Beware Practicing Your Righteousness Before Men #3

This morning, we're going to be continuing our study on the Sermon of the Mount, and our subject is actually one of the most neglected spiritual disciplines of our lives. It's prayer. And before we read the text, I'll just say that this is a miserable text to read for me because it's so convicting, because I just don't pray. I just don't do it, not the way we should. And so I want to avoid it. Who of us likes to hear things? An extended discourse on our failures. That's no fun, but it is necessary. It is necessary. No one ever got to heaven by being told they were good enough. Everyone who gets to heaven gets there because they realize they're not good enough. And to the extent that they know how much they fail, they seek after Jesus more. So prayer is an awful topic for me to talk about, and I think it probably is for us as a church. It tends to be the sort of thing that good Reformed people

Neglect. Not all, but mostly. There are other types of Christians that we might look down on theologically. Well, their theology. They don't believe in election. They don't have reformed worship. They don't confess their sins. They have women preach. But they pray. And they believe in prayer. Do we pray? What's it sound like when we pray? What do we expect to happen when we pray? These are the things we'll talk about this morning. And my hope and my prayer has been this week is that God will use this to convict us and to bring us to prayer more, to bring us to the end of ourselves, stop caring about ourselves, stop looking to our own strength, simply to bring our needs, our requests, our worries, and our fears to the throne of God and leave them there for him to do with whatever he pleases because he loves his children and he cares for them well. Now, that's the introduction. That's not the sermon.

Our text is Matthew chapter six, verses five to eight. Would you please stand now as we read the word of the Lord? This is the word of the Lord and it is eternally true. And when you pray, and when you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they will be seen by people. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But as for you, when you pray, Go into your inner room, close your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And when you are praying, do not use thoughtless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. So do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated.

Now, a word about the pacing of this. Because you're going to worry later if I don't say this now. We're going to spend at least two weeks on this section. Because if you start feeling the pace that we're going to go through this, you're going to be like, we're going to be here until dinner. And we're not. We're just going to come back to it more than once. I want to start by talking about prayer in general. Jesus says when you pray, there's an assumption that we would pray. But as I said in the beginning, I don't know if that's a fair assumption. And to the extent that we pray, we could do much better. And so I actually want to talk about prayer, what it is, and what the purpose of it is first, so that we have a context for what he's saying about the hypocrisy of prayer. What is prayer? What is prayer? There are many places we could look in Scripture. We could look for examples of prayer. The Psalms are the Christian's prayer book. They teach us how to pray. We could look...

All throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament, we could find other examples of prayer. We could come into the, and find instructions about how to pray. In fact, later on in this text, right after what we have here, is the Lord's Prayer. And Jesus introduces it by saying, when you pray, pray like this. So there are instructions about how to pray. But what is prayer? Why do we do it? Like, what's it supposed to accomplish? Prayer is making your requests. known to God. Now, that's what Paul says in Philippians 4. I'll read you what he says there. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Now, here's the question. Paul says here, make your requests, let your requests be made known to God. But Jesus says in our passage, your father knows what you need.

before you ask him. Do you feel the tension? Tell God about what you need. He already knows what you need. So you're left going, well, why do I, what's Paul getting at here? Why do I have to tell him if he already knows? Have you ever had that thought? Why do I have to say it if he already knows? Like, it's embarrassing to have to say it. It's humbling. It takes time, and I'm busy. Now, we don't say those things out loud, but if we were to mark out the reasons we don't pray, I'm on the list. He already knows. I've said it before. He's chosen not to answer. It didn't work. And many more reasons. And so we're left either thinking, he doesn't know what I need. Actually, I do. Or he's distracted or missing or absent. You remember when Elijah was with the prophets of Baal and there had been a drought for years.

And they say, we need rain. And Elijah comes out of hiding because he's supposed to come out of hiding. And they have this competition. And there's prayer that's going on, right? He says, you guys go first. All these prophets of Baal, they get together and they slice up their offering. And then they call down fire from heaven. Does our God answer? God didn't answer. Do you remember what Elijah says to them? Maybe he's busy. But that's a nice way to say it. What it really means is maybe he's on the toilet. That's actually what the language means. Maybe he's otherwise occupied. Now that's mocking, right? That's shaming. That's what Elijah said. Maybe your God's too busy to hear. Maybe he doesn't have the power to. Maybe if you whip yourself up into a friend's lane, cut yourself, and pour out your blood on this offering, then maybe you'll get your God's attention. It was all for naught.

Because their God was not God. Now, Elijah, on the other hand, he says, guys, there's a little bit of water down there in that creek. Go fill up the buckets. Bring it up here and just drench my sacrifice in water. We're supposed to call down fire on it. This thing's supposed to burn. Just drown it in water. Take a trench around it to hold the water there. They go and they do it. And then Elijah prays. Now, could you imagine? You should make it your habit in life. Whenever you're reading scripture or dealing with people, forget about yourself. Put yourself in that situation and think, what would it be like to be there? Like, Elijah was scared for his life. He's hiding. He thinks, I'm the only prophet left and I'm the only faithful one. And then they say, no, no, there's not. There's 7,000 actually who've never bowed the knee to Baal. And he's faithless. You have to go out of here. They're going to kill me if I go out of here. Go out of here. Go ask the widow woman for her last bite of food.

Okay. Go out there and tell Jezebel and Ahab. Call a showdown. So he does. Could you imagine doing that? Like, I mean, here's my life. Just take it. And it's just, I'm done. Like, that's what he thought. But he loved God. So he went on and he did it. And now, pour water on it. We're supposed to catch it on fire. Pour water all over it. This is stupid. Like, by any stretch of the imagination, if we were to think about it, it's like, this is insane. This is just... The dumbest thing we could conceive of. All the saints in the world would say, stay hidden, keep your head down, don't make a scene, certainly don't mock the people who want to kill you, and then don't pour water on your sacrifice. It's supposed to catch fire after all. And here's Elijah doing that. And then what's Elijah do? Lifts up his hands and prays. The Lord sends fire. At what point in that process did the Lord become aware and engaged with what was going on? Way back when Elijah was hiding out in the cave, grumbling and complaining.

The Lord was there and knew what was coming and was preparing Elijah for it. And yet he still was told to pray. God could have demonstrated his power without Elijah praying. But he told him, you pray. And so he prayed. So we ought to set behind this tension of like, well, if God already knows, why do I have to say it? And rather ask the question, why don't you want to say it? God does know. Why don't you want to acknowledge your fears? Why don't you want to acknowledge your needs? Why don't you want to acknowledge your sins? That's a better question. You realize in this passage in Philippians, Paul's not dealing with prayer particularly. He's not saying, and this is how you pray, and this is the formula, and this is how you say the words and all the stuff. What he says is, at the beginning, be anxious for nothing. Prayer is actually the remedy to your anxiety. Be anxious for nothing. But in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, so not just grumbling and complaining to God,

but petitioning, asking, pleading. With thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. Are you willing to ask him for the things you need? He already knows what I need. Yeah, I know, but are you willing to have him hear your prayer? Are you willing to accept his answer? Or would you rather be anxious? I mean, honestly, how often do we prefer anxiety and fear and anger to the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension? Make your requests known to God, and then this promise. to deal with our anxiety. And the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. So I ask you, what's the purpose of prayer? Is it to make things known to God that he's unaware of? Is it to twist his arm into doing what you know is best? Is it to manipulate him to get out of the way? Do you think of him as standing in the way between you and the things you need?

And I need to pray and ask him to get out of the way so I can get the thing I need because I know what I need and I know when I need it. Is that what prayer is for? No, I tell you, brothers and sisters, prayer is meant to help you in your weakness. It's given to us to make us converse with God, to converse with the things that he has said to us through his word time and again. And I think there's a direct correlation between our ignorance concerning the word of God and our prayer lives. We don't pray because we have no idea who we're talking to. Do you like talking to strangers? How's that conversation go? Maybe it goes good. Some of you are good at that. Luis is good at it. Never met a stranger. He's good at it. Good at talking to strangers. Some of us are like, you know. But Luis is good at it. How deep are those conversations with strangers? How much do you tell them? Not much.

Not much. They never hear the pain and sorrows of your life because they're strangers. It's not their burden. Do you treat God that way? Do you think of God that way? Might be why you don't pray. If you want prayer to accomplish what Paul lays out for us here in Philippians and what we see in many other places in Scripture, you have to know what God has said so you know what to pray for. Scripture is like guardrails to our thoughts, to the life of our minds. It's like guardrails. It tells us when we're being stupid. It tells us when we're in sin. It tells us when we're faithless. And so when we pray, we don't go, Lord, give me this thing because I know I need it. We say, Lord, I know that this thing I want is not good for me. Help me resist the temptation. Those are very different prayers. Same circumstances, very different requests. Give me rest versus give me what I want. So if you want to learn to pray,

You must first become a student of God's word. And you have to not just thread the words through your eyes or your ears, however it is you consume God's word. You have to get it down into your heart. Your mind has to interact with the things that are said by God. And you have to believe that those things that are said by him are to you. They're not about you. They're not to other people. If you are a Christian, then every single word in scripture that's addressed to his people is to you. and you are not doing wrong or being dishonoring to God, if you claim those things for yourself, because he's the one who said them, that he would give you those things, that he would care for you in those ways, that he would never leave you or forsake you, that he would sustain you. If you're a Christian, then those things are for you. And so when you pray, you should pray with that knowledge and that hope and that comfort. That's what prayer is.

Is that what the Pharisees are doing in our passage? It's their hypocrisy. They love to stand before men, and they love to pray in the synagogue so that they can be seen by people. Those things are from different planets. This is so far removed from what prayer actually is. Which one are we more familiar with, though? I know which one I'm more familiar with. I see that man there when I look in the mirror with regard to prayer. Not Elijah. Not Jesus when he was in the garden. I see the man who's looking over his shoulder always wondering how he can get what he wants out of the Lord. I see how slow I am to acknowledge that I might be wrong and the things that I want might actually tend to my destruction and not my salvation. That sometimes no to the things I want is the best and most loving answer I could ever hope for if I could only see the things that God sees.

But these men, these hypocrites, these Pharisees have given up bringing their requests or the requests of the people to God. That's not what they do. They've turned prayer into a way of garnering respect and admiration and praise from sinners. That's what prayer is to them. They're always looking around to see who's paying attention. They use big words. They pray long as people are around. and they'll be impressed. Hypocrites pray to be seen. They do not pray to converse with God. Hypocrites pray for the praise of men. They don't pray to have their hearts changed. They address God as Father or Lord or Creator or Judge or whatever words they want to use, but they're not talking to Him. They don't believe the words that are coming out of their mouth. They say them so that the people around hear them and think, oh, what a godly man, what a godly woman.

This is not prayer. It's not prayer. You're not addressing God, and you shouldn't be surprised when he doesn't answer. What does James tell us about prayer? You do not have because you do not ask. What's that mean? You're like, yeah, I ask. Do you? Do you ask the way that I've been describing, or do you ask the way that they ask? You do not have because you do not ask. And when you ask, you ask with selfish intentions. so that you can spend it on your pleasures. That's what the hypocrites are doing. That's what we do. It's awful. We give up on waiting for God to answer our prayers. We have made a decision that when we pray, the one thing that is not on the table is our desires changing. That can't be the answer to prayer. The answer to my prayers has to be my circumstances changing, not my perspective changing.

My anxiety will exist until my circumstances change. My fear will exist until the thing that causes it goes away. And the subtext is God is failing me up until he does. And if he, in his mercy, does it, I will stand in judgment and say he took too long. That, brothers and sisters, is not prayer. Why is it that the Pharisees, they here, don't be like the hypocrites, they, why do they pray at all? I mean, if they're doing what I've described as opposed to what they should be doing, the question arises, like, why do it at all? Like, why even open your mouth? If you don't have something good to say, don't say anything at all, right? Like, I mean, just unbelievers could figure that part out. Why are they praying? Why are they making this big show of it? Well, first, you know, setting aside the obvious, which is they want the praise of men, they're doing it first because it's their duty. They have a responsibility to pray.

And when someone fails at their responsibilities or their duties, the answer is rarely take them away. The answer is almost always repent. But we would prefer removal and repentance. What happens when marriage is hard? What happens? What goes through people's minds? I'll say it. They want a divorce. Christians don't want that. Sure they do. They ought not do it. Sure they do. That's what they want. They think, what in the world have I gotten myself into? I can't live another day in these burdens. My spouse is so miserable. They're so different than who they were when I married them. They're just awful. They hate me, and it's miserable, and I shouldn't have to endure these sorts of things. I'm not making this up. These are the things I have heard as a pastor from Christians. With a straight face, they say it. I'm leaving my duty aside because it's hard.

Parents do the same thing with children. We're inclined to shirk our duties whenever they're difficult. It's too hard. It's too long. There's no hope of it getting better. I think I'll just quit. So what would happen if the Pharisees quit? Would God look at them and say, good. Would they lessen their judgment from God if they just refused to pray because they finally became convicted of their hypocrisy? No. God demands of them that they repent. Not that they quit. They have a duty. to God and to the people, that they can't just give up because they're failing. Have you guys ever heard the old joke about a mechanic complaining about why? He says, I basically do the same work that surgeons do, and I don't understand why he gets paid so much more than me. You guys know the punchline? Yeah, because the surgeon has to work on the car while the engine, and keep the engine running at the same time. That's why surgeons get paid so much more than mechanics. You can tear a car engine down to just a big heap of metal.

Put it all back together and it's fine. You cannot do that with a person, with their body. They will die and you can't turn them back on. That's why surgeons get paid so much more than mechanics. They have to work through the difficult, with an incredible amount of pressure, an incredible amount of difficulty. They can't just turn it off because their work will not allow them to do it. So is it possible to pray publicly and not be a hypocrite? Yes. Is it possible to pray without caring? or being aware of the people around you and what they think. Yes. Might that lead to them being upset with you at some point? Yes. Who are you talking to? Who are you talking to? One of the things I despise most is when people say things in prayer that they will not say directly. I despise it. If you want to say something to somebody, say it to them. Look them in their eyes. Give them a hug.

whatever you need to do, and say the thing that's hard and let them interact with it. Don't manipulate them by, oh, I'm so sorry, and that's so difficult, and oh, that's awful. And then when you pray, accuse them of causing the situation. If you think they contributed to the situation, tell them. Tell them. Say, you screwed up. Yes, your spouse messed up. They shouldn't have done that thing. That's awful. But you are miserable too. Don't say it in prayer if you won't say it directly. It's like if I say it in prayer, you can't get mad at me. Do you not get mad at people when they do that to you? I mean, it's stupid. We get mad. We're like, that's not right. You shouldn't. What do you mean? But you can't because they were praying. They were talking to God. So we can't get mad because they weren't talking to us. But that's just not true. They were talking to you. They're telling you things now that they didn't tell you before. You remember I said that prayer is an outworking of your knowledge of Scripture and character of God.

Public prayer is also an outworking of private prayer. You will not be fit to pray publicly if you don't pray privately. Some people would take this passage and they would twist it around. He says, well, you know, when you pray, close your door, go into your closet, you're in a room, pray in secret. And they'd say, okay, public prayer is bad, but private prayer is good. Both are good. Both are necessary. Both are commanded and required in Scripture. The Pharisees weren't doing something wrong. By praying publicly. The act is a good thing. It's a necessary thing. It's a part of worship. The problem wasn't that they were doing it, it's the way they were doing it. If there's not private prayer in your life, and by private prayer, let me be clear, I don't mean that you go alone, be by yourself. By private prayer, I mean that you actually talk to God. That's what I mean by private prayer. You can pray just exactly like he says right here.

in public. Go into your inner room, shut the door, and pray to your Father in secret. You can do that publicly. There are times when I pray up here in front of you, however many people there are, 80, 100, I don't know how many people are here, and I pray, and I close my eyes, and there are times I forget about you guys, completely forget that I'm standing up in front of all these people, and I'm praying, and then I open my eyes, and I'm like, I saw all these people listening. It's the sweetest prayer. Because I forget that you guys are listening. I wish it were more often the case. That I didn't care that you were here. Go put that on Facebook. Who's one of my pastors sat in church? He wished that he thought more regularly that we weren't here. That he didn't care. But you get my point about prayer. Like you can't pray if all I think about is you. Next week we're going to come to what prayer should be. Here from our text in Matthew.

But there's more to be said about prayer than simply that it's a duty. Prayer is also an exercise of authority. It's leadership. And so not just anyone is fit to pray publicly. Another way of saying it is there's actually a standard Jesus is setting out here, a qualification for public prayer. To be qualified for public prayer, you have to be able to pray without caring about the people who are around. That's actually a qualification for it. And if someone's incapable of that, then they shouldn't pray publicly. So some of you, that would be a relief. You'd be like, man, my sin finally got me out of some responsibility. We can all chuckle, but shame on us if we actually believe it. Public prayer isn't just a task to be done. It's not just something to, you know, well, I guess we got to do it, so we'll do it. It's taking responsibility for the people and bringing them and their needs and their souls.

to the throne of God and asking him to deal with it. It's an acknowledgement that you as the leader can't fix the problem, but that they need to rely on God and they need to wait for him. You can pray in a way that communicates that, or you can pray in a way that impresses them. If you try to take the authority and the leadership out of public prayer and you allow just anyone to do it, as I'm sure many of you have experienced, though you may not have thought of it in this terms, it makes your skin crawl. When someone is speaking publicly, praying and bringing the cares of the people to God, and they're failing at it. Like, you don't feel like you can say it, but that's the truth. They're failing. It's awful. But you can't say it. You're not supposed to say it, because we're Christians, and you could never tell somebody when they're failing at something. But we should do those things, right? Not maliciously, not meanly, not grinding them into the ground, but we should be able to say, hey, would it surprise you to know that when I was in pastor's college, my prayers were scrutinized.

Would it surprise you to know that Timothy and Eric, being newer in the ministry, that their prayers are scrutinized by me and the elders? Do you know that we tell them when they don't do good? We do. And we're mean for doing it, aren't we? No. We love them. But more than them, we love you. And if those men are going to lead you into the presence of God, they better do a good job. Or at least fail in pursuit of doing a good job. Because they're not just... piping out words to impress you. And so, yes, those who pray publicly are exercising authority and leadership. And there is a standard that should be met. If we try to diminish the authority or the leadership and just be inclusive about this type of thing, we don't actually get rid of the authority. We just change the standard of qualification for who can possess that authority. You see this sort of thing, like good and helpful standards in the workplace change.

You say, you know what? We used to want to hire the guy or the girl or the black guy or the Asian woman or the whatever. We used to want to hire the best candidate, but that's not how things work anymore. The best candidate is not the most qualified, the most capable. The best candidate needs to be a minority. The best candidate may need to be a woman. The best candidate may need to be... A sexual deviant. So did we remove the standards? No, we just changed them. Nobody likes patriarchy in our day. No one likes that men were made by God to lead and that they fail at it. We fail at it. All this stuff I'm saying to you, the reason I said this was such an awful passage for me is because I'm faced with my failures. I can see your failures too, but I see mine much more clearly and more constantly. And so to say that men should be the ones that lead in the church, in the home,

In society, it's very unpopular because it's read as being oppressive to women. So we'll take the authority away from men and we'll just have no authority, right? That's how that works. You're an idiot if you think that's how it works. All that happens is the authority of the husband and the father is taken away and it's given to the wife and to the mother or to the government or to child services or to somebody else. The authority doesn't, there's no reduction in authority. It's just given to somebody else, and it's distributed according to a different set of standards that are not God's standards. We do the same thing with prayer. A year or so ago, my family and I were down in Florida on vacation. We have a habit. I'm always here for church, and I like going to other churches. I really enjoy it. I don't get to do it very often. I like going to church. I love going to churches in our presbytery. I like going to churches where I don't know anybody because I like seeing how other people do stuff. I didn't grow up in the church.

So I'm like, let's go see how these people do things. And so I'm trying to figure out where to go to church. We're on vacation. We're down in Florida. I don't know anybody, don't know any churches. We're just gonna, all 12 of us or 11 or however many there were at the time, we're just gonna show up. We're gonna be an event, you know? And here we come. And I'm like, okay, well, there's this church. that's down the road. And it's not like I close my eyes and pick one. It's like I do look on their websites. I listen to their sermons. I try to figure out, like, I want there to be some spiritual food, you know? So I look at this one church, and I'm like, okay, it's like three minutes away. It's a PCA church. There were some other things I looked at to see if the guy was woke or had particular problems. He didn't. And so I'm like, okay, we come to the point where I'm going to watch a worship service. And it was repulsive.

It was repulsive because he had old women, 60 and 70-year-old women, who were not any good at speaking in front of people, doing everything except the sermon. And the women would joke when they came up about how bad they were at public speaking. And I'm like pulling my hair out. I'm like, well, what are you doing then? Sit down. Let somebody who's gifted for it do it. Now you tell me. Why were these old women up there doing it? Is it because the pastor's got too much on his plate? I did way more in the worship service than he did. No, there was a different set of responsibilities or a different set of priorities that determined who was going to get the authority. And so my case to you is simply to say, Jesus says, if you want to pray publicly, here are the things that are necessary that you understand and pursue praying as though no one is listening except God and that you address yourself fully to him.

Whoever's around. Whoever's around. Whether the people around will be encouraged by you doing that or whether they will gnash their teeth because you're doing that. When you go out to dinner, do you pray before your meal? If you don't, why don't you? If you do, do you feel the eyes? Why? Because we're so accustomed to being aware of who's around. And we would do well to repent of that. and to pursue forgetting about that, which really means forgetting about ourself. Because what's in play if you're praying at the restaurant with your spouse or with your family? All that's in play is what people are going to think of you. Well, I wouldn't want the waitress to feel uncomfortable because she was going to bring us a drink refill, and I wouldn't want her to be like, I don't know what to do. You know what waitresses do when they see people praying? They wait. Do they get upset about it? Maybe. Should they? No.

And if they do, is that your fault? No. We sure do worry about it. So when you pray, don't pray like the hypocrites. Forget that anyone else is around. That's the goal. We fail at it, but that's the goal. You keep throwing darts at that target and you will hit it. And you'll get better at hitting it because God is merciful and way more patient with us than we deserve. Pray because it's a responsibility and a duty that you have. You're under obligation. Not because God's sitting there. all far off and looking down and you go, you're going to do what you're supposed to do because I said, and I even had Dave tell you, do it. Is that what it means to have a duty? No, it means you're a mess. You get all worried and frustrated and angry and bitter and scared. Tell God about it so he can change you. Stop looking for your circumstances to change. What if they don't? What if they get worse? You need to change.

When Jesus prayed in the garden, he was sweating blood and said, Father, if there's any other way, if there's any other way, let it be done. Nevertheless, not my will be done, but your will be done. Do you pray that at the end of your requests? Nevertheless, if I have to die, your will be done. That's the goal. That's the bullseye on the target. And his disciples, when he was praying that, couldn't stay awake. And we're weak like them. We have a duty. It's a helpful duty. What you'll find as you live your Christian life and as you seek to do the things that God does, what you'll discover about obeying God is this. It's good for you. It's beneficial. That his commands are not burdensome. Come to me, he says. Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. My burden is light and my yoke is easy.

Learn from me, for I am meek and humble in heart, and you'll find rest for your souls. So pray so you can have that. It only makes sense. Pray because you care about other people. Pray for them. I'm not that old, but I'm older than a lot of you, and I've become increasingly convinced that I can't fix the world's problems. I can't fix your problems. In fact, I can't even fix my own problems, much as I might want to and try. I do not have the strength and the stamina and the wisdom and the perseverance to make it a week, let alone a lifetime. So what am I left with? Despair? No. That's right. No. What am I left with? Asking God to change me. Change me. Make me new. Take my heart of stone out and put a heart of flesh in there. And do it every day.

until it's finally done. You're not the only one who needs that. All the people around you need that same thing. So pray for them. Pray for them. Not because they're watching. Not because they'll love you for it. Not because they'll hate you for it. Pray for them. The hypocrite's goal is the approval of man. We'll come to it next week, but there's a way of praying that's meant to impress that has to do with the words we use. And here's what I wrote on my sermon. And I've said this to you guys various times publicly here and in conversation. You should pray in your vulgar tongue, okay? You should pray in your vulgar tongue. We used to, Jairo used to come to our church. Jairo learned a lot of English while he was here. He didn't speak very good English. And so there was always this question of whether or not you'd have Jairo pray for you because he wouldn't be able to pray well in English. So what do we have Jairo do? You put Jairo in a group with Luis because Luis can interpret. And you say, Jairo.

Pray for me. Pray for me in Spanish. Luis will tell me what you say. God understands. Pray for me, brother. And he would pray. And he could pray in a way that made sense to him, where he could get his words out, where he could take my requests to the throne of God. Pray in your vulgar tongue. You know why we don't pray in our vulgar tongue? Vulgar just means common. But it has another definition too, doesn't it? Right? That's derogatory. Vulgar is bad. But I mean it in both senses, actually. Pray in your vulgar tongue. If you have a foul mouth, pray that way. Do you think you're hiding anything from God by not praying that way? I mean, seriously, stop being a hypocrite. And if you're convinced that you shouldn't speak that way to God, then stop speaking that way to me and your spouse and your children and your parents and your siblings and your coworkers. God sees all of it. Pray and be honest. I can't talk to God that way.

Are you talking to God at all? Are you talking to him at all? I've got another page and a half of notes. We're going to stop and we'll come back next time in two weeks. Eric's going to preach next week and then I'll come back in two weeks. But you're to be a praying man and a praying woman and a praying child because you are, whether you're old or young or married or single or just a child, you have a father in heaven, a father. I can't tell you what I'd give if I never heard someone pray to God again, but only prayed to their father. So make your request known to him and ask him to change you. Ask him to change you and submit to what's necessary to change. And then you'll learn what prayer is and then you'll be comforted and then you'll be useful and helpful. That's what I want for you. That's what Jesus wanted for you. That's why he said these things. He didn't say these things to unbelievers.

He said them to his disciples. These are the things we need to hear. Let's pray.