The Purpose of Prayer

This morning we are going to start a new series that will focus on prayer. Prayer, the personal communication we can have directly to God of heaven and earth. In a moment, just like that (snap), you can begin a conversation with God. You don’t have go through a pastor or a priest, you don’t have to be in a church, on on yoru knees. You don’t have to close your eyes or make sure you are dressed in the right clothes. Wherever you are, whatever the circumstance, when we call upon the name of God, he is there, and wants to hear from you.

Psalm 4:3 (ESV)

3 But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord hears when I call to him.

Psalm 4:3

3 But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord hears when I call to him.

1 John 5:14 (ESV)

1 John 5:14

14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.

We know he wants to hear from us, so we can have confidence that he will hear our prayers

Psalm 5:1–3

1 Give ear to my words, O Lord; consider my groaning. 2 Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray. 3 O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.

Psalm 5:1–3 (ESV)

1 Give ear to my words, O Lord; consider my groaning. 2 Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray. 3 O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.

The RSV says it this way:

The Revised Standard Version (Chapter 5)

The Revised Standard Version Chapter 5

O LORD, in the morning thou dost hear my voice;

in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for thee, and watch.

O LORD, in the morning thou dost hear my voice;

in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for thee, and watch.

And in the NIV it uses this language:

The New International Version (Psalm 5)

In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice;

The New International Version Psalm 5

In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice;

in the morning I lay my requests before you

and wait expectantly

in the morning I lay my requests before you

and wait expectantly

Is this the way you pray? Do you pray knowing in your heart that when you direct your words and thoughts to him, he really hears them?

In Matthews Gospel account and Luke’s account, we see Jesus telling his disciples how they should pray. So today, over many weeks, we are going to look into Jesus’ words about prayer that he gave to his disciples and see how they can help us, even today, to connect with God through the powerful spiritual discipline of prayer.

***CBC CREED***

Open your Bibles to Matthew 6. In the beginning of Matthew 5, the Bible shows that Jesus took his disciples up on small hill or mountain. He sat them down, and over the next three chapters (Matthew 5, 6,7) he teaches them. This is what we know as the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus covers many things: the beatitudes, lying, lust, anxiety, anger, and prayer.

But he doesn’t just tell them to pray, he would reveal to them HOW they should pray.

But one thing is clear, prayer is important in the life of the follower of Christ. For the tru follower of Christ to be in connection with the God who saved them, there must be a closeness. And that closeness is achieved by constant connection through prayer.

Think about this, what kind of relationship would you have with someone if there was no communication with that person. One of these days you will marry. What would happen if you married someone and for the first five years of your marriage you never talked to them? There would be no relationship/ Right? Well think about your relationship with God? You have accepted his Son. You know what he did for your, so you have now made him the Lord of yoru life, and you want to follow him, yet you don’t talk to him. You don’t spend time him. That’s not a relationship. A relationship in a deep abiding that you have with the person you love the most. And because of that abiding you want to talk to them, be with them, and sit with them.

That is where prayer comes in. We don’t have the luxury of the disciples. Jesus is not setting here in person, in the flesh so that we can build that relationship with a physical being. But we know that he did not leave us or forsake us and he left us his Holy Spirit, who leads us and guides us and is a presense in our lives. Because we are his children, we have the authority to call on his name, to enter into his presence in prayer.

So as Jesus begins to tell them HOW to pray, he first begins with

1. HOW NOT to pray.

Look at Matthew 6:5

Matthew 6:5 (ESV)

Matthew 6:5

5 “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.

What is a hypocrite? A hypocrite is someone who displays a false picture of virtue. In other worlds, they act like they are very high, but deep inside they are not. These hypocrites that Jesus was pointing to were the pharisees.

When we went through the Book of Matthew, there were many time that Jesus talked about the Pharisees. The reason he did so was because these were the Jewish leaders of the day, yet they did not want to recognize that JESUS was the promised Messiah, King of the Jews. These Pharisees elevated themselves to the highest level and had an attitude that they were better than everyone else. They knew everything. All respect must be given to them. Some of those things were true, they were very wise in the Scriptures, but the problem was that they missed the HEART of the Scripture.

They saw rules and regulations, yet the Scripture spoke of loving Jehovah and loving others.

They were high-minded. And in this high-mindedness, they would go into the temple and pray. But it wasn’t an earnest prayer of connection to their heavenly Father. They were not seeking him and wanting to do HIS will, they were all about themselves. Look what Jesus says, they pray so that THEY MAY BE SEEN BY OTHERS. God wasn’t their audience. Their prayers weren’t for God, they were for themselves and they were hoping that people would see them and think how holy they were.

A few years ago, I was on a plane going from Enugu to Abuja. Now when I fly, before the plane leaves the ground I always pray. I simply close my eyes, and with the voice in my head, I pray that God will guide the pilot and the crew with wisdom, and I ask that he will provide a safe journey. But then, I end my pray by telling God, that I want his will to be done, whatever that is. It’s a simple prayer. No one around me knows I have prayed it, its only between me and God.

But on that flight a few years ago there was a woman sitting not far from me. Everyone had sat in their seat, the plane still sitting still, we had not taken off, and she begins to pray very loudly. Everyone from the front of the plane to the back, all 150 people can hear her. For two minutes she prayed to God out loud. Not just talking, but at time’s shouting. Some people laughed, some people were surprised, and some people thought she was mad.

Now, I know, as Christians, the things that we do for the Lord and the ways we act, seem like madness to an unbelieving world. But as I sat there and listened to her, I thought about this verse… they love to be seen by others.

Now I don’t know her heart, I don’t know her intention, but in that moment, if she wanted to go before the Father and pray to him to ask for journey mercies, she could have done it, without bringing all of the attention on her? How could she have done it? Look at verse 6

Matthew 6:6 (ESV)

Matthew 6:6

6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

On that plane, there was no room to go into, so how could she go into a room and pray in secret? Simply closing her eyes, praying silently. God still hears. God still knows. God still listens.

Prayer is communication between you and God. Its personal, it’s private. When you pray, you are entering into the very presence of God. He is there. Its you and him. He waits for you to come to him. That’s why Jesus said, get away, get into a quiet place, meet with me. Even if that quiet place is on a plane with 150 other people, we can still go to him, without bringing the attention on ourselves because the attention should be on Him.

But also, look what he says in verse 7…

Matthew 6:7 (ESV)

Matthew 6:7

7 “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.

This woman prayed for a while. She used many words and phrases that sounded good. She talked a lot. And if you heard her, you may have thought, “Wow that was a good prayer, surely God will answer her prayer because it sounded so good. She spoke so well, surely God will grant her what she wants.” empty phrases thinking they will be heard for their many words

Think about these two words: quality and quantity

which do you think Jesus desires the most, the quantity of your words or the quality? He wants quality. A simple, heartfelt prayer, focused on him, is better than many words that are just words.

You want to know how to pray: Tell God your heart. Get to the point. What does Jesus say in verse 8?

Matthew 6:8 (ESV)

Matthew 6:8 ESV

Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

If he knows, why should we take the time to pray? Because we wants to hear from you. He wants your time and your attention. Again, that is what a relationship is…time and attention.

How does he NOT want us to pray?

Don’t draw attention to yourself

Make it a private matter

Don’t waste time and words.

Now before we move on to see how Jesus tells us to pray, what about the times when we pray in public. Like when I pray here in church or I ask you to pray during a devotion? That’s not in secret. It’s in public for everyone to hear. Is that wrong? Does that go against what Jesus is talking about here? After all the Apostle Paul said,

1 Timothy 2:8 (ESV)

1 Timothy 2:8

8 I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling;

Paul says pray in public, Jesus says go into your room. Do these two thoughts go against each other? Does Jesus really want us to only pray in private?

The answer is no. When Jesus is giving these words, he is responding to the question, HOW DO WE PRAY? The intent of his words against praying publicly was about those who do so to call attention on themselves. They were simply using empty words. There is nothing wrong with praying in public, when the attention is on God, and him only.

Jesus said, “Don’t be like them.”

So how do we pray? What is the model that Jesus gives us? I have said it before, while these next several verses are a prayer, they should us how we should pray.

2. HOW to pray.

Over the next six weeks, we will look at every instruction that Jesus gives on how we should pray. This is a great prayer, but we should not look at it within itself as a complete prayer. In other words, simply saying these words and going on with your day, I don’t believe that was the intention of these words from Jesus. This is a model. It will show you the areas the build together to make a prayer from a faithful follower of Christ.

There are some people that believe that this prayer is enough to have communication with God. The words, the parts of this prayer are very important, but if they are only something that is said by memory, it’s easy to turn away and go on with your day. That is not being in relationship with the God that made you and certainly not in relationship with the God that died for you.

So each verse, each idea that Jesus models, is important, they all point to who is his child., a Christian, a follower of Christ, can build and stay in a close relationship with God.

In verse 9 Jesus begins to give his disciples a model of how to pray. How we should approach our Lord in prayer.

Look at Matthew 6:9

Matthew 6:9 (ESV)

Matthew 6:9

9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

When we approach the Lord God, we need to realize who we are talking to. Yes, he is our friend. Yes, he is our provider, our defender, our sustainer… even our savior, but we also need to realize that he is God Almighty…he is Holy…he is the Ancient of days…he should be high and lifted up… he is the creator, and nothing that has happened in the past or present or is coming in the future….he knows about it. He has ordained it. And when we realize that THAT is the person that we are coming to in prayer…we should take the time to give him the glory he deserves.

He is worthy of yoru time. He is worthy of your effort. He is worthy of your sacrifice. He is worthy of your attention. He is worthy or your praise, and he is worthy of yoru worship.

Our Father in heaven…

There is only one Father in heaven. This Father spoke the world into existence and made mankind from the dust and breathed life into him. The Father in heaven was also known as Yahweh or Jehovah and those early people who were chosen of God knew exactly who he was…

Deuteronomy 6:4–5 (ESV)

Deuteronomy 6:4–5

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

Is this how you see the God that you pray to? Is this the reverence you display when you go before him in prayer?

Before we ask for anything, before we seek forgiveness, we need to know, on a deep level who we are talking with. Because it is on his authority and his holiness that we would even have the opportunity to come before him.

So, Jesus shows us the first step as we enter in prayer, recognizing who we are talking to.

Our Father (Jehovah, yahweh) who art in heaven, hallowed (to recognize the importance, to give honor) to what, your name.

What name?

Psalm 148:13 (ESV)

Psalm 148:13

13 Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his majesty is above earth and heaven.

And because we know that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three persons in one. We can add:

Philippians 2:9–11 (ESV)

Philippians 2:9–11

9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Acts 4:12 (ESV)

Acts 4:12

12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Ephesians 1:21 (ESV)

Ephesians 1:21

21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

This name, that we pray to, there is no name that is higher. He is the God, the only true God, and he is worthy.

Can we remember that? Can we take a moment before we pray to realize we are about to talk to God? And he wants to hear from us. Every time we bow to pray, lets not forget who is listening.