Make your presence real, I pray.
Be our teacher as we study the Word.
Amen.
In our last heart-to-heart talk together, we were discussing this wonderful matter of prayer.
And you will remember that I told you that literally volumes have been written regarding prayer.
You can go into any religious bookstore and you'll find on the shelves scores of books written by theologians,
ministers, pastors, laymen on this subject of prayer.
And yet, when the greatest authority in heaven and earth on this subject of prayer gave the pattern,
the real true pattern for prayer, he gave it in just a few words.
So simple that even a child could understand.
And so I'm asking you to forget everything that you've ever read on the subject of prayer.
And let's come as little children to the great authority on this subject, Jesus himself, and see what he has to say.
Oh, the very simplicity of it all is so wonderful, it's so thrilling.
It'll be the greatest day of your life.
It will be your greatest experience if you as a Christian learn the secret of real praying.
And in our last little heart-to-heart talk, as we studied the Word of God, as found in the sixth chapter of Matthew,
we saw that Jesus left no doubt whatsoever in our minds as to how we are to pray.
He gave it in such detail that he began with the real place of prayer.
When thou prayest, enter into thy closet.
And when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father.
There's your place.
A child can understand those words.
The next step that he takes in teaching us how to pray is the simplicity of the words that we pray.
When ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do.
No. When you pray, you talk to God, just as you would to any intelligent human being.
I don't say when I listen to some people praying.
When I hear their screaming, when I hear their loud crying,
a really intelligent person wouldn't listen to them.
They could never get an audience with a really intelligent person.
And if that one was really intelligent, they would just stand before them and say,
Now look, now just calm down a little bit. Now come on now, just be quiet.
Be reasonable. Remember, God is intelligent.
Treat him as an intelligent person.
When you pray, for praying is nothing more or less than talking to God.
Talk to him, speak to him intelligently.
Use not vain repetition. Use not vain babblings.
Speak to him, and in turn he will speak to you intelligently.
And you'll know exactly what he has said when he speaks to you.
And when you speak to him, be definite in that which you have to say to him.
Now, Jesus after giving us the place of prayer, instructing us regarding the simplicity,
in our speaking to him, he gives us the pattern.
And begin if you will please with the ninth verse in the sixth chapter of Matthew.
In the opening sentence, we have a great doctrine of God.
We're to begin, first of all, with our Father who art in heaven.
And when I left your home in our last little heart to heart talk,
we had discussed this matter of our relationship.
And I told you at that time, if you really learn to pray the first six words,
you need not go any further.
Our Father.
You know, for many the word Father means imperfection.
There's many a youngster, you go to that little youngster and you speak to him of his Father.
And immediately you will think of one who has been cruel to him, perhaps a resentment in his heart.
Speak to another youngster regarding his Father.
And in his mind he has an image of a man who comes home in a drunken condition.
Someone he fears. Even to hear the footsteps of his Father, fear fills his every being.
For many a youngster, for many an adult, thinking of their Father, they think of one with imperfections.
That's the reason, beloved.
You'll never make me believe that when Jesus gave us his pattern for prayer and said that we were to pray,
our Father which art in heaven, he did not add those words, which art in heaven, as a means of location.
I do not believe that because you and I know that the Father is seated upon his throne.
In heaven there is a throne, upon that throne and from that throne there rules the mighty God of this universe.
But in teaching us how to pray, Jesus did not add the words, which art in heaven, as a means of location,
because in reality God is everywhere.
Our poor little minds cannot fathom it, but it is true.
The very presence of God, the very eyes of God, the very ears of God, the very person of God is literally everywhere.
And Jesus did not use these words to pinpoint a certain location.
He used those words, the Father, our Father, your Father, my Father, which is in heaven,
to show us that the Father to whom we pray is the only truly perfect Father there is.
He used it in expressing perfection.
Oh sure, I could almost swear that I had as wonderful a Father as ever lived.
But you go to Concordia, Missouri, and they will tell you that Joe Kuhnman was highly esteemed of men everywhere,
but he was not perfect. That's right.
Oh, believe me, in my own mind, in my own thinking, I thought he was perfect.
But I'm sure that Joe Kuhnman wasn't perfect.
Joe Kuhnman had his faults, I'm sure.
There will be those who could point them out very readily and tell you all his faults.
But there's one Father in whom there is no imperfection.
That one Father who is absolutely perfect is our Heavenly Father, your Heavenly Father.
Do you remember when I said, to begin my little heart-to-heart talk the last time I was in your home,
that if you really knew the true meaning of these first six words,
you would never have to go any further into this prayer?
Consider with me something that is vitally important.
Your Heavenly Father is absolute perfection.
He is perfect in wisdom. He is perfect in knowledge.
He is perfect in His guidance. He is perfect in His choices.
He is perfect in His love. He is absolute perfection.
He cannot lie. His words cannot fail.
He knows no such thing as failure.
Do you really believe that?
Do you believe that with every atom of your being?
As you think of it, you very readily say, yes, of course I do.
It's a simple question to answer. Of course I do.
Are you sure? Are you dead sure you really believe it?
Do you remember it hasn't been very long ago when something happened and you couldn't understand why it happened?
Maybe death came and took the choicest member of your family, perhaps in the springtime of youth.
And through blinding tears in your soul, you said, why?
Why did he have to take my child? Why did he have to take my young son?
Why did he have to take my husband? He was so young. He had such a promising future.
Here is an old reprobate over here. He's not good to himself. He's not good to anybody else.
Why wasn't he taken? And my loved one could have been left.
Remember something.
Do you just think you believed that your heavenly father was absolute perfection, perfect in his wisdom, perfect in his knowledge?
It is impossible for him to make a mistake.
Therefore, you must believe that he knows all things best and he has not made a mistake.
Or when you can say, my father, and can really say it in its fullest meaning, you'll never question his dealings with you.
You'll never question his will for you. Never.
You'll never question complete obedience unto him.
A perfect father knows that.
Oh, that's thrilling. That's marvelous. Doesn't that do something to you?
If you can ever get to a place where you have that perfect and that complete confidence in your father, you'll lean very heavily on his arm.
And you'll find that through those dark days, the water is about to overflow.
In that moment of temptation, when you're tempted beyond your own physical strength, underneath are those everlasting arms, those strong arms, those arms that cannot fail.
Surrounded by his love, his perfect love.
In his care and in his keeping, you can know no defeat.
For your father is a perfect father, perfect in strength, perfect in power, absolute perfection.
Now, that's glorious. That's marvelous.
That's his part of it.
But remember, if you are his child, he is your heavenly father.
You're enjoying a wonderful relationship of father and son.
You are a son. And always the father has the right of command.
Just like that. Always.
The Bible teaches that in our earthly life, right here in the flesh.
Always the father has the right of command.
That's one of God's ten rules that governs the life of men.
Honor thy father and thy mother. Honor.
In every instant, the Bible teaches that the father always has the right of command.
Oh, somebody said, Ms. Kuhnman, why didn't you just leave us away up here in the heaven, Lace?
Where you had it a few minutes ago, the perfection of father and the glorious truth that he makes no mistakes, that we are in his care and his keeping.
But remember, this relationship works both ways.
You must get to the place where you will surrender your will to the father.
Mm-hmm. Jesus did.
Sure.
Jesus gave us the greatest example of what I'm trying to say right here. That we have in all the world.
Jesus gave us the example of that relationship between son and father.
That relationship that I have as an heir of God, a son of God, and my heavenly father.
Those closing hours, and remember something, Jesus had a will of his own.
A will separate and apart from the will of the father.
You must understand that to get the full impact of what I'm trying to say.
Jesus had a will that could have been exercised completely apart, separate from the will of his heavenly father.
But he had to come to the place where he yielded his will to the will of his father.
And that's why we have the record of him looking up and saying, Father, nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.
Sure. When you pray, oh, I'll tell you, there's many a person who spends hours and hours in prayer.
But do you want to know why that one has to spend so many hours in prayer?
It's because he's trying to bring God's will down to his will.
He's trying to break the will of God.
He's trying to get God to see his way.
Analyze your own praying sometimes. Just stop.
You're trying to change the mind of God. You're trying to change the will of God.
You're trying to get God to see something your way.
You'll never do it. You will never in the thousand worlds ever be able to bring the will of God down to your will.
You get the answer.
When you go to the secret place, shut the door, and the first thing that you do is to look up and pray, Father, I have no will of my own in this matter.
Not my will, but thine be done.
Beloved, that's the hardest thing in the world to do.
I promise you something.
But when you get to that place in the spirit, you will never miss God's will.
And we get ourselves in so much trouble and into such a mess because we demand our will rather than his.
I pray that our little heart-to-heart talk today will prove most profitable to you in your praying. God bless you.