How to Pray | Matthew 6:5-15
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All right. Good morning. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Earl for that. Battle calls for Mr. Earl. If he keeps working hard one day, he might be really good at that kind of thing. No, fantastic. Fantastic. He's trying his hardest, with incredible, incredible credible soon. So glad to hear that this morning and so glad to be with you this morning. A little Tommy was learning how to pray before bedtime. And he wanted to make sure he covered all his bases. So he folded his hands and he closed his eyes and began praying. And he said, Dear God, please help me do well on my test tomorrow. Make my mom let me have a puppy. And Oh, also, can you make broccoli tastes like candy. His mother was listening outside the door and heard and kind of laughed herself. And when he finished his prayer, she came in and she said, Tommy, why do you want broccoli? That tastes like candy. And he said, Well, Mom, I figured if God could turn water into wine, he must have some pretty amazing cooking skills to know children often pray simple prayers, as they're learning about life. And they have simple needs. Some things they don't quite understand why they can't have. But as we age, life gets more complicated. And sometimes we don't know what to pray for. We don't know how to pray for it, or what we should even be praying for. Sometimes you might go through a struggle with knowing how to pray. Or maybe you feel like your prayers are shallow, or maybe you feel like they are ineffective. We all have been there before. Many of us have questions and doubts when it comes to prayer. But today, as we look at the words from Jesus Himself, He teaches us the proper way to pray. Matthew chapter six, starting in verse five. And when you pray, 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. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your father will 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. For their many words. Do not be like them. For your Father knows what you need before you ask. Pray then like this, 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 and deliver us from evil. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Heavenly Father, we thank you for teaching us how to pray. And we come across this passage today, Lord that many of us have memorized in our hearts, many of us with the King James Version, where we can recite die, because we've heard it so many times. The Lord is given to us for a reason. And you've taught us how to pray and what to pray for the Father, if we ever get to a place where we don't know what to pray, we can turn to your instruction. Lord, let us understand more clearly what this prayer means. How not to pray, how to pray, and how we can be better at praying and communing with you. Father, I pray that the words that I speak today are a reflection of your heart, that you fill me with your Spirit and that this congregation receives your word with gladness. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. Matthew six, five through 15 is part of have what is called Jesus's Sermon on the Mount, which goes through Matthew five through seven, which is just a collection of teachings on various topics. And in this specific passage, Jesus is teaching his disciples about the proper way to pray in private, as opposed to praying in public, for the express intent of being seen by others. See, prayer is a a direct channel of communication with God. Many of us know that. But it's amazing to think about it. That prayer simply is a direct channel of communication with God, where we humbly come to Him, we respectfully offer him our praises, we confess our sins, we give them our requests, we give them our Thanksgivings, all in faith. And in this passage, Jesus provides his disciples with a model prayer. That's known simply as the Lord's Prayer, because he gave it in this section, Jesus also addresses the crowds. And he addresses his disciples, and He warns them, of being like the hypocritical leaders, who prayed out loud in public only to show how holy they were, and how much of a good follower of God they were. So this passage gives us three elements of proper apparel wants to see today, three elements of proper pair number one, we are to pray, secretly. Pray secretly, verse five, when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, but 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've received the reward. When it comes to the issue of prayer, the first thing Jesus says, Is he warns against praying, like, hypocrites, hypocrites, pray in public, for the express intent to be seen by others. Such prayer is insincere, it is not genuine. And these types of prayers lack the desire of truly communing with God. And this is not to say that all public prayer is wrong. But the motivation behind public prayer must be genuine. And he is saying that the more important prayer is not in public, it's in private, and secret. So he he emphasizes the importance of praying in secret, and private away from the eyes of other people, because it's not a performance. That's not what prayer is. It is a secret activity between the person in God where nobody sees for six. When you pray, go to your room, shut the door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father, who is who sees in secret will reward you. The Greek word for prayer, using this verse has the idea of praying or making supplication literally means to ask for something. That's what pray means. And it's a present tense verb, which indicates it's a continuous action. So Jesus says, when you're praying, he assumes you're going to be praying. That's his expectation. He has seen assumes your prayer life will be this continuous conversation with God. So he says, When you pray, here's how you do it. And he says that your father sees in secret. This emphasizes the the importance of this private, sincere, genuine communication with God. I remember when I was in seminary, I was entering my last year, had a part time position at church, but it wasn't a full time and I was praying about where God would send me upon graduation, I spent a lot of time praying, but where God was going to be calling me and we had an apartment, and we had a two bedroom apartment, me and my wife. Well, whatever the two bedrooms I don't know. It's just me and her. But there's not many one bedroom apartments I guess and the Raleigh Wake Forest area. So I had an extra room there, which I can't imagine I have an extra room now in our house, but we did. And I would go into that that extra room. And I would spend a lot of time in prayer by myself and secret. When I worked at a larger church, I was wrestling the call to not just be a pastor, but to actually preach as wrestling through that I would go to secluded part of the building alone from everyone, my office is really an area where I couldn't get any privacy to go to a secluded area. And I would pray through that, that time. And it was just a real, real I look back and fond time, as I remember a lot of the community I had with God as He was showing me what he was leading me to do. And I'll have an office I can do, I can pray there in private, but at home, it can be challenging to find a private secret place to pray. So find a place where you can have some secret time in prayer. Some of you live at home and might not be a problem. But what happens when you travel or what happens when you move or go somewhere else. You have to have a routine, a place to pray with God with no disturbances, God desires, genuine, authentic prayer from us. And as Christians where we're not called to perform for others, and gain their approval, our prayers must come from a place of sincerity. Humility, we must acknowledge to God our need for him, our dependence for him. And when we pray, as you're going to see, we seek His will, above all else. But we need to find a place to pray secretly. Secondly, similar to it, we pray silently. We pray silently. Look at verse seven. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think they'll be heard. Because of their many words, for their many words, he's warning against repeating empty phrases, vain repetitions in prayer, similar to the practices of the pagan religious adherents, who believed in using many words to gain the attention of their gods, many religions still act this way. They repeat these mantras in these words over and over again and hoping that the more they speak, they can make God do something. That's not what prayer is. The word empty has this idea of stammering repeating something over and over again, without real meaning, without real fault. And he's saying that Pharisees, the Jewish leaders were acting like these pagan religionists who are known for their, their lengthy, their even ostentatious prayers. He says, verse eight, do not be like them. For your Father knows what you need. Before you ask Him. Jesus tells us to pray, with simplicity, with sincerity, because God is already aware of our needs, before we even ask, and so he says it is important to have a a personal and intimate relationship with God, rather than just going through the motions of this religious practice. The Baptist pastor Charles Spurgeon says that, He said that outward religious exercise, when not attended by heart worship, are as utterly worthless as the mere husk and shell when the colonel is gone. And think about eating a peanut. When you eat a bowl of peanuts, or if somehow you simply eat roasted peanuts. What do you do with the shell? You throw it on the ground, throw it away, it's useless. And Spurgeon saying that religious exercises were not attended by the heart are like the shells of a peanut, the husk. Martin Luther said that grant that I may not pray alone with the mouth helped me that I may pray from the depths of my heart. He's saying, I can say something, but it says the mouth speaking or it's the heart speaking through the mouth. That was Luthers prayer. Don't just talk the talk. Don't do To speak words to speak, but pray from the heart. It is a means of communing with God of building this, this personal and intimate relationship with him. It's not just a ritual. It's not just a religious practice. It's a way for us to connect with this loving Heavenly Father, and we grow in our understanding of him. And so we're open and honest with him about what we need, and we share our joys with them. We share our sorrows with them, we share our concerns with was specific. And we're silent when we're talking to our father, you know, when my children come in, late at night, a lot of times come talk to me, when they get at some time alone. They don't come in with a pre rehearsed speech. They don't come in just speaking, empty phrases. They tell me what's on their heart. And they tell me what their problems are. They tell me what their concerns are. They'll tell me what they're excited about. They tell me what they want me to know what they want to share with me. And there's a lot of variation in that with the older three, I'll tell you what. So when we commune with our father, that's what prayer is, was last time, you told the Lord, something you were excited about? Lord, thank you so much for this, or thank you for working my life for that. You just expressed the joy for him giving you something. A lot of times we think of prayer as this thing, we were bothering the Lord, we're going to him and he's busy. And he's just, he's got the world around, right. And we feel like I can only go to him when I absolutely need to. And that's not what a father child relationship is. can come to Him at any time. And speak to pray silently. Not big and loud. But silence. And then number three, pray specifically. And we're getting down to what what do I say? What do we say exactly. And Jesus tells us, number three, pray. Specifically. Verse nine, he says, Pray then like this. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be, I want to say Thy name. But yes, this is this is the English Standard Version. So we're not speaking in King James anymore. Hallowed be your name. In verse nine, he begins what's called the Lord's Prayer, which is a model for how we should pray. And so he addresses God as our Father again, indicating this familial relationship we have as children of God. And he says, hallowed be your name. Now the name is not just his name. The word name in the Greek has this idea of encompassing a person's character, his reputation, who he is, he says, you as an entity, you as a god are holy and magnificent, and special character, not just God's name, name means who he was the essence of who he was. So when we pray, we say, God, you are awesome. You are independent, you are unique, you are special. So when we come to our Father, we realize just who we are talking to. That's what he means. We address the holiness, the greatness of God, because we need to realize, remember just who it is, that we are speaking to. And then he says, verse 10, here's what you ask. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Focus on God's name, focus on God's kingdom. Focus on God's will, in our prayers, rather than just our needs. Just our desires. That should be our aim, and we woke up in the morning. God let me do Your will today when we come up with the idea of doing God's will. Our day will go a whole lot differently than when we wake up thinking about what I need to do today. Or what I deserve to have done today. Our life our day goes very differently. Now the next three verses are requests for our daily needs. We see three areas of life here we see the physical both the relational and the spiritual, the physical relation on the spiritual needs, verse 11 says, Give us this day, our daily bread, this is our physical need we are to ask him our physical need. Our Daily Bread, we are depend on God, for everything. Even the most basic needs this phrase has this idea of being give us our daily substance. And it's really a deeper meaning of, of referring to the daily sustenance from God, God, get me through this day, physically, we need God's daily provision. So when we pray, we asked him for that now, even if you have a stable income, stable paycheck, and you may be retired and you have funds coming in every month, or whatever it is, you've saved your money. We don't take for granted that we still need to ask God for our daily bread. God give us our daily bread. God helped me spend this in a way that is for your will. Every spending decision is a spiritual decision. Help me use this in a way that pleases you. Lord, give me wisdom today how I am to go about my day. Provide for me financially, even if you have a steady income, you still are to ask God, thank you for providing for me, continue to provide for me because we don't know what tomorrow holds. So today, Lord, provide for me. So that's our physical needs. Then, verse 12. He says, Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. This is our relational need. Lord, help my relationships. Let me forgive those. And we've been talking about forgiveness last couple of weeks. Let me forgive those who've wronged us who've wronged me as you have, as I have wronged you. It's not an easy prayer. But we're asking God to forgive us our sins and it helps our relationship with God. When we ask Him to forgive us, it helps our relationship with others. So he says when you pray, provide for me daily, and make sure your relationships are at a place this morning where they need to be. And then finally, verse 13, is our spiritual need. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. This is a spiritual need. The phrase lead us not into temptation has this idea of bringing or leading someone into a certain situation or circumstance. And it doesn't suggest that God tempts us, but that He gives us guidance, and protection. We all struggle with sins, different sins for different people, more so than others. And there's certain things that we struggle with that we need God to help us with. So I want to give us today some steps for resisting temptation. Because if you're like me, the more you follow Christ, the more you realize what a sinner you are. Steps for resisting temptation, number one, and have these on on the screen. Identify your triggers. What are the things that tempt you? Beware of the situations, the people the emotions that can lead you into temptation. See, it's not a sin to be tempted. But if we can avoid the temptation, we know we won't sin, amen. So what are your triggers? Identify those. You can better prepare yourself to resist temptation when it arises, if it's being at a certain place. If it's watching a shirt, certain show, if it's reading a certain thing, whatever it is, being around a certain person. Identify your triggers. Secondly, you need to set boundaries in your life. establish boundaries and limits. You know, maybe you struggle with gossip. Just throwing that out there. It seems like a safe one to talk about in church, maybe you struggle with with gossip. Maybe you make a commitment every morning. I'm not gonna say anything negative about anybody. Right? Give yourself a boundary that if you don't have a game plan, you're going to fail. And the boundary can be avoiding a certain place, setting time limits on activities. You know, our children have limits on their phones. You know, I know a lot of adults that need limits on their phones, for how long they're on their phones. Give yourself a boundary. Surround yourself with the things you need. Third, stay accountable. If you're married, you have this built in whether you want it or not. Share your struggles, your temptations Have someone help, you might be a friend, someone you fake someone that you trust. For we need to be practicing our spiritual disciplines, we need to be praying, we need to be reading our Bible. This is why we publish our Bible reading plan every week and our bulletin to help you with that. Five, seek alternative outlets. You know, when I watch the Gamecocks play on TV, in any sport, I have a hard time not sitting have a hard time not getting angry over these 20 year olds who are playing a game, right? So there's times where I'll just say I'm not Wow, I'll record that game, but I'm not gonna watch I'm gonna go do something else. I'm gonna go spend time I'm not gonna waste three and a half hours watching that and get angry for three hours. Why am I angry about that, I'm gonna go do something else with set with my family or do seek an alternative outlet, something that that that you know, can help with your stress, or help with your boredom or help you get out of the negative emotion, do something that brings you joy, and fulfillment and purpose. And finally, six, stay connected to your church. Keep yourself surrounded by individuals who are like you. People like us who share your values. Come go to your Sunday school classes, go to your worship services, stay connected. Then he says in verse 14 goes back to forgiveness. And he says if you forgive others, their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive other trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. So he again, he's closing it reiterating this idea of how key is in prayer, forgiveness, and being aware of God's forgiveness in our life. So as we leave here today, I want to give you three additional action steps today's be closed. Three additional action steps today. First, examine your prayer motives. Just say prayer, not pray, examine your prayer motives. Were called to have a humble and sincere heart. When we pray, what are our motives? What are we asking for? What are we praying for? Are we asking to do God's will? Do we find that our prayers are more things that we want? Not necessarily need? Examine your heart and your motive. Secondly, follow the example of the Lord's Prayer. This is why He gave it to us. And we've outlined it today. We tell God how wonderful he is. We ask them to provide our physical needs, our relational needs, our spiritual needs. Keep us from temptation. So we do not sin, follow the example of the Lord's Prayer. Now we know many churches, they recite this thing over and over again schools. And for many people, it's lost meaning because it looks like a religious. The irony in the Lord's Prayer is it became this religious practice, where people were just murdering words not coming from the heart. That's the whole irony of the thing. So whenever you say the Lord's Prayer, you need to say it from your heart, not just from your memory, not just from your your mouth, but from your heart. It's amazing how Satan can take something God gave us and make it exactly what God doesn't want it to be. It can pervert something God's given us even the Lord's Prayer. So follow the example of the prayer and really believe it and finally number three. Prioritize your relationship with God. When you wake up, because the first thing you do is the first thing you look at the first thought on your mind. It can be hard depending on your situation in life, prioritize Your relationship with God. Prayer is not about reciting fancy words. It's not about performing for people. It's not about asking for selfish needs. It's about building a deeper relationship with God, coming to him and letting him know our needs and seeking His will. God wants us to pray to him. He wants us to be sincere. And he wants us to be specific, but specific as how he's told us, and how he's instructed Heavenly Father, to close our time together today. Are we thank you, for modeling to us how we are to pray. We thank you that Your word never changes. And we can go to this passage. Pray through your prayer. We don't have to spend hours praying. We don't have to pray. Drip, sweat in tears and blood. Praying so hard. It's not what it's about. It's about coming to you. It's about coming to you. And seeking your heart and aligning our hearts with yours. So Father, as we close our time together, if there's one in here that's never placed their faith in you, but today, it would be the day that they do so. Note as we leave here, you would remind us how important it is to pray in the ways that you've outlined. Finding a time finding a place, being sincere and praying what you've instructed us to pray that would help us as we continue our journey following you. We ask these things in Jesus name, Amen.
