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[0:00] We examined the purpose of prayer, and we saw specifically the profoundness of that privilege of prayer.

[0:13] And the profoundness, knowing that truly we have this privilege in communicating with a sovereign God, and a God who knows everything, and who is omniscient.

[0:27] So I'm hoping that we've been challenged to be confident that our prayers are vital in changing things as God deems them according to His purposes.

[0:39] That simple fact that prayer changes things. And so, last week we should have been brought out of our laziness, out of our insecurity in finding the words to speak, out of that paralysis in our emotions, emotional paralysis of sometimes not knowing what to even say.

[1:00] Hopefully we're brought out of that and brought to our knees, knowing that God commands His church to pray. You see, prayer is action.

[1:12] It's not passive. It's not dry. It's definitely not dead. And it's not detached. It's not a spectator sport either.

[1:24] But God allows us to enter into His game. But it's funny how usually the biggest trigger of anxiety in churches is when the pastor asks somebody to pray for everyone.

[1:41] Those are the dreadful words you never want to hear from the pastor. Some of us do. Maybe not all of us. But God wants us to pray for you. But God wants us to pray for you. So, just as a coach prepares his team to go out into the field, to be ready to enter into the game, I plan to help prepare us in the same way.

[2:02] And I hope that we're equipped to engaging in this deep prayer life with the Almighty today. And we're going to be doing this by way of studying a known acrostic.

[2:15] Does everybody know what acrostics are? They're simply a word where each letter in that word is significant in what you're trying to focus in on.

[2:28] So, acrostics help bring to light a proper understanding of some sort of concept. For any of us 90s, 80s and 90s Jesus freaks from DC Talk, back in those days we remember WWJD, right?

[2:45] What would Jesus do? Man, they had the wristbands. They had the t-shirts. That was the thing. Or, you know, the BYOB.

[2:59] Now, not like that. Not that one. The Christian one. So, I don't want morality police coming after me. Why would you say that from the stage, you sinner?

[3:11] But BYOB, the Christian version. Bring your own Bible. And you can't forget the office fans with Creed Braden.

[3:22] You know, bo body. Bo body, remember? In the office. Acrostics. There's something that some simple letters signify something important.

[3:33] And today we're going to be looking at an acrostic, a specific acrostic, that's similar to the acrostic of pray, which is like, I think, pray, repent, ask, and yield.

[3:46] However, there's another acrostic for praying in our prayer lives that can help edify us in our prayers and guide us through some checkpoints. And they're linked and directly tied.

[3:58] The acrostic today that we're going to be going through is directly tied with the Lord's Prayer. When Jesus told His disciples to pray in this way, which often in our culture today we take that as saying, like, pray these exact words.

[4:12] No, He said to pray in this way. And so we understand that when we're going through this acrostic, it's linked to the Lord's Prayer. And I'm not going to take too much thunder away from Rick next week. So I'm going to leave the Lord's Prayer sermon for Rick next week.

[4:25] But I'm going to show you the themes that we're going to find next week in the Lord's Prayer. And so the acrostic that we'll be studying today is known as ACTS.

[4:37] A-C-T-S. ACTS. So I plan to look upon each one of these letters today and understand it not only with our minds, but our hearts and our entire souls.

[4:52] Because sanctification, when we're believers, sanctification is about progress. And we should be desiring to make progress in our sanctification. We should be desiring to know the Word more, to pray better, and know what the Lord calls us to pray, what He means in saying, pray in this way.

[5:14] So some of you might push back and be like, but Brent, you told us last week, you little hypocrite, you told us last week that we don't need perfect words.

[5:25] We don't need to worry about the perfect pronunciation of words. The Holy Spirit makes sense of our nonsense, essentially. And, well, I want to push back on anybody who might be thinking that, because it's actually not biblical.

[5:43] That whole mentality is completely against what Jesus Christ Himself instructed the disciples to pray in this way.

[5:57] He didn't say, well, you know, just babble a couple things here and there, and God will make sense of it, and throw them out of His way. No, He said, pray in this way. He gave them direct imperatives and themes to focus on in the Lord's Prayer.

[6:12] And so, we understand that this type of mentality is fatalism. And our prayer lives often reveal how we view God, what we believe about God.

[6:25] And often we use fatalism to appeal to our laziness. And we slap a sticker on saying that it's our way of trusting the Lord.

[6:36] But the Lord gave us a sure command, and it is not one in passivity, it's not one in casualty, lest we dishonor the Lord.

[6:48] And how often we abandon a pattern that was given by God Himself, Jesus Christ, in the Lord's Prayer, and become suspiciously comfortable in our prayers, suspiciously comfortable in our prayers, and irreverent to the Almighty.

[7:03] And we more so treat Him like a personal genie who obeys our beckoning and every wish that we desire of Him. So, let's break down Acts.

[7:15] A-C-T-S. And most importantly, let's observe each through the lens of the blood-sweat fervency of Jesus Christ. So, I want to consider, we're going to use a figurative person right now.

[7:32] What should his name be? We're going to name him. Choose a name. Bob. Bob's going to be praying today. And we're going to go inside of Bob's head as he enters the prayer room, as he is on his knees, bowed down.

[7:50] We will be with Bob. And I just want that to help us to paint a picture of the reality, of the thoughts, of the emotions, of the stresses that come into our prayer lives, and often the doubts of, are we even heard at all?

[8:05] So, Bob gets down on his knees to pray. So, we see Acts as an acrostic, a little guide for Bob.

[8:16] A, which stands for adoration. Adoration. So, Bob knows to, at this point, to adore God.

[8:30] And not to be confused with, with often our mentality of, of buttering up. You know, you butter up your boss when you want to get a raise. You tell them what they want to hear in order to receive.

[8:42] All in time, Bob is, is not thinking about his petitions at this point. He is concerned solely upon adoration of the Lord. Adoring with, without our supplication in view.

[8:57] And while we joke about our relationships of buttering up and everything like that, it is honestly, not the least bit, a laughing matter when it is in regard to our relationship with the Almighty.

[9:09] Let me know how it turns out for you, for instance, when you try to manipulate God and try to butter Him up to get something. We study that very in depth in the book of Judges and Judges 9, specifically with Abimelech, if you can recall.

[9:25] But adoration is vital to keep the heart of prayer intact. We are doing it, doing this for the sake of having our hearts, our souls, and our minds engaged in this prayer.

[9:41] Consider Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10, verse 19. It says, therefore, and what's it?

[9:51] Therefore, therefore, because of therefore, the fulfillment of the law through Christ. Therefore, because of that fulfillment, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is, through His flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

[10:28] So we draw near with confidence in the same adoration as the author of Hebrews, with the assurance, with adoring that God Almighty, You have allowed us to draw near to You at this time.

[10:44] And furthermore, when we couple our adoration with fervency, with that blood-sweat fervency of Jesus Christ, the melody which hits God's ears is the melody of the prayers of those, of the past prayer warriors of old in church history whose prayers were marked by fervent adoration.

[11:06] They didn't just go through the motions of God, You are holy and You are light. There's no darkness even, not a bit found in You and just going through XYZ.

[11:19] Well, okay, I need to hurry. I got to get somewhere. I got to get to my petition real quick here. No. The early church fathers had fervent adoration.

[11:31] It was adoration that paused every petition that you could ever request. And this is a huge opportunity and privilege for the church. Think about it.

[11:42] This is a knowledge of something profound that Christ did on your behalf just as the author of Hebrews says. And how often we can't even find the proper words to even voice that adoration.

[11:56] Right? I think of Charles Wesley and his hymn Oh for a Thousand Tongues to Sing. He complains of the same restriction.

[12:07] That one tongue is a lamentable hindrance to praise him properly. Now we could argue you know to solve this problem maybe that's why they brought in the gift of tongues so that it's a theology of bypassing you know our deficient and inadequate words and we'll just mumble this.

[12:28] Or we can take a more biblical approach a more inspired approach and turn to the Psalms. maybe use the word to help to guide us in our sense of needing the right vocabulary to keeping our minds engaged not trying to bypass our minds.

[12:47] Often the root of our deficiency in adoration is our neglect of immersing ourselves into the realm of his word. It is here which the fervency in prayer can both honor God without bypassing the mind.

[13:01] Biblically speaking fervent adoration only has God in view. So for Bob on his knees at this moment as he's attempting to adore God he's in the Psalms looking around and trying to voice his adoration to the Lord he only has God in view.

[13:24] It is adoration of who God is regardless of your need at that moment regardless of your distress at that moment. God has invited us to come to him in prayer.

[13:40] But we have to understand that when we're coming to him he's still God. He deserves all of our attention. And now there is a balanced approach the pendulum is kind of you know wavering from side to side here.

[13:53] You can get go into this realm over here of formalism of structured prayer this is pray this like this and repeat after me. Or you can be so casual in your approach to God where we kind of get to a place where like hey God hey what's up man just you know here again I got some requests for you and you know you know what I need and you know what I'm feeling and you know you're just awesome God cool dude.

[14:25] You know this sense of casualty in that. So no I'm not promoting like dead formalism. Our grammar doesn't need to be perfect we don't need to have lofty eloquent words in our adoration but biblically speaking according to Jesus when he tells us tells his disciples to pray in this way he's asking us to pray with inspired vocabulary and we have a tool right within our fingertips and so our adoration must reflect the confidence and reverence we have to the God revealed from Genesis to Revelation in this book.

[15:08] He tells us how to adore him through his word so we pray with our Bible's open church especially the Psalms.

[15:20] So Bob is continuing in his prayer giving God his fervent adoration for who he is. And we get to the next acrostic letter he's kind of looking around okay where do I go now what should I do now the C of the acrostic represents confession confession so as we continue in this pattern it is almost natural for us in our human nature to marvel at our sinful selves once we properly adore God because when we truly know who God is it brings into perspective of who we are since scripture truly informs us of who God is and that God is too holy to even look at sin and still he has invited us to come to him in spite of our sin first John 1 9 which we spoke on in between songs there it said that if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness isn't there adoration even in that which

[16:39] I believe is why it flows so well even in the Lord's prayer from adoration to confession there is nothing that makes us realize this more quickly than proper adoration which is why confession is only suitable to follow the Lord's prayer confession is not a religious formality but a fundamental imperative of Christians daily to heed and just as there is a balance in our adoration we don't want to be too formal in our adoration of having the perfect words but we don't want to be too casual of just being like hey God we have the same problem in that balance in our confession as well we don't want to go to a catholic extreme like a Roman catholicism that verbal confession then the priestly absolution and the words of sanctification all these processes to be forgiven versus the unhinging of the formality and just throwing the baby out with the bath water and forgetting confession forgetting repentance as this exists in churches today which leads to humanism antinomianism lawlessness just as there is a biblically rooted substance in our adoration there is also a substance in our confession known as contrition also known as godly remorse for offending

[18:18] God where we find true repentance as well you know I don't want to knock the catholic church too much I mean often in the catholic church you'll experience the act of contrition right it's a specific prayer that they recite which actually the prayer isn't that bad in its contents it is a reverent prayer that is recited but that's kind of where I draw the line I don't believe in reciting these prayers and that formalism I don't agree in reciting prayers as a formal exercise I mean it turns into a heartless emotionless routine and I'm not a dead Christian and I don't lead a church into dead faith through formality of man's words I just don't or will I lead people to dead imperatives so what we do church at this moment when we're looking for the substance in our confession do do we look at this man made prayer of contrition no we look for the contrition that we find in the inspired word of

[19:27] God consider the contrite sinners prayer of King David what better example do we have in confession than looking at David's contrition prayer after his adultery with Bathsheba there was no excuses in Psalm 51 there was no excuses there was no justifying there was no minimizing there he's not saying well I was lonely Lord so I did this or well I I'm sorry I was tired or I had a little bit too much wine he wasn't trying to justify there is no excuses no justifying no minimizing this is true repentance this is true confession look at Psalm 51 starting in verse 3 as David says I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgments David literally in this

[20:30] Psalm declared bankruptcy spiritual bankruptcy all the cards on the table empty and this is the substance of true confession and true repentance believing that God is justified to bring us death to not give us the gift of life tomorrow and we too embrace a broken contrite heart and ask God for that same forgiveness and restoration just as Psalm 51 verse 10 comes in and says create in me a clean heart oh God and renew a right spirit within me cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit think how often we vainly approach confession with not contrition but attrition and that is in the fear of consequence that is in the fear of the consequence of that offense rather than the offense to grieve the

[21:51] Holy God it's degrading to God confessing in attrition and being scared of the consequences is degrading to God and it's a discredit to our confession we should be more grieved that we've offended God not because of our punishment we all have fallen short of the glory of God we all deserve death so we've been quarantined for quite some time now I mean it's voluntary quarantine we haven't been mandated we don't have the army marching down the roads and butting us in the head with their guns when we try to leave our house but man what better time to see that come to life the confession of attrition than with young children and you know often you know you'll hear some crying and screaming from the other room and going to investigate you see just this madness and then at the moment they see dad walk in they're like

[22:57] I'm sorry dad please don't spank me or you know please don't put me in time out please don't take my tablet our beloved tablet the idol of this current century our technology don't take our technology away dad and even often even in my own sense growing up I often responded in obedience to my parents because I feared the consequence not the fact that I'm grieving them and what great depths of biblically rooted emotions having your mind having your heart having your whole soul experience when we are more concerned about our offense to God this literally breaks me in my prayer time confession because this is not ritualistic confession but this is fervent confession this is confession with blood sweat tears it's not dead it's not dogmatic religion at the least bit church this is having a relationship with God a proper biblical relationship with God it is why

[24:24] Jesus instructed his disciples to literally declare bankruptcy forgive us our debts bankruptcy David understood what Jesus made clear we are debtors who cannot pay we cannot gain merit on our own doing only Jesus Christ alone through his sacrifice upon the cross can and likewise this should baffle us daily in our prayer time this should baffle Bob as he's on his knees praying going through this acrostic or else we are in danger of taking his mercy and Christ's death for granted and enter into this humanistic atrite falsehood and so Bob's going through he goes through the confession next he gets to the T in Acts and T represents thanksgiving the act of thanksgiving and isn't it interesting how being thankful not only looks to the past it looks to back in the parting of the

[25:34] Red Sea looking at those stones piled up that memorable occurrence and something to memorialize that our thankfulness not only looks to the past but it also looks and it anticipates the future future interventions and future provisions consider Philippians 4-6 I spoke about it last week as well it says do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God Psalm 103 verse 2 says bless the Lord oh my soul and forget not all his benefits but sadly church our prayers are often represented by thankless people aren't they sometimes I know I experience it maybe not in our own church body but maybe around the community it's just you don't see that thankfulness pouring out of people and you could only imagine like are they bringing that thankfulness into their prayer closets and thankfulness or in thankfulness unthankfulness is also rooted in ingratitude and ungratefulness ingratitude is something serious because it fuels our thankfulness or lack thereof and it's a trait of pagan and apostate practices look at

[27:10] Romans 1 verse 21 Paul says early in his book in Romans for although they he says the pagans and the apostates they for although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him we see that they did not honor him they did not give him adoration and they also did not give him thanks in their response towards God's mercy towards them the church is often falsely represented even as those you know the story of Jesus in Luke 17 of the 10 lepers remember and we often look like those nine who just run away who are healed and run away neglecting to even stop and turn and express our thankfulness to Jesus for healing us and those lepers you can imagine if you know anything about leprosy it would be hard to be a leper and not be grateful we know that they were definitely grateful grateful enough they didn't even think about being thankful and presenting that thankfulness to Jesus

[28:32] Christ after being healed instantly from the exiling and dreadful disease of leprosy but only one leper expressed not only that gratitude of whoa I'm healed but also he's the only one who expressed thankfulness he paused he turned back and he gave thanks to Jesus and likewise we may be freed from sin and the punishment of that disease but the reality of that transaction is that we are indebted to God and we express that gratitude through our thankfulness we're not just grateful for it we're thankful it's expressed gratitude church thankfulness and how immature how immature we can be solely to express gratitude for the benefits of our salvation think about that because it is a very loaded statement how immature can we be to solely express our gratitude for the benefits of salvation rather than the thankfulness for that costly transaction that

[29:59] Christ bore on the cross that brought our healing often we are the nine lepers that run away and flee we're grateful for it thanks God I'll wait for the next thing I need from you we're not like the one being grateful for the benefits is immature and if your faith is built upon only what you get rather than what Jesus has done you're riding a spiritual roller coaster you got those highs and you got those lows during those high moments you know you feel that exhilarating presence of God and everything is great but the moment that you plunge into despair you realize that at that moment there is an absence of those highs and you feel lost and you feel like something's wrong and this is immature faith this is living blessing to blessing benefit to benefit it's all about receiving what you're going to get next not what you have received you see the way we covet new blessing often discredits all that

[31:28] God has done in our past doesn't it if we keep asking for if we keep being dependent upon receiving more and I need this I need something new God I know you did this in the past but I need something new doesn't that discredit that's almost like inserting that word but into our phrases I'm sorry but you know it totally disqualifies almost and disgraces what God has done and brought to you in the past and coming to God is almost a spiritual vending machine putting that quarter in and if you don't get what you desire you just keep slamming those quarters in until you get something that you want church the reality of the mature Christian is this it is that even if God never gives us another glimpse of his glory in this life even if God never gives another petition never grants another request even if

[32:28] God gives never gives us another gift out of his abundant mercy even if God doesn't bring that healing even if God doesn't provide that mortgage payment even if you close on your house in bankruptcy you don't know how you're going to pay the bills even if those bills lapse and you're put out on the streets we are still obligated church to spend the rest of our days being thankful for what he has done amen at the core of spiritual maturity is a good memory which brings the scope of the past in view regardless of what lays in the future isn't this what Paul might be getting at when he talks about contentment in Philippians so Bob he's coming I mean he's got some serious requests down on his knees praying you know he's got a lot of stresses he's in the verge of losing his job yeah he's got some legitimate petitions but he's he shouldn't he shouldn't consider those yet until now at the

[33:44] S of Acts as we're going through the checkpoints we get to S the final acrostic letter of supplication supplication all right Bob lay it on him what's going on here don't we often feel the weight and often feel convicted in our petitions and our requests like almost like a hypocrisy in our requests because I often do at times and let me put it this way like like we're for instance we're like early in marriage you know we're we're praying to God like God tell us where we need to live what what house do you want us to buy for instance all the while there's 150 million homeless people worldwide literally 2% of the population so here we are in our petitions and often at times I think that the reality is we're like is this like what if we don't need to do this does this really matter right now am

[34:53] I being a hypocrite you know there's the same reality in our relationship with God because we know that God is a God who cares deeply for each and every homeless person all 150 million homeless people in the world he cares for them but he also cares about which home we live in he also cares about the prayers that you're bringing to him in your uncertainty in life so he cares about the big things he cares about the small things so in my own sense of hypocrisy it brings me to an uncertainty in my supplication at times where I just give to God and it becomes my petition I give that doubt to God my petition becomes my doubt I give to God saying is this something that matters right now Lord or do you desire us to continue to live in this apartment and focus on something else

[35:57] God our petition is often our request for clearance and clear there's nothing too big there's nothing too small for God in our prayers and as long as it is not something that's out of line with his will or revealed in his word like if Bob is concerned about being a more astute thief and he's praying to God help me to be a little bit more sneaky around those motion sensor cameras you know obviously that's not in line with his will that's a that's a senseless request you can you can expect that prayer to go unanswered but for instance we don't make petitions to God to help us to become more competent sinners if so we have a different discussion we can talk about that after at the table talk Q&A but we don't ask God based on our contingencies we don't come to God saying God please give me A B C and

[36:59] I promise you I will do X Y Z we don't come with our contingencies in mind this is manipulating God remember Judges 9 with Abimelech the man who manipulated God who had loose lips who gave God contingencies it is a scriptural no no so when we are confident that we have fervently brought our adoration to God when we have fervently brought our confession to God when we fervently brought our thanksgiving to God we often feel at times I felt it that our prayers are just hitting the ceiling which breeds a lot of frustration and rightfully so there's nothing more frustrating than giving petitions that really matter in your life and you feel as if they're going unanswered so when we're making petitions and supplications to God maybe there's some things that we could be doing better in our supplications so I want to kind of evaluate some petitions that we might bring to God that Bob might be praying for right this moment face down on the floor maybe crying out to

[38:09] God one of them is to not pray too broadly pray very specifically don't ask God to heal everyone in the entire world maybe just call out upon a couple names something that you can see visible fruit of it being answered because that will often make you make you frustrated in your prayer life pray for specifics and also pray with a cleansed mind there's a reason why we go from adoration of who God is to our confession of who we are we come to him trying to wipe our slate clean of saying like I don't even have a right to ask you of anything because I know that I have been a wretched wretched man maybe the fervency of our prayers and petitions are there years and years go by of pleading with God maybe crying out to God and literally silence nothing no answered petitions this might be a time to evaluate your life of maybe some unrepentant sin in your life and don't just wrestle with it on your own this is a time where a good brother or sister can come into your life and walk through this stuff

[39:29] God uses the counsel of others in the church body for this very purpose and it is a beautiful thing often in my own prayers I anticipated to bring him petitions and I couldn't even get past the confession and that's the beauty of this acrostic I think and even the Lord's prayer is sometimes we come with all these petitions we know what we need and they might be very serious needs in our lives but man how God through the Holy Spirit can humble man when we get through the adoration than to confession that we can't even we can't we can't even leave and say say that anything else matters at that moment because the Holy Spirit is prompting us at that time that something else is more vital and the truth is if we are sensitive to the

[40:31] Holy Spirit leading in our prayer time when we pray we will often realize that often God is not ready for you to petition he is not ready for you to ask him of anything because you are not ready to receive anything remember Psalm 66 verse 18 that we read last week maybe you can recall it it said in the Psalm if I had cherished iniquity in my heart the Lord would have not listened and the Hebrew verse could also be translated if I had iniquity in my heart the Lord would have not heard we have to pray with a cleansed mind and a cleansed heart church and often it will leave our petitions going unpetitions because all we need to do is be focused in on confession and so

[41:34] Bob is also maybe he's maybe he's impatient at this time and maybe he needs to be praying with more patience because often the longer I grow in my faith and my relationship with the Lord and getting to know him personally the more it is clear to me that God is often not in a hurry is there anybody else out there that God is often not in a hurry it often takes years sometimes decades to see the fruit of our petitions answered of those fervent prayers for over a decade to be answered that's the reality of it I've heard a testimony and I'm not going to share for the sake of the individual but for years a petition was made specifically for this person's family and years and years and years finally just last year in a long text

[42:35] I received it was all that God had been answering all within a whirlwind within their family everything of years of submitting and crying out to the Lord and don't allow your inability to wait to determine God's inability to act maybe he's just not ready and so you have to pray with patience at times and we also have to pray kind of closing with the supplication with a long view in mind we have to pray with long memories with a good memory the story of the book of Judges is filled with this with the nation of Israel who constantly were forgetting the benefits and the provisions of God right right of the past which ultimately led to their apostasy to spiritual amnesia right we can be assured and confident that he hears us and if we ask the

[43:41] Lord for bread in our petitions we should be confident in our petitions if we ask the Lord for bread we know he's not going to give us a stone right the Bible tells us this he cares dearly to hear from you it is a command he's not a spiritual vending machine he is Lord he is the almighty so as we come to a close today God has called you to faith in him to be rooted and anchored in who he is and what he has done who he is the reality of who he is and what he has done and this remains true as he matures us in our faith in our sanctification knowing that he desires us to get better and to make progress in our sanctification and we know that in our sanctification there is nothing that compares to the transaction that first initiated that sanctification process we look back to that transaction which bought us and that nothing in this life laying ahead compares to our inheritance that lays ahead further down the line at the end of this vapor of a life that we live we have the long view both future and past in view in our petitions knowing that even if

[45:04] God doesn't grant us another request man God you saved us and I know according to your word you have something great laying for me ahead right this is maturity so let's look back at Acts let's look at all these checkpoints for Bob Bob finally drummed up the confidence to make honoring petitions to the Lord you see starting out our prayers in adoration to God fervent adoration fervent confession fervent thanksgiving and fervent finally last and least fervent supplication okay all done with fervency blood sweat fervency just as Jesus did in the garden of Gethsemane and you know what's beautiful man this hit me yesterday I was like I was just doing some last minute reflection on the message today and man within this acrostic the gospel is proclaimed

[46:19] I want you to think about this for a moment that in this across that going through this you're actually proclaiming the gospel gospel when we follow this set pattern that Jesus said pray in this way that we'll talk about next week we also proclaim the gospel salvation in our own lives and also for others in doing so think about it like the gospel being the life death burial resurrection you know and then receiving the holy spirit you know things like that it goes in almost the same order as the gospel message so in our adoration if we don't know what to the door we behold the incarnation of Jesus Christ that he became flesh to be put under the law as Galatians says and then in our confession we acknowledge that we are the ones that put him on the cross it is our sin but in our thanksgiving we are assured that we're going to be risen with him someday risen with

[47:29] Christ we see the resurrection and then finally in our supplication in our acts acrostic we receive a new status that is that justification that's the new nature sealed by the Holy Spirit as Ephesians says but not only that we're also we also receive this inheritance laying far ahead for us in the future this roots us and grounds us and gives us perspective gospel perspective so we know that when we pray as Jesus commanded we're literally preaching the gospel the life death burial resurrection and the gift of the Holy Spirit sealing us what what what other command of the Christian experience is more nourishing than the fervent prayers uttered upon the foundation of his inspired word what command of the

[48:36]  Christian experience is more nourishing than that so as we close praying how Jesus commanded it doesn't suck life or authenticity out of our prayer lives when Jesus said pray in this way it's not making us be mundane in our prayers it's not saying that we have to have this rigid structure of formality but we shouldn't be too casual in it for sure this brings life this enhances our prayers when we pray in the way that Jesus commanded and following the acrostic acts according to the Lord prayer it enhances that which we bring to God that honors him it's rooted in the inerrant word of scripture I hope you see this today I hope that this edifies us all in our prayer lives to kind of push us a little bit and focus in on that progress in this command that is so vital in the Christian life of praying because we know prayer changes things let's be a little bit attuned let's make some progress in our prayer lives let us pray now and in so doing proclaim the same gospel that we just preached let's pray