(Wednesday) The King's Speech: Prayer

If there’s a right way to talk to a king, a president, or a judge… how are we supposed to talk to God?

In this episode, Pastor Tony Vismor walks through Jesus’ teaching on prayer from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:5–15) and breaks down what it really means to approach God—without spiritual performance or fake “churchy” language.

We’ll unpack:

• Why Jesus calls out “spiritual theater” and performative prayer
• What it looks like to meet with God in secret, not just in public or on a stage
• How God already knows what you need—and why He still invites you to pray
• What “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name” actually means for your daily life
• How praying “your kingdom come, your will be done” reorders your priorities
• Why forgiveness is non‑negotiable if you want real freedom and real relationship with God

If you’ve ever felt intimidated praying out loud, unsure what to say to God, or tired of prayer that feels scripted and empty, this episode will help you see prayer as a real, honest relationship with a Father who already knows you—and still wants to hear from you.

Perfect for:

• Anyone wanting a deeper, more authentic prayer life
• New believers learning how to pray
• Anyone burned out on religious performance but hungry for real connection with God

Listen in and discover how kingdom people pray—with sincerity, intimacy, dependence, and a heart shaped by God’s love and mercy.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

On the summon of the man, Jesus was an operating a new kingdom in which he would be king, and in this kingdom, he is setting force the ethos, the culture of what it means to live with him and how we will live one with another. How do you address someone who's famous? How do you approach dignitaries? You don't just jolly well saunter up to King Charles. There is a whole series of protocols that you are to follow if you're going to approach the British monarch. I looked him up and here are a few of them. They're on your notes there. You should always refer to him as Your Majesty. Never chuck. You always respond with a yes, sir or no, sir, which I believe would be nice in culture in general. You are to bow or curtsy. You never start the conversation. He always starts the conversation. And you only shake his hand if he extends his hand. And then you shake lightly. When you dismiss from the king, you never turn your back upon the king. You walk backwards. You better know these protocols. Shame upon you if you don't. Well about we don't have a monarchy here, we have a president. How do you approach the president? If President Trump were to walk in, then the protocol demands that we respond to him as not Donnie. Not even as Mr. Trump. Again, the handshake, you're to allow him to initiate. You're to keep the conversation brief. And when he's done, you're to rise and say thank you, Mr. President. Any of you have been in court? You don't have to answer that. People started twitching. There is a decorum there. The judge is always to be referred to as your honor. The decorum demands that when the judge comes in, you rise. When the judge walks out, you rise. You only take your seat upon his request for you to speak. And you only speak in his court when he recognizes you to speak. My brother-in-law was a prosecutor for Gwyneth County in his early years in his law practice. And one weekend that was going to be a holiday weekend, I don't know if it's Memorial Day or Labor Day, a defendant's attorney reached out to him right at the end of the day and said, Listen, my client got arrested for this misdemeanor. I can get in to see the court, the judge today, so they can make bail and not sit in jail all weekend. She got a small child. Would you be willing to do that? Would you please be willing? And Jonathan said, sure, I'll be glad to do that. He was not scheduled to be in court that day. He was just doing office works. He grabs his jacket and he walks into the courtroom and they begin the proceeding. And Jonathan stands up. Jonathan Aurelia for the state of Georgia, representing the state of Georgia, Your Honor. The judge looks at him and said, Mr. Aurelia, why are you not in proper decorum in my courtroom? Jonathan had a suit on, but his collar was open and he didn't have a tie on. The judge says, You're an officer of the court and you represent the fine people of Georgia. This is an inappropriate attire, and this is your one and only warning. The next time you'll be in contempt of my court. At which time the defense attorney stood up and said, Mr. Your Honor, if I might have a moment and explain the situation. And the judge looked down his glasses and said, Well, it sounds like to me, you better get an extra tie for your briefcase because I'll lock them up next time. Decorum. Honor, respect. If that's how we're to approach a monarch, or a president, or the judicial, then dear Lord, how do we approach God? How are we to approach the one who through his own words brought all things that are into existence? The one who is holy, righteous, eternal, from everlasting to everlasting. How in the world do we approach this God? Well, in this section here in the Sermon of the Mount, Jesus wants us to know how we're to approach him. As he goes into the second part of this kingdom devotion that we began last week on the Sermon of the Mount, he says this, this is how you approach him. Matthew chapter 5, chapter 6, beginning with verse 5 and going through verse 15. He says, When you pray, when you approach God, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. And when you pray, go to your room, shut the door, and pray to your father who is in secret. And your father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard by their many, many words. Do not be like them, for your father knows what you need even before you ask. Verse 9, and he gives us the model prayer that we know as the Lord's Prayer. Says, Pray then like this. Why don't you read this with me? Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your 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 lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Now, verse number fourteen. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others of their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. May the Lord add his blessing to the public reading of the scripture tonight. The big idea that we want to try to wrap ourselves around by the grace of God tonight is this that kingdom citizens, people living in the kingdom of God, this new movement that Christ is bringing forth, they pray and approach God with sincerity, with intimacy, and a dependency that they discover in his love and mercy. Let's take a look at what Jesus is saying here. To this great gathering of villagers and people living from week to week, feeling very far, maybe even estranged from God, certainly not living up to a standard of the Pharisees. Jesus says, I want to talk to you about approaching this God to whom I've come to declare to you. I wonder how they thought about approaching God. Probably with a lot of reverence, probably with some anxiety, maybe some trepidation, maybe without much certainty that they would have access to them. And Jesus says, hey, I need to clear up some things about how we are to approach the Father in heaven so that you can begin something that is dynamic about a prayer life. And it's not procedures, it's relationship. And so Jesus says, let me address some of the things that are a problem. And the first thing he says is this, he says, I want to warn you about needing to be seen when you were praying. Notice again, verse number five. Jesus says, When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Their motivation wasn't to commune with God. Their motivation wasn't to connect with God. Their motivation wasn't even to get the hand of God to move into a situation. Their ultimate motivation was what? To be seen of man, to be applauded by men. For men to go, wow, how beautiful are your words. How mighty is your oritation skills. Jesus says, don't do that. I bet there were some people who had been in that crowd who had heard some of the religious leaders and the elites who had this outward expression of faith, and they would say, Wow, when that guy prays, I'm telling you, it's beautiful. Boy, I bet he's really connected with God. Did you hear how he could just flow through all those words? Like I didn't even understand what half the words were. They were so beautiful, though. And they're somehow getting pulled into the idea that God would be impressed with their prayers as they were somehow impressed. And Jesus is like, no, no. That's not what this is about. Praying to God in this kingdom in which he calls us is not about impressing God. He is not impressed by this outward show. Jesus says, Truly I say to you, when they have prayed to be seen by others, they've got all they got out of that prayer time. They got what they wanted. It seems like to me, what Jesus is saying, if we're not prayer careful, prayer can become a spiritual theater. Remember, last week we talked about the word hypocrite. And the word hypocrite was a word used and developed out of the theater. When you would put on a mask, when you would pretend to be something that you were not as an actor. And Jesus is saying, don't act like something you were not in prayer. These spiritual leaders of the day, they would pray with such lofty words, no doubt, that people would go, ooh, and ah. It was a day of rhetoric. It was the Greek explosion. So to be able to stand and give in strong orientation and to make a great philosophical argument, that was a high watermark of culture that day. And thus the religious leaders embraced it themselves and said, Look how impressive we are. And Jesus is saying, No, you're not. You may impress some villagers, and you may even impress your colleagues, and your colleagues may pat you on the back and go, Wow, brother, that was as good as I've heard in a long time. What beautiful poetic language. And Jesus said, Yeah, no, don't do that. That's not what it's about. Jesus says, some people pray for their own reputation, some for approval, some for appear spiritual appearance. But ultimately, Jesus says, God is not impressed by religious theater or performance. Is anybody glad of that other than me? That I don't have to perform. That I don't have to go to the theater or the stage. I can just go authentically. Secondly, Jesus says, What God does value, our Father, is He values private devotion with just you. Notice if you will, verse number six, he says, but when you do pray, go into your room and shut the door. And pray to your Father, who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Jesus is instructing us that there is much more important audience than the crowd. The most important audience is God. God is inviting us through Jesus into a secret place to meet with and to talk with and commune with him. Jesus isn't condemning public prayer. That's not what this is about, that we should never pray. I just led a prayer in public. What he is condemning is when we put on an act, when we put on a show, when we're trying to impress men. And Paul actually said this to the Corinthians. He said, When I came to you, I did not come to you with the lofty words of men's wisdom. I was not trying to impress you. Rather, I came to you in the power and the demonstration of the Holy Spirit of the living God. And I'm just at a point in my own journey. Maybe you are as well. If you're not, I hope you get there with us. Is I just don't need lofty words. What I do need is I need the power of God in my life. Jesus is saying, God says, go to your closet and pray. Because it's there that God sees your unseen tears. He hears your quiet prayers. And he understands when you don't even know how to pray. And Jesus meets you there. I should have brought this. I just thought about it, so I couldn't have brought it. I have a prayer shawl, a Jewish prayer shawl. Many of you have seen those. It really is a precious part at times in my own prayer life. Jesus would have carried a Jewish prayer shawl. And when Jewish men would pray, what they would do is they would take their sincere prayers, they would take their prayer shawl and they would put it over their head and it would become like a tent. You think that had any implication to the Jewish life and the tent of meeting? That they would come under that prayer shawl and it would just be them and God together. And it says, though, remember when God spoke to Moses like a man speaks to his friend face to face, they would imagine that, that they're getting into the secret place with God, and they are speaking to God, and God is speaking to them. And Jesus is saying, that's what your prayer life should be like. When you pray, it should not be for outward performance or public acknowledgement, but that you are going to a place of secrecy by which you get to meet with the living God. Psalm 91, one of the most beautiful Psalms. If you don't know it, jot it down, go home and read it before you go to bed tonight. It says, He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Says, I will say the Lord, He is my refuge and my strength and ever-present help in a time of trouble. There's this imagery of David saying, There is a place that you and I can go and be secret with the Lord. And Jesus is saying, I want you as my people and the culture of my kingdom to be a place that gladly runs to a place to meet with the Lord. The most powerful prayers often happen in our life when no one else sees them and no one else hears them. But God. Number three is this. Not only does Jesus warn us about being seen in prayer, and he calls us to a place of secret prayer, he rejects to us empty prayer. Notice what he says in verse 7 and 8. And when you pray, now notice this, you may want to notice that, circle that word when. He said this like three times. When you pray, he doesn't say if you pray. The implication there is as people of the kingdom, prayer is a part of our daily function and our devotion with God. When you pray, he says this do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do. We'll unpack that in a moment. For they think that they will be heard by their many words. Do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask. Prayer is not about magic words or a volume of words, either in number or in loudness. The pagans of that day, their religions taught them that if they would repeat forcefully enough their words over and over and over and over and over and over again, it would trigger God to act. So therefore, they would just pray and they'd say the same words and the same phrases and the same iterations. They weren't crying out to God. They were just going through the motion of this. You know what I'm talking about? It's just like. That's not. It's the idea that we are using many words to try to manipulate God into doing something that we really want him to do or feel like he is somehow obligated to do. And he's saying, that's not it. Jesus says this, listen to this. Your father knows what you need before you even ask him. Someone came to me the other day and said, Pastor Tony, can I just tell you something that's just so encouraged me over the years that you say? And I said, Sure, I yeah. They said, when you remind me so often, don't worry, God already knows. This did not catch God by surprise. It caught you by surprise. You didn't see this coming. You didn't know there was going to be the meeting with HR. You didn't know that that regular doctor's appointment would now lead to months and years of treatment. You didn't know that that financial decision would put you in a place of strain. God knows it all. There's never gonna be a one moment in your life when you say, God, I need to talk to you about this. This and this is going on in my life. And God will never say, Wow, you're kidding. When did that happen? Well, today, Lord, it happened. Wow, I'm sorry. Well, Lord, what am I supposed to do? I I don't know. I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna need some time up here. Let me get some angels. Let me get it. We're gonna take out a big divine notepad and we're gonna put out pros and cons of these decisions. You know that, right? God knows all things concerning your life, and he has the answer to everything concerning your life. Now, this isn't an excuse not to pray and not to seek his wisdom. That's not it. It's not that we say, well, God knows, so why do I? He calls us to pray, but it's this idea that I am somehow going to just use empty words and just this. There is a tension here that is built. Where Jesus does later on in the gospels teach us to knock and keep on knocking, right? In prayer. To seek and keep on seeking, to ask and keep on asking, a consistency, uh a dependency in prayer. But he's also saying here, I need you to know I know. And I want you to know when you pray, don't just go through this routine of prayer that is absent of relationship with me. Anyone know you can do a lot of things without really having to think about it? On Wednesday nights after my stop at McDonald's, I head on home. And there's a lot of Wednesday nights, I'll pull into the driveway and I'll say to myself, How'd I get here? I don't, I don't remember make, I don't remember coming off the loop. I don't anybody else know what I'm talking about? You're just kind of an autopilot. I think this is what Christ is saying. Don't just kind of find yourself an autopilot here in your prayer time. Press in. Be present. He values that. Jesus rejects empty prayer. See, the foundation of prayer is not many words or even any words. The foundation of true prayer is communion, and that's about relationship with God. Jesus invites us to come to the to God as the Father, who is not distant, who is not indifferent, and who is not inaccessible. Prayer works not because of the length or the beauty or the majesty of our prayers, but prayer. Happens and it works because of our relationship with a God who loves and cares for us. And we commune with Him. And now Jesus says, So let me give you a pattern of prayer. Let me give you a model of prayer. And he gives us what we refer to as the Lord's Prayer. Although many would argue it seems like it should be called the disciples' prayer, because he's teaching us how to pray this as disciples. And I just kind of walk down this and we're going to go quickly, but there may be one point I just want to dig down a little bit, and if that's as far as we get, that'll be okay, and we'll come back to it the rest next week. Let's begin with this our Father, our Father who art in heaven. Let's just begin there. I want you to underline or circle or highlight, well, I'll highlight it when it says, Our Father. Here Jesus is teaching a people who are coming to follow him in his kingdom about how they are now to approach God. Not with a show of man, not with empty words, but in a secret place. Okay, I get it. I need to be in communion. And he says, and when you call out his name, he says, this is how you call out his name. You say, our Father. Our Father. Now, for us, 21st century evangelical believers, we've heard God called the Father for how long? All of our life. For 2,000 years. Now, this isn't the first time that the concept of God being viewed as the Father was ever breached in the scripture. Matter of fact, in the Old Testament or in the Hebrew Bible, as Jewish people would call it, God was referred to at times as a father, but not primarily. There were a lot of other names that he went by and he was noted by. For instance, he was known as the Lord or the Creator or the Master or the Mighty One or the Deliverer, the Redeemer, the Just One, the Holy One throughout, we find that name. But throughout both the Psalms and the prophets, we see occasionally where these writers refer to God as a father. So it wasn't like a whole new construct that Jesus was offering to them. However, Jesus was bringing it into such clarity that Jesus would use the phrase, the title Father or the Father, or our Father, or my Father more than any other title. Overwhelmingly. Now watch this. Follow up. Number three there if you're following on your notes. Jesus is not introducing a new concept of seeing God, but he is referring to God overwhelmingly as the Father, my Father, or our Father. Jesus refers to God as the Father about 165 to 190 times in the Gospels, depending on how your counting is done, and if you include my Father, your Father, etc. It is important to note how God is revealing Himself to us through Jesus. Watch this. I want you to really anchor into this. God is revealing Himself fully and completely to us through Jesus Christ. Paul would write later, if you've seen Jesus, you've seen God. Or Jesus actually said that. He said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. Paul said, Jesus Christ is the exacting image of the invisible God. If you want to know what God is like in his character, his personality, you look to Jesus. Jesus is the exacting. Jesus is God's revelation of himself through Christ Jesus and how God wants us to relate with him. Are you with me? So overwhelmingly, it is not even close. Jesus always refers to God as Father. And now he says, How do you approach him? Do you approach him as the Holy One of Israel? Do you approach him as the judge? Do you approach him as the one who's righteous? Do you approach him as the one who's the Almighty, the Creator? Jesus says, Let me tell you about what it means to approach him. When you come to him in relationship of prayer, you say it like this: our Father. Father. And over and over and over and over again in the Gospels. Jesus constantly refers to God Almighty as the Father. And this continues on. In the New Testament letters of Paul, the most often phrases used to describe God are number one, God our Father. The second most often used phrase that God that Paul uses to identify God is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is saying, I am asking you to come into my presence, knowing me as Father, which makes you white. Child. I want you to stop and think how strong this must have been for these Jewish people. Who is Jewish people who loved God and knew God and believed God, their whole story was of God. That they would go to the temple three times a year, all the men, and usually their families would go with them, and they would go to the temple of God in Jerusalem, and there they would approach God. And there's this giant temple, and there's all the priests, and there's all the sacrifices, and there's all the trumpets blowing, and there's all the singing, and it's loud, and it's ornate, and it's beautiful. And if you're a villager, you're probably thinking God is in that house. And I'm just gonna keep my head a little low. And Jesus says, No. That is not what this is to be about. When you pray, play our Father who art in heaven. And then he says this, watch this. He says, hallowed be your name. When you pray, I'm approaching Father who is in heaven. Hallowed be your name. Let's think about that word hallowed for a moment. That's the word we don't use much in our culture, right? When was the last time you used it? Probably October 31st of last year. Hallowed when hallowed be thy name. And we even, if I said, let's all recite the Lord's Prayer, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Amen. What's it mean? It means hallowed be thy name. What does that mean? Because this is like the first thing we're we're to say. Let's look at it. Hallowed comes from its deepest root. It means holy. But it's much deeper than that. Tim Mackey, Dr. Tim Mackey, who's one of the great theologians, if you ever get a chance to listen to him speak. Anybody heard of the Bible project with a little bit? That's Tim Mackey. That's some of his work. He is a brilliant theologian. If you can listen to him at all, please do. He said this: In the Old Testament, the word holiness is a concept that is connected to the one true creator, God. Unique and one of a kind identity, as the beautiful mind and the heart that can, with very words and thoughts, create the universe. This idea of holy means that there is nothing or no one who can stand in that space with the holy God of Israel. The title, the Holy One of Israel, was the most often used phrase by the Old Testament prophets, which was to say simply yet profoundly, there is no God like the God of Israel. He's holy. He's different. Hallowed be his name. So when we say, our Father, hallowed be your name, it's more than just saying, holy is your name. The purest translation, listen to me. Lean into this. The purest translation is this. Anybody ever had that done to you before? Yeah. We kind of approach prayer in the same way, don't we? God, we're going to start by telling you how good you are. You are so good. You are so faithful. You're so gracious. You are doing amazing, God. Your mercy this morning, wow. It was like brand new all over again. Lord, I'm telling you, you're amazing. Okay, now that we got that over with, can we get down to what's going on in my life? I need you to do this, and I need you to turn around my kids, and I need you to do something about this and whatever. And so, God, I need you to do that. Oh, and by the way, I want to tell you one more time. You are a great God. You're faithful. I love you so much. I believe you're going to do something great in this story. Amen. Anybody ever been taught to pray somehow like that? That somehow we got to show up and butter up God? That God is so so insecure, so needy, that He needs us to spend the first 10 minutes of our prayer time just telling Him how wonderful He is. Like the angel Gabriel's up there. Come on, give me the praise meter. Come on, build the praise up. Sort of like when you're at the Georgia game and the uh and the decibel reader. Come on, more noise, more noise, more noise. Let's get it going. As though heaven's saying, come on, you gotta have more praise, more praise, more praise. You gotta butter up God. Aren't you glad none of you do that? We're talking about other Christians that do that. That church down the road, they do that all the time. Thank God we don't. But what we discover here is Jesus is teaching us to praise something that doesn't begin with just words of praise. It begins with a petition. A petition that says, Our Father, we pray that your name may be recognized in this place as holy. Hallowed be your name. May your name be recognized as holy and different, and that your character and that your Godhead and that your righteousness is not like any other God's righteousness. There is no other God in the conversation with you. And we're praying, we're petitioning right out of the gate, God, we pray that your name may be recognized as holy and other. Notice this, number three. All these people lived in a time and a place where God's name was not being honored as holy, that his character was not acknowledged as unique among the other gods being worshipped in the culture. Remember, Israel, though they are the people of God, and though they are in the land which God has given them, they are also under the empirical rule of Rome. And even in the land of Israel and the other nations around, there are all these other pagan gods with all these other names and all these other expressions of worship. And therefore the name of the God of Israel, his name has been diluted among all the other gods. He's just their God, he's no different than the other gods. They're all just gods. And Jesus is saying, No, I want you to pray. Our Father, let your name in the earth be recognized as holy and different and exalted above every other name. That the God of Israel would be seen as the one true, holy, uncontested God of heaven and earth. And he rolls us into these kingdom priorities. Notice what he says: hallowed be your name, let your kingdom come, let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Let's unpack this quickly. God, let your name be recognized as great, beautiful, wondrous, and incomparable to every other name that is mentioned on the earth or in the heavens. Let your name be recognized. Why? So that your kingdom will come and your will be done. The drama that unfolds through the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, is about a family that God has chosen to be the carriers of his name into the earth so that all the earth would be blessed. Do you remember what the Adamic mission was? The Adamic mission. Adam and Eve, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. With what? Offspring that are image-bearers of God. Fill the earth with my image, with my character, with my with my attribute. Fill the earth. Well, they blew that. And then God calls the man Abraham and his wife Sarai, who are unable to have any children. And yet God says to them, here's the drama. It's still the same mission. I'm going to make you a father of a great nation. I'm going to bless you with offspring. And this nation that I am calling to be a kingdom of priests, you are to take my blessings, my name, my character, my kingdom, and you're to do what with it? Bless all the nations of the world. All the nations of the world are to know me through you because you're going to carry my name. Well, the Old Testament is just a series of Israel backing up on their covenant with God, worshipping idolatry, chasing after things they never should chase after, living in injustice, not carrying well for the marginalized and the poor. Therefore, God turned them over to these empirical kingdoms, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Syrians, and now the Romans. And now the name of God, the God of Israel, is no different than the names of other gods. And Jesus is saying, The way it was supposed to be is that the people of the earth would see this people who are my people, who I've called by my name to be my covenant people, to be a kingdom of priests, that they would walk in the supernatural blessings of my love and mercy for them. That they would carry that into the entirety of the earth, and the rest of the people who are not a part of that family yet would say, We want in on that, and we want to know this God so that your God might be our God and we may know him and worship him together. That was the Adamic mission, that was the Abrahamic covenant, and what was it that Jesus said that we call the Great Commission? Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creatures. Carry my nature, which is found in my name, to the whole earth. Jesus says, when you pray, Father, let your name be recognized and established new and afresh in such a way, so that your kingdom may come and your will might be done on this earth, even as it is in the heavens or the skies above us. Maybe for years we just thought we're just supposed to butter up God before we asked for our bread. But maybe there's a higher priority that God's calling us to in prayer. Now watch this. If Jesus is praying this prayer, Father, we pray that your name may be recognized as holy and exalted in the earth. Jesus is not just praying this, Jesus is what? Jesus is doing this. See, beloved, prayer is not just a list of our wants, our needs, or our demands. Prayer is actually aligning ourselves with God's will and plan for my life and in the life of the community in which He has placed me in. My Father, hallowed be your name. God, let your name. Does it feel like the name of God has been lessened in our culture? Does it feel like the character of God has been lost in our day? Does it feel like God's name no longer carries the majesty and the beauty and the authority and the power? Does it feel like people have a misconstructed image of who God is? Yes, yes, yes, yes. And Jesus is teaching us to pray the same that he was teaching them to pray in their pagan world. Pray, God, may your name be recognized in the world in which I live in as the holy, eternal one God. And then Jesus is saying, so aligned with that, and Jesus is saying, I'm not just praying that, I'm beginning to do that. And the question should be asked, therefore, what can I do in alignment with God's will and his spirit, so that through me the name of God may be established afresh as high and holy and magnificent and glorious. Well, maybe I do that by loving like Christ loved. Serving as Christ served, fighting for justice and standing against injustice. Seeing the poor and the marginalized and loving well for them, being a person of reconciliation, being a person of mercy, being a person of healing. Are you tracking with me this evening at all? That when we pray this, Lord, let your kingdom come. Are all those things kingdom realities? Love, joy, peace, righteousness, mercy, justice. Yes, yes, yes, and yes. How is it gonna come? Through you and through you and through you. And through me. And as it comes in and through us, our name isn't exalted. Whose name is exalted? God's name is exalted. And we say, Lord, now your will is happening on the earth, even as it is in the heavens. So we pray, Father, we come to you as your children. And we want your name to be great. We want your name to be recognized in the earth as the God of the people of grace fellowship, the God of the Christians. Their God is not like all these other gods. He is holy and exalted and unique and beautiful and righteous and pure and trustworthy with my soul. Then he says, Once we get kingdom priorities, the kingdom priority, let your name be established and known, so that your kingdom comes, your will is done, then we can move to kingdom dependence. Kingdom dependence now, verse number 11, Jesus says, pray this, pray, give us this day our daily bread. And Jesus teaches us to trust daily, not trusting self, not trusting the man, not trusting the Roman government, not trusting our ability to raise good crops or to catch a lot of fish, but rather trusting God. Father, give us this day our daily bread. It is a direct picture back to Israel in the wilderness, Exodus chapter number 16, when God provided the children of Israel, his covenant people who are carrying his name bread every day. Lord, let us be that people that find our life, our substance in you. God often provides daily strength, daily grace, and daily provision. God, I'm trusting you as a kingdom person. Then he goes to kingdom relationships. Kingdom priority, kingdom dependence, kingdom relationships. Verse number 12. And forgive us our debts as we forgive those as we also have forgiven our debtors. Did you see how that was read? I said it as it's usually quoted, but the most accurate translation is this. And forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. If we're reading this accurately, it's like Jesus saying, you've already dealt with that, right? You're not coming and asking me of something that you're unwilling to give someone else, are you? See, our prayer that is a relationship includes confession. Sin disrupts fellowship with God and with our brothers and sisters. But forgiveness restores relationships not only with God, but with our brothers and sisters. And Jesus connects forgiveness with receiving forgiveness that was given. This is kingdom. We want kingdom priority so that God, we might have in you kingdom dependence, so that through us kingdom relationships will grow and foster. That will lead us to kingdom protection. Matthew chapter 6, verse 13. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Kingdom living will include spiritual battle. The scripture teaches us, and Christ teaches us to pray for guidance, protection, and deliverance. Let's just kind of walk through this practically. If I don't have kingdom priority, it skews everything. Kingdom priority is that God, your name, your fame, your character is established and known and made known on the earth through me as I live, your kingdom come, your will be done on this earth, not just in heaven, but on this earth, which leads me now to this kingdom dependence. God, I can depend on you because you're more than enough. You are the one true God, which leads to healthy kingdom relationships, which places me in a place of safety when the evil one comes to attack me. Because how many of us know when you get isolated and you're by yourself and your relationships are busted and fractured, and you're all by yourself, the enemy sees you as easy fodder. So now we say, because, Lord, I'm in relationships that are growing in you, because I have this holy dependence on you, because I'm aligned with your priorities, Lord, I'm just praying this, lead me not into temptation. Deliver me, O God, from evil. And then he circles back around, and we'll close with this and we'll be done. Verse number 14. Jesus is done with the prayer, right into the prayer. We could have put amen right there. But he circles back around, and this seems like it's really important. Lead us not to temptation, but deliver us from evil. And but let me go back here. Verse 14. For if you forgive others of their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others of their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses. Jesus immediately circles back to this issue of forgiveness in the kingdom. Why? Because unforgiveness blocks fellowship with God. And kingdom people reflect the heart of a forgiving God who forgave them. And they become a forgiving people themselves. You think those Jewish people gathered at the feet of the Master? You think they had an edge to grind with the Romans, with the tax collectors, with all the people that had manipulated them and oppressed them? Jesus said to them, get yourself in kingdom priority. But I want to make sure you understand this thing of forgiveness. Don't hold on to unforgiveness because it will wreck everything else. The devotion of our life should at times be, Lord, in my prayer time, is there something in my life, or someone in my life, that I am not yet forgiven? Give me grace to see that, to own that, and to confess that and put that there. Because God, I don't want to miss what you want to do in the secret place that I meet with you. Here's our conclusion, the key takeaways. Prayer is not, prayer is about relationship, not about performance. Prayer truly aligns our heart with the will of God. Prayer teaches us daily dependence on the Father. And prayer keeps our heart clean and forgiving. Thank you for listening to the Tony Bismore podcast. Available on Apple and Spotify.