Matthew 6:5–8Scripture
Matthew chapter 6 verse 5-8.
It's tough being OCD because everything has to be straight and nothing is straight. And so that's tough. Matthew chapter 6 verse 5-8 says this.
And when you pray and when you pray, not if you pray, not if you should pray, but when you pray.
There's an assumption here that he's speaking to a people who pray. And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others.
Truly, I say to you, they are they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father who's in secret. And your father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, he's trying to drive a point here. Do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard, for they're many words.
Don't be like them, for your heavenly Father knows. He knows what you need before you ask. I love that. So, I've had the privilege. My family's pretty large. I've had the privilege of knowing very well many of my great-grandparents.
Introduction
Not everybody has that privilege. A lot of my family got married at a young age. And so from the age of 18, they didn't just get married age of 18 and 19, they got married younger than that and then began to produce babies. And so because of that, and generation after generation, it's kind of been the case. When Brooke and I were married, she was 19.
A year and a half later, yes, you can do the math. It was after we had been married a little while, we had our first child. So, we did not get married under duress. It was not a shotgun wedding. We were It was legit. And we got married and we had a child, our first child. And then pretty soon after that, a couple years later, we had our second child whose name was Landon.
So, Ashton and Landon. And they have had the privilege of knowing their great grandparents. And so from generation to generation, we have had multiple generations be able to speak into the life of young people in our family. And that's a beautiful thing. Because how much do we learn from people that have gone before us, right? I never got to see this.
Although I, you know, on the Sproul side of my family, the gray, this gray spru side of my family, this would be my dad's side of the family, there was a story of my grandmother, and her name was Elizabeth Sproul.
And I remember being in her house. Now, my grandfather was kind of nuts. Like, he had a printing press in his he was an interesting fellow, like loved the Lord, precious fellow, but very interesting. When we would go visit him. We'd be out in the woods. They owned a place in Woodbury, Tennessee. This is where the biscuits and the gravy run thick like rivers of Oh, just so wonderful.
And we'd go up into the mountains in Woodbury, Tennessee, and we would hike around and we would do all of that. And my grandfather would had a barn, and in that barn, part of the barn had been converted to be a house. And in the very back of that barn was a printing press. And he would print tracks, salvation tracks for people and he would give it to certain evangelists and they would go around they'd hand these tracks out and it was old time printing press where you would put every letter into the press and then you'd roll ink on it and then you would press it, right?
And so he had that old press and he would make these do printing for different reasons. That was his ministry. My grandmother's ministry, she didn't have nothing to do with that press. She cooked and that was a good ministry. I remember her cooking in the I remember her cooking in the kitchen and we hours of the morning she would be out.
She would be gathering what she needed for lunch when the family was in town. Their space was really small. It was a small kind of apartment space in the barn that they had converted. And I never got to see her do this, but she had a rocking chair. And so grandma would always sit in her rocking chair and she would knit and she would talk to the little children.
A lot of a lot of the little grandkids would sit around her rocking chair in a rug. I remember doing that. And she would just talk to them, ask them about their life and she always was rocking on her rocking chair. But there were stories also growing up about Grandma Sproul that she would pray early we hours in the morning.
She would get up before everybody was awake when it was still dark and she would sit on the rocking chair and she would rock and she would pray. She didn't pray loud, but she prayed furious prayers. I know this because through the generations several people in my family had been a benefactor of catching her in the middle of the night or we hours of the morning praying.
Here's one of the most common prayers that she would pray. It wasn't repeated. It was prayed with boldness. But she would pray that if any children in the gray family spru line, gray line, that part of the family would be conceived.
And if that child would not become a Christian, she would pray that child would die in the womb before being born. That was one of her main prayers. And she would pray it every morning. She would pray it furiously. And over the years, first of all, when I was younger, I thought, "My grandma's a murderer. She's crazy." Praying that we all drop dead if we don't get saved.
What kind of prayer is this? As I've aged and grown up over the years, I've seen a heritage on that side of my family of ministers, pastors, people who love the Lord.
I've seen people try to run from God on that side of my family only to be caught by God at some point down the line. And I truly believe that generation and that line of my family, the heritage we have is due to the prayers of my grandmother and we love the Lord.
Oh, we don't serve him perfectly. Can I get an amen? We make mistakes and we misstep and we don't live perfectly. But we are in hot pursuit of him. And I do believe it is because of the prayers of my grandmother. Did you know that prayers matter? And I know I'm aware. I've lived long enough to know that my prayers don't necessarily do a lot regarding changing God's mind.
He's resolute in what he does. He doesn't he doesn't need to interview you to ask questions about what should and shouldn't be done in the world. And the reality is his ways are higher than our ways. And he doesn't come down to a lower way to determine what he should be doing at a higher realm. But the relationship that we have form and fashion through prayer is an important one.
It's valuable. I know that. I know that prayers matter.
I also know and I have said often that prayers don't necessarily change things. Prayers change you.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 8:15
So the more we sit with him, the more we're fashioned by him. It is difficult to marinate in something for any amount of time and not it not affect the taste of that thing.
And the reality is we are created and fashioned in such a way that God wants us to add flavor to the world.
And the way we do that is not necessarily by the works we do, by the performance, the way we perform, the way we act, the way we talk, the way we walk. It is by what we're flavored by. And prayer is an opportunity to sit with the Lord and long enough to be flavored, to be seasoned by him, to begin to be affected by his character and his way.
How many of you know that you could be affected by his character this morning a bit? I don't know about you, but there are areas of my life where I need to sit with him and be affected by his character a little more.
Amen. That he would rub off on me. Rub off on me in the way that I talk with my wife or my friends, my church family, or the way I engage them.
We are shaped by God when we are with him.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 9:36
So God is calling us to be with him. That's the point of prayer. That is the point of prayer.
And I know in our culture, we want to take something like prayer and we want to turn it into an act and a performance.
And it comes from a good place. Honestly, I think it does. I think it comes from a heart of somebody that wants to serve the Lord with rigor, resolute in their passion for the Lord and wants to serve him well.
And how many of you time how many times have you guys over the last three years got to a place in your small group study where you turn really quick to what you can do.
But Jesus died to bring you rest and out of our rest we work. But we have jumped over rest and we've gone straight to work.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 10:28
And our work is shaped by our rest. Yeah, I love this Scripture because if I were to summarize this into a title, this would be it.
I feel like God is saying, "Stop performing and start praying."
Pastor Shawn Gray · 10:48
Amen. There's a difference between performing and praying. What I loved about the story of my grandmother, although maybe they kind of undermined what she did in private by telling it to the whole from generation to generation on.
I am blessed by that. But what she did was not for her grandchildren. It was not for her nieces and nephews. It was not for the little children that stayed in her house, nor her sisters or her brothers or her husband. What she did was in isolation and people overheard her but she did not do it for them.
I think it's possible to pray in public and not to do it for men. I think that's possible. I think it's difficult in our society because everything we do particularly circling around social media is how do I look?
We can't even take a picture once, especially if we look at it. How many of you know when you go out with your family and you hang out and they take a picture, the first thing you want to do is look at it to make sure you approve. And you're not necessarily looking at everybody else to see if their eyes are closed.
You're zooming in to see what you look like because you don't want to be like, you know what I mean? You don't want to be like that. You want to make sure that when this is documented for historical posterity that you will not look like a silly person on there.
And so we are very fixated on how we look. And that begins to shape how we pray. This is why the Lord encourages us to do it in private because it removes this temptation and it's real to perform before men to worry what you sound like.
This is why people have stage fright when they think about speaking in front of people. Listen, I've done it long enough. I don't care what I sound like anymore. Get what you get and you don't throw a fit. Like that's just the way it is. You know what I mean? But there are people that are concerned about what they sound like, what they look like.
And that begins to shape how you pray. You know why we have difficulty and why we have conferences and we have seminars on how to pray is because we are paranoid about what we sound like and what we look like when we pray.
So God then is calling us and he's trying to disarm us from that concern by moving us into a private place so that we can learn how to engage in prayer without all of the baggage of you worrying about yourself.
He does this out of concern for you. He does this because he loves you. God is calling us to stop performing.
Point 1Prayer was never meant to be a performance
Number one, prayer was never meant to be a performance. Right? Was never meant to be that ever. Matthew 6:5, when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites. That in the Greek word, you know what that literally translated means? An actor on stage performing before men in a mask.
I spent the first 11 years of ministry telling students to get real, to drop the masks, to be authentic, to let the guard down because GOD already knows who you are.
He sees you for who you are.
The reality is we played a role in our lives so long we've forgotten who we are.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 14:34
We don't have a true perspective and true reality of we don't have a true grasp of reality of who we are. Listen there are people how many of you would testify the fact that life is busy?
We had the privilege of having our men together for prayer breakfast yesterday. One of the things that we talked about is standing firm and holding a line for men. I know I'm not trying to get off track. I'm not preaching another sermon in a sermon, but I want you to understand that one of the things that we talked about that prevent men from holding a line for their families, for the Lord, in their church, in their workplace, for the Lord. Standing firm in their faith is exhaustion.
Just busyness. We're just busy. Life is busy and we're exhausted. Are you exhausted of performing? Dance, little puppet. Sing me a song. Dance me a dance. Entertain me. Young people, listen to me.
Don't fall into the trap of entertaining your friends, of entertaining your teachers, of entertaining the world, of amusing people around you.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 15:57
Because in the end, you'll get a laugh, but it will be to your demise. God help us and older people. This affects you too. We need to stop performing. We need to stop acting like we're something we're not. I would prefer that if you're one way at church and another way through the week, just be who you are through the week in church.
I'd prefer that because you're not doing yourself nor the church nor anyone any favors.
When our profession doesn't line up with our secret life, we have a problem.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 17:03
Jesus is saying, "Do not turn prayer into theater." And we're guilty of that. Do not turn devotion into drama. Do not turn intimacy into image management.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 17:12
They stand where they can be seen. That's where hypocrites stand.
They pray where they can be noticed. They're not seeking God.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 17:36
They're seeking witnesses. Don't let your prayer be like that. They perform before men. And it says in the Scripture here that their reward is not relationship. Track with me because some of you are like, "What's a reward? I need to know. Is it a yogurt machine? Like what is it? Is it a yogurt machine in heaven? Do I get a Bentley in heaven?
Like my mansion bigger?"
Listen. For some of you, maybe this is a disappointment, but the reward is the relationship.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 18:13
And I know that our relationship is going to be untethered from sin and untethered from this flesh and untethered from sickness and untethered from all those things and pain and fear and hurt and sorrow and and disappointment. It's going to be untethered from all that.
So our relationship will not be will not be inter will not be interrupted by all of those things that circle in our heart and in our lives. And I think that's wonderful and it's beautiful and that relationship will be unth. But did you know that prayer is a way for you to tap into the reward here on earth?
It's relationship. It's a reward. It's a wonderful reward. You know what their reward was? The hypocrites, the actors, the performers, the people who prayed not for relationship but for self.
You know what their reward was? Reputation. Wow. That dude can pray. He could pray the socks off a cat. I don't even know why I chose cat because they have those little bitty paws and sometimes they're white on the bottom and they're like socks.
Anyway, I digress.
They get applause instead of presence. They get recognition instead of revelation. They get seen, but they're never known.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 19:40
You know why they're never known? Because what they're putting out there is not even the real them. Their character is known, but they're never known. Come on, track with me. Okay, let me How many of you today You can raise your hand. I'm rebellious, so I probably wouldn't raise my hand if I got asked this question. So, it's okay if you don't raise your hand.
Okay, I would raise my hand in my heart. But how many of you have ever been guilty of coming to church and putting on heirs and acting away when you know in reality it's contrary to the way you truly are? How many you've ever been guilty of that? So then it may stands to reason that affects your prayer too, right?
Stands to reason. This is why he's trying to remove you from the temptation that he cares about you. The temptation to perform before men. Okay? That's what he's trying to do. He's trying to get to the real you because he wants to know you and you to know him.
He don't want your character to know him. He wants to know you and he wants you to know him.
Point 2God does his deepest work in hidden places
Number two, God does his deepest work in hidden places. Man, that's good stuff. Like, I could think about that for a while. All right. If I were to take an acorn, and you've probably heard this illustration, and put it on a bookshelf, that will be a really cool acorn.
Matter of fact, I could probably put a little wax and buff that thing up and it'd be really pretty, really shiny acorn. But if I bury it in a hiding place, what looks like an ornamental piece comes to life.
It's beautiful, but it its beauty erupts from hiding. Matter of fact, it erupts from secret places. It erupts from being buried, right? It erupts from being buried. And it is it takes time. Come on, man. Like I know we don't like to sit with anything for a very long time, but it takes time for life to erupt and a tree to begin to bear fruit.
That takes time. I've been buried for a week, man. God, I've been buried. I've been buried. I've been buried. You've buried me. I'm buried by trouble. I'm buried by conviction. I'm buried by discipline. I'm buried by rebuke. I'm buried. I'm buried in your word. I'm buried. When will life spring forth in me?
Takes time. Well, I want it to be quicker. I'm going to need it to be quicker. I need a quick trip. I want to pop in. I want to pop out. You know why I like quick trip, by the way? And I'm thankful for the one at the end of the by 50 and seven. I think that one's great.
One, the food. I like the food. I like the food. I like even though I'm never going to get food, probably just get coffee. I like the fact that I could if I wanted to and I can just get like a Snicker bar or Skittles or maybe some crackers.
I could get taquitos. I mean taquito. I could get taquitos if I wanted. Get a hot dog. I could get a hamburger. I could GET A SUB. Matter OF fact, this IS A ONE-stop shop. I could live here. I could live here. It's amazing. I have options. I like options. I like it because it's quick. When I go and I scan my card, it goes, "It's paid."
When I go to other grass stations and I scan my card, I hear the theme music.
Takes forever. Needs to be quicker. I got the gas. Need to PAY FOR THE GAS. Got to get out. How many of you feel rushed to get everywhere? Rush to get to the store. Rush to get home and cook. Rush to clean up. Rush to take out the dogs. Rush to do the laundry. Rush to go back to work.
Rush to go to sleep. Why can't I go to sleep? Why is it taking so long? Cuz you're a woman. That's why. That's why it's taking so long. You never stop thinking. I wish women I wish for my wife's sake I could just give her the nothing box I constantly live in. I wish I could do that. I go to sleep in 3.5 seconds.
Brooke hates me for it. She does. She's like, "Well, you not would not believe what happened last night. I think it's going to be something, you know, huge. Like maybe a tree fell on her house. Didn't hear in the middle of the night. Her house got struck by lightning. Pipe froze and broke and now our basement's flooded. No, I went to sleep in three seconds and she's offended.
She's offended because she wants to do it quicker. It's not quick enough. Maybe you can't get to sleep and that's an opportunity to pray because he does his deepest work.
In hiding places, in hidden places, right? It's important. It's important. Sometimes we're so much of a hurry, we can't have a relationship. The other day, I It's been kind of a crazy couple months in my household. I don't know how people like Kirk and the Browns, the Merricks and the Browns survive. They have so many kids. They could start a basketball team together and they could have a first string and a second string.
Like it's it's amazing. I don't know how they do it. I remember having two when they were little barely. Now I have two adults and I'm still busy. So feel blessed. It still is painful no matter what age they are. It's just there's just tons of stuff to do. And I realized that Brooke and I were together and we were going through the motions of doing and accomplishing what needed to be accomplished, but we had never really connected in probably several weeks.
Are you with me today? You've been there. Together, working together, cooking together, cleaning up together, doing work together, doing life together, going to appointments together, doing everything together, but not really engaged.
Did you know that although God is always with you and you live and you move and you find your being in him and everything you do you're doing in him, you can be detached from him?
Did you know you can be serving him and miss him?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 27:12
There's no true relationship. You know where you discover that? In hidden places. Brooke and I was like, "Broo, I know we've been around each other a lot and maybe this maybe you need some alone time, but could we have some time together away from everybody and everything?"
Took our phones, put them in a drawer. We hung out together alone. Life springs from that. Love springs out of that. Nurturing comes from that. Healing. Opportunities for connection come out of that.
Listen, you have to be intentional in a world that is so busy.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 28:07
Sometimes you're not thrusted into hiding. Sometimes you're not planted in a hiding place.
Sometimes you're not planted in a ground. Sometimes you have to break away from the crazy and get in the secret place. You have to be intentional.
Listen, this is the greatest act of discipline is detaching yourself from everything that's calling your name.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 28:28
Where's the margin in life for God?
Some of us are running ourselves so ragged that we don't even have time for God.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 28:45
I'm speaking from experience here, right? And we have a responsibility that if we begin to see oursel not being able to stand firm in the Lord or labor in prayer or do these things, we see our attitudes getting snippy.
You ever been snippy? When you ever get to this place, this is a reality check to get to a place where you go, whoa, hey, I'm at my m like the I'm not even holding on to the bottom of the rope no more.
I reached the bottom of the rope and I'm balling. It's it's a warning sign that you need some time with the Lord. When you pray, go into a room and shut the door and pray to your father who's in secret. And your father who sees in secret will reward you with relationship. I just throw that in there. Jesus gives us a counterculture vision of prayer.
Not street corners but secret rooms. Not open platforms but closed doors.
The kingdom of God does not grow on stages. It grows in rooms. Before God ever uses you publicly, he wants to meet you privately.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 29:56
The secret place is where the masks come off. The secret place is where titles mean nothing anymore. The secret place is where pride dies and dependence is born.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 30:09
When the door shuts, there is no audience left but God. And you live your life before an audience of. This helps you know when you go to the secret place what audience you're living for.
No image to manage, no role to play, and no script to perform. Only a child before a father.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 30:42
And Jesus says, "Your father who sees you in secret will reward you."
The reward is not influence. It's not platform. It's not visibility. It's none of those things. The reward is fellowship. It's it's intimacy. It's God himself. And
Public power is born in private prayer. Authority in the world flows from surrender in the room.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 31:16
If your public life is louder than your private life, your pray your prayer life will become a performance.
Point 3More words do not mean more weight
Number three, more words do not mean more weight. Oh man, I just want to go off on a bit of a soap box about this.
Let me start here. How do I do this? I tend to be, this might be shocking to some, but I tend to be pretty introverted. All right. So it means like I can do people. I can hang out with them. I enjoy them, but that's exhausting. Steve de Peralta tends to be in the house or is in the house this morning.
So, let me just say he is not me. Steve de Peralta, I think he's in here. I don't know. I can't really see past the first row, but I think I saw him there. So, Steve de Peralta, however, he loves he is energized by people. You want to see him come to life, put three people in the room.
He's charged by that. My wife's that way. We went on We went on a double date the other night and Brooke planned the night. The whole night. The whole night. Nothing but the whole night. So, help us God because I would have never planned anything she planned in that night. It was very interesting. And the longer we went through that night, the more hype she got.
When we got home, it's like somebody had consumed her body and she was exhausted because she's energized with people.
Now this has a shaping nature to how we engage prayer. So without being accusational because we tend to be charged up and I think God has wired both of these individuals for a specific purpose and God has a plan for these people and there's a risk on both sides of this right to falter and to fail even when it comes to prayer.
All right. But right now in this particular section, he's talking about people who use many words.
I've known a lot of introverted people who use a lot of words. I've known a lot of extroverted people who use a lot of words. The tendency by nature is introverted people don't use a ton of words because they don't want to be seen by other humans.
And words draws attention to yourself. But that's not necessarily indicative of every introverted person. And notice it's not just even the amount of words. It's heaping up empty words. Okay? Because introverted people are going to hear this a certain way and extroverted people are going to hear this a certain way. It is not necessarily the amount of words.
It's that they're empty. Okay. So what is this? What is then does charge us to do? All of you verbal processors in the house, this is for you. He's saying verbal processing is not a good way to pray. Now, this is hard for us and we have more in this generation that are verbal processors than there ever has been before because we have people that don't know how to think critically and internally because this puts us in an uncomfortable place to sit in silence and contemplate something.
So instead of being resolute about what we feel before we say it, we walk oursel into our belief by talking because we don't know how to sit in silence.
Jesus is saying to us, disconnect from the world and the noise. Contemplate with me for a bit about what you feel and stand resolute in that thing before you speak.
He's wanting you to consider what do I feel about a matter. Don't talk yourself into belief. Think yourself there. This is why I hate the movement that says that worship is coming into the house and disconnecting our thought life. When Jesus says it is the engagement of the thought life, it is the renewal of the mind. It is the renewal of the way you think.
We've turned our brains off and we've let other people think for us out of convenience and comfort because we just need noise.
The problem today is we have young people going to college and they don't know how to defend their belief system to defend the gospel because they never thought about IT.
This is important. He's saying when you pray, think about it that prayer works by volume, by length, by repetition.
Quality is not indicative. Quantity is not indicative of quality.
You can pray long and trust little. You can pray loud and have small belief. You can pray beautifully and eloquently and still be completely distant from God.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 37:29
None of that is indicative of a true heart. You know what he's saying? Sometimes silence gives me an idea better than your words about where your heart is.
Okay. If I were to go to dinner and if I were to go to dinner and I would having dinner with Pastor Jr.
And we were having dinner and I tal and I have done this before with J.R. And I talked about myself the entire time from one thing to another thing to another thing to another thing and I did that once. It'd be like cool. Lot's been going on in your life. Good job. But if the 50th time I had coffee or dinner with Pastor Jr.
And I was talking by myself and he never got to talk engage the conversation because I just kept bringing it back to myself. That would get annoying for Pastor Jr.
Sometimes silence creates space for the person you're in relationship with.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 38:54
Now, we could talk all day long about how God speaks to you. We could talk about that all day long. And I have my certain positions on that. I do believe the Lord speaks to you. I believe that. But he uses the word through the Holy Spirit to illuminate Scripture. You don't put Scripture in. He don't he has little to say because that's what he uses.
It's his resource. And the Holy Spirit's job is to illuminate what Scripture you put in. And there are times in your life where you're putting in Scripture. It makes no sense. But you're sitting in your prayer closet and all of a sudden at the right time, three years later, that Scripture is illuminated at the right time. And God speaks to you through what he planted in you three years ago that was buried in secret and now erupts into life.
Amen. Through the Holy Spirit. Are you with me? Through the Holy Spirit. He speaks to you that way. That's the way he That's the way he speaks to you. He uses his word. If you're constantly yabbing on, jabbing on about stuff, it's like the guy you're eating dinner with that just wants to talk about themselves all the time.
It's not helpful. More words do not mean more weight.
We often talk much in prayer because we do not trust God enough to be silent.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 40:20
The reality is if I talk enough, I won't actually I won't get I won't get a nudge on what he's really trying to do. And matter of fact, I probably know what he's trying to do.
Don't like it. Trying to change his mind. The more I yap at him, he'll just BE like, "enough already. Okay, you can have what you want." We're just going to talk him into a circle until he just acquiesces to what we want. We repeat oursel because we fear he's not listening. Did you hear me? Hey. UP there. You hear me?
Did you hear me? Do you hear that? I'M saying I'M hurting down here. I'm aching. I feel mistreated AND abused AND uncared FOR. Served you. Hello. You ever been there? He's like, I hear you and I see you.
The problem is it's always about you, isn't it, Sean?
Point number four, I'll skip the rest of that. That's I'm done with that. That's making me uncomfortable.
Point 4Prayer is not informational, it is alignment
Prayer is not informational. It is alignment. Listen, here's where I get this. Matthew 6:8. Do not be like them. For your father knows, track with me here. Yeah. For your father knows what you need before you ask him.
He knows. This should have a shaping effect in our prayer life. This idea and concept here. This would help us. And honestly, this verse changes everything. If the father already knows, if he already knows, then that must mean that prayer is not about informing him of what's going on.
Okay? Now, this is important. I'm trying to help I'm trying to help you understand how to not be so tortured in prayer. Okay? HE already knows. He knows. He knows.
Prayer is about forming you. That's what it's about. It's about aligning your heart with his heart.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 43:06
Listen, you're not putting out a P O to heaven and updating heaven on what's going on.
I mean, just for kicks. Just for kicks. Here's a psalm. The psalm that we did in between one of the songs that we did before something else we did in worship.
One of those. Can you put that psalm up there? I liked it. It's during worship set, I think. What was it called? Psalm. Okay, here it is. Now, listen to this. Notice you don't see a question because this is not an interview. And if you really want to reflect for a second, when you read the Psalms, it's a lot of declarative statements.
I really I want to encourage you this morning because I think our prayer life needs to be moved more from this and I'm not saying it's not bilateral in nature.
I'm not saying that the Holy Spirit doesn't illuminate. I'm not I'm not saying any of that. But there is, it is interesting because when we're taught to prayer in the Lord's prayer, next week we're going to look at there's not a list of questions.
It's not there. Listen, HOW lovely IS your dwelling place? How do you know that? HOW DO YOU know it's lovely? How do you know that? The word because the word says so. My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord. You never been there. How do you know it does? What is he doing? My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.
Even the sparrows find a home and the swallow a nest for herself where she may long lay her young.
At your altars, oh Lord of hosts, my king and MY GOD. Blessed ARE those WHO dwell IN your house, ever singing your praise. YOU think HE didn't have problems. YOU think HIS heart wasn't hurt? You think he didn't have a list for God to accomplish this week? What is he doing? He's declaring the attributes and the character and the goodness of God.
CUZ that's ALL that matters. When ALL hell breaks loose, it's ALL that matters. Don't place your hope IN MEN. Your heart will be broken, not sustained. Your will BE crushed, not uplifted. He is where we place our hope. And ladies and gentlemen, in case you're wondering, it ain't you either.
Instead of standing in the mirror and declaring who you are, you should sit in a closet and declare who he is.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 46:40
That's what prayer does. It instructs your mind and it transforms your heart.
Listen to this. A lot of us can't labor in prayer because we're like, "God, why did that cut person cut me off on the road? Why are people so mean? Why did I get mistreated? Why did I lose my job? Why can't I pay my bills? Why did I Why did so and so die? How come they didn't live?
Why? Why? Why?
God's not being on an interview.
He is good. He is faithful. He is long-suffering. He is lovely.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 47:48
He has not forgotten you. He still sees you. He cares for you. He has a plan for you when you feel like he doesn't have a plan for you. Notice that in the next verse, and I'm just I'm closing, but in the next in the next verse, it says, "And when you listen, and when you pray, don't heap up empty phrases like the Gentiles do, whatever.
Pray like this. Our father in heaven, we hear that your name is hallowed, but can you explain to me why?
Because it don't feel so hallow. It feels shallow in this moment. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I'm going to skip that verse because I have some things I want to instruct him to do on earth as it is in heaven the way I want him to do. It doesn't say that.
Notice that this declaration is instructive to the mind and to the heart of the individual praying it.
Jesus, you're not Jesus. The apostles, you ain't an apostle. Jesus takes the bread of a young boy. He breaks it. He says, "Thank you, God." And he passes it. And God does what he pleases. It's declarative. Is it bad to ask questions? I'm not saying that. I'm saying when you comprehensively go through Scripture and you look at the Psalms and you look at prayers and you see Jesus instructing us on how to pray, he is instructing us to declare his characters and his goodness.
It's instructing us how to think about him. You know why we can't labor in prayer? Because we don't know his character. How do we know his character? Well, by looking at life and seeing what he does in my life and in the world around me. Listen, you're going to misinterpret that. Yeah. Cuz some of the things you call good, he don't call good.
And some of the things you call bad, he calls good. You're instructed by this. You pray this.
Prayer doesn't change God's awareness. Prayer changes your posture. It moves you from anxiety to trust because it's hard to be anxious about a God you've been declaring is awesome.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 50:37
It's hard to be anxious about him. From control to surrender, from fear to dependence.
Prayer is not how you make God do your will. Prayer is how God reshapes yours.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 50:55
That's what it is.
The point of prayer is not to make God aware of your needs. The point of prayer is to make you aware of his sufficiency to meet them.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 51:03
Prayer is not a transaction. It's transformation. It is how the heart learns to rest in a father who already knows.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 51:15
He knows. He knows. Stop informing him about something as if he has not been watching. He sees you.
Jesus is not calling us to louder prayers. He's calling us to deeper lives. He's calling us away from performance and into presence.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 51:36
Away from noise and into nearness, away from reputation and into relationship.
Stop performing and start praying. Get off the stage and get into a room. Close the door. Lay down your mask and meet the father.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 51:52
Because the greatest reward of prayer is not what God gives you. It's that God gives you himself.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 52:10
That's the greatest reward. And
When prayer becomes presence, your life will stop being loud and start being deep.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 52:25
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