“Prayer that God Hears (Pt.1)” (Mt. 6:9-13) Pastor Mel Caparros March 28, 2021 Sunday Service

[Music] good day brothers and sisters praise the lord it's another great sunday morning and it's a time for us to worship the lord and i'd like to take my text from uh the gospel of john uh that is found in john chapter four beginning at verse 21 as the lord jesus was speaking to the samaritan woman and jesus said to her woman believe me an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in jerusalem will you worship the father you worship what you do not know we worship what we know for salvation is from the jews but an r is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and truth for such people the father seeks to be his worshipers god is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth you know i'm quite intrigued by this passage most more so because the lord jesus christ spoke this passage not among the jews but with a samaritan and not only a samaritan but a samaritan woman at that for those of you who understand a little historical background relating to the samaritans you and i know that they were greatly discriminated upon by many of the jews because the samaritans were not full-blooded jews if you recall the story in the old testament uh many of uh many of those who remained as a remnant in the northern kingdom were mixed with other races by the assyrians and so the result was that many of the jews there were no longer full-blooded jews but rather they had mixed blood so for me it is quite interesting that the lord jesus christ would speak about the kind of worship that would be required in the new testament in a place like that and secondly he spoke to a woman about what worship is all about knowing that this woman by the way was a very sinful woman she had five husbands and in other words she was into multiple relationships and for jesus to speak to her about worship for me is quite relevant and i believe the importance of what the lord jesus was saying is that what he was saying is that there will come a time when worship will no longer be as what it is now known of during that time which was at the temple with burnt offerings and with sin offerings a time would come when the temple and this happened actually in 70 a.d the temple was destroyed by the romans now by the destruction of the temple there was a two-fold message one it was a judgment upon the nation of israel for its rejection of its messiah but the destruction of the temple likewise ushered in a new kind of worship it is it was a worship that was no longer based on animal sacrifices it was a worship that was no longer based on a particular location which was jerusalem it was now a worship that was founded first and foremost on the sacrifice of jesus christ the sacrifice of jesus christ pays for all of our sins our past our present and our future sins which makes us realize or which makes the woman who was very sinful realize that she too even though she was a samaritan even though she was a woman and of a bad reputation a sinful past life even she herself could participate in this kind of a worship because it is no longer located on a particular place but it is now based on a person and that person is the lord jesus christ himself the bible says jesus said the father is seeking for worshipers worshipers who will worship him in spirit and in truth now with the coming of the holy spirit during pentecost worshipping in spirit i believe somehow involves the indwelling presence of the holy spirit in our hearts who empowers us to worship god in a proper manner to worship in the spirit means to be led by the spirit to be empowered by the spirit but it also means that worship is no longer situated in a particular location again the basis is the person of the lord jesus christ whom the holy spirit glorifies and exalts and then when it says that we are to worship in truth it speaks about sincerity it speaks about honesty because so much of the worship that was happening during the time of jesus christ was hypocrite hypocritical worship it was self-glorifying worship not the worship of the one and true living god so again in the new testament we find a kind of worship that makes us participants and we do not have to be a jew we do not have to be in jerusalem we do not need to be a self-righteous person in fact god hates self-righteousness what god simply requires is genuine faith and genuine repentance and when that happens we become children of god children of god who will worship him in spirit and in truth and so brothers and sisters if you see yourself if you have made a profession in christ genuine faith and genuine repentance the father is seeking you to worship him and so let us now rise from our seeds help us worship the lord i will give thanks to you my god i will exalt your holy forever and ever every day i will bless you and extort a glorious name forever and ever i will give thanks to you my god [Music] foreign forever jesus the son of god don't you give us [Music] i will give thanks to you my god [Music] forever [Music] jesus lamb of god [Music] jesus there is a king [Music] today [Music] forever [Music] give foreign to you my god i will exalt your holy name [Music] every forever [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] to love you is my heart's [Music] my life i surrender all to you [Music] cleanse me from my sinfulness wash me with your precious [Music] my lips fill me with your love o lord revive me [Music] for your glory oh lord my [Music] oh lord my god [Music] teach me keep me faithful to the end may my life my words [Music] me for your glory oh lord my god oh lord my god [Music] me with your power [Music] my god oh lord my god oh lord my god [Music] daddy [Music] who is like the lord god almighty who spoke the [Music] of earth [Music] the things is set to rise upon the east the moon and stars declare for us to see the beauty of the lord to us the song of all creation now we see from everlasting [Music] the same [Music] live to overcome crucified to set the captives free rose against defeat jesus christ now death no longer has [Applause] [Music] to everlasting [Applause] [Music] to everlasting the same the beginning [Music] hi [Music] the beginning [Music] uh [Music] [Music] every creature eyes to worship thee singing holy holy holy all glory honor power unto thee singing holy holy holy is he [Music] the same [Music] is [Music] like a clay in the potter's hand so [Music] you are the party everything you have ordained for the glory of your name as you work in us like you are the partner [Music] god [Music] so we see [Music] is [Music] god [Music] so we see image mode is to be more like you purifies sanctifies till your work corners is [Music] [Music] is you are in control of everything so we see [Music] [Music] we [Music] [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] here are our announcements we now have two kinds of services we will still have our virtual services for majority of our members through our facebook page 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heavenly father we thank you once again for this beautiful sunday and we ask oh lord that your grace might be upon us so that we might learn how to approach you properly and lord teach us lord your pattern of prayer we seek your grace today i seek your anointing so that i might be able to minister to your people o god lord i pray that you will glorify your holy name and lord edify your people we give you thanks and praise in jesus blessed name we pray amen and amen in this crisis that you and i are facing we do desire that our prayers get heard and thankfully the lord in this particular passage teaches us the proper way to approach him the kind of prayer that god hears now of course in our previous sermon we talked about the improper way to pray or the improper way to approach god and there are quite a number of characteristics when you talk about the improper kind of prayer and one of the characteristics is that number one it's self-glorifying does not really seek to glorify the lord but seeks to glorify oneself and then also we talked about the fact that these kinds of prayers are usually meaningless repetitions now the greek word as we studied it last time around is empty babbling or speaking words without really thinking and many times that is what happens when we merely memorize prayers and recite them they lose substance they lose their essence and therefore it becomes meaningless and irrelevant in the eyes of god and last of all one of the characteristics of improper prayer is that it is insincere and so we do not want our prayers to be like that we don't want our prayers to be meaningless repetitions insincere and self-glorifying and so today we thank the lord that we have a passage that teaches us the kind of prayer that god hears now in our study today i'm going to give you three main points and we will be talking about god's agenda that's the first major point in verses 9 to 10 and here also we will see under it uh god's name in verse 9 in verse 10 god's kingdom and in verse 10 also god's will in verses 11 to 13 we discover our agenda in verse 11 our provision verse 12 our forgiveness and in verse 13 our deliverance finally as our third major point we will talk about the reason for prayer in verse 13. now in this passage that you and i will study not only are we given a pattern for prayer but we are also given the priorities of prayer and i think that is very very important we have to know how the lord wants us to approach him and we need to understand the things that are most important to the lord now because of the richness of this passage i've decided to break this into two parts and so we will tackle first of all god's agenda today and then next weekend we will talk about our agenda as well as the reasons for prayer so let's dive in our text and let's talk about god's agenda which begins with god's name in verses 9 to 10. so here's what the bible says in matthew 6 verse 9 pray then in this way now this particular phrase teaches us that what the lord is uh instructing us with is the pattern of prayer it is not teaching us a prayer that we are to recite over and over again so again our concern here is that this is a pattern of prayer or you might say a paradigm for prayer now the word pray by the way is a present imperative which commands ongoing action and you know that if it happens to be a present tense this must be a modus operandi a lifestyle so to speak so the lord wants us to pray continually and again let me just remind you it is a commandment so prayer for us is not something optional but rather it is an absolute necessity if you and i are going to abide in christ and bear much fruit it is because we are following the imperative here to pray continuously now as i mentioned to you what is being taught here is a pattern it is not something that we are to recite now of course some people might object to that most especially when we go to the gospel of luke and we discover a parallel passage and so let's have a look at luke 11 and verse 2 at this time which is the parallel passage and in verse 2 it says hear and he said to them when you pray say when you pray say father hallowed be your name your kingdom come so the word say implies that this might be a verse of scripture or a kind of prayer that we are to recite and so that might be the misinterpretation or the misapplication that we might get into now as usual what is very important for us to have proper interpretation is to look at the settings look at the context and the context of course we will be able to derive from a previous verse verse 1 and i'd like to read verse 1 to you now notice what it says here in verse 1 it happened that while jesus was praying in a certain place after he had finished one of this one of his disciples said to him lord teach us to pray just as john also taught his disciples so notice here the request of one of the disciples was teach us how to pray or teach us to pray now based on that context what we are being told here is not the what of prayer but rather the how of prayer so that makes it clear that the context here has to do with the pattern of prayer now of course a follow-up question would be would it then be wrong for us to recite the lord's prayer or to pray the lord's prayer i don't think that it is necessarily wrong for us to recite or pray the lord's prayer for as long as it is not something that is rootingary on our part and something that we just constantly do every single day of our lives as if you know we're not led by the spirit of the lord so again we just have to remove ourselves from making it a meaningless repetition as well as a prayer that there's not that no longer comes from the heart now i'd like us to note that there are three things to note about verses 9 to 10. first of all we will notice in verses 9 to 10 in the lord's prayer it does not have a self-centered approach most especially as you go through verses 9 and 10. now the pronoun that you will find here is the pronoun your again just to recite the lord's prayer to you our father who art in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done so we find that the pronoun your is repeated three times indicating that we do not begin with ourselves but rather we begin with god because the pronoun your refers to god so if our prayers are going to be meaningful if our prayers are going to be heard by the lord it is because we do not begin with ourselves we begin with god himself now one lesson that we can find here is that the disciples first and greatest concern should be the glory of god before one's own needs now i understand that some of us because of our anxiety our worries and even our frustrations tend to immediately approach god with our own needs based on the worries that you and i have now let me give you a piece of advice perhaps it is not good for us to approach god in that manner let us not approach god with our own needs in spite of our anxieties and i find two examples in the bible of people who had reason to be anxious and yet they did not begin by spelling out their anxieties to the lord but rather they began by glorifying the lord one would be daniel of course daniel was confounded because of their situation they were in exile and he knew that the 70-year captivity was about to end and he was confounded by what they needed to do and of course aside from that there was persecution there were people who were jealous of uh daniel's influence and the clout before the king and because of that they wanted to destroy him out of envy and we find that the first reaction of daniel was to praise the lord to worship the lord instead of immediately talking about his anxieties his fears and the threat upon his life also we find the example of jeremiah if you recall jeremiah was told by god to buy a piece of property and yet the interesting thing was that the message that was given to him to proclaim to the nation of israel was that they were going to babylon and that if they wanted to remain in the will of god they should submit themselves to the king of babylon and go in exile now it sounds a it sounds like a contradiction in terms when the lord says go into exile and then he asks jeremiah to buy a piece of property now obviously the point of god is that he promises that after the 70 year captivity they would be able to return back to their own land that is the message that god was giving to jeremiah so in spite of all the things that bothered jeremiah what does he do he comes before the lord in worship and that is how we need to respond we need to begin with god we need to begin with his name and here in this particular passage we notice that this is how jesus wants us to approach him now self-centered praying does not obtain the hearing of god i got hold of this fictional story and this was a conversation between a man as well as an angel and they were in a cathedral they were in a church building and in their sight was a bird that was flying but all the windows were closed and so even though the bird wanted to get out of that building the bird kept on bumping into the windows and finally because of exhaustion the bird finally uh lays still now the angel wanted to give a lesson uh to this man who was there in that cathedral and the lesson he said is that this is how many prayers are amongst people they are simply going in circles and it never reaches god and the reason why their prayers never reach god is because their prayers are very selfish their prayers merely focus on their own needs and they do not think about god at all and so again this is just a fictional story but again there are lessons to learn here oftentimes that is how our prayers are they just go in circles and sometimes they go up to the ceiling and fall down back to the ground of course i'm speaking figuratively again the point here is that we want our prayers to be heard by the lord now a second thing to note in uh verses 9 and 10 is half of the petitions are devoted to god and his glory again half of the petitions are devoted to god and his glory meaning to say this should be our priority and it works on a descending scale it begins with god himself and they then later on a manifestation of his kingdom as well as his presence so again that is how we are to pray notice also that it is a prayer only for disciples who alone can call god father so before you can say our father you need to be a child first of all now some people would protest and say but aren't we all children of god now if you're talking about creation the fact that we all have been created by god we can say that yes god is the father of all creation but it doesn't mean that because god is the father of all creation it necessarily means that he is our spiritual father and the lord jesus christ makes it clear through some verses of scripture like for example john chapter 1 verse 12 reads but as many as received him to them he gave the right to become children of god even to those who believe in his name so notice it is only when we have faith in god faith in christ that we become or that we receive the right to become his children so before that that means we were not children of god so the question is to whom did we belong who was our father well in gospel of john chapter 8 verse 44 this is what the lord jesus said you are of your father the devil and you want to do the desires of your father he was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him whenever he speaks a lie he speaks from his own nature for he is a liar and the father of lies so clearly here it tells us that we do not automatically become children of god and just because you're you're born into a christian family will not make you a christian at all you need to come to personal faith and personal repentance before you are granted the right to become a child of god now in the old testament something that's very interesting to note is that you never say our father in the old testament but rather in the old testament god uh as a father was only used as an analogy but not as a way of address it was used as an analogy but not a way of address now our father in heaven actually speaks about two seemingly contrasting things which are now meshed together first of all when you say our father it speaks about nearness and yet when you say in heaven it speaks about distance or the transcendence of god he belongs to a high and lofty place and yet because and yet in spite of the fact that our god comes from a high and lofty dwelling place yet he is near to us our father also tells us that god is all loving now we know that fathers do love their own children but the difference is that our god is all loving also we find that when we say our father it means that he is all caring but because he is in heaven he is a holy god that also means that he is a just god so that phrase our father in heaven somehow messes seemingly contrasting things and joins them together a father who is in heaven and yet he is near to us a father who is unlike other earthly fathers because he is all caring and because he is our father he is all loving and yet at the same time he is a god of justice now next phrase here says our father who is in heaven hallowed be your name now the greek here means to be held in reverence and awe of holiness and basically the concept that is being given to us here is that of worship prayer must begin with worship until we sense a stillness in our hearts and god himself is magnified in our hearts now obviously what is to be hallowed here relates to your name as the bible says now your name speaks about how god has revealed himself to us i just like to read to you an excerpt here about the various names of god and their meanings now god had revealed himself to the children of israel under various names he had used a term concerning himself el or elohim which means his strength and his power and when he used that particular name he was giving people a sense of his might his dominion and his power later he revealed himself in that great and wonderful name yahweh which really means the self-existent one that is why he says i am that i am meaning to say he is eternally self-existent but there were other names in which god described himself the lord will provide yahweh yahweh the lord heals yahweh rapha the lord our banner yahweh nisei the lord our peace yahweh shalom the lord our shepherd yahweh the lord our righteousness yahweh siddhanu in another term which means the lord is present yahweh so when you come before the lord remind yourself on how god has revealed himself to you and through that revelation through the names that are given by god let us exalt him let us exalt him as the mighty one the all-powerful one the god who is present the lord who is our banner the lord who is our deliverer the lord who is our strength the lord who is our healer the lord who is faithful and kind and compassionate we are to remind ourselves of who god is magnify him and that is the way to approach him that is the way to begin let us not begin with our own needs but let us begin by magnifying god and you know the result of that as well the result of that is that our faith is encouraged our faith is energized our faith is enhanced and we need to understand that without faith it is impossible to please god without faith god will not hear our prayers remember james warns us of being double-minded of wavering between faith and doubt when we pray we need to pray in faith but how can we pray in faith when we do not remind ourselves who god is now god has revealed himself in scripture and because of that let's remind ourselves by hallowing his name glorifying him that is well pleasing in the eyes of god now also the greek also means to treat us holy this speaks about a desire to see god truly honored in the world today and that should be our desire we want the name of god to be honored in fact we look forward to the time when every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that jesus is lord and we know that time is going to happen during what we call as the davidic kingdom or the millennial kingdom and so this prayer also has an eschatological relevance it has relevance for the future we long for the time when christ comes here on earth establishes his own kingdom and during that time all the false religions would be removed all the false gods would be removed from the minds and the hearts of people and there will be only one god that will be worshipped we desire that to happen so when we pray to the lord it is likewise a desire for for his name to be honored and thirdly the word hallowed is in the greek arist imperative which commands mandatory action to be completely done it speaks about something that should be immediately and decisively done so what we find here is an urgency in prayer an earnestness in prayer a wrestling in prayer it is the kind of prayer that jacob prayed when he was wrestling with the angel of god in the river jabal when he said i will not let go of you until you bless me and oftentimes that is the kind of earnestness that god is seeking from us the sense of urgency a kind of prayer that is passionate intense and earnest and just right at the very beginning that is what you and i are being told by the lord jesus christ now in verse 10 we are told to pray not only for god's name but for god's kingdom it says your kingdom come as i mentioned to you this has an eschatological sense this deals with matters that relate to the future a time will come when jesus comes again when he will set everything aright what will happen is that there will be worldwide righteousness there would be worldwide justice there will be no more wars prosperity will come into the world long life or life will be extended even up to hundreds of years mankind will be at peace with the animal kingdom that is why you know these things will take place in the future and that is what we hope for and so we pray for these things to take place that god's kingdom be consummated and be established now this is the primary intent of this prayer but at the same time you and i know that uh in application in a present and limited way god's kingdom can come to earth each time a new soul is converted to the lord jesus christ and obviously that's something that you and i are to pray for you know in my daily prayer that's what i pray for in so far as my relatives are concerned all my children are christians and of course their spouses are christians as well so now i have focused my prayers on my grandchildren i pray for each one of them to receive their salvation by name and so that is what i've been praying to the lord and i've been praying for my relatives my aunties my uncles even my my cousins to become christians and even all the relatives of my wife i pray for them to come to a saving knowledge of jesus christ and so in terms of application this is one of the ways whereby you and i can can make application pray for the conversion of souls in that sense god's kingdom is coming here on earth in the hearts of men of course that is not yet the literal visible visible or physical kingdom of the lord jesus christ and yet to a certain extent that could be the application by the way the word come here is also in the greek arist imperative which commands mandatory action to be completely done decisive immediate in other words again this speaks of earnestness intensity passion we desire for god's kingdom to come now likewise in application it could be praying for things pertaining to god's kingdom i'd like to quote to you from james montgomery boys considered as one of the fathers of modern day reformed theology and this is what he says it was a sense of being in the center of god's will that gave luther his great boldness in prayer in 1540 luther's great friend and assistant frederick myconus became sick and was expected to die within a short time on his bed he wrote a loving farewell note to luther with a trembling hand luther received a letter and instantly sent back a reply i command thee in the name of god to live because i still need thee in the work of reforming the church the lord will never let me hear that thou art dead but will permit thee to survive me for this i am praying this is my will and my will be done because i seek only to glorify the name of god now that kind of prayer might shock us most especially that part wherein martin luther says this is my will and my will be done but in truth he was really praying for god's will because at that time the reformation was at a very critical stage and my call news who happened to be his assistant was you know somebody who was very helpful in his ministry of reforming the church and that is why the boldness in this kind of a prayer so the words are almost shocking to us as we live in a more sensitive and cautious day but they were certainly from god for although my conus had already lost the ability to speak when martin luther's letter came in a short time he revived he recovered completely and guess what he lived six more years to survive luther by more than two months so again in application when we say thy kingdom come we should be praying for the things that pertain to god's kingdom martin luther was not praying for himself he was praying about the lord's work he was praying about god's kingdom and that is why he was bold and courageous in his prayer and that is how we need to approach god we need to approach god with confidence we need to approach god believing that we have access into the very throne of god for the simple reason that christ's sacrifice has torn the veil from top to bottom a way has been made for us to be able to enter into the very throne room of god so that we might obtain help in time of need that is why approach god in faith do not approach god wondering whether your prayers will be heard approach god believing that as you approach him correctly in the pattern and in the priority of prayer that he gives to us we will be heard martin luther was heard and our prayers as well for god's name to be hallowed for god's kingdom to come will definitely be answered as well now in verse 10 we find a prayer for god's will it says here your will be done once again this is in the aires imperative which commands mandatory action to be completely done it orders action that must be done decisively and immediately so again what do we discover here earnestness intensity a desire for these things to happen as soon as possible i mean if you ask me if the lord comes today that would be something that would be glorious that would be something that i would i would truly rejoice in for me if it is possible that there would be no delays in the coming of the lord in the rapture you know i'd really be excited about it i'd really be enthused with that and that should be the kind of heart that you and i have as believers in christ because oftentimes we don't want the lord to come soon we want him to delay his coming but friends know there should be an earnestness and an intensity in our prayers now when we pray for god's will to be done prayer is conforming yourself to the will of god and not twisting the arm of god you know there's this humorous story of a man who was on a diet and he had prayed to god that god might help him diet because he was really he really had an excess of pounds and he wanted to become healthy and strong so he asked the the help of god to help him uh in his diet and praise the lord he was he was uh making steady progress and his friends were saying you know you're doing well keep up the good work and so on and so forth but one particular time he uh he happened to pass by a bakery and he saw his favorite cake and when he saw his favorite cake he said lord if you really want me to to have this this cake lord lord allow me to find a parking space right in front of that bakery and lo and behold he was able to find a parking space right in front of the bakery after encircling the bakery for around eight times now of course obviously he was not really after the will of god he was after his own will now that's a little funny story to share to you but then again remember this prayer is not twisting the arm of god to to do our will we should surrender ourselves to the will of god also there is a consequence to just wanting to get what we desire there is a saying that goes be careful or you may get what you wish for and this happened with a man who lived in his quality tenement on a side street in east boston he was a tailor and he worked long hours each day to act out a meager existence but he allowed himself one luxury and that was to buy one one ticket for the irish sweepstakes and each year he would fervently pray that this would be the winning ticket that would bring him fortune in his life for 14 years his life continued in the same impoverished vein until one day there came a loud knocking on his door two well-dressed gentlemen appeared in his shop and informed him that he had just won the sweepstakes he had won the grandpa grand prize rather of one million dollars the little tailor could hardly believe his ears he was rich no longer would he have to slave away making pant cops hemming dresses now he could really live he locked his shop and threw the key into the charles river he bought himself a wardrobe fit for a king a new rolls royce a suit of rooms at the ritz and soon was supporting a string of attractive women night after night he partied until dawn spending his money as if each day was his last of course the in inevitable happened one day the money was gone furthermore he wrecked his health this illusion ridden with fever and exhausted he returned to his shop and set up his business once more and from force of habit once again each year he set aside his meager savings the price of one swept stakes ticket two years later there came a knock at his door the same two gentlemen stood there once again this is the most incredible thing in the history of the sweepstakes exclaimed one you have won again one million dollars the little tailor staggered to his feet and with a groan that could be heard for miles he said oh no do you mean i have to go through all that again it is never wise to pray for things that belong to our own will let us seek and discern the will of god before you and i pray otherwise harm might come to us and what we perceive as blessing might really turn out to be a curse i live to thank god that in his infinite wisdom god has not answered all my prayers because i know that some of my prayers may not have turned out for my own spiritual welfare and so for that i am thankful to the lord likewise we must learn to trust god even when things don't seem to come as we desire them to be as an illustration sweeping across germany at the end of world war ii allied forces search farms and houses looking for snipers at one abandoned house almost a heap of rubble searchers with flashlights found their way to the basement and there on the crumbling wall a victim of the holocaust had scratched a star of david and beneath it in rough lettering the message i believe in the sun even when it does not shine i believe in love even when it is not shown i believe in god even when he does not speak and so again let's submit ourselves to the will of god our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name your kingdom come your will be done and then it says on earth as it is in heaven now when we speak about on earth as it is in heaven it's speaking about the ultimate outworking of god's purposes and of course in the end i spoke to you about the consummation that will take place in the end of the ages wherein christ comes again and he will set up the millennial kingdom and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that jesus is lord and this is something that we need to constantly pray for even in the midst of this crisis i believe that god is really accomplishing something in our midst and what that is i believe depends from individual to individual or from church to church or from human being to human being and whatever the case might be our desire should be that god would really fulfill his good purposes and so in the midst of this darkness in the midst of what we are facing right now the uncertainty of our own future i believe that god is working out his purposes and we are to submit ourselves to his will we are to seek god's name to be hallowed we are to pray that his kingdom will come that his will would be done here on earth as it is in heaven you know we live in an imperfect world where we see so much evil where we see so much selfishness so much perversion the world is not what it should be this is not what god wanted the world to be when he created adam and eve when he created earth when he created the entire universe this is not how god imagined the world to be but because we allowed ourselves to be seduced deluded and tempted by the evil one the whole world that we live in is one terrible mess everything is in chaos and every aspect of our lives is being threatened our marriages are being threatened our children are being threatened society is being threatened our morality our ethical standards are being threatened and we are constantly being challenged spiritually the truth of god's word is constantly being challenged and the world is in denial it wants to deny the existence of god it wants to deny the existence of absolute truth it wants to deny the hope that has been laid aside through the cross of jesus christ that is the world that you and i live in and therefore our heart should be broken our heart should should not be at peace with what is happening in this world we should be well aware that there is a spiritual spiritual war that is ongoing and we are part of the lord's army and the weapons that are given to us by god are not carnal but they are spiritual and they are powerful for the pulling down of strongholds so that every thought would be captive in obedience to christ and one of those weapons one of those tools one of those implements given to us by god is prayer and we are to be prayerful prayerful people we are to be uh people who approach god in a proper way so that our prayers would be heard by god and slowly but surely this kingdom of god would be manifested at the very least in the hearts of men as they come to a saving knowledge of jesus christ as they submit themselves the lordship of our king and our master this is the the very thing that should accompany our hearts so again in a limited and present sense we can still pray for god's kingdom to come here on earth as it is in heaven we desire our prayers to be heard by god because our god is sovereign and his ruler over all so again let us not be stubborn let us follow the pattern the paradigm that god gives to us and understand his priorities these priorities are very important to him and we should begin with that and then trust that as we begin with god he will minister to our needs as well that has come before the lord in prayer our heavenly father we thank you and bless you for this blessed time o god thank you so much for ministering to us and oh god our prayer is that your will might be fulfilled in our lives and in the church and in our nation and in our city in our province there is nothing else that we desire but for that to happen lord we look around the world that we are living in it is a broken world and it is a world that threatens our ethics our moral standards it is it is a world that threatens our our spiritual lives and even the truth that we seek to uphold and many supposed professing believers have fallen by the wayside many of them have damaged their reputation many of them have have lost their their uh their submission and their commitment and their consecration and they're living lives that are tainted and marred and stained oh god and this is not how it's supposed to be and so lord we ask for your mercy lord we pray that your name would be hallowed that your kingdom would come and that your will would be done here on earth as it is in heaven lord we seek your face and lord we thank you as well for the opportunity to give our tithes our grace gifts and offerings lord use them for the glory of your holy name and whatever has been achieved today we give you back all the praises and the thanksgiving amen and amen [Music] [Music] good day brothers and sisters this is pastor mel caparos once again from living word christian church i'd like to share something to you which i believe is very relevant in our time because i know that there are a lot of people who are losing hope because of so many things that are taking place in our surroundings it's possible that some of us have lost our loved ones some of us may have lost our jobs some of us may have lost a business deal or maybe even our own businesses and so i know that there are a lot of people out there who want to give up they want to quit they've lost hope and let me tell you hope is very important because if you have nothing to live for then thoughts not only of depression might come upon you thoughts of even ending your life might take place and you and i know that is completely wrong and i have three very important principles which i believe will give hope to us i call it the cpa now i'm not talking about the certified public accountant c represents christ we need christ in our lives we need him to take over our lives and sometimes the trials that we face in our lives are intended by god to bring us to himself and so if you have not yet surrendered your life to christ i pray that this might be the time that you might turn to him for after all the salvation that he offers is for free it's not something that you work for his relationship the relationship that he offers to you is absolutely free all you need to do is accept the person and the sacrifice of jesus christ but after that you need the p and by p i mean perspective now i wrote a book for omf and omf uh is the one that is publishing my book and this book is entitled more than enough and let me share to you about perspective but before that let me just add the a because i said it's cpa so you have christ you have perspective and the last would be attitude now in page 56 of my book we find here the the three things that i mentioned to you christ perspective and attitude let me read this to you in page 56 it says the second verse in the passage says consider it all joy my brethren when you encounter various trials james describes the trials that his readers would encounter as various or poiculos in greek which literally translated as multi-colored and was later used figuratively as various kinds or modes diversified manifold thus trials may come in different kinds modes types shapes shades forms grades levels degrees and intensity what is interesting is that the bible also says when and not if indicating the trials are a certainty they will come notice the phrase my brethren indicating that christians are not accepted from trials perspective tells us consider it all joy when you go through trials jesus said so himself these things i have spoken to you so that in me in christ you may have peace in the world you have tribulation but take courage i've overcome the world so christian be prepared because trials are going to take place sometime in your life and then dr harold cela states and this speaks about attitude tragedy never leaves you where it finds you it will either drive you closer towards god or else away from him it all depends on where where you put your tragedy between you and god or behind you god is not silent in times of tragedy he speaks through it to the man or woman who listens to his voice so is there hope yes there is christ perspective attitude and this book from omf more than enough will teach you about christ perspective and attitude there is hope brothers and sisters more than enough from omf lit [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Living Word

Views: 1,512

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Living Word, Christian Church, Carmelo Caparros, Mel Caparros, Bro Mel, Cebu Church, Cebu City, Cebu Philippines, Sermons

Id: iRc50QyKcI0

Length: 87min 25sec (5245 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 27 2021