Alone with the Almighty, Part 5b

This morning as we continue our time and our study in the special series, Alone with the Almighty, what I want to do is help you understand five basic principles that you need to understand if you're going to communicate with God. Five principles that will help you understand what you need to do when you are alone with the Almighty. What you need to say when you communicate with the God of the universe. You see, I've come to realize that most of us, our prayers are so weak because we don't know what to say.

The Bible tells us. Disciples ask the Lord to teach us how to pray. We'll turn to Matthew chapter 6, and I want to give you five very basic principles. Let me read it to you, Matthew chapter 6, verse number 9, pray then this way, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen. Now most of us could quote that verbatim. Most of us know those because, those words because we were taught them from our early childhood. He gives us the principles that help us understand how to communicate with our heavenly Father. That if we miss these principles, our prayer life will be so weak that we'll never have an answer to our prayers.

The necessity of communication involves five principles. The first one is the principle of adoration.

The principle of adoration. It was E.M. Bounds who said these words, prayer honors God and dishonors self. True biblical prayer honors God and dishonors self. If you are being focused on in your prayer life, you got a bad prayer life. It's all about God. And that's why our prayer lives are so weak. That's why we don't see God moving in and among us in a mighty way is because we don't understand prayer. So Christ gives us a pattern. He teaches us this is how you pray. Pray this way, okay. What way is that?

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. That's the prayer of adoration, our Father. So if you pray this way, Matthew 6, God's way, honoring God, dishonoring self, you'll see great things happen in your time alone with the Almighty. So important for us to grasp the principle of adoration, our Father. He's your Father who is in heaven. Who knows what you need before you even ask Him. Who when He sees you in secret will reward you openly because of your time alone with Him. And then our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Listen, if you're going to adore Christ, if you're going to understand the principle of adoration, there must be a recognition of His paternity, a realization of His supremacy. And thirdly, you need to relish His purity.

Relish His purity. Lord, I want to be holy as you are holy. Don't even waste your time if you don't want to be holy as God is holy and ask Him, Lord, I want to be just like you. So you go from the principle of adoration to the principle of supplication. Supplication, listen very carefully, supplicate is the word most frequently used in the New Testament to describe our prayer life. It's a word that means when you bring an olive branch to a sovereign, you lay it at his feet and you bow before him and you make your petition known to him.

Listen very carefully, you want to know what to ask God for, God tells you. And then you're praying God's way. Then you're honoring God and dishonoring self. Here it is, are you ready? You go from adoration to supplication. Here it is, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Here's what you ask God for, God, I'm asking for your kingdom to come. So we know that God is ruler over all. When we give our life to Christ, he becomes a ruler of our lives personally, but we are also asking God for his literal kingdom to come.

We believe as Isaiah 9, 6 and 7 states, that one day the government will be upon his shoulders. His kingdom will be forever. We believe as the angel said to Mary in Luke chapter 1, verses 32 and 33, that his kingdom will be established forever. We believe the book of Revelation when it says when Christ returns, he will take this earthly kingdom from Satan, the usurper, and set his own kingdom up on this earth. Listen, when you pray, this is what you ask God for, God, rule my life. Be the king of my life.

May I learn to submit to your kingship. Everything you ask Lord, you are the king, you are the ruler. Therefore I give my life to you, I submit to you. That's prayer. That's the prayer of the warrior. That's the prayer who knows who's on the throne. That's the prayer of one who knows who rules. That's the king of the universe. Is that the way your prayers are? Thy kingdom come. You see, the reason we don't ask for God's kingdom to come is because we're too busy setting up our own kingdoms. We're too busy ruling in our own kingdoms, and God says, you ain't got no kingdom, it's my kingdom.

And we're saying, no, that's my kingdom. Oops, excuse me. And God says, no, it's mine. And I'm saying, no, we're having a battle with God. It's my family. God says, no, it's not your family, it's my family.

He says, no, those are my kids. God says, no, they're not your kids, they're my kids. It's my money. And God says, no, that's not your money, it's my money.

It's my church. And God says, no, that's not your church, that's my church. You see, we're too busy setting up our own kingdoms. So God says, when you pray, you pray with adoration.

You come to me with supplication. And you say, thy kingdom come. Number two, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Hebrew parallelism. Hallowed would be thy name on earth as it is in heaven. Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We want everything to happen here as it happens there. Now that's prayer, man. That's how the warrior prayers. He is so interested in God that he wants everything that happens there to happen here. Is that the way your prayer life is? You see, everything in heaven happens perfectly. Instantaneously. Just like God wants it. That's what the child of God wants.

Thy will be done. Listen. Thy will be done. Two words for will. Help you understand the will of God. Bulamai Thelema. Bulamai is the decree of God. Thelema is the desire of God. That's all you need to know. God has a decree. That decree will always be accomplished no matter what you pray. Because God has decreed the beginning from the end. He knows it all. His counsel rules over all. That's the decreed will of God. That's not in Matthew chapter 6. You had the Thelema. The desired will of God. God, I want your desire to be accomplished in my life.

Lord, I want your will. Your desire to be accomplished in me. What's God's desire? You see, God's desire is not always accomplished on earth as it is in heaven, is it? How do you know that? Because God desires all men to be saved. But not all men are saved. God has decreed who will be saved and who will not. But God desires all men to be saved. God desires you be converted. God desires you be controlled by Him. Be not unwise, but wise. Understanding the will of the Lord. Ephesians 5.18 That you be not drunk with wine, which is excess, but be controlled by the Spirit of God.

God's desire is that you be converted. God's desire is that you be controlled by Him. God's desire is that you be, are you ready for this? Be content with your life. Ephesians, 1 Thessalonians 5.18 In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. God says, I want you to be thankful for what you have.

I want you to be thankful for all that's happened to you. I want you to rest in me and be content. That's God's will for your life. When you say, Thy will be done. God, I want you to work in me. I want you to convert my soul. I want you to control my soul. And God, I want you to make my soul content with what you've given to me. That is the warrior's prayer. Also, God's desire is that you be consecrated to Him. 1 Thessalonians 4 says, this is the will of God. This is the desire of God. Even your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality.

Consecrate your life so much to Him that you live a pure and holy life. That's the will of God. Also, God's will for you is that you capitulate to authority. You submit to authority, 1 Peter 2, verses 13-15. That you submit to those who oversee you in the government and in your home. That's God's will. When you pray, what do you do? God, do a work in my life. I want your rulership to come. I want you to rule in my life so much so that my will now is your will. That whatever you ask me to do, I am willing to do because I want your will in my life done as it is in heaven.

Everybody's content in heaven. Everybody's converted in heaven. Everybody's controlled by God in heaven. Everybody submits to God in heaven. God, I want that to happen to my life. That's true prayer. When's the last time you prayed that? We want God to change our life. We want God to change our circumstances. We can't be content in what we have. We gotta ask God to change our circumstances. We gotta ask God to change everything about us in our lives or we won't be content. God says, I want you to be content in the state in which you are.

I want you to submit to me. I want you to be controlled by me. That's the warrior's prayer. That's supplication. That's what you ask God for. God, your kingdom come. Lord, your will be done in my life. Remember Christ in the garden? Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. That's the prayer. That's the prayer of the warrior. Christ understood. He understood that the desire of God, the Father, needed to be accomplished in his life. Not my desire, Jesus said, but your desire be done. Let it happen according to your will, Lord.

That's what Christ prayed. That's how we need to pray. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Now listen very carefully. Then it says, give us this day our daily bread. Listen, don't ask God to give you daily bread unless you're willing to submit to his will and seek his kingdom. Don't ask God to supply your daily bread unless you're willing to submit to his will and seek his kingdom. You know why? Because the daily bread he's going to give you is not what you're going to be willing to accept.

You know, when I was growing up, my parents, they fed me what they thought I needed to eat. They didn't always feed me what I wanted to eat. They fed me what I needed to eat. They gave me veggies. Kids don't like veggies. Orange ones, green ones, white ones, we don't like veggies. But my parents gave me vegetables. They wanted to make sure I ate the right things. God gives us our daily bread. God daily sustains us by giving us what we need, not necessarily what we want. And if you're not interested in God's kingdom, if you're not interested in God's will, if you're not interested in God's name being hallowed in your life, if you don't see him as your father who is in heaven, then don't ask him for your daily bread because the daily bread he's going to give you, you will reject.

They reject it. Give us this day our daily bread. Now you're ready to take from God what he's going to give you. Now you're going to accept from God and agree with God what he's going to give you. You see, God has already given you some things in your life this week. And you know what? Some of you haven't accepted them. Some of you have not agreed to them. You know why? It's because you haven't submitted to his will, asked for his kingdom to come and rule in your life. And therefore, when he provides for you the bread of affliction or the bread of adversity, you're unwilling to accept it.

See, God gives you what you need, not what you want. Because God knows what you need to be just like him. He wants you just like him. And now you're willing to accept. God, give us this day our daily bread. It's daily bread. It's bread that comes each day. Bread that will come each day for you to sustain you that way. That bread is not for tomorrow. And the bread he gives you is not for yesterday. It's for today. God always gives you what you need on that day. You have no guarantee of tomorrow, right?

You don't know whether you're going to be around tomorrow. I don't know. You don't know. Only God knows that, right? So forget about tomorrow. Today. Give us this day our daily bread. This day. And therefore, watch God do a great and mighty work in and through your life. The principle of adoration, the principle of supplication, thirdly, the principle of confession says, and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Forgive us. Forgive us. Some will say, well, why do I need to ask God to forgive me if I've already been forgiven? Is it not true that the Bible says in Ephesians 1, verse number 7, we have redemption through Christ's blood, the forgiveness of sins?

Yes. Is it not true that Ephesians 4.32 says God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you? Yes. Well, doesn't the Bible say over in Hebrews 10.14, for by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified? Yes. So why am I asking God to forgive me of my sins? If God has already forgiven me all of my sins, then why do I go to God and say, God, forgive me of my sins. Forgive me of what I've done. Simply this, God, as theologians say, has forgiven you judicially or positionally. That's a one-time act where God forgives you of all your sins, past, present, and future.

But you need to be forgiven by God parentally or relationally. He is your Father who is in Heaven. As a son would commit an offense against his father in the home, so we too commit offenses against our Heavenly Father. And therefore, as a result of that, there is a barrier between me and my God, and that barrier is an unforgiving spirit or unconfessed sin that I must deal with in order for my Heavenly Father and I to have a relationship that's unmarred by sin. The Bible says that our iniquities are those things that separate us from God so that He does not hear.

That's why the Bible says that we are to confess our sins. Why? In order for that relationship between me and my Heavenly Father to be clean and open, there must be no sin barrier between Him and me. Therefore, I must ask Him to forgive me of my sins. And the text says, And forgive us our debts, Lord. Forgive us our sins as we forgive our debtors, Lord, even as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us. And this is so unique because this is the only part of the Lord's Prayer that has a commentary on it.

Look down at verse number 14. For if you forgive men their transgressions, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions. Wow. You see, Christ has to give us a commentary on that so that we understand something very important. If we harbor bitterness, if we have an unforgiving spirit, neither will Christ forgive us our sins when we go to Him. Why? Why? Because the true indicator of your walk with God and your conversion experience is how you forgive someone who has sinned against you.

The Christian's character is at stake, the highest, when forgiveness is at stake. That's when your testimony shines the best. And therefore, if we don't forgive our brother his transgressions, neither will our Heavenly Father forgive us our transgressions. That doesn't mean you don't have judicial forgiveness, because you do. You have that positionally because of your relationship with Christ, but you don't have parental forgiveness. You don't have relational forgiveness. You don't have that open communication with your Heavenly Father.

You know, when you've sinned and your Father knows it, and you have unconfessed sin with your earthly Father, that you and your dad don't have a great relationship until you come and confess your sin. When you confess your sin, ask for forgiveness, and forgiveness is granted, you have that open mind of communication, same way it is with your Heavenly Father. We need to ask for forgiveness. There is confession based on the fact that we've already forgiven our brother. You see, our prayer lives are very, very impotent because of our unwillingness to forgive someone who has sinned against us.

And Christ says, this is the pattern. It's the pattern of adoration, the pattern of supplication, the pattern of confession. And then fourthly, the pattern of protection. Protection. What's it say? It says, and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Do not lead us into temptation, better word trial or test, but deliver us from the evil one. It's the prayer of protection. It's the cry of deliverance. It's the cry of the warrior who says, God, I don't want to be led into any test or any trial that will cause me to fall away from you.

It's the cry of the warrior who hates sin so much that he doesn't want to be led away into sin because of anything Satan might do or anyone else might do to him. So he says, Lord, lead us not into any trial, any temptation, any test that is too difficult for us to handle. And we know that Christ does not tempt any man to sin. James 1 speaks of that. So we know that God will not allow anything to happen in our lives that will cause us to fall away from him. That he himself will not help us. You see, the answer to the prayer of Matthew 6, 13 is found in 1 Corinthians 10, 13.

Right? There hath no temptation taken you. There hath no trial taken you. There hath no test taken you, such as what? Common to man. It's common to man. So whatever trial comes your way is a very common trial that every man to some degree experiences through the history of the world. So you're not any worse off than anybody else ever was. You're just like everybody else. Therefore, the trial and temptation that comes your way, God himself, 1 Corinthians 10, 13 says, will provide a way of escape. A route of escape.

When God allows trials and temptations to come your way, he always gives you a route of escape. So when you pray this way, you are saying, God, deliver me. Show me that route that I might escape the snare of the evil one. The problem is, most of us love our sin so much we don't look for a route of escape. We just want to go right into it and sit there for a while. You can't ask God to deliver you out of temptation if you willingly place yourself in it. You've got to say, Lord, deliver me. Spending time alone with him saying, God, before he ever comes, show me the way of escape.

It's the prayer of protection. That's what your prayer life is about. When you're alone with almighty, you adore him. You adore him so much you see him as your father who is in heaven, whose name is to be made holy in your life in a daily basis in all your behaviors, Peter says. It's a prayer of supplication that says, your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And now, Lord, give to me my daily bread as you see best. It's a prayer of confession. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

It's the prayer of protection and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. It's the prayer of fifthly exaltation. For thine is the kingdom and the glory and the power forever. Amen. It's a prayer that exalts God as preeminent. It's a prayer that says, Lord, we recognize you are the king. I want to affirm your kingdom. For thine is the kingdom. It's all about your program. It's all about your plan. You are the king and I am subject to your rulership. Yours is the power. I want to acknowledge everything about who you are.

You are the all powerful one. Psalm 62 11. Power belongs to God. Yours is not only the kingdom and the power but yours is the glory. Yours is the glory. You deserve all the praise. How long? Forever. Forever. Because your kingdom endures forever. You are the king who uplifts us with your everlasting arms. And then you say, Amen. Let it be so. Lord, I agree and accept your rule in my life. Lord, I agree and accept that my will needs to be your will. And I want it done in my life as it is in heaven.

Lord, I agree and accept whatever bread you give to me today because I know it will sustain me through this day. And whatever it is you give me tomorrow, I'll take it. But today I need you to give me your daily bread and I agree with the bread you give me and I accept it wholeheartedly because I desire to live a life that's pleasing to thee. And God, I need you to forgive me of my sins because, Lord, I have with my whole heart sought to forgive my brother. Therefore, Lord, I confess my sin to you and ask you to forgive me of all my sins so that you and I can have a clear means of communication.

And God, protect me from sin. Protect me from the evil one. Don't let me fall by the wayside, but God keep me on the straight and narrow for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

Let it be so, Lord. Let it be so. But folks, those are the five principles. I need to govern your alone time with the Almighty. That somehow you understand the necessity to communicate with God. And when you do, boy, I tell you, the floodgates open. God does such a mighty mighty work. Are you a warrior? Are you a prayer warrior? As a mother, are you one that your son or daughter can look to and say, ah, there's the warrior on their knees praying for me, adoring my God, praying for his kingdom to come, his will to be done in my life, for God to give me the daily bread that I need because his is the power and the kingdom and the glory forever.

Your kids see that in your life? Does your husband see that in you as a wife? Does your wife see that in you as a husband? The necessity of communication with God helps you understand your alone time with the Almighty. May God give you the grace to do what needs to be done. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for today and the joy that we have to look briefly into your word and say, thus saith the Lord, thus we do. In Jesus' name, Amen.