Prayer: Don't Keep on Babbling

Sermon on the Mount – 10b

Matthew 6:5–8 (NIV84)

5“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.

6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.

8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Pray = προσεύχομαι proseuchomai = to petition deity.

Prayer = προσευχή proseuchē = Communication with God, primarily offered in the second-person voice (addressing God directly).

James 4:2b-3 (NIV84)

2You do not have, because you do not ask God.

3When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

Often, people look at prayer as being tedious and one of the last things on their mind. Yet, God says that the reason we don’t have is because we never asked.

Christians don’t have God’s provision, healing, and blessing in their lives simply because they have not asked for it.

God doesn’t heal everyone, nor will He give you everything you might ask for.

But many of us are missing out on many of the things God has for us simply because we don’t ask.

Prayer should not be a last resort. It should be the first thing we do.

This Scripture warns against pleasure-motivated prayer. Spiritually-minded Christians pray for things that are pleasing in God’s sight, not for things that fuel their own selfish desires.

Matthew 6:7 (NIV84)

7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.

When you pray. The Scripture does not say If you pray; it says When you pray. Jesus takes it for granted that his disciples will pray.

Keep on babbling = βατταλογέω battalogeō = to prattle – to utter many, and especially useless and purposeless, words.

to speak much or extensively, with a possible added implication of meaningless words—‘to use many words, to speak for a long time.’

to utter senseless sounds or to speak indistinctly and incoherently.

In some languages, ‘to speak like a baby’ or ‘to speak sounds that make no sense.’

to speak in a way that images the kind of speech pattern of one who stammers, use the same words again and again, speak without thinking.

Use vain repetitions (βατταλογήσητε): to repeat the same formula many times, as the worshippers of Baal and of Diana of Ephesus (1 Kings 18:26; Acts 19:34).

Vain repetitions, kjv

Meaningless repetition, nasb95

Heap up empty phrases, esv

Babble, hcsb

heap up phrases (multiply words, repeating the same ones over and over), amp

The pagan religions of Jesus’ day believed that prayer consisted of repeating certain words and phrases.

They thought such fervent praying would move their gods to do their bidding.

Jesus came to reveal a different God from the false gods of the pagans.

We do not win His favor by repeating formulas but by placing our lives in His will.

Charles Stanley: Prostitutes spoke in a form of tongues in their religion. The church at Corinth was made up of people from all walks of life.

People stood up and appeared to be babbling.

They didn’t seem to care if there was an interpreter or not.

Paul knew that a lot of this commotion was a counterfeit of a legitimate gift of the Holy Spirit.

Their babbling was unprofitable to the church in that they were disrupting the service; it was unsettling to the church, and it was unintelligible to the world.

It sounded like a madhouse during the church services. Paul admonished them, “For God is not the author of confusion but of peace” (1 Cor. 14:33).

Some feel that the purpose of tongues is to enable them to have a prayer language.

However, prayer language is not a term used in the Word of God.

Gifts were given so that we could build one another up, not use them in private. Paul stresses that the church is to be edified. “Since you are eager to have spiritual gifts, try to excel in gifts that build up the church” (1 Cor. 14:12).

Some people claim to have a prayer language. I would urge only that we take any of our experiences—no matter what they are—and examine them in light of Scripture.

If our experience does not line up with the Word of God, we have to negate the experience and go with the final authority, which is His Word.

I caution believers who speak in tongues to evaluate carefully their motivation. Is it for the glory of God, or is it because of pressure from a group? Do you feel that you would be a lesser saint than others if you did not speak in tongues? The Bible urges you to pursue love, not tongues.

Genesis 11:1–9 (NIV84)

1Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.

2As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

3They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.

4Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

5But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building.

6The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.

7Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

8So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.

9That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

No matter how high man towered, God still has to come down to see it and to get a better look.

The tower was meant to be the stairway to heaven.

The ungodly people wanted to build a tower “that reached to the heavens,” so that they could make a name for themselves.

In their supposed self-sufficiency and mastery of their environment, they sense no need of an almighty Preserver and a gracious Savior from sin.

Their own brawn and brainpower will provide all that they need for happiness. They think they are their own little saviors.

Babel = בָּבֶל (bā·ḇěl) = “confusion (by mixing)”

Babel is a transliteration of an Akkadian word that means to confuse.

The Babylonians defined it as the gate of God.

Today, babel stands for a confusion of sounds or voices, or a scene of noise and confusion.

1 Kings 18:19–38 (NIV84)

19Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”

20So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel.

21Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people said nothing.

22Then Elijah said to them, “I am the only one of the Lord’s prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets.

23Get two bulls for us. Let them choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it.

24Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers by fire—he is God.” Then all the people said, “What you say is good.”

25Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire.”

26So they took the bull given them and prepared it. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. “O Baal, answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made.

27At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.”

28So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed.

29Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.

30Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come here to me.” They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which was in ruins.

31Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, “Your name shall be Israel.”

32With the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he dug a trench around it large enough to hold two seahs (≈ 13 quarts) of seed.

33He arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood. Then he said to them, “Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood.”

34“Do it again,” he said, and they did it again. “Do it a third time,” he ordered, and they did it the third time.

35The water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench.

36At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command.

37Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.”

38Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.

The many repeated formulas and incantations failed to elicit a response from their dead god.

Elijah wasn’t showing off; everything he did was at the Lord’s command (v. 36).

Luke 18:9–14 (NIV84)

9To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable:

10“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

11The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.

12I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

13“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

14“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

The Pharisee’s prayer was long, wordy, boastful, and empty.

The tax collector’s prayer was to the point.

He talked directly to God and asked for His mercy.

There were not a lot of empty words nor were there any formulas in his prayer.

Proverbs 27:1-2 (NIV84)

1 Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.

2 Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; someone else, and not your own lips.

William Sprague a Presbyterian minister of the early nineteenth century: advised his daughter “never [to] say anything of yourself which even indirectly involves commendation, unless under circumstances of very rare occurrence. If you watch the operations of your heart, you will probably be surprised to find how strong is the propensity to bring one’s self into view, as often and to as great advantage as possible. Whenever you can illustrate any subject on which you may be conversing by a reference to the experience of anyone else, it is better, in all ordinary cases to avail yourself of it, than to refer even indirectly to your own.”

Matthew 6:7 (NIV84)

7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.

In Graeco-Roman religions, repetition was used to pester the gods so they would grant someone’s request.

The Pagans thought that by endless repetitions and many words they would inform their gods as to their needs and weary them into granting their requests.

They think that they will be heard. The pagans thought that by praying a long, wordy prayer, God would hear them and thus heed and respond to their self-centered requests.

God cannot be manipulated by the performance of ritual prayers.

Private prayer helps conform us to Christ. How much time do you spend praying in private? If you pray in public more than you do in private, you might be more concerned with how others see you than with how God sees you.

Proverbs 10:19 (HCSB)

19When there are many words, sin is unavoidable, but the one who controls his lips is wise.

James 1:19–20 (NIV84)

19My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,

20for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.

Thomas à Kempis: When wrath takes possession of the breast, wisdom takes to flight even from the wise. He that speaks hastily is like a snarling hound; but a meek answer breaks the violence of wrath, and gives to the afflicted roses in the stead of thorns. Blessed is the prudent tongue, for it heals the wounds of the hasty.

James 3:2 (NIV84)

2We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.

Ecclesiastes 5:1–2 (NIV84)

1Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.

2Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.

Albert Einstein: The need of the world is to listen to God.

Charles Finney: Some men will spin out a long prayer in telling God who and what he is, or they exhort God to do so and so. Some pray out a whole system of divinity. Some preach, some exhort the people, till everybody wishes they would stop, and God wishes so too, undoubtedly. They should keep to the point, and pray for what they came to pray for, and not follow the imagination of their own foolish hearts all over the universe.

Matthew 6:8 (NIV84)

8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

We may pray thinking that we need a particular thing, when God knows what we really need even before we begin to pray.

Isaiah 65:24 (NIV84)

24Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.

Psalm 139:1–4 (NIV84)

1O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.

2You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.

3You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.

4Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord.

Why pray?

John Calvin: We do not pray with the view of informing God but in order that we may arouse ourselves to seek Him.

Martin Luther: We are instructing ourselves, not God, when we pray.

We cannot correct His counsel, showing that what He has determined to do is wrong.

God does not have a Plan B that He puts in motion at our request.

We pray because it changes us.

We pray also because God uses our prayer as the means to bring about the ends that He has decreed from all eternity.

God commands us to pray and to do so earnestly, but we do not pray to instruct Him or give Him our counsel.

John Chrysostom: We pray “not to inform God or instruct him but to beseech him closely, to be made intimate with him, by continuance in supplication; to be humbled; to be reminded of our sins.”

1 John 5:13–15 (NIV84)

13I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

14This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

15And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.

Does prayer change God’s will?

Does prayer change things?

Next Week!!! (Lord willing)