God, And the Bible says that my prayers are going to be in vain. He gives us a specific example here in verse five. Now think about this for a moment. Is there anything wrong with praying standing in the synagogue? No, there's not. In fact, we're commanded to come together in the book of Acts. We see time and time and time again where the brothers and sisters in Christ came together and prayed. Is there anything that is wrong with praying on the corner of the street? Do you not recall where Jesus Christ was when in the garden of Gethsemane, he prayed over the city of Jerusalem because he was so burdened for their coldness? towards the gospel? There's nothing wrong with praying on the corner of a street. But when I'm doing that to be seen of others and to draw attention to myself rather than to my savior, then the Bible says it's in vain. Uncommitted service. Why do you do what you do? Oh, and I realize as well, when we think about another hindrance to our prayer, it comes, as we've already made brief reference to, but it comes by having unconfessed sin. Notice what the Bible says down in verse 14. If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. You see, sometimes the Holy Spirit speaks to us and lets us know this isn't right. You didn't treat your wife right. You responded in a quick, cutting fashion to your children. You were rebellious in your response to your parents. You showed a lack of respect to your teacher. You didn't give the gospel that person that I was speaking to you about as you sat next to them on the bus, you didn't share a track with that waiter or waitress at the restaurant. And if I allow for sin, no matter how small, to creep into my life and to stay in my life without confessing that to the Lord, then my prayers will go hindered. before God. The psalmist puts it this way, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. That's whether things that we did that were sinful or things that we did not do that we should have done. And of course the word regard there is talking about observing. It's talking about contemplating. It's not even so much the act of the actual sin. It's just sitting there and thinking about it and dwelling about it and contemplating it. The Bible says if that is my attitude, if that's what I've engaged in, then as I pray to God later on, He's not going to hear me. So what is praying hopefully all about? Well, it's about realizing, hey, I have the greatest resource known to mankind, all because of Jesus Christ's work on the cross of Calvary. And every day that I do not go before God and genuinely seek his face and ask for him to work on behalf of my own needs, the needs of my family, the needs of my friends, is a missed opportunity when I will come and stand before God someday in the future. But there also can be a hindrance to prayer of an uncaring attitude. You see, when we think of God, it is absolutely critical that we make sure that we desire that living hope. that that is something that is guiding my thought process, that I'm not just doing this because, well, that's what everybody at the church is doing, but that I'm doing this because I want to be drawn closer to my Lord. I've got to guard against apathy, thinking that others can fill the spot when God has impressed it upon my heart to serve him. James says, for that she ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that in James four and verse 15. Think about it. God is not some type of candy stick, but he's a caring sovereign. It's not a matter of, okay, God, give me this and give me this and give me this. Now leave me alone. God is not a lucky rabbit's foot, but he is a reverent father. He's not there to get me out of a pinch, but he's there to draw me closer to him. The last thing that I think we need to guard against as a hindrance to our prayers being answered is an unkempt heart. By that I'm referring to the Christian who tries to relegate God to certain areas of his or her heart. Lord, I know this is good, and so I'm going to be involved, and I'm going to serve you, and I'm going to read my Bible, and I'm going to pray. But God, this matter of what I should look at, Lord, of what I should watch, God, if you don't mind, you just butt out of that. And you can talk to me about how I should treat my wife and how I should treat my children, but don't talk to me about my viewing habits. The matter of saying, well, Lord, you know, this matter of praying hopefully, I want to do that. God, I want to see you work. Lord, I want to see you intervene in these different situations here. But God, please don't talk to me again about the importance of being an effective witness for you because you know that's just not for me. And we attempt in vain to keep God out of certain areas of our lives. Perhaps you can think of times when as a child company was coming over and in a last minute check of the bedrooms, mom realized that your bedroom leaves a lot to be desired. So she tells you, you are to shut the door and do not invite your friends to your bedroom. I don't want them to see what the condition of it is. Do we do that with our hearts? Oh God, you can see this and you can see this and you can come here, but Lord, this other area, it's off limits. God, the matter of really getting alone with you and speaking with you and allowing you to speak to me, Lord, you know I'm too busy for that. So God, I'll be in church and I'll even be in Sunday school, but just don't talk to me about spending that time with you on a daily basis. I want each of us to think this morning, there is a living hope. It's found in Jesus Christ. How have I reflected these past seven days in my own personal life that I am praying in light of that living hope? What is that burden that you quit talking to God about because you didn't see the response according to your timetable and so you just figured God's not interested? He is interested. He does care. He wants you to come to Him. But is there some type of sin that is there that you're trying to disguise as less than sin? that God might be speaking to you about? Is there something there that you know full well that you've been negligent in? You keep thinking, well, but that shouldn't impact this. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. I'm so grateful that when I go to my heavenly Father, He knows exactly what my needs are, and He is the only one who can meet every single one of those needs according to His will. The story is told of a ship that was sinking in the middle of a storm. The captain called out to the crew and said, does anyone here know how to pray? One man stepped forward and said, yes sir, I know how to pray. The captain said, wonderful. You pray while the rest of us put on life jackets because we're one short. How would you have responded if that had been you? Do we pray hopefully? Oh, well, you know, I ask God to bless my food and that's sufficient. No, it's not. Do we really desire to get a hold of God? Do we really want to see God use us in a greater way than ever before? Do we really want to have that harmony in the home? Do we really want to be convinced that every day of our lives we're walking in the center of his perfect will? You can have that knowledge, you can have that harmony, you can have that peace, that comfort, that hope and confidence, but it's up to you and to me to say, how important is it to me that I really take time to talk to God? I don't mean a little 30 second prayer. No, I mean really getting alone with God. It may mean you have to reorganize your schedule in the morning. It may mean you'll realize that there's time that you have that you're not taking advantage of, perhaps in your commute to work. Maybe it's not that important to have the radio on. Maybe you could turn it off and there by yourself driving to work, you could use that time to talk out loud to God. and ask for His guidance and direction throughout the day. Maybe it means that if in the morning things are a little bit out of order and you didn't take that time to pray, that then at lunchtime you need to change your plans for lunch to make time to pray to God. You see, if we really understood how much hope there is in our God, I guarantee you every single one of us would spend more time in prayer, with no exceptions. If we really understood who that living hope is, what Jesus Christ has accomplished for us, We wouldn't make excuses as to why we don't have time to pray. And furthermore, we would see more of our prayers answered and we'd have more of the power of God in our lives. The Lord's coming back soon. The devil's doing everything in his power to cause for Christians today to not tap into that valuable resource. What about you? How can you or should you change your schedule this next week to make prayer a higher priority? You see, God's resources are as boundless today as they were when Jesus spoke those words. But He wants to see young and old alike. Does it matter? Are we sincere about desiring to see God work? If so, we can and must pray, hopefully. Let's bow our heads in a word of prayer.