Growing your time alone with God
Category: Worship & Praise
Key Passage: Matthew 6:5
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: September 29, 2023
Matthew 6 and verse number five is where we are going to start. We are going to do just a little series, maybe three Sundays. I am seeking the Lord on it, but it is really about growing your time alone with God.
If your time alone with God grows, everything else will take care of itself. It really will. I do not say that lightly. If your time alone with God grows, everything else will be affected and will really take care of itself. It is so important, your time alone with God.
Last Sunday we preached about drawing nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. That is His promise. We looked at how to draw nigh to Him in a more practical way. It is not concluded, but it is part of it. John 15—I love that passage where Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. Now, the fruit is on the branches, not on the vine. So you are vital, but it is all about you abiding in Him.
That is where you will get the nourishment, the strength. Everything really is about abiding in Him. We are going to try, if the Lord would use it, to grow your abiding in Him. You are connected; you are getting strength and everything you need for your life.
If you young people would learn while you are young to really connect with God and draw from God, your future is looking really bright. Growing your time alone with God is a vital part of all this. So for just a bit, we are going to do a little series, and we are really going to get to the Lord’s Prayer. We will not get there today.
Maybe next Sunday or the next we will cover what is called the Lord’s Prayer, but just a couple of verses leading up to it today. I hope and pray that in the coming weeks you will just say, “Lord, grow me in my time alone with You.” We sometimes focus on the things everybody else knows about. That is a little bit of the surface; the root is you abiding in Christ. You are drawing out of Him. That is really the root of the matter. So we are going to work at the root thing here in the next couple weeks. I pray God just works in your heart.
Would you do this for me? I want to just briefly—and I wish I had been better organized, I would probably have had something written earlier last week for you on this subject, but I do not.
So I want to just do a two-question survey. I am going to ask you in just a moment here to close your eyes because I do not want anyone peeking on anyone else. Maybe the camera would just focus on the cross up here so nobody online will know, because I want you to be honest with me. I will not remember who is raising a hand or not. I am interested in what percentage of our church family…
…Soul winners that sometimes keep one eye open when you close your eyes, do not do that right now. We are not asking about salvation. Close your eyes, all right? No peeking. Everyone is going to be asked two quick questions. Everyone, if you close your eyes, everyone be respectful of other people’s privacy.
Let me ask you: If you have time alone with God that lasts at least five minutes—I am talking about a time where you are just praying to God, and it is planned, “This is my prayer time”—at least five days out of seven. You say consistently five days out of seven, I have a time alone with God with our eyes closed. Would you slip your hand up? If you do not do that, do not raise your hand, please. Be honest with me.
All right, I guess around 50%. Thank you so much. Would you put your hands down? How many of you—and that is impressive—say, “Well, my time alone with God when I pray to Him is sporadic”? And I would guess, talking about organized time, when it is on purpose, you are getting alone with God, I would guess maybe two out of seven is on average, maybe two times out of seven that I have a time alone with God. If that is you, with your heads bowed, just lift your hand if you pray probably about two times out of seven. All right, good, good. Thank you for your honesty. I would say that is probably 30, maybe close to 40% of the people. Thank you so much. You can look right this way. Thank you for just being respectful of everybody else’s privacy. I was not trying to point out anything; I just kind of wanted a percentage. I am a little bit surprised that we got 50% somewhere along there, five times out of seven.
We are going to go on this subject here: growing your time alone with God, right? Matthew 6, we are going to start at verse number 5. Matthew 6, verse number 5. Would you please stand just to show the Word of God respect? We try to show it any respect we can while we read at the beginning here; we stand to show the Word of God respect.
Thank you for participating in that. Matthew 6, look at verse number 5, if you would please. Verse number 5. Jesus is speaking here; this is the Sermon on the Mount, probably the most famous sermon He preached, very early in His ministry. Verse number 5, He says, “And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.” But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet. And when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
We will probably get to that next week, but Hail Marys and different things like that would be included in that. Verse number eight: “Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him.” This is typically what is called the Lord’s Prayer.
Would you do that? I am not against us doing what it said about vain repetition, but there is nothing wrong with us quoting or reading this out loud together, and even if you mean it from your heart to the Lord, this Lord’s Prayer. We will start in verse number nine and go down through verse number 13. Here you go. Would you go with me? Here we go: “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”
Would you pray with me that God would work in our hearts and grow our time alone with the Lord? Would you pray? Ask the Lord to do that now. Father, Lord, we do come as a group of people, and Lord, we do ask, would You grow our time alone with You? Lord, make it sweet, sweeter if You would, for Your people here, Lord. Make it where it is a time where they connect with You and get to know You personally, intimately. Lord, they gain strength from You. Lord, You can speak to their hearts and maybe correct problems, reveal things to us, Lord. Father, would You grow our abiding in You through these next couple Sunday mornings? Would You do that, Lord, please? And Father, we thank You; we will brag on You and praise You for what You do, Lord. And, Father, I am asking for this, Father, in Your Son, Jesus’ name. So, Lord, I am asking You in faith. I believe You led to this, too, Lord. So I am asking in faith that I believe this is what You want. So, Father, we are asking for all these things. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.
Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated. Would you look back real quickly here at verse number five and six? And when you look at it, I want you to know what to look for, all right? In the Bible, by the way, we use the Old King James Version Bible because everything in the Bible is important. Now let me say why I am saying that. The “thou” is singular. “Ye” and “you” are plural. I understand. So I want you to kind of notice how the Lord is making this very personal. Would you look at five and six with that in mind?
And when you look at verse number five and verse number six, “when thou”—that is talking to an individual, “thou,” singular. I have that “thou” underlined in my Bible.
“And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are.” Notice that “thou.” He did not say “ye” and “you.” He did not say, “Hey, when you pray.” He said, “thou,” that is singular. “Thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are,” for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. “Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.” Now, I have “thou” twice in verse number five.
Look at verse number six. It is amazing how many times “thou” and “thy” come up. Verse number six: “But thou,” talking to you as an individual, “but thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet. And when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father, which is in secret, and thy Father, which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” Anybody count how many times “thou” and “thee” and “thy”? Anybody get it? How many times was it? Somebody say it? Count it up real quick. Count it up real quick. Look at it. Let us see. I think I got it right. I cheated; I counted earlier. Somebody just yelled out something. I got nine. Somebody—somebody read it again. I am missing fingers, so you know if I do not take socks and shoes off.
Let us count it up together. How about that? Woo, we are going to have a church split. Here we go. Verse number five: “And when thou” (that is one), “prayest, thou” (that is two), “shalt not be as a hypocrite.” For they love to pray standing in the synagogues in the corner of the streets that they may be seen of men. “Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.” But “thou” (that is three), “when thou” (that is four), “prayest, enter into thy” (thy, that is five). “And when thou” (that is six), “hast shut thy door” (that is seven), “pray to thy Father” (that is eight), “which is in secret, and thy Father” (that is nine), “which seeth in secret shall reward thee.” There is more than I thought. There is ten. Wow. My goodness, if I counted this thing right, we will check it out later. There is a whole bunch of them. How about that? Amen.
And I am saying the emphasis is on Him talking about you getting along just one-on-one with God.
My wife and I, for 29 years, plus almost 30 years, every night before we go to bed, we pray together, and that is wonderful, and I am glad to do it. Now, sometimes my wife falls asleep; well, sometimes it can be the opposite of that, you know. But we always—we have always done that for years and years, and that is right for couples to pray together, but it is not talking about that.
He is talking about when you are totally alone with God, one-on-one. “But thou,” He is talking about you singular, when you just get away from everybody, everything, and it is just you and God, one-on-one. It is different. Can I say the thing He is talking about here is different than church time? Church is a wonderful thing, part of God’s plan, but it is not talking about church here. By the way, if I only ate three times a week, I would die.
I typically need to eat three or four times a day. Somebody say, “Amen,” right there. I do not need to, but I do. Let me ask you a word like that. Church is what? But it is not talking about church here. He is talking about, by the way, talking about eating. Church is good, and it is when someone stands and typically kind of feeds you. That is biblical, feeding you from the Word of God. That is what God told us to do in First Peter 5; that is right to do. But He is not talking—He is talking about where you are a little bit feeding yourself. You are drawing from God yourself. It is very alone. He is talking about alone time. Nothing wrong with Bible studies; I like them. Sunday school, we study our Bible; these Sunday school classes right here, that is what it ought to be. And by the way, we are not offering self-help in Sunday school; we are offering the Bible in Sunday school.
And that is what we want. Studying the Bible is wonderful, but He is not talking about a group studying here. He is talking about you alone, singular—you and nobody else—it is you and God. That is what He is talking about. He is emphasizing that: “but thou, thee, thy”—that is the emphasis here. Now, “we, we, we.”
Let me go back one. I want to try to get all these things. It is a little different than pray without ceasing. We are to pray all the time in our minds and in prayer. That is right; that is biblical. I understand all that, but He is not talking about that because you cannot stay in your closet all day long. And later on, He tells you to go to the closet. He is not talking about you praying all day long. I am for that; that is biblical. That is not what He is talking about.
He is talking about a special time when you and God, if you will, have marked off on your time: “This is when I am going to spend time with God.” For me, if I do not schedule it, there is a real, real good chance I am not going to do it.
Probably you are the same as me. We are all busy. Everybody is busy. And He is talking about where you just carve out some time, and it is just you and God getting along. It may be in the woods. I know of a man who would go out in the woods, and he had a rock he had set on. I remember him telling his friend when he—I think he got cancer—he said, “Hey, if you need to borrow my rock, I will let you borrow it.”
And that is what it is talking about here. Now, I am going to do my best to try in the next couple weeks, with the Lord’s help, to help us grow our time alone with God. But here is the thing about it, as we are just kind of making an introduction this Sunday: Brother Aaron’s time alone with God is going to be different. It is going to look different than my time alone with God. And Brother Jimmy, Miss Helen back there, their time alone with God is going to be different than mine. Because you are made uniquely, you can give God something I cannot give God. You just have a certain way that you can brag on God that I cannot brag on God. That is why we all sing differently. Maybe in our time alone with God, sometimes you sing to God. I sing to God, but I do not like when anybody else hears it because they are, you know, they are like, “Oh, do not do that, Pastor.”
It is going to be different for everybody, but you can sing to God like nobody else can sing to God. Caden down here, he can offer to God something I can never offer to God. And so your time alone with God is unique. My brother-in-law, my wife’s brother—I think they have 10 kids, if I remember correctly. He said, “Do not you know how many kids he has?” Look, if they have 10, you lose count after a while, you know what I am saying? Ten kids. But can I tell you, every one of those kids is unique. And that mom and that dad, they have a unique relationship because every one of those kids is so different. And that is the way you are with God. It is going to be a little different. Hopefully, maybe we can learn a little bit from each other what helps and what does not help you. But at the end of the day, yours is going to be different. It is not about comparing or doing it like someone else; it is about you getting alone and getting to know your God like only you can.
As a way of introduction, let me say this: It is not about a certain amount of time. “Well, I pray for an hour a day.” Well, I have to question your prayer time because if it was that wonderful, you would not have to go around bragging about it.
It is not about a certain amount of time. Sometimes, you know, you might be able to connect with God, boom, real quick, and you feel close to Him, and that is really what you are after. And sometimes, maybe you are battling something, you may have to just schedule some extra time to have a breakthrough, if you will, where you really get close to God. So it is not about a certain amount of time. It is going to take time sometimes, but it is about getting close to God and connecting with God. Everybody is different. Everybody is going to connect a little different.
You ever notice couples how they connect? I know of a young couple. You know what they do to connect? They wrestle together. I mean, they kind of, you know, they wrestle. Now, when you get older, you do not know you hurt after that is over, you know what I am saying? Some couples go on hikes together. Some couples go out to eat together. Somebody say, “Amen,” right there, you know.
A couple said on the back porch, they drink coffee together and talk. Amen, right there. I mean, there are just so many different ways couples connect. I am just—this is off the subject, but I got a little—get a little jab in there. Can I just say watching TV is not the best way to connect with each other? I know that is off the subject, but it is true. All right, now, you know. But they connect so differently because they are different people. Some like, you know, playing games together. Some say, “We do not play games together; we fight when we play games together.” Everybody is different. And your time alone will be different. But it is you and God alone, one-on-one. All right?
Now let us look at something else. I want you to just kind of notice about this passage as we are getting into this thing here. Look, if you will.
Tanner, would you sit up here? Tanner and Daniel, Tanner and Daniel, would you all sit up? Daniel, we are looking right here. Daniel, the whole church is looking right there. I am teasing with Daniel. I am trying to get him awake here. Look up here, buddy. Come on, look up. There we go. There we go. Good deal, good deal. I want you to notice how God puts a negativity on man really influencing these things.
First of all, the first couple of verses are talking about alms. Alms deeds is when you do something for someone else. You ever shake someone’s hand and either you have it in your hand first or they have it, but you—and there is a $20 bill in their hand? Man, I like to shake hands like that when it is near. Or maybe you are giving it out, however it is. But that is alms deeds. You are doing something for someone. That is the first subject. The second one is prayer. We are right in the middle of that. Later on, He is talking about fasting. Okay, but I want you to see how He really says this so much in this first part of the chapter. Would you look at verse number one, Matthew 6, verse number 1? He says there, “Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them.” God said, “No, when you do this stuff, you are doing something; do not do it to be seen of men.” That taints it, if you will.
“Otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.” Verse number two: “Therefore when thou dost thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men.” So the purpose of it is that they may have glory of men. Just notice how God said, I do not want the outward man influencing these things.
Look down to verse number five. He is talking about prayer here, verse number five. “And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men.” Their purpose is to be seen of men. God said, do not do that. Do not let man influence this thing. We want it just—just me and you.
Look in verse number 16. He is talking about fasting over here: “Moreover, when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast.” I thought the purpose of fasting was to get a hold of God, but these people were doing it unto men to fast. “Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.” Now, I am just saying, notice the emphasis. God says, as far as when it comes to this thing—your service to God and these three things: alms, prayer, and fasting—we are focusing on prayer. He is saying, look, I do not want there to be outside influence on this time. It is me and you, buddy. Who cares what everybody else thinks about your prayer time and all that? You are not doing it
to impress anybody, to be seen of anybody, to tell everybody how great your prayer life is. You are doing it to get a hold and get connected with God. So erase all that out of your mind. Just take all that away. Who cares? That is why I was trying to make it very private. How many times do you pray? That is between you and God. It is a sacred thing. Often in pre-marital counseling, I will tell the young couple or a couple, I say, “Hey, when it comes to the physical part of the relationship, typically after you get married, there is going to be somebody trying to find out a little bit of information. You do not give them a thing. That is your time, just you. Not even Mom or Dad or anybody else. It is your time alone.” Amen.
And there is a little bit of similarity. This is your time with you and God. Nobody interferes there. Do not do it to be seen of men.
Now let us just keep going a little bit on the emphasis of being alone with God. Look in verse number four. I want you to see this. Verse number four—it is very interesting how He really words God here. Look in verse number four, if you will, Matthew 6, verse four. He says, “That thine alms may be in secret.” Here it is. I want you to notice this phrase: “And thy Father which seeth in secret…”
“…Himself shall reward thee openly.” Look in verse number six: “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, when thou hast shut the door, pray to thy Father which is in secret: And thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” Notice the emphasis: “in secret.” “My Father which seeth in secret.” Look in verse number 18. I am sorry, verse number 18. Let me say, verse number 18: “That thou appear not to men to fast, but unto thy Father which seeth in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” Did you see, “thy Father which seeth in secret,” three times? Now the first time He puts in “Himself shall reward thee openly.” Three times you see that phrase.
We have already read it, well, just very briefly. But in verse number six, in verse number 18, another little phrase—verse number six right there: “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, when thou hast shut the door, pray to thy Father which is in secret.” Verse number 18: “That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which seeth in secret.” Did God kind of say, “Hey, look, you want to get to know Me? You want to get close to Me? You want to have a father-son, father-daughter relationship with Me?” You are not going to do it in front of everybody. It is going to be in secret. When nobody else knows about it, you are not going to tell anybody else, because that will be on your mind when you are doing it. Forget about all of that. “Thy Father which is in secret. Thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”
I just want you to notice how God is really emphasizing the aloneness, just you and God. Verse number six, would you please? Something else here. Verse number six: “But when thou prayest, enter into thy what?” Now, I do not think God is literally talking about your closet because shoes, especially if you wear shoes without socks, they stink, people. What is emphasized, not necessarily your closet, but He is emphasizing a place where you can take your personal, intimate things. You are covering that you wear to everybody else so they do not see your shame and things—where you can go to this place and you just get really—you can hang all that up, and you just get real open, real vulnerable with God.
And it is just one-on-one, “God, I am hanging all that up, what everybody else thinks about me. Me and You know the truth.” And I want to just get all that out of the picture, and it is just me and You. We are alone from what anybody else thinks or says or ever sees about us. It is just me and You.
Notice something else. He does not just say when you enter into… Notice what else He says. It is very interesting how God emphasizes this thing here. Verse number six: “But when thou prayest, enter into thy closet.” And when thou hast what? He does not just say go to the closet, but then He says what?
Nobody else. I want it to be totally away from everybody, everything else. You go to the closet where you hang stuff up, if you will, and it even says, “shut the door.” Just you and God. Just you and God. You get away from all the influence of the world. I like it if I can go somewhere—I cannot always do it—but if I can go somewhere where I can pray out loud, it helps me. Maybe it just helps me get into it. I can hear myself pray. I am not sure, but it just helps me. If somebody else can hear, you know, I am not going to say some things. But He is emphasizing getting alone.
Keep your finger there. Would you go over to Psalm 56? Psalm 56, just a verse, you will know it.
Keep your finger in Psalms. We will be done with this one. We will look up one more verse in Psalms in just a moment here. But this may be part of your time alone with God. It cannot be every day because sometimes you are busier than others and you have less time than others. But this, at least occasionally, ought to be part of your time alone with God. I want you to see it. Psalm 46 and verse 10. Psalm 46 and verse number 10. Praise the Lord, all those pages turning. Man, that is good. I like that. You are turning in God’s Word. Psalms—did I say something different? What did I say the one time? Excuse me, excuse me. That was Psalm 56, and then you minus that 10 makes it… No, I am teasing. I messed it up. Psalm 46 in verse number 10. My bad, my bad. Psalm 46 and verse number 10. And He says there, He says, “Be still.”
That is hard to do in our hustle and bustle society. You have to work at that. “Be still, and know that I am God.” If you have a lot going on in your world and it just seems like you are getting pulled from every angle and a lot of pressure, and maybe for young people you cannot please Mom and Dad and everybody—whatever may be going on in your life—it is going to take a little time, and it is so good to just go alone and be still and know that I am God.
You do not have to do it, but for me, creation really helps. Man, just going out somewhere alone with God. Is not the fall time beautiful? Man, these leaves turning? Wow, that is just beautiful. I love it. And the weather, man, somehow we could just kind of put the weather on pause and leave it. I mean, 72 degrees in the middle of the day. Somebody say, “Amen,” right there. Come on. Awesome. Brother Mark says, “Amen.” No more air conditioning, break it down that way, you know? But you have to kind of—that helps me to get in Christ—but go somewhere and be still and know that I am God. Look at the rest of that verse. “I will be exalted among the heathen.” And God is saying, hang on. I know the news and the politically correct crowd and what all they are saying, but I will take care of them in My time. I will be exalted. Every knee will bow for it. Every knee will bow. Every knee will bow before Him. It does not matter what they say; they are going to bow one day. “I will be exalted among the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth.” Yeah.
But it is just when you get totally alone, just you and God, away from the world, away from the outside influence, away from what everybody thinks about you, away from just you and God one-on-one. You must have that from time to time. It is a sacred time. I used that word on purpose. It is a time when you get totally real with God. It is so important. The songwriter writing about “Sweet Hour of Prayer,” “Sweet Hour of Prayer”—I thought Fanny Crosby wrote it, and I looked it up. It actually was a blind lay preacher that wrote it, William Holford, I think, if I remember right. But I like the first line of it: “Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer that calls me from a world of care.”
That is what you want, where you are sharing with God your deepest, darkest secrets and needs and vulnerabilities, wounds. You are just taking all the armor off, and you are just making your chest bare where God can see your heart. Some things you will tell God during that time, you will never tell anyone else in the world. And that is all right. Praise the Lord, you are taking it to whom you ought to take it to, Lord. That is what you want. God can do something in your heart during those moments, and boom, like that, that you cannot do to yourself in three years, 30 years, 50 years, a lifetime.
It is so important. You are in Psalms already. Would you look over in Psalm 62? I think he is really describing this thing in Psalm 62 and verse number eight. Psalm 62, verse number eight right there, he says, “Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah.” Did you notice that phrase? He is a refuge; that is where you go, and when you are in time of trouble, you go and you get refuge here. Did you notice that phrase?
“Pour out your heart.” You pour it out. “God, I have tried to overcome this thing in my life about a million times and I cannot do it.” Pour that out to the Lord. God might be able to reveal to you some root problems while you are having so much a problem with this thing here. But you pour—you just—everything that is in there. When you pour something out, you just cannot say, “Well, all right, I am going to…” or if you have Kool-Aid, you do not pour it. “Well, I am going to pour the sugar out, but not the, you know, not the water,” or “I am going to pour the Kool-Aid out, not the dye.” You cannot; you just—you just pour it out. Everything comes out. And that is what He is talking about.
Bitterness in there. “God would not like me.” Friend, God looks at your heart. He knows what is going on in your heart. We never hide anything from God. Just pour it on Him, everything. How many here in these front two rows? How many here in the front two rows think—you think at least sometimes—that your mom or dad favors your brother or your sister, at least sometimes? Boy, hands went up quick on that. All right, all right. Tell God about it.
If that is in your heart—and boy, it was in somebody’s heart, it went up quick—you know, pour it out, tell the Lord about it. Now, I do not know what God is going to say to you about that, but learn. And here is the thing, here is the thing: If you, baby, do not have a dad or a mom that you could be close to when you are growing up, or other people, it is going to be a little bit more difficult for you. And you have to learn to get vulnerable, and you are not used to that. And we build up these walls of defense and this personality and all this and machismo and all the rest of that because we are building barriers so often. And sometimes because there are some major wounds inside there. And I am not saying that is bad, but sometimes it is going to take layers to come off where you are really, really, really, really getting real open with God, and you are pouring your heart out to Him. That is what He is talking about. He said, “I want you away from everybody, getting in the closet,” and more than just getting in the closet, “I want you to shut the door to the closet.” He is emphasizing you are getting away from everybody, everything, alone with God now.
Let me—before we can move to the next point, we are running out of time to get the next point—we will briefly mention it. But He wants to meet with you. He is waiting to meet with you. I mentioned to our young people right here that, you know, you think Mom, Dad—everyone’s why they favor your brother or sister, whatever. God wants to talk to you about that. He does. He is waiting. He is waiting to meet with you. He is longing.
I was talking to someone this week whose grown daughter just moved in because she lost the place she was at, and she has his son, a little son, his grandson. And they moved in, and he was sharing with me all the problems and his ex-wife, all this, you know, things going on in the middle of all this stuff. But you know the thing that really… kind of made it worthwhile to him? He told me, he said, “I came home the other day from work, and when I came home, my grandson—when I came inside—my grandson was just so glad, and he just ran, ‘Hey, Grandpa, glad to see you!’” And he was kind of like, “I will go through all that trouble,” because he said, “Man, that was like something when my grandson would just wait for me to come home, and he gave me that hug.” All you grandparents, I see you smiling and saying, “Yes, you understand.” Everybody else is like, “What?” you know, but grandparents should understand. And I give that illustration to say:
God is like that with you. He is waiting. He wants to meet with you. That is why He saved you—so He can meet with you for all eternity. He longs to have that moment.
Now, one more thing, and I am just going to briefly hit verse number 11. Verse number 11. I am just going to real quickly mention it here. Verse number 11. Let us read it out loud together. Would you please? Here we go: “Give us this day…” All right, I am going to wait for you to find it. I am going to wait for you to find it. You do not know what once we say it anyway. Verse number 11, just briefly. We are back over Matthew 6. Matthew 6:11. We are going to hit this today real quick and be done. Matthew 6:11. Here we go: “Give us this day our daily bread.” Did you notice the “daily”? Here is the temptation: We get connected with God like this from emergency to emergency.
Now, I am not saying that is bad. That is a start, praise the Lord. That is not necessarily what He is talking about. Daily. Every day is not going to be a super high where you got along with God, where you got vulnerable with God like you wanted to. It is not going to be like that, all right? I am going to be honest with it. But keep at it. Consistently work at it.
In just a moment, invitation, I am going to ask you—and I am going to tell you, I am going to ask you—would you commit? Five minutes, at least five minutes you are getting alone with God at least five times out of seven. Just commit to that. Now, you know, we are not going to—did you do that or not? We are not going to have any surveys. You are not excommunicated out of the church if you do. We are not doing all that. But you are just trying. I am going to make a commitment the best I can. I am going to meet with God five minutes a day for at least five days out of a week. I am going to ask you to commit to that.
And there are going to be some good times; there are going to be some bad times. At first, let me say this: at first, it may be a little awkward. You know, you have not met with someone who—while you are not real close to him—and you meet with him, or you go out to eat or you share something, you talk about them, whatever. It is kind of a little awkward at first. But that is the way you start relationships, and you get close. So it may be good days; there will be good days and bad days. But you are just working at it. I am going to actually commit to that: five out of the seven, five minutes.
When I was a teenager, my youth director did a wise thing. He said, “I challenge you guys to pray to God five minutes a day.” And I thought, “Five minutes a day? Man, that is no problem. Five minutes, I mean, come on now. You know, that is nothing. I can clip toenails for five minutes. You know what I can do in five minutes? That is nothing,” you know.
And he said, “I want you to get your watch out and time yourself.” So that night, I think it was, I got my watch out. And I said, “All right, dear Lord, bless Mom and Dad, my brother—my brothers, not too much—but my sisters and Mom and Dad and the neighbors and the pastor,” you know. And I thought, “Man, it has been—it has been 10 minutes for sure.” And I opened my eyes; it had been like three minutes. Wow. Close my eyes: the Lord, the dog next door, bless that dog next door, and missionaries around the world, whatever you can think of, you know. And I was shocked. It took me, you know, to build up.
I am going to ask you, as best I can, five times out of the week. You have two to miss. And at least five minutes, just you talking to the Lord. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes, please? Heads are bowed, eyes are closed.
Maybe you have been there for a long time; I do not know. But I am going to ask you—I am going to ask you—would you commit? Would you commit? Nobody is looking. We are not asking about salvation right now. Nobody is looking. Would you commit? I am going to do my best. I know I will not be perfect, but I am going to do my best to get alone with God and pray to Him, talk to Him for five minutes. Five minutes out of the week—I mean, excuse me, five times out of the week, five out of seven. I know I will not be perfect, but I am going to shoot for that. I am going to honestly commit to that: time with God, five times out of the week for five minutes a day. That is you this morning. Would you slip your hand up? I am going to do my best to commit to that. Would you slip your hand up? God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. Wonderful. Thank you. Many, many hands. Maybe there is someone that had not committed, and you say, “I need to go ahead and commit to that. I know I do.”
Anybody else? Anybody else? “I am going to commit five times a week, at least five minutes for God.” Anybody else? God bless you. God bless you. Good, good, good. God bless you.
Now, let me say a word to you—two things. One thing: the devil is going to fight you. I promise you, he knows how valuable this is. He is going to fight it. He is going to get you so caught up, and sometimes you are going to fall. That is all right. Just get back up. Get back in there.
And then I am going to ask you, would you just spend some time here in a moment during the invitation telling Him about it? “Lord, I want to get close to You. I like to have a dad-son relationship. I like to have a dad-daughter relationship.” Would you tell Him that? Many of you maybe need to come to an old-fashioned altar for just a moment. You do as God leads you. If He is pulling you, you will be obedient.
Now, this whole thing—this relationship, fellowship with God—it all starts at salvation. When you get saved, you become His child; you are born again. If you are there, you are every person in God’s creation, but you are not His child until you are saved, born into His family. If you are here this morning, you say, “Preacher, I do not know that I am saved. I do not know that I am His son or His daughter. I do not know that I am truly born again.” I would love to pray for you. I would love to pray for you. If you are there this morning, you said, “Preacher, I do not know that I am really His son, His daughter.” That is me right there. I know I need to get that first before I can get really close to Him. If that is you, would you slip your hand up? Nobody looking. Would you slip your hand up? “I do not know that I am His son. I do not know that I am saved.” Slip your hand up if anybody is like that. I do not see any hands. Hey, we are His children. Let us get close to our Father, our Dad.
Would you please stand? We are going to have a word of prayer. Would you spend some time talking to Him? “Lord, I am going to do this thing the best I can—five days. Make a plan, get a plan in your heart and your mind, commit to it. Come to an altar for God’s leading.” Let us say, “I want to get close to You during this time alone with You.” Lord, thank You. I want to thank You already for the response of Your people. Father, help us to fulfill the commitment. Thank You. You are waiting. You are waiting in the closets, if you will, to meet with us. Wow, it is amazing. Lord, thank You for being like that. Help us to get real, real close to You through this time. And Lord, we thank You, we brag on You and praise You for what You do. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
If you raised your hand, God is speaking to your heart, would you come? Do not wait for anybody else. Would you come? “Lord, I am going to get close to You.” Let Him know that. Let Him know that. “I am going to commit to this; let there be a lot of value out of this. I am going to work at this thing. There are going to be battles, I promise you. I am going to battle through and get close to You.”
Just a minute here about a sad thing that happens sometimes. Sometimes a Christian will grow, and they get the outside—and it is because God is working hard—but they get the outside. They get involved in church. They are grown. God is using them. But this core, if you will, drops off, and they become hollow. And it is very empty. Sometimes it is very sad, and they fall, and many get hurt. This is the core of it all. All of us have to recommit. There are different stages to a marriage. There are different stages to your walk with God. We all have to recommit: “Hey, I want my walk with You to be very, very close.” Would you do that? “I want to stay there. I want to stay there.”
We will sing one more verse, and nobody comes to bid. How many of you are married with kids? There are times—fairly awful when the kids are living at home—where you say, “Well, I am glad when the kids go to bed and Mom and I get a little time together.” Did you hit him out like that? Yeah, yeah. That is what this is. That is what this is. You get a babysitter; you get away from it all, just you and God. You have to have it. Have a close relationship. You have to have it.
Thank you so much for being in church this morning. The next couple of Sunday mornings, we will focus on that. And you pray that God would grow your time alone with God. Would you do that? That would be great. I am honored to have every person here. Be back tonight. Choir practice at 5. You do not have to worry; I will not be involved in that. They are doing speed singing. And then 6 o’clock service tonight. I hope you are here. I really, really do. Good to have everybody here. That is the blessing. Brother Aaron and Ms. Castro, good to have y’all with us. Would you dismiss us with prayer, please?
Original File: ＂Growing your time alone with God＂ Pastor Paul Chisgar - Sunday AM 10⧸23⧸2022 [h0B84B2GffE]