How Does Prayer Change Us?

Good morning. Thank you for joining us.

My people, thank you for joining us. We are super glad you're here. Whether you join us in the room or online, we are going to be wrapping up our when youn Pray series today this morning. So I'm glad to be able to have this opportunity to share with you guys what God's been doing in my heart. Through this series.

We've learned a lot. And so if you, you haven't been here for all the series, then I just want to catch us all up so we're on a level playing field. So let's go back to the very beginning when we started the prayer, the Lord's Prayer. We, we learned. Matt taught us that we pray relationally, right?

We pray our Father and then we pray worshipfully. Who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Right? God is God and worthy of all of our praise and our love. And we pray submissively.

We ask that his will be done. God's will be done, not our will. We submit to him, not the other way around. And we pray gratefully. Last week we talked about God provides the daily bread that we need just when we need it.

And today we're going to finish that prayer. Most of us learned growing up. If we learned growing up how to pray, then we learned, you know, to make a prayer list, to ask requests and ask God to maybe change my grade in that class or change my relationship status or change my marriage or change my health or change that person or change this situation. And to be clear, there is nothing wrong with asking God to act. In fact, we learned last week that Jesus tells us to to pray for our daily needs.

And we have loads of example in Scripture of people crying out to God and him moving in miraculous and mighty and powerful ways. We are even commanded in scripture to bring every request before Him. But here's what I want us to consider this morning. What if one of the greatest things prayer changes isn't what's happening around us, but what's happening within us? What if prayer doesn't just move the hand of God, it changes my heart.

When Jesus teaches us to pray, he's not simply giving us this magic formula for us to get everything we want from our God. No, he's teaching us what kind of people he wants us to become. In other words, prayer doesn't just ask God to do something for us. It opens our heart to what God wants to do in us. I don't know if you've noticed in the bumper and on the title screen this when youn Pray series.

We've had this tagline the whole time, the prayer that changes us.

And that's where we're going to camp out in today. That's our big idea. In prayer. We change. And I'm not saying that prayer doesn't affect things.

It does. We just talked about that. But sometimes God says no. Jesus himself prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before he was crucified that that cup would pass from him, that he wouldn't have to endure the cross. He.

If there was any other way, God. And God said, this is the way. And so Jesus submitted to His Father's will. And that's the tension we face. Sometimes God changes our circumstance through prayer.

Sometimes God changes us through prayer. And sometimes we just have to trust in his way and in his will, even when the answer's not what we wanted. But ultimately, in prayer, I think we do the changing. Sometimes I wonder if I'm so focused for God to change the things around me that I miss the work that he wants to do in me. You see, prayer is not just about changing our circumstances.

It's about our hearts, it's about our minds. It's about about our faith. It's about our surrender and trust. And ultimately, it's about his kingdom. I know I get too focused on my prayer list sometimes and asking him to bless my plans or bless this situation.

And I don't stop to consider what he's trying to do in me or teach me through the situation. And so as we look at the final three movements of the Lord's Prayer this morning, I want you to see something. Jesus is taking us on a journey. He's taking us inward. Forgive us our debts, and then outward as we forgive others.

And then he's taking us upward. Lead us not into temptation, so forgive us our debts. That means we pray repentantly. You see, we have a moral debt to God. We miss the mark of his righteousness.

We sin. And in a very real sense, our sins are that debt to God. Our sin is real, and our sin is a real problem.

Sometimes I think in church we get too numb on just how bad and offensive wrong our sin is. And the Lord's Prayer reminds us that we need forgiveness every time we fall short of God's holiness and perfection. In the Lord's Prayer, we don't stand before God because we've earned it. Instead, we acknowledge our dependence on his grace and his forgiveness in our lives. We aren't confessing our sins so that we can convince him to love Us again.

No, we confess because through Jesus we know God offers love and forgiveness to us. And we must confess and repent of our sin because the Bible tells us that sin disrupts our relationship with God. In Isaiah 59, the prophet writes, surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God. Your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear you.

See, it's not that God is unaware of us. The issue is sometimes I think we go pretending that we're okay with God when we're not. And we should be praying, God, make me right with you before I'm praying. God, make this situation right. However, I don't know if you're like me, but I do not like to confess.

I don't. Oftentimes I think I can hide, ignore, sweep it under the rug. Nobody saw that, right? We've been doing that as a people since Eden. What was Adam and Eve's first response to sin?

Hide, hide from God. When you're the only two people on earth. That's a bold choice, but that's what they did.

I also don't like to confess because I don't want to admit that I messed up. I deny it. I really didn't do that. I didn't mean it. That's not really what happened.

Or I think I can justify it. You know, I am the king of excuses. I can justify pretty much anything and make it sound better or less offensive than it was. And ultimately, I think I'm just ashamed to admit that I was wrong. That's pride, right?

It's just my pride. I can't lay it down. But Jesus commanded us and taught us to confess and to ask for forgiveness because God knows what we did. He saw it. He doesn't want to rub our noses in it.

He wants us to confess because we need to have that humble heart before him if we think we don't need his forgiveness. We are saying that we don't need Jesus, that we don't need the cross, and we don't need the forgiveness that he offers. I remember growing up, I grew up in a Christian household. I had a great relationship with my parents. We talked about everything honestly.

And I guess by the world standards, you could say that I never did anything too crazy. I don't have this great testimony story, but I did sin. And I remember one time, specifically in high school, there was a relationship I had gotten caught up in, and I tried to hide it. I tried to ignore it, but the guilt and the shame were eating away at my heart. And so one night, I mustered up the courage to go talk to my mom and dad before bed in their room.

And that was a big deal because I wasn't in their room a lot. And so they knew this was serious. And I was sure, I was sure that in that moment, my dad was going to end me. And my mom was going to sit there, shake her head and watch because it had been eating away at me so long. Though I had to confess.

I had to go to them and tell them what I'd gotten caught up in. It obviously turned out okay. I'm still standing here, very much alive. And their response was not what I expected. Instead, it was a beautiful picture of God.

They certainly were disappointed. They certainly acknowledged that what I did was wrong.

But they were thankful that I confessed and admitted to doing it. And they weren't surprised. Because teenagers, I don't know if you know this, but parents know a lot more than you think they do. They weren't surprised. And I learned that night the beauty of confessing my sins, not just to my parents, but to my heavenly father.

Confessing that night lifted this cloud that was hanging over me that I couldn't get out from under. It was incredible to know that though I messed up, I was still loved. And I can't tell you the feeling of that weight being lifted off of my shoulders. But I think that's why God wants us to confess. We find this beautiful promise in First John 1:8, 10.

He says, if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness later in James. James 5:16 says, to confess our sins to one another and to pray for each other, not for gossip or condemnation, but because it brings humility and accountability. Dr. Mohler, in his book the Prayer that Turns the World Upside down, said, man's pride has no place before the throne of God, because in prayer we speak to the Almighty and we find our position in him. We don't confess sins alone, we also repent.

It's taught in Scripture. Acts 3:19 tells us to repent then and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out and that times of refreshing may come from the Lord. Now, the Greek word here for the word repent is metanoeo, and it means it carries this idea of changing your mind or Your direction. You're turning away from your way, and you're turning towards God's way. And so maybe the question in prayer isn't, how can I change God's mind?

How can he change mine?

Maybe that's what happens in prayer. As I gain his perspective on my sin, it brings my will and my behavior into submission into his. And if we truly change our minds about our sin, then oftentimes our behavior follows. Yes, sin is shameful. It brings a moral guilt and.

And a debt that dishonors God. But we do not have to live in shame because of the forgiveness and the salvation that Jesus Christ offers us. Sin should grieve us. We should feel the weight of it. But that shame and guilt should drive us to conviction.

That conviction should drive us to confess and repent because. Because as we read earlier, he is just and faithful to forgive us. So rather than just talk about confessing sin, we're actually gonna practice it. Now, before you freak out on me, have me explain what we're gonna do. And this may be new for some of you, but I want you to attempt it.

I want you to try this. We're gonna spend some time in your chairs in silent prayer, and we're gonna go to God and we're just simply gonna do this. We're going to confess our sin to him. He already knows he loves you, but it is good for us to do this as we're taught in the Lord's Prayer. And so we're just going to take the next two minutes.

I want you to go to your father. I want you to confess your sins to him. Where you sit.

Sam.

All right. Is everybody okay? Nobody got struck by lightning. Good. All right.

That's awesome. That would have really ruined my point and my illustration. It is really good for us to do that on a regular occasion. Too many times we tried to hide our sin, and God wants us just to bring it to him. But it's interesting to me that Jesus says this during the Lord's Prayer to forgive us our debts.

And then he immediately turns our eyes outward to forgiving others. He says, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And that means we have to pray graciously. And that's a bold statement if you really think about it, because it doesn't always reflect the condition of my heart. God's forgiveness of us should be the standard of my forgiveness for other people.

If you Continue In Matthew 6, right after the Lord's Prayer, Jesus doubles down on this idea of forgiveness when he says, for if you Forgive other people when they sin against you. Your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. That's strong language and that's really hard to digest and even harder to practice because sometimes people really hurt us. And I want you to hear this morning, forgiveness doesn't mean that we forget what happened or that there still may need to be consequences and boundary lines drawn.

But what forgiveness is, is saying not what happened was okay, but what happened is not going to get to control my heart anymore. I release the hatred. I release the ill will. I release the desire for revenge. I forgive.

And we do all of that, why? Because God forgave us. And that's exactly what he's asking us to do. We talked a lot about this during our trigger warning part one series on April 26, way back, if you remember. If not, I encourage you to go back and listen to it on April 26.

God is very serious about forgiveness. He offers if, and he's very serious about the way we offer it to other people. And so again, we're gonna spend a couple minutes practicing this kind of prayer as well, taking some time to ask God to help us have a heart that is willing to forgive some of those who have hurt us the deepest. And you priority have a name or two, a dozen of people who, you know, you're struggling with treating the way God wants you to. And so we're just going to take the next minute to ask God to help us forgive others the way he's forgiven us.

Let's do that right now.

I know they hurt you. I know it stings. But we're trusting God to take care of it. We're trusting God to release us from those feelings of bitterness and anger. Now that we've looked inward and we've looked outward, Jesus turns our attention to looking upward as we pray that God would lead us and the way everlasting.

He says, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Which means that we pray obediently and dependently. You know, we pray that we would not fall back into those sins that we just brought to him. We pray that we would want to obey his commands, we would want to follow him in his ways. In Titus, chapter 2, verse 11, it says, for the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people.

It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age. And then in John 14:15, Jesus comes right out and says that if you love me, keep my commands. And it's really that straightforward. But it's not that easy. If we love him, if we trust him, we should want to obey what he tells us to do.

We should be eager to obey. We're not strong enough in our own strength to fight temptation. You see, our flesh is weak. I don't have to tell you this. You know we fail.

Hebrews 4 reminds us that Jesus can empathize with us in our weakness because he never sinned, even though he was tempted in every way. You see, this battle against temptation is why we need his help. It's why we need the armor of God that we talked about last month found in Ephesians 6. We need to stop trying to fight sin alone. Let me say that again.

I think a lot of us need to stop trying to fight sin alone. We need his help. We need God's word. We need God's people. We need his way out.

In First Corinthians 10:13, Paul writes, no temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

How many times have I run up to temptation, saw the way out, and ignored it? God alone gives me the ability and the capacity to say no to sin. The entire Lord's Prayer is a declaration of obedience, and it's a declaration of dependence on God. You see, we need his kingdom to come, not ours. We need his provision, not ours.

We need his forgiveness so that we can even begin to forgive others. And we need him to help us fight the temptations and sin that come into our life. So we're going to take one more moment and we're going to pray to our Father this time to help us fight those temptations and those sins that keep coming back. They keep cropping up. And we're going to ask, and we're going to listen for new strategies and ideas on how we can take God's provided out for us so that we can follow him more obediently, rely on his strength more fully.

Let's go to our Father one more time.

Sa.

Sam.

Sa.

Sard's Prayer.

A prayer that changes us inwardly, outwardly and upwardly by confessing our sin, realizing we need to forgive others, and by asking God to help us stay connected to him and his ways. And I want us to look as we wrap up this entire series of the entire journey that Jesus has taken us in Matthew 6 that we pray relationally. We pray worshipfully, we pray submissively, we pray gratefully, we pray repentantly, we pray graciously, and we pray obediently and dependently.

And maybe, maybe Jesus gave us this prayer not because God needed to hear these words from us, but he knew that we needed to say them to him in the Lord's Prayer. We have to come face to face that we are not as good as we like to think we are. We sin and we need his grace and we need his forgiveness and we're not as kind as we think we are. We need his help to show that grace to other people who we often consider our enemy. But as we just learned in Ephesians, our enemies are not flesh and blood.

And we are not as strong or independent as we like to think we are. We need his help. We need his help to fight temptation and to obey. So my question is, which one of these three areas this morning do you need to work on this week in your prayer life? I want to invite our Next Steps team up to the front of the stage.

They will be available after service to to pray and talk with you and they would love to do that.

Or maybe you just need to text next to 317-707-9997. Our team would love to follow up with you and look at your next steps. Have that conversation at your convenience. Maybe your next step is to come back next week and attend our Next Steps class. Follow Jesus on Sunday, September 13th at 11:00am right across the 5:02.

I believe we all have a next step. Maybe it's inward. Maybe you're still wrestling with unrepentant sin and you need to confess, especially now that you saw nobody died this morning and we can do that. Or maybe it's outward. Maybe there's just someone that you're really struggling with forgiving.

You're really struggling with bearing the hatchet, as they say. Or maybe your next step is upward. Do you need to stop trying to fight sin on your own strength and fully rely on God to help you? See, in prayer, we change. The Lord's Prayer is how Jesus taught us to pray.

And as we spend more time with Jesus in prayer, we start to look more and more like him.

And so this morning as we close, I want to pray Psalm 51 over us. Psalm 51 is a prayer of David as David is confessing his sin of having adultery with Bathsheba and getting her pregnant and then killing her husband, murdering him. And David wrote Down. His confession, I think, is a great example for us that we too can come to our God. So let's pray as we close.

Have mercy on us, O God, according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion. Blot out our transgressions. Wash away all our iniquity and cleanse us from our sin. For we know our transgression and our sin is always before us against you and you only have we sinned and done what is evil in your sight. So you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.

God. Cleanse us with hyssop and we will be clean. Wash us and we will be whiter than snow. Let us hear joy and gladness. Let the bones you have crushed rejoice, Hide your face from our sins and blot out all our iniquity.

Create in us a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within us. Do not cast us from your presence and take your holy spirit from us. Restore to us the joy of your salvation and grant us a willing spirit to sustain us. Open our lips, Lord, and our mouths will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, or we would bring it.

You do not take pleasure and burnt offerings. Our sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. You, God, will not despise. God, thank you for being our perfect Father, that we can come to you at any time, anywhere, with anything, knowing that you always love us. And thank you for teaching your son Jesus, the teaching that your son Jesus gave us on prayer.

That we may practice the pattern that he taught us daily. May we be changed inwardly, outwardly and upwardly. And may we go out of this place and be your ambassadors to a world, especially in greenwood. Who needs to know this kind of relationship that we can have with you? The love and the forgiveness.

And may they even be intrigued by the forgiveness we are offering them.

Why we would do that? It's because you forgave us, God. Thank you. Thank you for Jesus. And it's in his name we pray all these things.

Amen. Amen. Thank you guys for being here. Have a safe and happy Labor Day.