10-5-22 - How To Hinder Your Prayers

Tonight, if you have your Bibles, if you would go ahead and turn with me to the book of Matthew, we're going to we're going to start just by reading the passages in Matthew that we looked at Sunday, and then we're going to launch on into a extended study from Sunday's message. So Matthew Chapter six.

Thank you for being here tonight. We're going to be looking at a message on prayer, some hindrances to prayer. Matthew six. When you find your place, we're going to read verse five down to verse number eight. And as I said, Sunday, I'm very excited about getting into a study on prayer. I trust that your prayer life has been already encouraged to work on some of these areas of just taking time and spending with the Lord and making prayer priority. And by making prayer priority, we're making God a priority.

Right. And so it's good to see a good group tonight. Matthew 6, verse number 5, it says, And when thou prayest, thou shall 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 when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, and 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 repetition as the heathen do, for they think 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. God, we are so thankful that we have your word tonight. It is a joy to gather, to sing praises. Behold our God seated on the throne.

What a glory that Revelation 4 lays out before us. And on your throne, Isaiah declared, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, and the whole earth is truly full of your glory. And we pray that your blessed, glorious presence would be felt here tonight, that our hearts would be pulled away from the busy cares of this life, and we would be fastened on to heaven. I pray that we would be attentive to the word of God, but also obedient to it, Lord, that we would apply what we hear tonight, that you would be Lord of our life. And we ask it in Jesus' name, and God's people said, man, you may be seated this evening. Well, throughout the years, I have taught and preached on the importance of prayer, and we're gonna be getting into what the Bible says, how to pray, starting this Sunday in the Lord's Prayer to Matthew 6 here, verse 9 through 15. But before Jesus got into teaching on how to pray, as I said Sunday, he taught on how not to pray. And oftentimes, we need to understand things we're not supposed to do before we begin to learn what we are to do. Maybe you've gotten a new job at some point, and they said, when you work on this machine, make sure you don't hit this red button here.

Make sure you don't do this here. And they tell you some things that, because what that's telling you is there are some warnings that can, there are some problems, there are some things that could really cause some issues. There are some very big detrimental things that could happen if you violate them, and so Jesus comes to the teaching on prayer by first putting up warning signs, like don't do this, don't do this, and he comes warning us about some things we're not to do as we approach prayer. And I think that's important to understand, and for Jesus to say there's certain things we're not supposed to do when we pray, things that can hinder our prayers, that lets us know there is a standard by which God has called us to do when it comes to the topic of prayer, the subject of prayer. There is a right way to pray, and there are wrong ways to pray. Truth is not subjective, right?

It's not based on what we think it should be. Like I don't approach God based on what I think he should accept. Sometimes people say this, like how you gonna get to heaven? Well I just think that, and then they begin to tell you how they think they'll be made right with God.

Well you're not the standard, friend. You may think that you're going to make your way to heaven, but that's a fiction of your imagination. You've created a God that is in your own mind. And so when we come to prayer, we must come and say, God, how would you want me to approach you?

Think about that. God, how would you want me to approach you in prayer? How do you want me to come to you? How do you want me to pray? And what's interesting in Luke chapter 11, the disciples came to Jesus and they said, Jesus, Lord, teach us to pray even as John the Baptist taught his disciples how to pray. And so it's important for us to know that there is a learning curve to prayer, isn't there?

There is a learning curve to that. You should become better at praying. You should become more effective in your prayer life.

You should be better at praying now than you were when you first got saved. Now sadly, sometimes people can lose some authenticity in their prayer because sometimes rigidity or formulas can come into their mind and they begin to recite prayers and that can become a problem if it's not done with sincerity. But we need to know that God has an expectation when it comes to prayer for us.

And we can't come to this with a half-hearted attitude of just, you know, I'll pray when I get around to it or I'll, no, no, no, no. Prayer is of utmost importance. What we do with prayer reveals what we do with God. Our prayer life is really a reflection of how we view God. If we make much of prayer, we have made much of God. But when you make little of prayer, guess who we've made little of?

The Lord. And so we looked last time or this past Sunday on four ways that our prayers can be hindered just by way of review. And then we're gonna look at six areas further that the Bible expands on that can hinder our prayers. But Sunday, we looked at pretending in prayer. We looked at the warning of the hypocrite, and that's in verse five and six. He says, don't be like the hypocrites. And you know what the hypocrites did? They prayed to be seen of men.

They desired to look good. They prayed with a concern of what people thought of their wording, of their spirituality, of, boy, look how good they are at prayer. Look how spiritual they are. That's a hypocritical focus of prayer. Also, we should never not pray in front of people because we're concerned what they'll think. We shouldn't pray in front of people so that we could look good, and we should also not be kept from praying because we think we'll look bad.

Does that make sense? Both of them are allowing men to control how we pray. Both of them are allowing men to be the standard of our prayer life.

We have to transcend that. We gotta say, God, I'm only concerned with your ear. And if I'm concerned with your ear, I don't care what Pastor Josh thinks of my prayer. I care what God thinks of my prayer, amen? That's how we must approach the Lord in prayer. So don't pretend in prayer.

Secondly, emptiness in prayer, that's in verse seven and eight. He said what the heathen do is they use vain repetition. You ever seen some of these guys?

I've studied some Hinduism in my life and Buddhism, not for personal gain, but just to study their religion. But you'll see these guys, they'll stand and like do this kind of thing. And they'll chant the same prayer like hundreds, if not thousands of times, just over and over and over and over for hours.

It's incredible. And they do that because they think in much speaking and repetitious that there's some kind of value in that. And it's just this mindless chant. And so among the Jews, they prayed the Shema, which is Deuteronomy chapter six as well as two other passages in the Old Testament. But they also prayed the Shema Ezra, which is the 18 prayers, both morning at noon and in the evening.

And so this became something that was good. It's good to have prayers that are structured that you would want to pray about, but they became just reciting it by memory. And you know how that can be. We can, you ever begin to pray and you're like, I'm praying with my mouth, but my mind has wandered over to some world thing, right?

I started thinking about some activity I have to do later today, or something that happened yesterday, and our minds can wander around. Anybody else get convicted about that and you stop? You know what I do? I just stop, God forgive me.

God forgive me. Because you know what he knows? He knows, he's just bringing it to light so I can know now.

You know, Josh, you're not, what are you moving your mouth for? You're using vain repetition. So be aware of that. Pray with sincerity. Thirdly, earning answers to prayer.

We talked about that Sunday. They think thou shall be heard for their much speaking. That was what they did in the Old Testament with the 450 prophets who tried to rouse up Baal. And so, and then fourthly, we saw not praying. James 4 one and two says that you have not because you asked not. And so I believe in heaven one day, we're gonna find out how much God could have done in our lives but did not do because we never asked. There are many prayers that never got answered. I wonder how many more people could be sent out into the harvest fields of the mission field and to church planting and to teaching and to evangelism if we would pray for laborers like Jesus said, right? You know a prayer we should pray every day? Lord, raise up labors, raise up soul winners, raise up people to go out and tell people about Jesus.

And you know, Florida's been on our heart, hasn't it? Been praying for the people down in Florida and God raised up some of these people in Florida to shine the gospel of Jesus Christ in the midst of this because I can tell you, one of the blessings of tragedy is it brings us down to our own mortality. You know, one of the blessings of COVID was it made us remember we're all mortal. You know, we stepped back and said, hey, I'm not gonna live forever. And especially at the beginning, people are like, oh man, they're scared to die but we don't have to be afraid to die. The Bible says Jesus has delivered us from the fear of death, right? So we don't have to live with that fear but we need to make sure that we take time to pray for people. We need to lift them up and not depending upon the Lord in prayer means we're depending upon ourself and we need to remember what Paul said. We're not sufficient of ourself to think anything is of ourself.

Our sufficiency is of God as 2 Corinthians 3, 5 clearly tells us. So let's look at six more truths tonight very quickly and I heard that snicker very quickly is a relative term. We will not define that by Webster's dictionary. We'll define that by experience.

So the number one. Another way, if you turn with me to James chapter four, verse three, I'll show you another way that we can have our prayers hindered according to the word of God. Flip right in your Bibles over to the book of James chapter number four. Isn't James such a wonderful book? Get in the book of James and just the practical Christian living.

If you're ever like, you know, where should I read in the Bible? Read James again. Read 1 John again.

You say, well, I haven't read James in 1 John a whole lot. Well, read it until you really get the whole book down. Read it every day for the next 30 days. You can read five chapters in about 15, 20 minutes.

Listen to it. If you don't have time to always read as much as five chapters, but listen to James chapter four. Let's read verse one through three. It says, and from whence come wars and fightings among you come they not hence even of your own lust that war in your members, you lost and have not, you kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. You fight in war yet you have not because you what?

That's not so. So there is a hindrance of seeing prayers answered because you don't ask. And then he gives us another hindrance to prayers being answered. And it's in verse three. If you would read verse three with me, ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lusts.

Now the word ask there is in the middle voice in the Greek. And what that means is they're asking for themself. Like they're asking for their own gain, what they can get out of it. In context, James is describing someone who's a selfish prayer person.

They're self centered in their request. James warns those who were actually praying that their motive was driven by their lusts and covetous desires according to this passage. And we must be careful when we come to God in prayer that we are not putting ourself at the center of our prayers. Rather, we are putting the will of God and love for others at the center of our prayers. Ask yourself this question when you pray, what is my motive for praying this? Why do I want my prayer answered? If my prayer were answered, how would God be glorified?

And if my prayer were answered, how would I be able to love others and put others in front of me? The motive of the believer cannot be self. Our motive must be the glory of God. We must live for the glory of God.

Sola fide, sola grate, sola deo gloria as the reformers would say. We live for the glory of God. We're saved by grace through faith and for his glory. Romans 14, seven and eight says, for none of us liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live into the Lord and whether we die, we die into the Lord. Whether we live therefore or die, it says we are the Lord's. We're not to live for ourself. We're not to live for what we desire, but we're to live for the Lord's sake. First Corinthians 1 26 through 31 says this, for you see your calling, brother, not how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise and God has chosen the weak things to confound the things which are mighty.

The base things of the world, which are despite hath God chosen, yea, the things which are not to bring to not them that are and that no flesh should glory in his presence. And he goes on and says in verse 31, that according as it is written, he that gloryeth, let him glory in the Lord. If there's any boasting that is ever done at Lighthouse, let it be that we boast in Christ.

Does that make sense? Please never leave here boasting upon a life group teacher, a D group leader, a teacher, a pastor, leave here saying, boy, Jesus Christ is amazing. God is so good. His word just came to life today or his message is so powerful.

It's all of God. Like, you know, anything good that I see in you and you see in me is only the work of grace. You know, you know what we would be without grace?

Ungracious, you know, we would be a mess. We're left as a pile of mess and we need the glory in him. And so it's okay to let somebody know, hey, I appreciate what you've done. God has been so good in using you to impact my life. Things like that are okay, but make sure you give God the glory. First Corinthians 10 31 says, whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God.

You know, what we put in our bodies, we glorify God with in the simplicity of things. Motive is a big deal, friends, when it comes to prayer. I just, I wonder how often we stop and say, God, what is my real authentic motive for desiring this prayer request to be answered?

If you want to hinder your prayers, prayer with a self-focused worldly motive. God bless me so I can have an earthly, covetous desire fulfilled. If you're not faithful with the little resources you have, why would God give you more?

God, I need more money, I need more money. Well, God says he that is unfaithful and little will be unfaithful and much, but he that is faithful and least will be faithful and more. If I'm not faithful with $100 a week pay, why would God double it, right? Why would God increase that?

If I'm unfaithful with little, I'll be more unfaithful. Why would he increase my wrong? God, give me this position at work because I deserve it. I've put the time in.

Promote me for me. You may not say it in those words, but if pride is a motive for advancing at work, should God answer that prayer? You know, it's not the trials of life that are dangerous to our faith. It's the blessings of life.

I think most of us can handle the trials, to be honest with you. I think it's hard for us to handle success. Make somebody extremely successful. That is a dangerous thing.

It is dangerous for every single one of us. Spurgeon would talk about it. He says one of the greatest dangers in life is to be wildly successful in something that's not spiritual.

Just super good at something. And you can't wait to bring it up. Can't wait to tell, and we're all like this, right? Oh, did you hear what I did?

Did you know that I, and we like to, we gotta be careful. God, give me good health so I can continue to live as the Lord of my own life. Can you give me another 10, 20, 30 years so that I can continue to sit on the throne of my life and do what I want? And I know I don't read your word and pray and share the gospel, and I rarely ever go to church, and I don't serve anywhere, but God, give me a long life. And God says, why would I give you a longer life to live in rebellion and disobedience to me and as Lord of your own life? Does that make sense? You know, even prayers for good things can be corrupted with wrong motives.

Listen to this one. God, save my wife so that I could have a better marriage. God, save my husband so that we get along better and have a good marriage. And God says, oh, is salvation now about you?

Is it so that your life can be advanced? He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. You know, some of us need to say, God, forgive me. I want my spouse to be saved so there's one more person that can praise your holy name. Lord, give me victory over cigarettes so that I can be healthy and I can be there when my kids are old and I can save money. Oh, are you now focusing on yourself now?

Is this all about you now and what you can get? Why would God answer a selfish, self-motivated prayer like that? Instead, God, deliver me from this so that I could be another mouth that praises you to declare how glorious your presence was in giving me victory over this bondage in my life. You know what the byproducts are?

You get better health, you get more money that you're not wasting on that stuff, and you could perhaps have a longer life because you didn't shorten it with such things. So we have to make sure that when we ask God for things, that we're doing it, and even good things, that we're doing it for the glory of God. God, straighten my kids up there just a mess, you know? And God says, why?

I'm trying to teach you patience, Josh. Amen? So we need to say, God, I pray that my kids would be obedient to me so that they might reflect their love for you and self-control, that they might reveal their submission to the Holy Spirit, and that we would focus on God being glorified in their lives so that their light could shine before men. So make sure when we pray that our motive is not what James 4-3 says. He says, you ask and receive not because you ask amiss. You ask for the wrong reason, that you may consume it upon your lust. Secondly, our prayers will be hindered if we pray with pride.

This is a wrong spirit. Luke 18 gives us this very familiar passage. If you have your Bibles, you can flip over to Luke 18. He says, two men went up to pray in Luke 18, verse 10, unto the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a Republican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, and even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, and I give tithes of all that I possess. This man literally comes to God and boasts about himself to God.

Dust is boasting to glory. And the public in verse 13, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes into heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, look what Jesus says, rather than the other. You know what Jesus is telling us there? That one of the prayers were answered and the other was not.

For everyone that exalts himself shall be abased, and he that humbles himself shall be exalted. You know, the Pharisees always prayed in public places. As we saw in Matthew chapter six, they went to the corners of the streets, they made sure their noon, morning, or evening prayer time, they were in a public place.

They would do that on purpose. They were probably very eloquent, very exceptional in the way that they prayed. But I can tell you, big words have never impressed God.

God's never said, wow, look at the eloquence of that guy. And so the Pharisee always had to be in public to pray because that was the only place his reward would come. As one man said, Pharisees are deficient in the duty of private prayer.

They don't do it because they don't get anything out of it. Christ does not condemn public prayer, rather he purifies it. He teaches us to make sure that we focus on God, we're in a private setting in our heart. It's an inwardly thing, not just simply something we do on the outside. So he says, go into your closet in Matthew six, do this in private.

But we know we don't have to do that physically. It's an internal heart issue because the man in Luke 18 is in a public place, right? Praying where other people could hear him. So at the root of the problem of this prideful Pharisee is their pride. They wanted the glory, they wanted the notoriety. And that goes back to the desire to be seen.

Their motive is wrong, but the pride in this, the self focus of this. I really think if you're a true believer who understands the gospel, you could not go a day without at some point, thanking God for the grace he's shown you. If you truly grasp his mercy, you have to first grasp your own wretchedness. When you get a hold of that, you're slammed to the ground like Isaiah, by the holiness of God. And then you're overwhelmed with the cold that he took from off the altar that touched your lips and purified you symbolically through the blood of Christ.

And you're so over, you can't get over that. So how can a day go by without this happening? Dear God, I must just get on my knees and thank you today because you have been so merciful.

Like how could the believer not experience this? There should be something that stops us at the coffee store and says, I've just got to get along with the Lord for a moment. I don't have to always physically kneel, but my heart's gotta be knelt before God. Then maybe it's at work that you're struck with that and you just in your heart, just pause and God, thank you for your mercy.

When you look at the world and you're like, man, the America is going down the drain. God, thank you for your mercy. You saved me out of that. I'd be going down the drain.

My kids would be a mess. God, you're so merciful. I mean, there should be a humility. How on earth could I approach God and speak well of myself? Lord, you know, I've been going to church now for the last, you know, I've been praying faithfully. Isn't it about time I got that raise? Isn't it about time I got that new whatever, promotion at work, I really been putting it in.

I've had people say this, I've had this said to me over the years. You know, pastor, I've seemed like I've really been having some trials in my life. You know, I really figured once I started reading the Bible and going to church, things would smooth out. You know, I mean, it seems like things are getting harder.

I'm not sure about this. Oh, oh, so God, tell me what else God owes you besides eternal life in heaven and paradise and your sins removed so you never have to go to a flaming torment in hell and he's redeemed you forever by his own death on the cross. So what did he not give you? What is he so indebted to you now? Oh, God's indebted to you, but you're not indebted to him. Friends, it's hard, like the only reason I ask God for things in life is because he tells me to. It's almost embarrassing, isn't it? Like give us this day our daily bread.

How can I even ask for that? We have leftovers. All right, you do too, and we throw them away sometimes. Girls eat all this stuff up. My goodness, I can imagine having all boys. I grew up with all boys. My dad would hide stuff from us.

I mean, just, you know, ravenous wolves, you know? I think, friends, that our prayers should be clothed in humility. I never forget when I went to Bethlehem and went to the church of the Nativity and said, why is the door so small? I am 6'5", and I walk up to this door, and the door's like 4'11", or something, something like that. I won't name the names, but some of you guys would be like, what's the problem with that? What's the problem with that? Yeah, I'm crawling to get to know.

I have some name jobs, so I'm not gonna do it. So I go in there, and I said, why is this door like this? And they said they built it that, because I thought maybe it was a defense technique, like if people tried to break in, you know, the horses couldn't run in. I mean, it was a big, thick door. And they said, no, they built that so that when everybody walked in, they came in with a spirit of humility. You bow in your entrance into his sanctuary. I thought, man, let's lower the doors, you know? We're gonna break violation for building code, but you know, just that spirit, just that spirit when you walk in that you would bow yourself before God. Is that the right spirit?

We should have in approaching him. You know what Isaiah 66 two says? God says, to this man will I look.

He says, for all those things hath my hand made, the heavens is my throne, the earth is my foot, so what can man bring to me? He said, all those things my hand hath made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord, but to this man will I look, even to him that is a poor and of a contrite spirit, and they tremble at my word. When's the last time God's word calls you to tremble?

Like it affected you. A third way that we can hinder our prayer is by having unconfessed sin in our life. You think sin can hinder our prayers? Anybody feel like praying more when you got sin in your life? Isaiah 59 two says, but your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hit his face from you that he will not hear.

Let's all read Psalm 66 18 together. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. Did you notice what he says?

If I regard iniquity where? He didn't even say in his hands, did he? He didn't say in his lips.

He said, if it's just in my heart, guess what? God is not going to hear us. Micah three four, then shall they cry unto the Lord, but he will not hear them.

He will even hide his face from them at that time as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings. He said in Isaiah one 15, and when you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you. Yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear.

Your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings from before mine. I cease to do evil, learn to do well, seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widows. Come now, look what he says.

When you do that, then you're invited. Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. They be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. There would have to be first a recognition of your sinfulness, a repentance of it, and that humility that comes to God.

They are made clean. We must approach him that way. In the remedy of sin in our life that we all deal with, is first John one nine.

Let's read that one. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Wasn't that a great song Sunday? Clean me, you've made me clean. And when you come to God and you confess your sins, he will cleanse you. I don't think when you come to God that you have to ask God for a week to forgive you of something that you've truly repented of. I think you come to God and say, God, I am broken over this, I am sorry, and you're truly repented and you've turned away from that sin you don't want anymore. You know what, instead of every day asking him to forgive you on something he's already forgiven you of, start praising him for the forgiveness that he gave you.

I think we rob God of praise because we keep asking him for what he's already done. It's one thing to say, God, continue to give me victory, but sometimes we need to, because we, but I just don't feel forgiven. You don't have to feel forgiven to be forgiven. We need to take Psalms 32 verse five. I acknowledge my son of thee, I confess my transgression of the Lord, and he says, and thou forgaveth the iniquity of my sin.

David, how did you know that? Because God said he'd forgive. And so we need to come and say, God, I trust your word that you have forgiven me, and I need to stop now, and I just need to praise you for your mercy.

Does that make sense? And so I think sometimes we miss praising God because we get drowned in our misery of our sin, and Satan points us to our past, and Jesus points us to his grace. Unforgiveness toward others keeps us from being forgiven. We're gonna look later at Matthew six in the coming weeks, but Jesus says, if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

God tells us that we cannot be at odds with others and right with him. Is it worth holding on to unforgiveness? Is it worth holding on to bitterness? When we choose not to forgive others, that is telling God I would rather be distant from you and hold on to my bitterness. When we choose not to forgive, we choose to disobey God.

We care more about self than others. We elevate ourself above God, and if God forgives, who is the most holy, and therefore the most offended? Who are we who are the less holy to hold on to a sin and say they owe me for this? The best way to overcome bitterness against someone is to pray for them. That's why in Matthew five, Jesus said, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.

We don't typically feel like doing that, right? But when you do what's natural, you'll get what's natural, which is bitterness and unforgiveness. But when you do what's spiritual and supernatural, you'll get what's not natural and spiritual and supernatural. God will give you peace and joy. You know forgiveness is not so much for the other person, it's for you and your walk with God. It, the person that forgives finds out they're the prisoner that got set free.

They're the ones who are liberated. Matthew five, 23 and four, this is such a powerful passage that we looked at if, I don't know, maybe a couple months ago. It says, therefore if thou bring thy gift to an altar and there remember that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar. Go thy way, first be reconciled to thy brother, then come and offer thy gift.

This is such an incredible passage. In the pursuit of reconciliation, Jesus tells us it's so essential that there's nothing that you can bring to God that's acceptable until you have at least sought reconciliation. He says if you bring your gift to the altar, the most solemn time of worship, and remember at that point where you're bringing this sacrifice and the temple to God as a Jew and you're giving it to the priest, and you remember there that I have a brother that I don't know that I've offended them, but I know that they're offended at me, then don't offer your gift because God will not accept that vertical offering until I make this horizontal situation at least sought to be reconciled. He says leave that gift. Priest, do not offer it.

I'll be back in a moment. He says go to your brother that has something against you. You may not have any problem with them. You ever notice there are some people that have problems with everybody? You ever notice some people have drama everywhere? They have drama at the school. They have drama at home. They have drama with the neighbors. They have drama wherever they go.

Like, you ever looked into being a drama actor? And really, it's a sorrowful thing, but they're really miserable people on the inside, and it says even in a case where you don't, you're like man, that person has trouble with everybody, but well, if I know that they have a problem with me and I've never sought to reconcile that, leave that gift, don't seek to honor God with your life and service until you've honored him in seeking reconciliation. Go to that person, and it says, and first be reconciled to thy brother.

And the word first there shows it's an a priori. It's the top of the list. Do that first before you do anything else. I mean, we would say, well, after the service is over, then I would go work on that.

No, no, no, do it now. When I preached on this a few months ago, I forget whoever he told me this, but they said during the service, they went out in their car, made a couple phone calls, sought reconciliation and came back and finished the service. That's what Jesus is literally dealing with here. So we need to reconcile. Now, what does it mean to reconcile? It means to change one's feelings toward another and so become reconciled, to be restored to normal relations or harmony.

You settle the difficulty. If you've wronged them, you make restitution. If you owe them a debt, then you pay it. If you've injured their character or gossip or slandered, you confess it and seek forgiveness. If they falsely suspected you of injuring them, then you explain that and you seek to reconcile through that explanation. Do everything in your power to settle the matter and restore the harmony. Not always can you do it.

The Bible says as much as lieth, what, in you live peaceably with all men. So you seek to do that, but if they're like, you know what, and they still hard and you've done what you can, that's all you can do. Does that make sense? It's all you can do. But they're still mad at me. There's nothing you can do about that.

You're like, I tried it and made it worse than you've done everything you can. You just wanna make sure you're right with God. Does that make sense? I mean, you don't say this to them, but in your mind, you're like, listen, I'm not really here for you. I'm here for God. Like I love Jesus.

You're very secondary in this. Like I wanna be right with Jesus. So I'm gonna, I just gotta be, make sure that I'm obedient to him. Then if they spit on you or hug you, you're indifferent in many ways to that because you're not there for their response.

You're there for Christ. And Jesus says, if they abuse you for my sake, then you're blessed, rejoice in that. And that's what you, if you get emotionally injured by them for that, or you get physically like opposed or cursed or whatever, your rewards are great. And don't say this, but in your mind, you're thinking, man, they've just eternally blessed me.

That sounds weird, friends, doesn't it? Just read Matthew five, just in there. Blessed are you when they persecute and revive you and say all evil against you falsely for my sake. Your reward is great in heaven, for so persecuted they profits which were before you. Some of us have lost eternal rewards because we ain't reconciling with them.

Jesus says, boy, you missed out. You know, you do, and you know what? I do it because I love them more than myself. I love Christ most, right? Love him with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. And I love my neighbor as myself.

And I don't want them to live with that. I wanna do my part. And I want my prayers to be clean.

Isn't it good when you get on your knees before the Lord and you say, you know what? There's nothing, God, that I know of. And if there is anything, please bring to my heart.

Search me. Give me a fourth thing. Fourth thing is an unbiblical attitude toward a spouse. First Peter 3.7 says, likewise, ye husbands dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel. I would have to debate that with my wife. She could probably take me.

And I was gonna say I'm teasing, but I'm not sure. She's a sweetheart. And as being heirs together of the grace of life. You know, marriage is called the grace of life.

What a blessing marriage is. That your prayers be not hindered. Really the specific prayer here is, he's talking to husbands who are with an unsaved wife. And the prayer there is that the prayer of salvation for your wife. But it also, I believe, would include other prayers. If your prayer of salvation would be hindered because you're at odds with them and you're treating them in ways that are unbecoming and your attitudes are wrong toward your spouse, then your other prayers would also be hindered.

So according to the Bible, you can't be right with God when you're at odds with your spouse. That means, well, I'm going to church today and I don't care what you do. Sit on the couch, you bum. Go off to church. Oh, how I love Jesus. You know, and you're singing. Oh yeah. And then you hear me preach on something like this.

You're like, ah, I should have stayed home with a bum. You know what? We have to realize that, you know, have you ever had people say this? You know, my walk with God's very personal. And God says, no, it's not. It's very, very relational.

It's very open. There is no closet Christian. There is no, I'm right with God, but wrong with others. No, no, no, no. Jesus said, that's a figment of your imagination. That's why he says, if you've done it to the least of these, you've done it to who?

Done it to me. So how we treat others is literally how we're treating Jesus. We talked about it, I think last week, the week before. Galatians 3 says, husbands, here's your role to your wife, wife, your role to their husband, parents to your children, children to your parents, employees and employers, one to another. And then he concludes all those relationships by saying, and do it heartedly as unto the Lord and not as unto men. Do you understand how you treat your spouse is literally how you're treating Jesus. How you treat your spouse is how you're treating Jesus. So let me ask you wives, if you made breakfast for your husband and he left his dishes on the table and walked off and you're thinking, you know what? I made you breakfast and you just left your, well, what if Jesus left his plate? Would you clean up after him? Any wives in here think you wouldn't clean it?

You'd clean up after Jesus. And he pulled his socks off and not only did he not put them in the dirty clothes, but he left them inside out like I did early on in our marriage. And I remember that conversation. One of those Monday nights, I was like, dear honey, what could I do to be better husband? She said, you know, you're leaving your socks inside out. And I said, am I? Anyway, so selfish things that men never think of, right?

Selfish things, there's a whole list up and there's a whole book that's been written about that. So you just start thinking, you know, would I pick up Jesus's socks? Well, Jesus wouldn't leave them there, but would I pick those up?

Yeah, that's what the spouse would say. But would I for him? Would I, I would go all out. I'd literally, you would seek to serve him. Is there anything I can get you to drink, honey? Could I get you anything, Jesus?

Is there anything I can do? I mean, you would, you'd fill his gas tank up. You'd fill, we'd do whatever he could. And if husband and wives begin to treat each other, if parents and children, if employees went to work and their boss was frustrating that day, but he's like, you know what?

If Jesus asked him to do this, I would happily do this. I remember going to work and constructionist guy come on, he's a frustrating boss. He's like, hey, move all that lumber over here. And I'm thinking, I was thinking words I shouldn't think. And well, if you would have had them drop that skid of lumber off over there, I wouldn't have to pack all this stuff over here.

I'm like, in my mind, I'm lit up, I'm so mad. But you know what? As a teenager, if I would have just thought if Jesus came and asked me to do that, I've been like, I'd gladly move that for you, Jesus. Imagine if Christ came and said, hey, I want you to do all that. Then after you did, he said, I want you to move it back. You'd say, I don't know why you want me to do that, but I'll do it for you, Christ.

I guarantee you, you would, you would, all of us would. For Christ, I'll do that for you. I'll move it all day. I'll move it back and forth.

And if you want me to do this the rest of my life, I'll just move lumber. If Christ, I just want to please you, you see it? Just want to please you.

And you know what Christ is saying? You please me by serving those I've put in your life. You don't stop detaching that.

Stop removing this in some kind of untangible way. Well, I'm serving God, how? You know those people, I don't have to go to church.

Oh, really? So Christ did not come to build his church. What's a universal church? Okay, so who's the pastor of that universal church?

Well, it's Jesus, so there's no under shepherds. I mean, it just becomes this crazy thing. People want to detach themselves from people. You know why? They can't stand people and they want to serve God on their own terms and they created God in their mind.

It doesn't exist. We serve Jesus by serving, guess who? One another. So let me give you the last couple of things. I know you never thought I'd get to the last two.

So quick, it's like speeding right along. Number five, praying without faith. Listen to James 1, praying without faith. James 1 says, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally.

Maybe the only place liberals found in the Bible. Okay, I shouldn't, I bet I said it. Comes out, friends, I have ADD. It just flows. So, and a braideth not, and it shall be given him. But look what he says here, I think this is very good.

But let him ask in what? Faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and toss. And then look, let's read verse seven together. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.

So the man that doesn't receive anything is the man who says, you know what? No, God, I know you're gonna do this. I know you're gonna do. I don't know if God's gonna do that or not. You know, I turned this thing over to the Lord and I'm just so worried what's gonna happen with the outcome of this. But God, I know, and then you go off and you tell people all your doubts and fears and then you come to God, oh God, do this. And God says, you don't have faith in me.

You're not honoring me. I can tell you when you know you've turned something over to the Lord, you want me to tell you how? When you truly bring it to God in prayer and you get up, what do you talk about will tell you what you've done with it. If you get up talking about how big God is, you'd know you've turned it over to Him. But if you get up still talking about how big the problem is, you're still holding it. And when we do that, we've just made God smaller than our problem.

We've dethroned Him and we've enthroned the issue. You know who did this in the Bible? Man named Peter.

Like to beat up on Peter because he's like us, right? He gets out of the boat. You know why he got out of the boat? Because God was bigger than the waves. But once he looked at the waves, the waves seemed to get bigger than God.

And he began to sink, right? And so we have to understand that faith is essential. Now we gotta pray according to the Word of God and the will of God.

We can't just, oh God, I want you to do something. And maybe that's not the will of God, but we have to pray in faith believing and trust Him, not doubting Him. And so I think it's essential to pray with faith, as the Bible says, pray believing.

Matthew's gospel gets into this in the coming months, but there's just a whole section that just over and over, it's God answered the prayer. He says, as you believe, so let it be unto you. As you believe, so let it be unto you.

It's so edifying. He says, do you believe I can do this? And they say, yes, Lord, yes, Lord, we believe. And He says, be it unto you according to your faith.

Just over and over. So we must come to God and believe. You know what Hebrews 11, six says? But without faith, it is impossible to please Him. For He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.

Come with faith. And then lastly, number six, another way that hinders our prayers is indifference to the Word of God. Proverbs 28, verse nine, let's all read this verse together. He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination. I believe the Word of God is our guide to prayer. I believe that we are to pray according to the scripture. If you wanna increase your prayer life, begin to pray the scriptures.

This is a purifying process. You know why? Because we don't know how to pray like we should. We don't know how to pray like we should.

So what I've learned to do in my life is I approach God by what He said about Himself. So I tell you, Psalm 103 is a jewel of prayer. I pray that probably every day to every other day.

That chapter is that rich. I prayed it for months and months. I hate to even say that, but I prayed it, maybe as an example, but it became so precious to me.

I just can't get over it. I literally, it purifies my approach to God. Pray it until you've memorized the whole chapter. Pray it until that, and you say, that'd take months. Yes, just pray it until you've memorized it. And own it and love it and rejoice in it.

And I find myself just so thankful. And have a Psalm 139 you pray through. Have sections of the Bible that you just, you go through. There's, I think I probably should do a message on this, but there's so much about praying the scriptures. I probably, maybe I'll preach on this next Wednesday, maybe. But when you come to God, you must understand that God is who He said He is in the scriptures.

And I am to define Him that way. The Jews understood this. That's why they prayed the shaman of Ezra. That's why they prayed the Shema. That's why they prayed the scriptures. They understood that. They came to God, basing God on God's own definition. They claimed what God said, and then they held God to what God claimed.

God, you said this, and now I believe you for it. Like if you sinned and pray Psalm 32. If you struggle with worries, pray Philippians four. If you pray for cares of material things in heaven provision, pray Matthew six. If you pray for just get me grounded, pray Matthew seven. I mean, you just begin to walk through the text of a scripture and you just begin to own that.

And it just, I tell you what it does to your soul. And as you begin to build a prayer journal of, you pray to the Father and you begin to pray things to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, and you pray things for your wife and your children and your work and your neighbors. And you begin to read the word of God for the purpose of growing your prayer life. I'm gonna pray that verse. Man, that verse is, oh, I'm gonna add that to my prayer list for that person. That would be a great verse to pray over my children. That would be a wonderful verse to lift up for the church. Boy, that would, and you begin to pray the scripture. Instead of fumbling along in our own ignorance, let's take God's word and say, Lord, let me pray with truth. I hold this up because God, what you said will come to pass. If this is the eternal word of God, let this be coming out of your servant's mouths.

Does that make sense? Go into John 17 as we can just study the prayer of Christ. The whole chapter is his prayer.

It's just so rich. But he that turns away his ear from hearing the law, his prayer shall be an abomination. You know what that means? People who aren't willing to listen to the word of God. If I'm not listening to the word of God, why on earth would God listen to my word?

If I won't listen to his word, why would he listen to my word? Does that make sense? You know how good it is to see you here on Wednesday? You know what that tells me? You love the word of God more than sitting at home. You love the word of God more than getting the rest and the relaxation and whatever else. Some of you had long weeks.

Some of you guys are working 12, 14, maybe even longer days. Physically, there's no desire to be here. But you love God's people. You love the word and you say, you know what?

I love that. Love Christ and God will bless you. So selfish motives in prayer hinder us. Pride in prayer, unconvest sin on biblical attitudes toward our spouse. Praying without faith and then praying with an indifference to the word of God.

Some things for us to chew on tonight. And as I said Sunday, learn to approach God with patience, like come in God's presence, not to rush in and out, but take time there in quietness. There's so much we're gonna be able to talk about over these weeks. But some of the most godly men that I've read on prayer said they would sit sometimes for long seasons of life without saying a word, for long seasons, which for those guys could be 30 minutes to an hour or more. I mean, just sitting in the presence of God saying nothing. There is a communion between your spirit and the spirit of God when you're in silence.

It's amazing. And just the Lord begins to bring things to your mind and just sit in his presence and just think about his word. Maybe read a chapter and just Lord, I just wanna sit in your presence and just think about that and meditate on that and read it again and just, but you know what?

It takes time. You have to sit, you have to get away from everything. You gotta mute your phone. You gotta just sit in his presence. And I can tell you, when you do that, do that for 20 minutes, 30 minutes away from everything and just in the presence of God in prayer, you go out in the world, guess what? You're not gonna get mad when that guy pulls out in front of you. There is a peace that comes over you. You're like, you know what?

That doesn't even matter. When you're so humble before God and in his presence, you go out and your wife comes along, your husband comes along and does something to chafe you. You're like, you know what? It's really not that big a deal, honey. You, the peace of God that passes all understanding keeps your heart and mind. But when I don't have time for God, I don't have time for his peace. I don't have time for his joy. I don't have time for his filling. I don't have time for him. He says, you don't want me, you don't get my fruits. You want the flesh, you don't want me, you get the flesh.

He'll give us what we want. It's not those who honor him with their lips. It's those who honor them with their heart and then with their life, amen.

You've made time tonight. Praise God for that. It's an encouragement to me as your pastor. Let's all stand tonight.

Heads bowed, nights closed. As we think about these words, you're welcome to pray at your seat at an altar, but just take the time to pray. Father, we do thank you for your word tonight.

It's been a joy. It's always rich because it's your word. How flawed your minister is to share these, whoever the preacher is. But Lord, we know that you use the weak things to confound the wise.

You use the base to do great things. And so we pray that you would take your word and allow it to bring forth good fruit in our hearts. Keep us humble, keep us dependent, longing for you. Don't bless us more than we could handle it. Lord, I pray that you would just give us a burden for the lost, for the hatred for sin and a love for holiness. Pray for anyone tonight that doesn't know Christ, that tonight they might come and be saved. In Jesus' name, amen.