Spiritual Disciplines: Prayer

Introduction

Good morning! Would you turn with me to Matthew 6? Today we will be looking at Matthew 6:5-15. (Eldership announcement- announcement about Deanna’s Summer thing- more info will be in the physical bulletin next week, but for now you can check it out in our E-Bulletin, REFOCUS update?).

Last week, I made a comment about Matthew 6 in our sermon and I said, “We won’t unpack everything in this today.” Well, it’s time for us to unpack Matthew 6! Matthew 6:5-15 is SO rich and powerful!

Prayer is so important and what I love so much about Matthew 6 is that JESUS TEACHES US TO PRAY!

Quotes and story!

If a Church is to be what it ought to be for the purposes of God, we must train it in the holy art of prayer.”- Charles Spurgeon

Main Point- Our Prayers should reflect God’s Missional Heart!

Body

Prayer is such an important part of our daily lives and this is such a great chance for us to look more at prayer.

The Lord’s Prayer starts in verse 9, but, we need to give some context. The Lord’s Prayer takes place in the middle of a sermon that Jesus is preaching!

As Jesus preaches, he has been talking specifically about humility. Jesus is giving a very clear rebuke of the Pharisees in his sermon on the Mount and in chapter 6, he zeroes in on their giving habits.

See, the Pharisees only give when people can see that they are giving! They don’t give out of love, they give out of pride and a desire to BE SEEN!

Because of their hypocritical actions, Jesus calls them “the hypocrites.”

Let’s dive in together at verse 5.

Matthew 6:5 CSB

5 “Whenever you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward.

Jesus continues his rebuke.

Here, he calls out the prayers of the hypocrites. He tells us NOT to be like them! He gives a clear reason.

Jesus says that the hypocrites, “love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by people.”

Their prayer life isn’t about GOD, it is about THEM! They want credit, they want the respect and the honor of being seen as HOLY!

They pridefully want to be seen as “better than.”

This is a dangerous trap that they are in and Jesus warns us to do something DIFFERENT!

Instead of seeking MAN’S PRAISE for our prayers, we are to seek GOD when we pray!

I can’t stress enough. Jesus is addressing these prideful prayers. And you might think, “Well, I don’t pray like that!”

And that’s probably true! But, there are other ways that we can make prayer about us.

A great example of it was Jonah 4:2-3

Jonah 4:2–3 CSB

2 He prayed to the Lord, “Please, Lord, isn’t this what I said while I was still in my own country? That’s why I fled toward Tarshish in the first place. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and one who relents from sending disaster. 3 And now, Lord, take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

That’s a prayer that’s all about JONAH, NOT GOD!

That’s basically what these pharisees were doing. (Example?)

Jesus then gives us a contrast in verse 6!

We have the hypocrites on the street corners and now Jesus responds with what we should do.

Matthew 6:6–8 CSB

6 But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 7 When you pray, don’t babble like the Gentiles, since they imagine they’ll be heard for their many words. 8 Don’t be like them, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask him.

When we pray, we can do it wherever, even in secret!

I want to be clear. Jesus is not saying that we are FORBIDDEN from praying in public. That is honestly crazy talk!

We know from the NEW TESTAMENT that believers have ALWAYS GATHERED TO PRAY!

Yet, there’s a point that Jesus is making!

Prayer is NOT, NEVER HAS BEEN AND NEVER WILL BE about outward appearances!

So what does it matter WHERE we pray? We can pray in a PRIVATE ROOM because OUR GOD SEES US THERE AND HEARS US THERE JUST AS WELL AS GOD CAN HEAR US AND SEE US WHEN WE PRAY IN PUBLIC!

Likewise, prayer is not about the words that we use, but rather it is about TALKING TO GOD!

Jesus references the Gentiles. Gentile prayers, specifically greek prayers were very different from how we pray.

Greek prayers were centered around rituals of cleansing and then reciting myths to the god you were praying to and then it was about reciting specific incantations essentially!

It sounded like babble because it was! There was no RELATIONSHIP! AND NO ONE WAS HEARING THEM!

It was similar to the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18! In 1 Kings 18, Israel is in a famine and the prophets of Baal and Elijah have a “showdown” of sorts. They each will pray and see who answers. The prophets of Baal pray in a way similar to what Jesus is addressing.

1 Kings 18:26–29 CSB

26 So they took the bull that he gave them, prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “Baal, answer us!” But there was no sound; no one answered. Then they danced around the altar they had made. 27 At noon Elijah mocked them. He said, “Shout loudly, for he’s a god! Maybe he’s thinking it over; maybe he has wandered away; or maybe he’s on the road. Perhaps he’s sleeping and will wake up!” 28 They shouted loudly, and cut themselves with knives and spears, according to their custom, until blood gushed over them. 29 All afternoon they kept on raving until the offering of the evening sacrifice, but there was no sound; no one answered, no one paid attention.

On the other hand, Elijah’s prayer is much shorter. 1 Kings 18:36-37

1 Kings 18:36–37 CSB

36 At the time for offering the evening sacrifice, the prophet Elijah approached the altar and said, “Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, today let it be known that you are God in Israel and I am your servant, and that at your word I have done all these things. 37 Answer me, Lord! Answer me so that this people will know that you, the Lord, are God and that you have turned their hearts back.”

GOD ANSWERS ELIJAH!

Friends, our God hears us and our prayers don’t have to be eloquent, they don’t have to be long, they don’t have to be perfectly balanced, they don’t need to be glorious!

Our prayers are not heard because of ANYTHING WE DO, but rather, our prayers are heard and are ALREADY KNOWN BY GOD BECAUSE OF WHO GOD IS!

So if God already knows our requests, then why pray? We pray because that’s how we talk to God! We have a relationship with OUR FATHER AND WE GET TO TALK TO HIM!

I love what Matthew Henry says about this. There’s so many different writers that say something similar to this, but I love how he says this. “The Bible is a letter God has sent to us; prayer is a letter we send to him.”

(Letters example- seminary, during covid, started sending letters more often to Hope. It’s a special way to communicate. AND WE CAN COMMUNICATE TO GOD LIKE THAT WITH OUR WORDS!)

And now that we know WHEN AND WHERE WE CAN PRAY, WE CAN TALK ABOUT HOW WE PRAY! (JUST READ THE FIRST PHRASE)

Matthew 6:9 CSB

9 “Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy.

Jesus gives us an example of HOW WE SHOULD PRAY!

He is not telling us that this is the only way to pray, nor is Jesus giving us a RITUAL prayer like what the greeks used! This isn’t an incantation!

Unfortunately, sometimes people look at the Lord’s Prayer more as a ritual than as how Jesus TAUGHT US TO PRAY!

Growing up, I was on athletic teams that always said this before games, or after games not because anyone was saved but because the coach’s had done that as kids. It had become a RITUAL! It was like a form of meditation!

Or maybe at family gatherings, and I’ve seen many people with this, you said this prayer together with your family! But over time, it became less about WHAT JESUS SAID and more about the RITUAL!

But hear me, this prayer should never become a ritual!

Jesus begins this prayer by directing us to OUR FATHER!

Now, there’s something that I want to point out. As we go through this prayer, you will not see a SINGLE FIRST-PERSON SINGULAR pronoun. WE will not see a single place where Jesus says, “I, ME, or MY!”

That furthers the contrast from how WE, myself first and foremost, so often pray and from how JONAH prays for instance!

In fact, this actually reminds us of something so important! Prayer is not built on individualism, instead, WE share a close knit bond! We share a savior! We are a family!

And that gives joy and hope in a broken and isolating world! We are not isolated, because WE ARE TOGETHER IN THIS!

Now, Jesus talks about OUR Father.

There’s good reason for that! GOD IS OUR FATHER! I love what the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 says about this, “God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He is fatherly in His attitude toward all men.”

That’s our FATHER AND HE SHOULD BE PRAISED!

OUR FATHER LOVES US AND IS REIGNING IN HEAVEN RIGHT NOW!

Next up, Jesus says, “Your name be honored as holy.”

This historically was translated “hallowed be your name” and it was often applied as “Jesus is simply praising God’s name.”

But that’s really not quite right! Listen to what Albert Mohler says, “Hallowed be your name is also an evangelistic petition.”

Your name be honored as holy is also a cry to God saying, “MAKE YOUR NAME GREAT!”

The Lord’s Prayer is an evangelistic prayer!

The Lord’s Prayer has some really fascinating grammar that helps us understand it more. This statement is really important.

Jesus uses a passive imperative verb here. Another way we could say this is “God, your name will be honored as holy!”

That’s going to flow right into verse 10 where the first statement is an active statement!

Matthew 6:10 CSB

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

Now, we just saw, “Your name will be honored” and now we see, “Your kingdom come.”

Come is an ACTIVE VERB HERE! Jesus is PRAYING FOR GOD TO MAKE HIS GLORY KNOWN!

Jesus is saying, “GOD, BRING YOUR KINGDOM!”

Remember, this is an EVANGELISTIC prayer, it’s a missional prayer, and this is the mission!

Listen, Jesus is correcting a mistake that is really easy to fall into. It is easy to pray about what MAKES US HAPPY!

But that’s not the case! Prayer is about GOD! It’s about what GOD IS DOING as we’ll see in a second!

And in this case, Jesus instructs us that between verses 9 and 10, we should pray for God’s name to be made great!

Joshua Project

Next, Jesus says, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

This is back to a passive verb, because in this context, we are RECEIVING GOD’S WILL!

I know, that sounds weird. But if you think about God’s will, there is God’s sovereign will- think about that as creation- God sovereignly CREATED AND WILLED OUR UNIVERSE! But, there’s also smaller parts of God’s will!

That would include our sanctification! That is, our growth! That type of will is what Jesus is talking about here!

So this is a PASSIVE WILL, because WE ARE receiving the actions of this!

We should ask God to GROW US AND TO SHAPE US! We are saying, “God, we trust your will, would it be done”

Matthew 6:11 CSB

11 Give us today our daily bread.

Jesus next instructs us to ask for our daily bread. This isn’t just about food. This is about remembering that we NEED GOD!

Just as we need food, we need God!

When we were children, we NEEDED someone else to provide us with food!

In the same way, we NEED GOD TO PROVIDE FOR US!

It’s a prayer of humility and it’s not really even about food! it’s about trusting God to provide in all areas of our lives!

Matthew 6:12 CSB

12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

FORGIVENESS!

Jesus talked lots about Forgiveness and here in the middle of this prayer, FORGIVENESS makes a central appearance!

Now, let’s be clear. Debts were not handled the same way they are now!

Debts involved potential jail time for failed payment and potentially being sold into slavery or death!

There’s a reason that scripture talks about sin as a debt and that the punishment is DEATH!

And yet, look at what Jesus tells us to PRAY FOR!

Forgiveness of our debts, just as we FORGIVE OTHERS! And listen, these are ACTIVE IMPERATIVES! These are CALLS TO ACTION!

Think about that! It isn’t just that we are FORGIVEN, WE ARE TO FORGIVE OTHERS!

And think about what I just said about debt. This isn’t just “forgive if it isn’t too inconvenient,” this is “FORGIVE NO MATTER WHAT THE COST!”

We are to forgive! Now, that doesn’t mean that we pretend nothing ever happened and try to force reconciliation. But, we are called to FORGIVE AND TO NOT HOLD A GRUDGE!

I love that Jesus emphasizes this! We are to FORGIVE AND BE FORGIVEN!

We are praying that! “God, forgive us and help us to forgive others!”

It’s deeply practical!

Jesus ends the prayer in verse 13. Before I read it, I just want to be clear, there is a level of textual difference in this verse. Some later manuscripts added a doxology, or proclamation of PRAISE, to the text that said, “For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen.”

That’s a great statement of praise, but we are not going to spend time unpacking it because it isn’t in the earliest manuscripts.

Matthew 6:13 CSB

13 And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

As Jesus closes out the prayer, we are yet again reminded of our NEED for God!

Jesus tells us to pray and ask God to protect us from temptation and THEN for us to PRAY AND ASK FOR DELIVERANCE!

How do we face temptations? ONLY WITH GOD’S HELP!

Do you know how I mentioned that the verbal forms matter? “But deliver us” is in the passive form!

Here’s the takeaway- WE CAN’T DELIVER OURSELVES! ONLY GOD CAN!

PRAISE GOD THAT HE CAN AND HAS!

And with that Jesus ends his prayer, but he finishes out his instruction in verses 14 and 15.

Matthew 6:14–15 CSB

14 “For if you forgive others their offenses, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well. 15 But if you don’t forgive others, your Father will not forgive your offenses.

Once again, Jesus brings it back to forgiveness!

And Jesus links forgiveness and our WILLINGNESS TO FORGIVE TO OUR SALVATION!

Even as Jesus teaches us about prayer, HE ALSO teaches us about FORGIVENESS!

Forgiveness is that important; it is THAT CENTRAL to the Gospel!

Listen to what Matthew Henry says- “Prayer is the midwife of mercy, that helps to bring it forth.”

If we really want MERCY AND GRACE, then we MUST PRAY ABOUT IT!

Therefore, it’s central in our prayer lives and in OUR LIVES IN GENERAL that we have mercy and grace with people!

So not only as individuals do we need to EMBRACE THIS, we need to embrace this as a CHURCH!

To reach our community, we will need to be ready to forgive people and to WELCOME people!

Adoniram Judson story of forgiveness and continued ministry (Imprisoned and heavily persecuted but he STAYED AND PRAYED AND TRANSLATED THE BIBLE! At his lowest point, after his dear wife died, he took 40 days and prayed and considered! And Guess what! GOD BROUGHT HIM OUT OF HIS LOW PLACE and God continued to work through him! PRAYER! FRIENDS, PRAYER MATTERS! WE MUST BE PRAYING PEOPLE!

And how do we get there? We get there through DEPENDENT prayer that INCLUDES RECOGNITION OF OUR NEED TO FORGIVE!

To be a welcoming church, to be a church that MOVES WITH THE GOSPEL, we must be a church that first LIVES THE GOSPEL AND UNDERSTANDS THE GIFT THAT WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN!

CONCLUSION

Today, as we have looked at Matthew 6:5-15, we have seen Jesus’s teaching about prayer.

As we wrap up, we have three applications:

1. The Great Commission is found throughout scripture just as it should be found throughout our lives.

2. Prayer is not about me, it is about God! (Prayer is a HUGE part of the Great Commission. How can we help change the world? PRAYER!)

3. Forgiveness is fundamental for a healthy Christian!

The Great Commission is found throughout scripture just as it should be found throughout our lives.

When I was preparing to go to Seminary, I attended a mini-conference that Midwestern put on in Denver. I drove down from Laramie on a Monday after class to go to this conference.

And at the conference, they said something I had never heard before. They said, “All scripture points to Jesus and what HE DID!”

And it’s true! But there’s another thing that I found myself wrestling with afterwards.

Not only does scripture point us to the gospel (SUMMARIZE), SCRIPTURE ALSO POINTS US TO THE GREAT COMMISSION!

And what is that commission? It’s to GO AND MAKE DISCIPLES, BAPTIZING THEM IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, THE SON AND THE HOLY SPIRIT AND TEACHING THEM EVERYTHING THAT JESUS COMMANDED!

In other words, it’s a commission for us to bring the gospel to the world.

And it’s really easy to limit the Great Commission to Matthew 28, or to Acts 1, but in reality, it is THROUGHOUT SCRIPTURE!

We see it in Matthew 6 as Jesus prays, we see it in 2 Timothy 4 and in Titus 1-3, as Paul writes to pastor-elders at churches! We see it in Revelation as prophecy is given! We see it in Joel as Joel prophecies about the coming of the Holy Spirit and we see it in letters like Romans as Paul unpacks the GOSPEL!

The mission is EVERYWHERE!

And there’s something so beautiful about that. There’s beauty in it because just as the GREAT COMMISSION is found throughout SCRIPTURE, it should be found THROUGHOUT OUR LIVES!

How do we reach our community? We do it with PRAYER AND WITH CONSISTENT LIVING OUT OF OUR FAITH!

We can’t hope to see the world changed on the strength of occasionally trying to hope that someone decides that they are struggling and we can’t expect to reach the world if we are not DEEP IN PRAYER!

Reality is simple and straightforward. If we want to see our world transformed, then we MUST PRAY AND WE MUST TAKE THIS MISSION WITH US EVERY DAY!

So practically, last week, we gave a challenge to pray for someone and then to invite them. Let me continue that challenge- practically, WILL YOU INVITE THAT PERSON YOU’VE PRAYED FOR TO CHURCH?

I know it can be intimidating, but friends, if we really believe what we are saying- that salvation ONLY COMES THROUGH JESUS, then we MUST DO THAT!

So, we must INVITE PEOPLE TO JOIN US and we must WELCOME THEM IN THE MERCY AND GRACE OF GOD!

Prayer is not about me, it is about God

This is probably the most straightforward application from today’s message.

As we saw, Jesus never says, “I, Me, or My” while teaching us to pray!

So practically, prayer isn’t about us, it is about God!

Do our prayer lives reflect that?

I think a really helpful way to examine this is to consider the life of Dawson Trotman.

Founder of Navs. Navs serves campuses, military personnel and more all around the world! But it started with Dawson Trotman going up on a mountain and PRAYING EVERY DAY!

He prayed and asked God to send out workers into GOD’s HARVEST! And guess what? GOD DID! GOD WILL ANSWER THAT PRAYER! THAT’S PRAYING FOR HIS KINGDOM TO COME! JOIN TOGETHER IN PRAYING ABOUT THAT! That’s what 1+1 is! We are praying that God would send US to people! We are asking God to bring people to US so that we can give them the GOSPEL!

So friend, DO YOU WANT TO SEE THE WORLD CHANGED ? THEN PRAY! TODAY! YOU CAN PRAY TODAY!

When I talk about the world changed, I want to emphasize that I’m not talking about changed political policy, or less inflation, if you want to see people saved from spending eternity in hell, then PRAY!

It can be easy to think , “what can I do to reach the nations? How can Cornerstone change the world?” Let me tell you, you can pray! You can pray this afternoon for God to raise up men and women to go out! You can pray for God to bring men and women from around the world here and we can WELCOME THEM! Listen friends, every revival, every major Christian movement starts with PRAYER!

Forgiveness is Fundamental for a Healthy Christian

Forgiveness- God wants us to forgive.

Forgiveness MUST BE A PART OF PRAYER! BOTH OUR REPENTANCE AND ALSO, BRINGING FORGIVENESS TO GOD AND ASKING GOD TO HELP US FORGIVE!

Prayer is about God first as we pray, we align OUR HEARTS to what God has for us!

That means that we forgive and then that we also can FULLY EXPERIENCE MERCY AND GRACE FROM GOD!

Remember, we are forgiven BECAUSE OF GOD! We can forgive because we have been forgiven! As Jesus preached this, he was preaching to a crowd that did not forgive. Instead, they held grudges, they looked down on people because of sin, they REFUSED TO FORGIVE!

And Jesus tells them, “FORGIVE!”

So let me challenge us…

We all need to practice forgiveness. So, my challenge to you is simple, who do you need to forgive? Friends, this is so important! EMBRACE FORGIVENESS!

AND PRACTICALLY, let’s be QUICK TO FORGIVE! When someone hurts us, instead of holding it over their heads, let’s set an example for others around us in FORGIVENESS!

Talk about living out your faith! That’s a way to be COUNTER-CULTURAL!

pray

eggs- need more candy; filled 5764