The Disciple's Prayer

Intro

What if you found out that today at 1pm you were going to get a face-to-face meeting with God?

What would you say to him?

You go home, take a nap, and then you walk through the front door and you are there with God.

What would you say?

Maybe you’d ask him those crazy questions you’ve always wanted answers to like

How do you fold fitted sheets? Or is there a faster way

Would you ask him about the future?

Who’s going to win the Super Bowl? Will you finally get a job you love? When should you retire?

Maybe you’d ask him about the past?

Why did that happen? Why did that person die have to die? Why did God allow that person to hurt you? Why did he let you make that choice or marry that person or choose that job?

Maybe you’d ask him for just a little more money to pay off the house, or get a car that doesn’t break down, or for freedom from depression, for a good night’s sleep, for your kid’s to know Jesus, for you to see him more clearly?

What would you want to say?

But maybe another way to phrase the question is…what does God want us to say?

What does he want to talk with us about? What’s on his mind?

That theoretical conversation is one we can have at any time in any place if we simply speak with him.

And Jesus in Matthew 6 teaches his followers how to pray.

I think that every human on the planet prays.

We all pray. The saying goes there are not atheists in a fox hole. Why? Because when things go badly and death is close at hand, we all pray because we all want to know there is someone who wants to speak with us and help us.

And maybe we’re too distracted to be in the foxhole but we pray to Google, ChatGPT, our therapist, our friends, or maybe if you’re like me you stew in your mind and essentially pray to yourself. “Come on Chris, get it together...”

So while there may be many ways to pray, Jesus helps us see a better way to talk with God.

There are many kinds of conversations you can have with your spouse or a friend, how many of them are helpful? When you’re on the verge of divorce is it helpful to talk about the weather?

Jesus teaches us how to pray here in Matthew 6.

And maybe you’re like why are we doing this again we talked about this last week?

Prayer is an indispensible part of our life with Jesus.

I can say that I know Tiger Woods, but I can’t say I have a relationship with him. Why? I’ve never spoken with him. I can’t talk with him. I can’t call him up at 3am and talk to him about my fears. He’d have me arrested.

It’s been said that the quickest way to bum out a Christian is to ask them “How’s your prayer life?”

And so in our text of Matthew 6:5-15, Jesus teaches us how not to pray, how to pray, and how to live the prayer.

How not to pray, how to pray, and how to live the prayer.

And this morning, I think it’s important that we pray.

And so at the middle or so of this message we’re going to pause and pray while the band plays a song. And then at the end you can see I’ve printed out this prayer in different translations for you to consider praying to the Father this morning.

Prayer

Our Father who is always near…may we love you more this morning.

How not to pray

Matthew 6:5–8 NASB95

5 “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 6 “But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. 7 “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. 8 “So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

Here we see Jesus teach us how not to pray:

Prayer is not performance.

Prayer is not a formula.

Let’s remember first we are in Matthew’s gospel which is about King Jesus - the son of David and the son of Abraham as it says in Matthew 1:1...

He’s the son of David in that he’s like Solomon, a wise king who brings peace and prosperity. Who teaches us wisdom and how to live well.

And he’s the son of Abraham like Isaac who willingly submitted to his Father’s will and went up the mountain to be given as a sacrifice for our sin.

And he teaches us in Matthew 5-7 about the kingdom of God - or how to live with God.

And in Matthew 6:1 as we read last week it says...

Matthew 6:1 NASB95

1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.

And so in life with God we see that it’s not just about doing the right things, but about having a right heart.

People are easily impressed by our shows, God knows who we really are. Not in a creepy or weird way, but in a way that shows he loves us and wants us to love him.

And so last week we saw that prayer is one of those things that we need to be careful of because it’s a good thing that can become a bad thing.

Just because you pray and impress others with your theological words or your tone or how much you pray does not mean God is impressed.

True righteousness is being the kind of person who genuinely wants to speak with God.

And so Jesus begins…when you pray...

What is prayer?

“Prayer is talking with God about what we are doing together.” - Dallas Willard

It’s conversation.

Sometimes it’s speaking, sometimes it’s listening.

And it’s about our life together. In this life. About going grocery shopping, and about our struggling marriage. About people we don’t know coming to know Jesus and about our own souls being dried up and apathetic. About bitterness and selfishness and about the joy of sunshine.

Talking with God about what we are doing together.

And so talking with God about what we are doing together is NOT performance.

Jesus says don’t be like the hypocrites - who are the spiritual guides of the day. Why? Because they pray because they love to be noticed and seen by others. They receive a reward of recognition and pats on the back and MMM’s as they pray.

But Jesus says don’t be like them. Why? Prayer is not performance.

Prayer is not a job interview.

It’s not a first date. You’re presenting yourself in a certain way.

You can tell when someone is talking to you and it’s not genuine. The Father can tell, too.

I’ll find myself praying the right words and not really thinking about the person I’m praying for or God.

Jesus says don’t pray for others to be noticed, it’s not a performance.

Instead go in secret and pray to your Father who is in secret.

Be yourself. Fears and all. Studder and all. Uncertain theology and all.

And also, prayer is not a formula.

And when you are praying, don’t heap up meaningless repetition. Empty phrases as the ESV says, do not keep babbling like the pagans in the NIV.

They suppose they’ll be heard for their many words.

The secret to prayer is not that you’re not praying enough and you should pray more.

The secret to prayer is not you’re not praying the right words so here are the right words.

It’s not that you’re not praying with enough energy and enthusiasm.

Prayer is not a formula - 3 times a day in a certain way...

Which is frustrating, right? Because that would make it easier.

And if I told all you married folks that you would have a perfect marriage if you just talked to your spouse for five minutes in the morning afternoon and evening all your problems would go away you’d be excited maybe but you’d know I was lying.

It’s not a formula, why?

It’s a relationship. It’s dynamic. It’s a living relationship with our Father.

It’s based off an understanding that he cares because Jesus says he knows what we need before we ask him. And yet he wants to engage with us and speak with us.

First by teaching us how to pray Jesus teaches us that prayer is not performance and it’s not a formula...

So then Jesus teaches us how to pray...

Many of us in this room have a variety of experiences with this prayer. Maybe some of us can recite this without even looking at the screen because of your church tradition, maybe some of us don’t like reciting this because you think that to pray this prayer makes you Catholic or it becomes performance. Maybe some of us use this prayer as a template for talking with God about your life, and maybe others have hardly ever prayed this.

I’ve only recently, like within the last 6 months began using this prayer to help guide my conversations with God. And what I’ve found helpful as we’ll talk about is I often default to asking God for the thing I feel I need most. Usually peace from anxiety or some pressing thing that’s stressing me out. Praying for health or provision…and these are good things, but Jesus helps us become people who care more about how we feel and how healthy we are but become people who enter the kingdom of the heavens.

Matthew 6:9–13 NASB95

9 “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10 ‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. 11 ‘Give us this day our daily bread. 12 ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’

Jesus teaches us how to pray.

The structure of this prayer is fairly simple.

We see this prayer begins with an address and then 5 asks.

The Address: Our Father in Heaven

Does not begin by saying “Bow your heads...”

Not common for Jews to call God Father, but not outside of Scriptural basis...

The prayer begins with an address because that’s how we begin all conversations with people we love and respect.

If Doug walked into church and just yelled at you, “Can you put gas in my car??” It’s not that you wouldn’t help him but you might say, “Good morning, Doug! Seems like you’re upset. Can I help you?”

We use their names. Hey Gene…we used to write letters, “Dear so and so...” I don’t I just write texts with emoji’s but some of you wrote letters and they communicated respect.

When Isabelle calls me “Dada” I just love it. I wonder if God feels the same way when we call him Father.

The address it’s been said differentiates prayer with worrying out loud because I go from just studdering thoughts to having a conversation with a person.

Our Father

Notice, Jesus begins with OUR Father, not my Father. So whatever this prayer is about, it’s not just me. It’s not just our church, it’s not just my kind of people. Jesus teaches us to pray as a community.

Our Father is not just a parent of one child, he has many children, of which you are one.

And he doesn’t teach us to pray to our GOD, as if he were just any other god or spiritual being, but he is our Father.

Jesus teaches us to begin a conversation with the creator of all that is by calling him Father.

It’s a fact that many of us had Dad’s that we don’t want to celebrate on Father’s day.

And yet to say that God is our Father centers us on the reality that we’re engaging with a being who wants to care for us, provide for us, he made us, he loves us, he wants to protect us, he enjoys us not just for the things we do for him but the mere fact that we are HIS.

And this Father is in heaven...

Which has come to mean Our Father who is coming one day and really far away.

But heaven is God’s space all around us in all time and all places.

Jesus will go on to talk about the birds of the heavens in the coming verses which literally means the air...

Our Father who is in the air…and the sky, and all the universe.

I think a main reason prayer is so hard is because we are speaking to our Father who is in heaven.

You can’t see him. He speaks, but in ways that don’t make a notification on your phone.

We live on earth. You can see, taste, hear, smell, touch earth…but heaven is a different experience. It’s unseen…and yet the best things in life are unseen. Love, trust, grace, forgiveness, joy…and in this unseen realm that is more real than I give it credit for, Our Father speaks with us in prayer.

And so that’s why prayer often takes time. Because we have to enter our minds into this conversation with our Father who is interacting with us through the spiritual realm.

Jesus teaches us to live this prayer first by addressing our Father in heaven, and this leads to five asks.

In the Hebrew Scriptures the primary image of prayer is simple asking, in a conversational manner. Implicit in this asking, which is neither demanding nor mere wishing, is the expectation that the asker is both humble and expectant.

What would you ask for?

Hallowed be your name

Maybe this is where we lose some of you.

This is not a thing you say likely. Hallow sounds like Halloween…so if this has something to do with that holiday that seems odd.

But this is the first request Jesus guides us to ask of our Father.

His name be hallowed. The word hallowed relates to sanctifying or being holy. Two other Christianese terms.

I think of it like this...

As a golfer, Augusta National is hallowed ground. If I ever got to step foot there, I would be tempted to take off my shoes. I will likely never get to go there because it is so special, so famous, so historical, so perfect in it’s beauty that somebody like me without enough money or status will never get to go there because a lot more people with money want to be there. And yet I LOVE the idea of going there and the time I drove by there in my car was a treasured memory.

So maybe another way to say it is Jesus is saying our first ask in prayer is Father, may you be loved, adored, treasured, worshiped, praised above all else.

How many kids think their Dad is just the best. And their shocked to find out that someone else is like “Eh, he’s okay.” What?? My dad?? We are to ask the Father that his name be hallowed. His name is who he really is.

Jews regarded God’s name so sacredly they never said and we don’t even really know how YHWH is pronounced because they wouldn’t write it out. May we see who you really are and enjoy you above all.

Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

As opposed to what?

My kingdom come, my will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

And it’s not just my kingdom that can opposed our Father’s kingdom, it’s other kingdoms.

The kingdom of darkness. The kingdom of greed and money. The kingdom of power, the kingdom of sex. Other kingdoms vie for authority on earth, and as children of our Father we are to ask him that his kingdom would come and what he wants would happen. We pray God would break down these kingdoms that enslave people and even us. Even if that means it goes against what I would want to happen.

So we’re praying that our Father’s kingdom and will would happen in the very places where we live...

Your office, your home, your thought life, your neighborhood, where you shop, your kid’s school...

As Jesus teaches us how to live with God and speak with him, our second request after loving our Father is submission to him.

Our Father is king. And as his children, we want to live in that kingdom, rather than our own.

Which means, as you parents know, your kids will want things that you know are not good for them. And you’ll tell them no. And they won’t like that. And all parents want our kids at some point to say, “You know what, I don’t agree and I’m pretty frustrated, but I know you love me, so you win.”

And so in these first two asks it already goes against what I would ask God in the hypothetical scenario...

God I pray that everyone would like me and everything would happen exactly as I want it to.

Jesus teaches us to pray in the reality that we have a Father in heaven who loves us and who is lovely and what he wants and his kingdom is better than ours.

And so that’s a lot to chew on already.

The band is going to come up and we’re going to play a song. And I just invite you guys to consider praying to the Father in your own words, or use these words and focus on the address and these first two asks.

And if you’re not a Christian, consider that there might be a being who cares about you and wants to have a conversation with you.

Song 1

Give us this day our daily bread.

Speaking of bread with Jews will inevitably bring up the story of manna.

The weird bread stuff that God gave Israel after they were free from Egypt.

Deuteronomy 8:3–5 NASB95

3 “He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. 4 “Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. 5 “Thus you are to know in your heart that the Lord your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son.

This picture of asking our Father to provide for us connects with the picture of Israel, and Moses says it’s like God is your Father and he’s feeding you.

He’s saved you and now he’s providing for you, like a parent takes care of their child.

And this prayer confronts my functional belief that I take care of myself.

I work, I get a paycheck, I buy the food, I prepare the food, I eat the food.

I also worry about the food as in will I have enough in the future!

But I’ve heard the illustration that what parent wouldn’t be confused if their kid was stocking up on eggs because they were afraid they wouldn’t be their tomorrow?

Jesus guides us to pray for our daily bread. What do you need today? Your Father knows and invites you to see reality by asking him to provide.

It’s not that we can’t pray for things tomorrow, but the more I really think about God loving me like a child, the less I’m concerned about the “What ifs” of life.

Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

In the kingdom, we do not get what we deserve.

Jesus teaches us to talk with our Father in the reality of his mercy.

There’s a story in John’s gospel about Jesus and the woman caught in adultery.

Somehow a group of religious men apprehend a woman in the Jewish community who is having sex with someone who is not her husband.

And they say, “Jesus, you know the Bible, it says we should stone her and kill her? What do you say?”

And Jesus writes on the ground and says, “He who is without sin throw the first stone.”

And so a picture of forgiveness is laying down stones.

We’ve given our Father enough reasons to be done with us. And yet he does not treat us as we deserve.

Psalm 103:10–13 NASB95

10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. 12 As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. 13 Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.

Maybe there is something in your life that you cannot forgive yourself for.

Jesus invites us to stop punishing ourselves and receive forgiveness from God. Perhaps if we use the word pity we get closer to the heart of our need for him.

And so if we truly receive that pity and mercy, we will inevitably give that to others.

Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Do not lead us into trials or tests.

Protect us from bad things happening. Why? Because those things tempt us to sin. When we are without a job or experience serious health issues or have sleepless nights, aren’t we more likely to default to ungodly behavior?

Jesus is inviting us to not lean on our own strength.

Peter thought he had enough faith to make it through the test. But Jesus was the one who prayed in the Garden, and Peter didn’t…and who remained faithful? Jesus.

And yet even in that trial, God didn’t waste Peter’s failure.

And so we have the assurance that no trial can trip up God’s plan for us in the kingdom. And even though I rarely do it and don’t always believe it, we can rejoice when the car breaks down, when rent goes up, when we just don’t feel good, when things go all wrong.

And so this means that while trials and tests can be used by our Father, they’re not what he delights to send our way.

Why? We pray they don’t come. Our Father used COVID, he wasn’t delighted by COVID. We are to pray that another one doesn’t come. But if it does, our Father will care for us.

And deliver us from evil, or the evil one.

We’ve already met this character in Matthew 4. Just as there is real personal good in the universe, there is real personal evil and although he is infinitely less powerful than the good, he can wreck our lives and we are to pray for God’s help.

Illustration of driving

Jesus taught us how not to pray, how to pray, and finally how to live the prayer...

Matthew 6:14–15 NASB95

14 “For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 “But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.

Prayer is not performance and it’s not a formula.

And if we pray this prayer without living this prayer, than we’ve missed Jesus’ point.

Jesus teaches us that for someone who talks with the Father about their life, they’ll realize the pity and forgiveness he shows to us, and that will inevitably over time affect how we deal with other people.

In Matthew 18 Jesus tells a story about a servant who is forgiven a multi-million dollar debt by his master, but then goes out and threatens to kill his friend who owes him $20.

And so Jesus includes this last line to show us that how we pray shapes how we live.

How we pray is not just a thing we do it reveals who we are.

We are to live this prayer.

This is a lot to take in...

And I’m on this journey with you.

I’ve only recently used this as a way to talk with God and I’ve been struck by “Hallowed be your name” that the first request is praise and worship and that’s hit me lately.

The good news is there is a being who is always near and wants us to call Him Father.

He cares so much about us that he sent his Son to die for our sins and invite us into his family and through the Spirit it says in Ephesians we have access to our Father.

Not based on our ability to pray correctly or pray enough but because of Jesus’ goodness.

And Jesus is our model for prayer. We are Peter, and Jesus is Jesus. At the moment of greatest need, Jesus went to the Garden and prayed 3 times, “Father, not my will but yours.” We’re like Peter and we tried to do it on our own strength.

Jesus still went to the cross to forgive us and he invites us into a better way of life and a better way to pray.

Would you bet your life on the fact there is a Father who is near and loves you?

And it is not a fantasy, or a hypothetical situation, he wants to speak with you.

What would you say?

I’ve printed these out...

Consider using this as a daily conversation starter this week to live this prayer.

Communion