Not yet reviewed
This transcript was produced automatically and has not been checked by a person yet. Some words — names and places especially — may be wrong. Please treat the video above as the message as preached.
“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask him?” Let’s pray. Gracious and Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. Give us grace that we may understand your will for our lives. Give us grace, Father, that we all may submit to the teaching of your word. And give grace, Father Lord, that we may live by the standards of your word. O Father, bring the necessary transformation in our lives. O Father Lord, that you would allow the Spirit of God to work in our lives so that we may comprehend the truth and also live by the truth, O Father.
In Jesus Christ’s name we pray. Amen. In this Sermon on the Mount, we have seen a couple of times about the importance of prayer. And I want to ask you this question. This shows how seriously are we taking God’s word. We have heard, you know, not just once but many times on prayer, and probably even in our personal readings also we may have studied on prayer or reminded of the importance of prayer. And I want to ask you this question: how has your prayer life improved? Are you working on your prayer life? This your answer shows how seriously you’re taking God’s Word, or whether you are a mere hearer of God’s word or also the doer of God’s word.
We have heard repeated instructions from God’s word that we need to improve our prayer lives and if you are not still working on your prayer life or your devotional life it shows that we are not taking God’s word seriously. Because there’s a reason that the Lord repeats himself. He is repeating this important aspect of prayer again and again because it’s so important.
Our lives, our spiritual lives, our lives on this earth is dependent on God. We need God's grace. Right? So I want you to examine your own hearts in the light of the scriptures. and see where you stand the aspect of prayer and your submission to God's Word this one of the essential qualities that we need to develop as Christians is persistence in prayer and today's the title for the sermon is beyond the ask no there is something so peculiar and so precious in the prayer when God's people pray and the Lord asks us to pray because our lives are dependent on him and we as we examine our can see that we often become so distracted in our devotional lives in this in the passage that we have read in verses 7 to 11 we see
a repeated emphasis on asking the Father for our needs. The theme here is broader than prayer. It is about our dependence on our heavenly Father for provision, for guidance and for wisdom, and as well as a responsibility to reflect that wisdom, also reflect that wisdom in our relationships. So anyone following the Sermon on the Mount should be able to recognize their profound need of God’s grace. But one thing we can know understand that as we go through this these important scriptural truths or these truths in the Sermon on the Mount, we soon realize that we stand as beggars in God’s presence, lacking
these God-pleasing qualities and falling short of what we ought to be for Christ, with nothing to come before him. But unfortunately the modern Christianity is marked by a lack of prayer. Modern Christianity may be rich in theology. We have access to a lot of theological books, our minds are swollen with a lot of information, right? And there is no dearth of all the scriptural truths that we have, I mean, the expositions on the scriptural truths, but modern Christianity is marked by a lack of prayer.
We value hard work, which is important. We value effective organization, which is also important. We value self-confidence, innovative ideas, creative and robust strategies. But moreover the church of Jesus Christ has adapted to this environment of human self-reliance. We lack in prayer. And one thing but we must and we must tell ourselves consistently is that prayerlessness shows that we are dependent on something else.
Prayerlessness shows, if your life is consistently marked by prayerlessness, it shows that you are dependent on something else. And you must know what that is. Now firstly, we will examine two things before we get into the text: what has Jesus taught us about the Father that motivates us to seek him, and secondly what does Jesus teach us about prayer that instructs us on how we ought to pray when we pray. Firstly, about the Father, we understand not only from this passage, from also from the Sermon on the Mount, and also from the holistic teaching of God’s Word, that Father is our Creator, he is a sustainer, he is our Redeemer. And in the text that we read we see that we see the contrast between the Heavenly Father
and the earthly fathers. The fundamental nature of the earthly fathers here, we see that, is evil. In contrast to our Heavenly Father, whose nature is good and perfect. And we understand that God has set his love upon his people before the foundations of this world. And is now calling us to walk in his ways. And in the model prayer that the Lord Jesus Christ has taught his disciples, we see that God cares
for the daily needs of his people. He cares, and he cares for our relationships, how we relate with one another. And he cares for our struggles with sin, right, and temptation. He provides for our needs and grants us the grace to live through our challenging life circumstances. God has set his heart upon us and helps us in our life circumstances with his provision and grace. He wants us to understand that we are utterly incapable of living by his holy standards as taught in the Sermon on the Mount. And when we recognize our need, we may also see God as our abundant provider and the
goal of the life of dependence on the Father is that we may be called as the sons of God. We see that in chapter 5 verse 9. And also we become like our Father, Matthew chapter 5 verse 48. We also see that not only our God is a creator, sustainer and provider, we also see that God as a rewarder in this, in the Sermon on the Mount. Firstly, when we live by the standards of God’s word or standards of God’s kingdom as fleshed out in the Sermon on the Mount, we see that God is glorified, Matthew chapter 5 and verse 16, we see that
and moreover when we pray, when we fast and when we give, we see that God is the rewarder. He rewards us. God is a, because God is our treasure, he is our joy and hope. And God, and when we put, fix our eyes upon the Lord, he also rewards us. And the kingdom citizens view communion with God as the most cherished activity. And in our communion with God we rely on him and he empowers us to live for his glory. And he is, he’s the one we seek most because he’s the one we need most. He’s the one we seek most because he’s the one
we need most we present our needs before him because he is the one who cares for us he's the one who truly provides for us we place our needs before him because he's a our supplier he's the supplier of our needs of our great of the grace that we need and we have already seen in matthew chapter 6 verses 25 to 35 that are no about that and also our lord encourages us in that passage that uh that we should not be anxious because we can trust the father we can rely upon him and we are precious to him and he cares for
us and in chapter 6 verse 32 we see that the Father knows what we need. So, we can understand that God delights in earnest prayers of His people. God is never tired of our asking. He delights in our prayers. Our prayers should not be merely focused on our earthly needs, but also on the kingdom way of life. Now if you turn your Bibles to Luke chapter 18, Luke chapter 18, Jesus gives us a parable there. Luke chapter 18, and we’ll read verses 1 till 8. Luke chapter 18 verses 1 till 8. It says, “Now he was telling them a parable to
show that at all times they ought to pray and not become discouraged, saying, ‘In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect any person. Now there was a widow in that city, and she kept, and she kept coming to him, saying, “Give me justice against my opponent.” For a while he was unwilling, but later he said to himself, “Even though I do not fear God nor respect any person, and because this widow is bothering me, I will give her justice; otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.”’ And the Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unrighteous
judge said.’ Now will not God bring about justice for his elect who cry out to him day and night, and will he delay long for them? I tell you that he will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” See the essence of the, this parable, it illustrates that if a persistent appeal for justice influences an unjust judge, how much more will God exhibit concern for his people who remains steadfast in prayer. So we see that God encourages prayer. God delights in earnest prayers. We need not ever think that what will God think of me if I repeatedly ask him. God delights us, delights in us, and God delights when we depend on him. So we see, we have seen that God is a creator, he’s a sustainer, he’s a provider, he’s
the rewarder, and he’s the one who cherishes in our, uh, in our, when God’s people know pray and he delights in our prayers and prayers. Because God is such a loving and caring Father, we praying or spending time in the presence of the Lord should be our most cherished activity. And secondly, we also learn from this passage something about us. We learn something about God the Father, we also learn something about us. And this should be imprinted upon our hearts. They should be imprinted upon our hearts. The opening beatitude establishes the fundamental principle. What is that fundamental principle? Divine favor belongs to those who acknowledge
their spiritual poverty. Divine favor belongs to those who acknowledge their spiritual. And this scriptural truth was often repeated throughout the scriptures. For example, Paul says, “God resists the proud but gives grace to” whom? The humble. Humble are those who see their need before God. Humble are those who depend on the Father. Who cry out to Him day in and day out. And this individual, fully aware of their spiritual bankruptcy and incapacity to align to the kingdom values, will eagerly pursue God’s grace and help. And such believers become restless in their pursuit of divine blessings that only God can provide. And such a person also understands that both present salvation and the full riches of
God’s kingdom and his consummated kingdom rest entirely upon God’s grace. His unmerited favor. Our lives are always dependent upon his unmerited favor. Whatever God gives us, he gives us not because we deserve. Because he is gracious. Because he is merciful. Because he wants us to grow and mature. And we may all be excited about these ideals that we have studied in the Sermon on the Mount, but it is essential to realize that progress in the kingdom values can only be made as we receive God’s grace, as we see our lack, as we depend on him. And sisters, our progress in these kingdom values will happen only when we realize our lack and when we utterly depend upon God’s grace. Otherwise we wouldn’t grow. As God is a savior and provider, we should recognize our rightful place. What is that rightful
place? We are not sovereign men and women. We are not created to be independent people. If you are part of God’s kingdom, that means that you have in the first place have realized your spiritual bankruptcy, and you’ve also realized that God is a provider of grace and it is him who matures us as his disciples. We are always in need of God’s grace. We will never be independent of God’s grace. And these Christian qualities, as we have seen in the Sermon on the Mount, are not inherently ours. We need to seek out and cultivate these qualities, and it requires discipline and persistence to grow and
All of these scriptural, all of these qualities reveal the beauty of righteousness, yet they also remind us of how spiritually impoverished we are before God. Therefore, we should persist in the Lord, in seeking the Lord, so that we may grow in these various qualities and Christian virtues and other areas of our need. Since God is loving, caring, rewarding, and providing Father, His people should pray. His people should pray for the right things. His people should pray according to God’s will, that is his revealed truth. Then how should we pray when we pray?
To answer this question the Lord gives threefold imperatives in this passage. He says in verse 7 and 8, ask and it will be given to you find knock and it will be open to you for everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds then to him who knocks it will be open here we find a threefold imperative no imperatives are the commandments these are not suggestions nor mere opinions or great opinions these we have repeatedly seen that the lord does not give us suggestions he commands he is the lord he is the king we are part of his kingdom so he gives us commandments he gives us rules to abide by to live by and these
These are not options for us. We need to live by these principles. We are called to do this. And all these verbs here, ask, seek, knock, are not just commandments. They are in the present tense. And in the Greek present tense, it means we must keep doing these things. We must continuously do these things. We must keep on asking. We must keep on seeking. We must keep on knocking. That’s how we grow as kingdom citizens. That’s how we live in this side of eternity. We should, in a nutshell, that all these imperatives mean that we should persist in prayer. We should persist in prayer. Here asking is not a casual utterance suffer of a request. It is
a desperate plea from one who knows his absolute dependence on God’s grace. And seeking here signifies earnest pursuit, like the woman in the parable of the lost coin in Luke chapter 15 who searched for the lost coin. And the believer pursues God in earnest prayers. And knocking signifies intense and urgent plea for help. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus, while teaching about the prayer, Jesus gives an example of a man who goes to a friend’s house and from the outside the door he asked for three loaves. We see that in Luke chapter 11 verse 5.
And the friend responds in Luke chapter 11 verse 7, “Do not bother me, the door has already been shut.” But Jesus says in verse 8, Luke chapter 11 verse 8, he says that because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs. But here the Lord commands, knock the door, keep knocking the door, keep disturbing me, right? Keep knocking the door. The man in this parable is desperate for bread. Like this desperate man, every believer should feel a sense of urgency before God. We should keep asking, we should keep seeking, we should keep
knocking. That’s how we grow. When you see a need, keep asking. When you see a lack in you, keep asking. When you see a repeated failure in you, keep knocking God’s of grace. Our need should first drive us to the throne of grace. We should keep asking, seeking and knocking desperately for the virtues that Jesus has expounded in the Sermon on the Mount, qualities such as the poverty of spirit, meekness, hunger for righteousness, mercy, purity, being peacemakers, enduring suffering well, being salt and light in this world, overcoming anger and the urge to retaliate or to take vengeance, loving our enemies, overcoming lust, building strong
marriages, resisting the temptation to show off, being faithful and generous givers, not worrying and refraining from judging others. We must earnestly, desperately, and we must keep on asking, seeking and knocking on the door of heaven persistently. Brothers and sisters, unless we see that we lack in these areas and keep seeking God’s grace, we cannot mature in these qualities. Brothers and sisters, we, if we are left to ourselves, will be the worst people in this world. The only way that we can be salt and light in this world and bring glory to our Heavenly Father is by seeking him continuously, by depending on him at all times, in every situation. We will be in possession of these virtues all the days of our lives here
if we keep seeking him, we will be in need of these virtues all the days of our lives. On this side of eternity we will never fully mature in these graces. We will never fully mature in these graces. We will still keep struggling with sin. We will get bitter. We will judge people. We will face temptations of lust and other temptations. But instead of yielding to the flesh, we must keep running to the throne of grace. That’s how we grow. That so we mature. Your today’s victory will not guarantee tomorrow’s victory. You need grace for the next temptation. You may have successfully overcome lusting in
this room, but the moment you step out you may need more grace to overcome that very temptation. Brothers and sisters, we will always be in need of grace. Never think that “I will have— I’m good, I was good at home today. I was not irritated with my wife, with my children. I was so kind.” Don’t think that your tomorrow will be normal. Brothers and sisters, if we are not dependent on God’s grace, we will fail. We will be that irritating, nagging spouse. We will be self-centered. We need God’s grace every day, every moment. We need to depend on him in order to please him
and glorify him. Our state of spiritual need, again, we will always be in need, and our state of spiritual need should not discourage us. Rather, it should foster our dependence on the Father. It should settle in our minds that we are dependent beings. It should, it should be settled in our minds that we are, we are a people always in need of God’s grace. That’s how we are created and wired. Never think that you will be independent of that grace. We should keep running to the throne of grace, who is a source of these righteous qualities. I like this verse in Hebrews chapter 4 verse
16, it says, “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in the time of need.” You know, this, this particular word in Hebrews was written to the saints who are, have, who are constantly being tempted to give up, to give up. They have a temptation to revert to the Old Testament rituals and to give up on Christ. But the writer of Hebrews encourages them not to give up but to press on. How do they press on? By running with confidence to the throne of grace.
And what’s the promise there? They will receive, they will find grace and help in time of need. We will find grace and mercy in time of need. If we consistently and whenever we run to the throne of grace. And secondly, we see that here, certainty of God’s response. We should realize that as God’s people we will be in need of his grace and provision. And in verses 7 and 8 we see that. Verse 7 says, “Ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be open to you.” And asking, seeking and knocking have certain responses from God. And look at verse 8 also, “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, he who knocks it will be open.” And we must also understand that this is not some wishful thinking or a name it
claim it game, right? Whatever I ask I receive. No, it’s not a name it claim game, but these are the unshakable promises of Christ himself. Those who ask will receive, those who will seek will find, those who will knock, the door will be open. And the passive, and all these are in the passive voice. The passive voice here is significant, and these are all, these are all are called as divine passives, which means these things will be given, we will find, it will be open, indicating that God is the one who is a giver. It is dependent on him. It indicates that God himself
is the one who gives, who helps us find, he is the one who opens. It is dependent on him. And in this particular context, we are asking for our needs. And for the virtues that the Lord has set before us in the Sermon on the Mount. We can ask a question here. Will God give us all of our needs?
We can answer that in yes and no. Yes, every sincere prayer from a child of God which is prayed according to God's will be answered according to the Father's wise wisdom, perfect wisdom and love. And know, which means that God is not obligated to fulfill all our requests exactly as we understand them with our finite minds.
Sometimes we may have to wait before our needs are met. Sometimes we fail in our Christian lives repeatedly before we sense our desperate need for his grace. Listen to what Spurgeon said, “Our heavenly Father will correct our prayers and give us not what we ignorantly seek but what we really need. The promise to give what we ask is here explained and set in its true light. This is a gracious correction of the folly which would read, which would read the Lord’s words in the most literal sense, and make us dream that every whim of ours had only to put on the dress of prayer in
order to its realization.” He says our prayers go to heaven in a revised version. It would be a terrible thing if God always gave us all we asked for. Our heavenly Father himself knows how to give far better than we know how to ask. We must simply trust God and his word and submit to his sovereignty. Sometimes there is a long waiting before our needs are met. We must come to him like childlike trust and simply wait on him. And in verse 8 the Lord says, “For everyone who asks.” Who is everyone here? The everyone here refers to everyone with the covenant community, within the
covenant community. Everyone who can legitimately call God as Father. It is those whose relationship is established with the Father, to through Christ’s redemptive is finished work. And these promises are to those who are united with Christ. Who are now part of God’s kingdom. And these promises are to them. And all who are saved by the blood of Christ can be assured of these promises. And God’s children in Christ Jesus can be sure that they are the recipients of God’s grace. Look at verses 9 and 10, he says that, in and 11 he says it, “Or what man is there among you who, when his son asked for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he
asked for a fish, he will not give him a snake. Equally, if you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask him.” Jesus gives an analogy here, and the point of this analogy is this: even fallen sinful fathers know how to give good gifts to their children. When a child asks for a bread, a father would mockingly, no father would mockingly give him a stone. When he asked for a fish, no father would give him a serpent that could harm him, right? The
and not, this analogy is built on the doctrine of common grace. Even unregenerate parents, though totally depraved, retain enough of the image of God’s image of God to care for their own children, to care for their children’s basic needs. And if this is true of sinful fathers, how much more true is it for our perfect heavenly Father? Not only unregenerate people but also we as believers still possess a sinful nature, and we can be influenced by the sinful nature. We can come under the control of the sinful nature. That was our original nature, but we have received a new nature through Christ Jesus. And
and we are in the process of being sanctified. So Jesus here is directly says, “If you then being evil” — our fundamental nature is evil — “and even these evil fathers know how to give good gifts to their children, how much more will our Heavenly Father who is in heaven?” This is an argument or no, from the lesser to the greater. If sinful human fathers can act with such care, how infinitely more will the perfectly holy, loving, caring and wise Heavenly Father care for his children. That’s the point. Our Father gives us only that is good, only that is precious, only that is perfect. And what
constitutes good? Here we must follow, we must allow the scripture to allow scripture to interpret the scripture. Jesus in a parallel account in Luke — probably he taught the same thing in a in a different setting — in Luke chapter 11 and verse 13 he says that, “If you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” Jesus must have taught this in a different setting, you know. We can understand that in Luke chapter 11 verse 1 it was a completely different setting, but Jesus was in
prayer, and as soon as he came out of prayer his disciple disciples asked him, “Teach the Lord, teach us how to pray.” So it is a, it is completely a different setting, and in that different setting the Lord taught his disciple again these things. And he says that he gives us the Holy Spirit to those whom who ask him. The Holy Spirit is God’s supreme good gift. Every believer is blessed with the Holy Spirit. Paul says in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 30 that we are sealed with the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption. So we need not repeatedly ask for the Holy
Spirit, right? That necessary. All believers whoever are washed in the blood of Jesus Christ are indwelled by the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is a divine person, one who is equal with the Father and the Son and indwells each and every believer. And we see that throughout the Scriptures. And you know the different attributes of the Holy Spirit. In John chapter 16 we see that the Holy Spirit convicts people of their sins, he — and in John chapter 16 verse 13 we see that the Holy Spirit convicts us of what? Convicts us of God’s truth. And in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 17
and 18 he illuminates our minds with the knowledge of God. He helps us comprehend who God is. And in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 19 to 20 he makes us the temple of the Living God. And in Galatians chapter 5 we see that he nurtures us into Christlikeness by helping us bear the fruit of the Spirit. And in the context of the Sermon on the Mount, he blesses us with the spirit that is dependent on God. Is it is he who comforts us, he’s a comforter, is the ever-present help. He helps us grow in gentleness, in mercy, in righteousness and purity. He ever
says forgive our enemies and those who have wronged us. He ever says overcome anger and retaliation. He enables us not to be critical and judgmental of others, as we have seen last week. He provides us with the grace to conquer lust and to be faithful spouses. He allows challenging circumstances also in our lives, like sicknesses, insults and persecution, for our sanctification. And according to the Sermon on the Mount he grants us the grace to endure evil, chapter 5 verse 11, and also he grants us grace to rejoice and be glad even in difficult circumstances, in chapter 5 verse 12. We see that he blesses us
with money, not just for our own enjoyment but also to be faithful generous givers, in chapter 6 verses 1 to 4. Whenever we are tempted we can trust God and he will make a way out of temptation, chapter 6 verse 13. He will give us his grace to live like the salt and the light in this world so the Heavenly Father will be glorified through us, chapter 5 verses 6 13 to 16. So brothers and sisters, we must consciously make an effort not to grieve the Holy Spirit but yield to his control daily, because we are dependent on his grace. Our Christian lives, our Christian existence, our Christian witness, our testimony, everything is dependent on the grace that he gives us. Brothers and sisters, even the courage
to witness comes from him, not from us. We can easily be intimidated. The grace to be his witnesses comes from him. Are you a witness at your workplace? Are you faithful in your work? In your work life? Do you squander your time at your workplace?
Are you a faithful witness? Do you seize for opportunities to be his witnesses? What’s the point, brothers, of you being an employee? It’s not just to serve your employer. Yes, we need to work, earn money, feed our families. But you are primarily a witness of our Father at your workplace. You live like the salt and the light. So you have opportunities to glorify the Father. And seek for opportunities to be His witnesses. And that grace, that mindset comes from the Lord. He enables you to be with his witnesses. So brothers and sisters, it is necessary that we are dependent on his grace daily. Brothers and sisters, if you are struggling with lust, what must you do? You should not yield to it, but you must run
to the throne of grace where — What will you do if someone has hurt you? Do not wallow in self-pity and give room for bitterness. But instead run to the throne of grace where you can be reminded of God’s forgiveness. And will receive grace not to be bitter but to forgive those who have hurt you. The goal of God’s grace, brothers and sisters, is conformity to Christ.
Glorification is the goal of sanctification. We must understand all gifts in light of our ultimate good, which is Christ-likeness. All good gifts that we receive from Christ, from the Father, we should understand all those good gifts in the light of the ultimate good, which is Christ-likeness.
God blesses us with our needs and with the grace that we need so that we can live here, here as confident children of God. And sometimes Father's good gift is the denial of our request, the pruning of our desires, or the sanctification that comes through trial. In concluding, I want to say that our Lord Jesus Christ was a man of prayer. During this his earthly life his prayer life was often observed by his disciples. He carried great grace in his life. The disciples observed the Lord's life, and as this thing in Luke chapter 11 verse 1, it says, “It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray just as John also
taught his disciples.'” Our Lord was without sin and yet he prayed. Our Lord was without sin, prayed. We are people of God's grace desperately, but no one ever prayed to the Father so persistently and so earnestly like our Lord. No man can match up to his prayer life. The man who is free from sin prayed more persistently and more earnestly. How much more should you and I pray who struggle with sin daily? He never stopped talking to the Father. He never stopped trusting in his Father. Even in his death on the cross he committed his soul into the hands of
the Father, he knew more intimately than that his Father is good. And no one ever loved the Father like our Lord Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, this passage calls us to examine our hearts in the light of the entirety of the Sermon on the Mount and examine particularly our prayer life.
As a disciple of Jesus, are you following in the footsteps of Jesus? Are you praying faithfully? Praying expectantly? Are you trusting God's promises? Are you looking intently into God's word, and are you seeking God's grace to live according to God's word? Brothers and sisters, if you are not looking intently into God's word, you will not understand the purposes of God, purposes of God for your life. And when you do not see intently into God's word, able to see intently into your heart, where you will be able to see your own lack and cry out to God so that you will be conformed to the standards of God's word. Genuine prayer is rooted in a covenantal relationship, not some technique. God did not
teach us techniques. The Lord's Prayer is not, it's a model prayer. We are called to pray that way. So it's not a duty, it's a privilege granted to those who have been brought closer to God through the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Prayer isn't about informing our requests or needs, is already aware of our needs, is not convincing God to change his mind. Instead it focuses on aligning our hearts with his will and nurturing that this faith relationship which he has established, and asking Lord to conform us again and again, asking God consistently, persistently, so that our lives are transformed
according to the standard of God's word. As we look intently into God's word, we cry to God for the grace so that we can be conformed to that standard. So we must always pray to the Father. We must begin by exploring God's word to understand who he is and what his will entails. We need to grasp His covenantal care, love for His redeemed people, His will as revealed in the pages of the Holy Scriptures, which defines the purposes of our lives, for our lives, and we must submit to His revealed will. We must repent of any transgressions of His will.
We must seek God's grace to live according to it. We need to trust in His holy character, of His faithfulness and His ability. God's promises to His undeserving children come through Christ's perfect life, substitutionary death, and glorious resurrection, which enables us to approach God our Father. It is only in the union with Christ that we can pray with confidence. Always remember, it is only through Christ's mediation that we have a stroke of a standing before, a right standing before God. Only through Christ's mediation we have access to the throne of the Father. Only through Christ's mediation our imperfect prayers become acceptable prayers. Only through Christ's mediation, brothers and sisters, are not your righteousness, not your well worst scriptural knowledge. It's only through Christ's mediation our imperfect prayers are acceptable to him. Remember it. Another principle, our prayer lives are a witness
to the glorious reality that we are the children of our Heavenly Father. Our prayer lives are a witness to the glorious reality that we are children of our Heavenly Father, because the children of the Heavenly Father depend on him, rely on him, look to Christ's mediation, are confident because of Christ's mediation. God did not save us so that we can be self-reliant, self-independent, no independent people. God redeemed us to, firstly, to help us see our spiritual bankruptcy and that we will remain spiritually poor without his grace. So brothers and sisters, examine your prayer lives, and this is a repeated emphasis throughout
the Sermon on the Mount on the importance of prayer. God taught us, our Lord Jesus taught us of prayer repeatedly. And are you taking these instructions carefully? Seriously. Seriously. If your prayer life is not strong, it's not good, it's time to repent and turn to God for His grace. Let's pray.
Our Heavenly Father, we thank You that through Your Son, Jesus Christ, we can approach Your throne with confidence. Father, help us to ask, seek and knock with persistent faith, trusting in Your wisdom to give us what is truly good for us. Transform our lives, our hearts, even our prayer lives through the work of Your Spirit in our lives. Oh Father, give us grace that we may earnestly seek Your face. Give us grace to see our own poverty so that we may rely upon You, Father. In Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen.