{"id":7912,"date":"2019-01-06T09:30:48","date_gmt":"2019-01-06T14:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/?post_type=ctc_sermon&#038;p=7912"},"modified":"2019-06-22T19:30:23","modified_gmt":"2019-06-22T23:30:23","slug":"secret-conversational-and-balanced-prayer","status":"publish","type":"ctc_sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/sermons\/secret-conversational-and-balanced-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"Secret, Conversational and Balanced Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-gdm-google-drive-embedder-viewer\"><iframe width='100%' height='100' frameborder='0' scrolling='yes' src='https:\/\/drive.google.com\/a\/scbc.com\/file\/d\/1iF4RFJUaMxxOxMVurEyJPcMcMoDQNUh-\/preview?usp=drivesdk' allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-gdm-google-drive-embedder-viewer\"><p><span class=\"gdm-drivefile-embed\"><img src=\"https:\/\/drive-thirdparty.googleusercontent.com\/16\/type\/application\/pdf\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" \/> <a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/a\/scbc.com\/file\/d\/1uEJxYLY85blizZP78uzM7sIlfxAzInkJ\/view?usp=drivesdk\" target=\"_blank\">View\/Download Sermon PowerPoint<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This Sunday it is our privilege to welcome Rev. Dr. Ted Tham to the pulpit.  Pastor Ted is a long-time friend of SCBC having served here as Youth Pastor from 1997-2004.   Before that he graduated from Engineering at the University of Toronto and earned his M.Div. degree in Pastoral Studies at Tyndale Seminary.  Since leaving SCBC Ted has ministered at North Toronto Chinese Baptist Church as the English charge pastor for 12 years and more recently at Grace Chinese Gospel Church of North York.  <br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He is married to Melody and together they have two sons, Joshua and Caleb.  <br>Pastor Ted will continue our focus on prayer \u2013 an assignment he was eager to take up as his church has just spent an entire year concentrating on this very theme. <br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His text comes from Matthew 6 where Jesus gives us explicit teaching about prayer and some straightforward \u201chow to\u201d instructions.  Our Lord states, <br>\u201cAnd when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men.  I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret will reward you.\u201d (Matthew 6:5,6)  <br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Clearly, prayer is an amazing gift. But like all gifts that we are given by God it is subject to abuse.  And Jesus says, at verse 5 \u201cWhen you pray don\u2019t pray in order to impress others.  Don\u2019t be like the hypocrites.\u201d  The word \u201chypocrite\u201d is a word that comes from the Greek stage and it refers to actors who are performing \u2013 playing a part in a drama.  And Jesus says, \u201cDon\u2019t turn your praying into a performance in order to receive applause from those around you.\u201d  Then he gives us a terrifying picture.<br> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He speaks of men who stand in the synagogues (and the street corners) to pray \u2013 not because they are moved spiritually to pray but because they love to be seen by men, in order to impress.  Now that is terrifying. Because it means that you and I could actually participate in worship and not really worship.  It means that we could go through the motions of drawing close to God and not draw close to God what so ever!   That\u2019s frightening.  And Jesus says we will have received our reward in full \u2013 the applause of men.  <br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let me tell you bluntly, the applause of men is a hollow reward compared to intimacy with the most Holy God.  And it is this realization that is the key to avoiding hypocritical prayer.  It is when we recognize the emptiness of the praise of men and the wonder of intimacy with God that our prayers become genuine.   <br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God is your heavenly Father (6:6,8,9) who loves you with a love that can be best  described as a parent\u2019s love for their child. <br> It is this truth that keeps us from falling into the trap of making our acts of devotion a performance for people to see and applaud.  If God cares for you as a parent cares for their child then you don\u2019t have to parade your goodness to win the approval of others because you already have the approval of the one who matters.  <br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>May you know the wonder of God\u2019s love for you and joyfully go to him in prayer, <br>Pastor Tom<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Matthew 6:5-15<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8023,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","ctc_sermon_topic":[],"ctc_sermon_book":[49],"ctc_sermon_series":[465],"ctc_sermon_speaker":[466],"ctc_sermon_tag":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon\/7912"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ctc_sermon"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7912"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon\/7912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8379,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon\/7912\/revisions\/8379"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_topic?post=7912"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_book","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_book?post=7912"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_series?post=7912"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_speaker","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_speaker?post=7912"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_tag?post=7912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}