Teach us how to Pray part 1

If you have a bible open it up to Matthew 6. I have titled the message this morning. Teach us how to Pray part 1. Pray with me…

So last week we discussed the purpose of giving, and to sum that up I said a Christian should give with no-one else’s glory in mind except for God.

And if you remember I said that three things really defined the Jewish life, and that was alms giving, prayer, and fasting, and I want to spend the next several weeks in Matthew 6:5-15 and I will focus on verses 5-8 today but I want to include the reading of the Lord’s prayer today as well, before I do that what I want you to take away from the text we are going to be in today is this.

Christ wants us to direct our prayers towards God and not men.

Matthew 6:5–15 (ESV)

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. 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.

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. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this:

“Our Father 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 lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

I would argue to you church family that outside of getting into the Word of God as much as you can prayer comes after that in the Christian life. It should be a huge part of your life.

Listen to Don Whitney I quoted him last week as well he says this… God not only has spoken clearly and powerfully to us through Christ and the Scriptures, he also has a Very Large Ear continuously open to us. He will hear every prayer of His children, even when our prayers are weaker than a snowflake. That's why, of all the Spiritual Disciplines, prayer is second only to the intake of God's Word in importance. Despite the penultimate importance of prayer, however, statistical surveys and experience seem to agree that a large percentage of professing Christians spend little time in sustained prayer. While they may offer a sentence of prayer here and there throughout their day, they rarely spend more than a very few minutes—if that—alone in conversation with God. It's very easy to make people feel guilty about failure in prayer.... But we must come to grips with the fact that to be like Jesus we must pray. and that leads me to tell you my first point.

Christians are to pray with sincerity.

Now verses 5-8 are very similar to verses 1-4 and you notice Jesus in both of these sections uses the word’s hypocrites, and I talked about that word more last week, but simply put a hypocrite the way Jesus is talking about in the text is just an actor. Is just an actor, and Jesus as we should know by chapter 6 does not want us to be actors he wants us to have real faith not like the hypocrites. and he wants us to have that in our prayer lives. Jesus has a real problem with those who play around with Godly gestures especially something as important as prayer. To use prayer in the synagogues or in the streets to make themselves or yourself known as Godly people, Jesus is not interested in that.

Now prayer in the church is not a bad thing, that’s not what Jesus is saying here he saying public prayer is not the time to show people how godly you can be with your words, or to be seen.

Because like we saw last week the hypocrites did stuff to be seen and that was their reward same thing here. we don’t lift our prayers to the praise of men we do it all for the praise of God, and his reward.

What is a good test for us to make sure we are praying more sincerely. I like how one man put it. Hypocrites are not sincere when they pray. They pray for show. Two questions can help us evaluate ourselves when we pray so that we know if we are being hypocrites. First, do you pray longer in public than you do in private? Verse 7 will also speak to this action.But its a fair question to are we praying longer in public then private. in the case of our church this does not seem to be an issue, but the second question might.

Second, do you pray differently in public than you do in private? Are you trying to make a show in front of others when you pray and at home your quite different. Ask yourselves these questions.

Ask your self where is my heart when I pray to the Lord.

second point is this.

Christians are to pray secretly.

Now I have already touched on the fact that Jesus does not condemn public prayer, so why does he emphasize the need here in verse 6 to pray secretly to your heavenly Father. I think he is trying to emphasize to us the importance of God being are primary audience when we pray. He want’s our focus to be on him to be on his will, not to look around and see whats going on as you pray. To see if so and so is impressed with my prayer today.

One man said Our Savior is trying to help us understand that who we are in private is who we truly are. Who are you when only God is watching? What are you like when only God is watching? He says these are searching questions for the soul.

God again does not want us to be like who the hypocrites? Who care more about what? Their own reward and their own glory?

His call for us to pray secretly in a room away from everyone is so that we can truly pray to him. What does a room have doors that we can shut so no-one can concern themselves what you are doing. Alot of homes during Jesus time had maybe just one big room and a closet and so Jesus is driving home the point here in the text that we need to get away and just pray. He wants us to make sure that we are spending time away from others, away from the watching world away from the distractions so we can make time for the one who we are praying to. There may not be a soul around when you pray but God and you.

Going back to that quote that Our Savior is trying to help us understand that who we are in private is who we truly are. Who are you when only God is watching? What are you like when only God is watching? He says these are searching questions for the soul.

Our secret life between the Lord should not be overlooked.

Many of us are more fearful of so and so then we are a Holy God. Many of us want to honor so and so and not God. God cares deeply about us in our public life and our walk in this world, but he also cares about our private life, and he is showing us here that our private lives are what is going to extend in the public. So make sure that you are primarily concerned with him in the private so you can make much of him in the public.

I have never met a man or women who was a faithful Christian that did not spend time alone with the Lord away from this world focused in prayer.

Seeking his glory his reward that is why Jesus wants us to go into our prayer closets.

I was reading a sermon from John MacArthur this week preaching through these verses, and I want to share just a little bit of it with you dialoging with what he says.

He says this.. Do you want to be rewarded by God or by men? Do you really want men to hear your prayer or do you want God to hear? Because if you want men to hear your prayer, God doesn’t hear it. You get that? People say, “You know, I’ve been praying so long. And I pray and it seems that the Lord doesn’t answer.” Well, maybe you’re praying for display and maybe you’re praying to show how prayerful you are so that others will think you’re righteous rather than really talking to God. Because if you’re praying for men, you have your reward. But it won’t come from God.

I want to go more in depth with that. I think many of us treat our prayers like we are just talking to a buddy then we do praying to the one who created the mountains, the rivers, the stars the planets, and even you.

MacArthur would go on to say this.. The idea is attitude. I feel my prayer life is very personal. I feel my communion with God is just that. He is in secret and He reads the secrets of my heart. You know, I’m so glad God sees in secret and I’m so glad God is in secret, because no matter what I tell God, He never tells anybody, do you know that?

I can tell some things to people and even though I may say please don’t pass that on, it may come back to me from another source. But I can just talk to God and I can tell Him everything there is and it’s all a secret between us. I can pour out my heart and it is God who sees the secret of my heart. God knows whether my prayer is for Him or for you. God knows whether my prayer is for the audience around me or whether it’s for Him.

Pray in secret. Maybe that means going into your room, maybe that means being in your closet, but it sure means more than that. It means that if you’re even in a public place praying, in the community of believers, in the assembly of the church, or while you’re driving your car or at the office or walking down the hall or the corridor or the street, that whatever communion you have with God shouldn’t be a display. It should be the quiet secret communion between you and Him that knows nothing of an audience, even though the biggest audience in the world should be there.

He gives this wonderful example and the parents in the room will love this.. I’ll never forget one day walking down the hall of our home in California , And Matthew, who was just little then, just a little fellow, five years old I guess, was lying on our bed in there all alone. And I heard him saying something and I didn’t know what he was saying. There was no one in the room and so I just came down the hall and I stood outside the door. And I heard him saying, “Dear Jesus, please come into my heart.”

He was saying it out loud, all by himself. He had no idea there was anybody there. And I waited until he was all done with his prayer and then I went and we talked about what he had done at five years of age.

There was something in his heart that he wanted to say to God, so he went back in a room all alone and said it. It didn’t matter that there was an audience, because he wasn’t talking to the audience. That’s the point. He was talking honestly to God.

Daniel prayed with his windows open, but he talked to God. Jesus said the temple was the house of prayer and masses of people came there. But they were to talk to God, not to each other. In fact, Jesus even said when you pray, pray “our” Father and our is a plural pronoun that demands a plurality of people praying. There’s nothing wrong with community praying, as long as the heart is pure.

Man was good, pray in secret because then and only then will you know the pray is for God and God alone.

Third point is this..

Christians are to pray specifically.

Verse 7 and 8 have really convicted me this week in alot of ways, because I am often guilty of saying the same prayers, I don’t believe it comes from a wrong a heart. We have a list as church that you are praying with the list in the back its on the wall in fellowship hall, but often my prayer has been God send revival check. Its not always send revival to all those who live on Council Rd. Or so and so, and the point I am making here is this God wants us to not only prayer but to pray specifically.

Most scholars believe Jesus said this in this text because Gentiles often would speak non-sense over and over again trying to wake up their false God’s to hear them to answer there very pleas. And so what many believe is that their prayers would just be so long really saying nothing. I try not to do that in my prayer life or preaching. One man said babbling is not the way to the heart of God. Sorry livs. It might be the way to mom and dads heart but not the Lord.

1 Kings 18:26-29. gives us an example of what that might look like.

1 Kings 18:26–29 ESV

26 And they took the bull that was given them, and they prepared it and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no one answered. And they limped around the altar that they had made. 27 And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.” 28 And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them. 29 And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice. No one answered; no one paid attention.

These are the kind of prayers that they prayed.

Studying this week I found out many different groups do the same that we see in 1 Kings.

Islamic funeral, it is not uncommon for the people to gather around after the funeral and say Allah El Allah, which means god is God, and repeat it 3,000 times before they leave.

Buddhists have been known to put a written prayer on a wheel and turn it with a crank or let it be turned with the wind, and every time the wheel turns, the god is – is supposed to be hearing the prayer

. It’s not unlike the churches even in our own country, Roman Catholic churches, where people light a candle and, supposedly, as long as the candle is lit, the throne of God is besought and besought and besought and besought with the same constant prayer.

When my wife and I went to Paris they sold these candles to people acting like God hears them there more than then in a prayer closet.

MacArthur said.. Jews in Israel today, I’ve seen them stand in a spot with their little black suits and their little black hats and they genuflect for hours repeating the same prayer over and over. They take that prayer, stick it in the cracks of the wailing wall. And as long as it stays in the crack, it’s being offered to God as if God needed information, as if God had to badgered into responding.

MacArthur also said.. I’ve heard Roman Catholics sit down and say their Ava Marias and run through the rosary, Hail Mary, full of grace. Blessed art thou among women. Blessed is the fruit of the womb, Jesus. And go down to the next bead and the next one and the next one and say all their Ava Marias. And by the way, the rosary came from Buddhism. It was passed through the Muslims, and it found its way into Spain and thus into Christianity. It has no biblical base at all. It is nothing but bologna, the endless, mindless, meaningless repetition of phrases that are spiritual incantations to appease and appeal to deities that don’t exist.

MacArthur and myself have seen this I’ve heard the paternosters, which are nothing but the same thing. I’ve even heard the people speaking in tongues who babbled mindlessly the divine names like Jesus over and over and over until they introduce a hysteria that intensifies that babble into some supposed unknown tongue. And I’ve even seen among those with whom I, myself, fellowship – and perhaps I’ve been guilty of mumbling mindless words before meals or before bed or in the morning or for some routine prayer to open a meeting or whatever. We can all fall into the pattern of treating prayer as something to which we are indifferent just as we can be hypocritical.

I gave all those examples because we can be guilty about running to God with much to say with little to no meaning of what we actually say. .

So how do we pray specifically. We get away from this world right. You get away from people, and you get away from yourself. You truly connect with God. So that nobody knows what you are doing or saying except God himself.

Take your phone put it away, put the kids to bed, get away from your spouse, and just find time to be with God.

Then you have to come to God knowing who he is. We learn about who he is by getting into his Word. But when we get alone with a Holy God who is our Father we now begin to understand how we can approach him and what our needs are.

One man said. Talk to God like a child would talk to a loving parent. Talk to him like a heavenly Father who loves you with a perfect heavenly love and concern. He is there. He is ready and he is willing. And he is able.

I read that quote on Tuesday, and man it got me on Thursday night because I asked Bella do you think Dad can do anything and she said yep. She said Yes I do dad can fix anything and last week at the store she said your the best daddy. I love you so much. That will make your heart melt right it did mine. And as I thought about this sermon and studied this week. I came across Ephesians 3:20

Ephesians 3:20 ESV

20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,

Martyn Lloyd Jones wrecked me this week. He said a few things I would like to share with you. 1st is this. He ‘is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.’ That is the true notion of prayer, says Christ. You do not go and just turn a wheel. You do not just count the beads. You do not say: ‘I must spend hours in prayer, I have decided to do it and I must do it.’ You do not say that the way to get a blessing is to spend whole nights in prayer, and that because people will not do so they cannot expect blessing. We must get rid of this mathematical notion of prayer. What we have to do first of all is to realize who God is, what He is, and our relationship to Him.

Like I said just a moment ago we are not praying to a buddy when we pray we are praying to a God who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think. According to the power at work with in us. You know how I read that church family exactly how it says..

But to believe Ephesians 3:20 we have to confidence. The kind of confidence that Isabella has in me, you must have in God.

I have to end with two more quotes they are to just to good I can send them to you later if you want.

Ones by Martyn Lloyd Jones, the other is by Martin Luther.

First lets here from Mr. Jones again. when I pray I know that God is my Father, and that He delights to bless me, and that He is much more ready to give than I am to receive and that He is always concerned about my welfare. I must get rid of this thought that God is standing between me and my desires and that which is best for me. I must see God as my Father who has purchased my ultimate good in Christ, and is waiting to bless me with His own fullness in Christ Jesus.

So, we exclude, we realize, and then in confidence we make our requests known to God, knowing He knows all about it before we begin to speak. As a father delights that his child should come repeatedly to ask for a thing rather than that the child should say, ‘Father has always done this’, as the father likes the child to keep on coming because he likes the personal contact, so God desires us to come into His presence. But we must not come with doubtful minds; we must know that God is much more ready to give than we are to receive. The result will be that ‘thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.’ O the blessings that are stored at the right hand of God for God’s children. Shame on us for being paupers when we were meant to be princes; shame on us for so often harbouring unworthy, wrong thoughts of God in this matter. It is all due to fear, and because we lack this simplicity, this faith, this confidence, this knowledge of God as our Father. If we but have that, the blessings of God will begin to fall upon us, and may be so overwhelming that with D. L. Moody we shall feel that they are almost more than our physical frames can bear, and cry out with him, saying, ‘Stop, God.’

This is what really got me church family. God is able to do for us exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think. Let us believe that and then go to Him in simple confidence.

Just like my sweet girl comes to me over and over again.

Luther said, “Prayer is much more God instructing us than ever is it God being instructed by us.” Prayer is saying oh God, I come to you with the needs of my heart. Display Your glory. Prayer is giving God occasion to manifest His power, to manifest His majesty, to manifest His might, to manifest His love and His providence and His care and His concern. God will do things and we won’t be able to glorify Him if we haven’t communed with Him about those things. But if we’ve done that and we see His hand, we know it’s from Him and we give Him praise.

Friends Christ wants us to direct our prayers towards God and not men.

Christians are to pray with sincerity.

Christians are to pray secretly.

Christians are to pray specifically.

Friends I can’t let you go without asking you.. Have you said the prayer that John MacArthur’s son God come into my heart. Have you seen the glorious Jesus Christ first hand where you know with the confidence my daughter has in me that Jesus died on the cross he rose again, and because of that I can turn away from my sin and trust in Jesus and be saved not only today but for all of eternity. If you don’t believe the bible tells us that today is the day of salvation and you to can walk with God in this life and one of the greatest things about that is he will walk with you for all of your days. Let us pray.