Episode Transcript
This is how prayer is to be approached. If you understand everything I just said, then go back and read the first thing. The first thing Jesus says is: Our father in heaven, we pray that your name would be what everybody praises when they look at us. Your name be hallowed. Not only that, but God, we know that your kingdom is the greatest hope for our world.
May your kingdom come. And father, we know that our will gets in the way, and we have these desires. Lord, remove our will. Your will be done. It's at this moment when you're living in massive dependence upon God, he just ratchets it down and says, you need to learn to trust me daily for what I am about to provide for you.
I can't get into it this week. It's a marketing scheme of mine to get you to come back next Sunday. But for me to unpack that, it is going to mess with our pocketbook. It's going to mess with what our futures hold. It's going to mess with your heart. Jesus is not trying to enslave us so that we are controlled like some maniacal leader.
He is saying I have freed you so that you will understand what real peace and real joy and true meaning in life is. And that is to trust that my name should be praised. That the kingdom of God, my kingdom, would be evident here through your proclamation and that my will would be done in your life, which is to love God and love others.
And the greatest way that that is accomplished is if you depend on me every day. In order for us to become dependent upon him, guess what you have to stop depending on? Yourself and this world. So we have this mission that's being brought to us from Christ that we, through the church, are going to proclaim the good news of the kingdom.
And in order to do that, we are going to need to depend upon the father every single day to keep our affections on the love of Christ. This is why, church, I will tell you what the reformed have been teaching for hundreds of years: that we gather on Sundays and we don't let anything get in the way because it is here God feeds our souls and our souls are then refreshed and strengthened. And it is there that Christ rules our hearts. If you are wondering why your heart often wanders, why it is that you find yourself dabbling in sins you know you shouldn't be in, and you let your heart groom it inside of you to the point it starts to capture you, and then you're wondering why it is that you're in constant war with your spouse and your kids, and your whole life is turned upside down. I need to ask you one question. Does God's love rule your heart? The only way it will is if you are being washed in his word. This is why he tells the Colossians, “Let the word of God dwell in you.”
That's a living organism, and he doesn't mean a little bit, he means a lot. And then he says, this is how it happens (Colossians three): by teaching and admonishing one another by singing songs and hymns and Spiritual songs and by considering how to build one another up - hear this - daily.
Everyday Grace 024
