MATTHEW 6:7-15 - Pray Then in This Way

Introduction

One of my favorite birthday presents several years back was my banjo—granted, it’s maybe not anyone else’s favorite possession of mine, but I enjoy it! For those who aren’t familiar with the Way of the Gut Bucket, there are two major styles of banjo playing—one that I am terrible at, and one that I have no idea at all how to play. The familiar bluegrass “roll” style of banjo (think Lester Scruggs’ “Beverly Hillbillies” theme song) is an absolute mystery to me—I have read books, I have watched YouTube videos, I have subscribed to free online courses, all trying to figure out how to play bluegrass banjo.

Books and videos and online courses are no help to me—what I really need is to sit knee-to-knee with someone who is really really good at bluegrass banjo and say, “Show me how to do that!” (But ever since we lost Bob Sink that doesn’t seem very likely to happen…) There is no substitute from learning from someone who excels in the endeavor you are trying to learn.

Consider for a moment the passage we read a few moments ago from Luke’s Gospel-- In Luke 11:1 we read

Luke 11:1 (LSB)

And it happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.”

I think it’s really significant that this is the only place in the Gospels where the disciples actually ask Jesus to teach them something. Consider this for a moment—of all the things they saw Jesus do: Feed thousands, walk on water, raise the dead, dispute with the Pharisees—the one thing they asked Him to teach them was to pray. Surely at least part of the reason was because they saw how remarkable Jesus’ prayer life was, and wanted Him to show them how to pray the way He did.

Here in our text this morning we’re going back to verses that we passed over last week as we studied Jesus’ words about hypocrisy in religious life—including the hypocrisy of prayer that didn’t even address God, but addressed everyone else who was listening:

Matthew 6:5 (LSB)

“And 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.

These verses are found in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’ teaching on how His disciples are transformed by the New Birth—Jesus contrasts the way the scribes and the Pharisees pursued what they thought was righteousness under the Law of Moses with the way His followers found real righteousness that goes way beyond that:

Matthew 5:20 (LSB)

“For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Here in the verses we studied last week as well as today’s text we find the crucial difference between the so-called “righteousness” of the scribes and Pharisees and hypocrites and the surpassing righteousness found in Christ. It is clearly seen by the way each side regards God—the hypocrites disregard Him so long as they are rewarded by men. Jesus contrasts this over and over again with the way He and His disciples are to relate to God. We saw this last week, didn’t we?

Matthew 6:1 (LSB)

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

Matthew 6:4 (LSB)

so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

Matthew 6:6 (LSB)

“But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

Matthew 6:8 (LSB)

“Therefore, do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

Matthew 6:18 (LSB)

so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

Jesus sets His teaching on prayer on the same footing, doesn’t He?

Matthew 6:9 (LSB)

“Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.

Jesus was teaching something absolutely revolutionary—that the God of the Old Testament, YHWH Himself—can be approached not just as Master and Lord and Creator and Judge and Faithful Covenant Keeping God, but can be called Father by all those who are righteous in Christ!

This is the foundation of what Jesus is teaching us about prayer here in these verses, and this is how I want to frame the point of this passage this morning:

Your prayers REVEAL your real REGARD for God

The hypocrites that Jesus is calling out in this chapter were not even thinking about God in their prayers; Who He was or what He demanded of them played no part in their prayer life. They only prayed in such a way as to gain approval and admiration from everyone around them. In the same way, how many of our prayers are only selfishly focused on what we want, how we want God to act, what we want Him to do for us? The Apostle James’ rebuke to his readers in James 4:3 is all-too often true of us as well:

James 4:3 (LSB)

You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

Like the poisonous heresy of the Word of Faith teachers that believe you can command God to do what you want in prayer: If God is nothing more than a means to getting what you want, then your prayers will reflect that—Jesus calls that hypocrisy.

The other warning Jesus gives in this passage about prayer is about mindlessness in prayer:

Matthew 6:7 (LSB)

“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.

It is a demonstration of our remarkable fallen capacity to screw things up that Jesus gives us this prayer so that we avoid the mindless repetition of the pagans’ prayers and mindlessly repeat this prayer instead! Now, as we will see there is nothing wrong with praying the same thing over again—Jesus actually commands as much in verse 11—the issue is the mindlessness of it, the rote repetition, treating prayer like you are guessing a secret password of some sort. Like the reprehensible premise of Bruce Wilkinson’s Prayer of Jabez that this prayer will “release God’s miraculous power” or John Eckhardt’s Prayers That Activate Blessings that say that if you just repeat these prayers, then you will obtain “Protection, Power & Favor of God for You & Your Loved Ones!”

Jesus teaches here in these verses that what you believe about God will come through in the way you pray to Him. But God is not to be approached with a list of selfish demands, nor is He some kind of password-protected treasure vault that will only pour out blessings on you if you just repeat all the right magic words in just the right order. Jesus teaches here that your prayers will reveal your real regard for God. In verses 9-10 Jesus sets before us

I. The central PURPOSE of prayer: The GLORY of God OVER us (Matthew 6:9-10)

Look with me at verses 9-10:

Matthew 6:9–10 (LSB)

“Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. ‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.

Hypocritical prayers that are only meant to serve ourselves reveal our real regard for God because they demonstrate that we are hungry for our own glory—we want pur prayers to be a means of God serving us. And so the way we pray reveals how we truly regard God. Jesus reminds us here that

He is utterly HOLY (v. 9)

First of all, God is our Father, but He is in Heaven—He is utterly removed from us; completely separated from us. And the next phrase, “hallowed” be Your Name reminds us specifically that when we approach God in prayer, we approach a holy God. The word “hallow” in Greek is the verb form of holy—literally, we could read this as “Father in heaven, holify your Name”.

Self-serving, self-glorifying prayers full of impressive flowery language reveal that you do not recognize the holiness of the God you address. R. C. Sproul, in his classic work The Holiness of God writes:

The clearest sensation that a human being has when he experiences the holy is an overpowering and overwhelming sense of creatureliness. That is, when we are in the presence of God, we are humbled and become most aware of ourselves as creatures. This is the opposite of Satan's original temptation, "You shall be as gods. Sproul, R. (2023). The holiness of God. NavPress.

A heart that regards God in His holiness can never pray to Him flippantly, showing off impressive vocabulary or sharp-witted comments. A man who understands his insignificance before the majesty of a holy God; who is painfully aware of his sinfulness before a holy God, can never come to Him in self-important, self-serving words.

Jesus says that when you come to God in prayer, you begin with the acknowledgement that He is utterly holy. And in verse 10 He teaches us that we come to God recognizing that

He is utterly SOVEREIGN (v. 10a, cp. James 4:14-15)

Matthew 6:10 (LSB)

‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.

That God is a King is a theme that runs throughout the Old and New Testaments, and Jesus reminds His disciples here that when they come to God in prayer they come recognizing that He reigns over their entire lives. They do not come presuming to “command” Him to do what they desire; they are to come with the understanding that He is sovereign over them. James makes the same point to his readers in his epistle:

James 4:14–15 (LSB)

Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”

There are many people who will tell you that saying to God “if it be Your will” is a “weak” prayer, that it is a “cop-out” to say “God, if it is your will to heal me”; that you must insist on it because God has guaranteed it; that it is weakness of faith to say “If you will it, Lord”.

But look at the Scriptures before you, Christian. God’s Word declares that you must come to God in prayer acknowledging that He is utterly sovereign! A heart that makes “demands” of God is a heart that reveals its real regard for Him—it reveals a heart that rebels against the sovereign decrees of Almighty God.

When you come to pray to God, Christian, you acknowledge the central purpose of prayer: The glory of God over you—He is utterly holy, He is utterly sovereign, and

He is to be utterly OBEYED (v. 10b; cp Daniel 4:35)

This is what we see at the end of verse 10:

Matthew 6:10 (LSB)

‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.

Now if we don’t think carefully about this, we will miss what Jesus is saying here—it is easy to make Thy will be done on earth the main focus of the verse. But if you consider for a moment, you will see that asking for God’s will to be done on earth is like asking for water to be wet; it is like asking two plus two to equal four—God’s will is always done on earth!

Daniel 4:35 (LSB)

“And all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, But He does according to His will in the host of heaven And among the inhabitants of earth; And no one can strike against His hand Or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’

God’s will is always done on earth—His will cannot be thwarted or frustrated. But the difference is that in Heaven God’s will is done immediately and righteously and joyfully! Jesus is teaching His disciples to pray that they would obey God on earth the way He is obeyed in Heaven!

Consider Jonah as an example—did he do God’s will by prophesying against Nineveh? Was he obedient? Yes, he was—he obeyed God’s will, and did it kicking and screaming the whole time! Christian, when you know what God is calling you to do, and you do it sullenly or apprehensively or unwillingly, you are revealing your real regard for God. 1 Thessalonians 4:3 tells you

1 Thessalonians 4:3 (LSB)

For this is the will of God, your sanctification...

And when He brings you to those moments when your sanctification is on the line; when He is using your circumstances to refine you as through fire, do you respond with frustration and fear and resentment? Or do you obey His call to greater holiness through the hardships and pain of this life with the utter obedience and righteous delight of Heaven?

Your prayer life will reveal your real regard for God—if you regard Him as a harsh taskmaster Who is only interested in making your life as hard as possible, you will regard Him that way in your prayers. But if you regard Him as your loving Heavenly Father who is training you up into the likeness of His Son by what you endure, then you are free to delight in obeying His will, even if it means suffering and loss and pain praying “Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven!”

What you really believe about God will come through in the way that you pray to Him. Jesus instructs us that the fundamental purpose of prayer is the glory of God over us—He is utterly holy, He is utterly sovereign, He is to be utterly obeyed. Jesus makes it clear that we are in no position to come making demands of God. In verses 11-13 He goes on to show us

II. The fundamental NATURE of prayer: The MERCY of God TOWARD us (Matthew 6:11-15)

John Calvin noted that the Lord’s Prayer is divided in the same way as the Ten Commandments—the first Table of the Law dealt with God’s character, the second Table of the Law deals with human nature. In the same way, the first half of this prayer is about God’s glory; these verses are concerned with our condition before Him. The first thing Jesus shows us is that

We are utterly DEPENDENT on God (v. 11)

Matthew 6:11 (LSB)

‘Give us this day our daily bread.

Just as YHWH’s people in the Old Testament had to rely on Him every single morning for their bread—the manna that came out of heaven—and so Jesus says we must understand our reliance on God for our daily needs in the same way. Now, here is where we said earlier that Jesus does teach us to pray the same prayers on a regular basis—we need to eat every day, and so it is fitting that we pray for bread every day. (Again, the issue isn’t the repetition, the issue is the pointless or meaningless repetition.)

Our regular petition to God for our needs is a declaration of our fundamental dependence on God!

D. Martyn-Lloyd Jones writes of this verse:

Is there not something extraordinary and wonderful about the connection between this request and the previous requests? Is not this one of the most wonderful things in the whole of Scripture, that the God who is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, the God who is forming his eternal kingdom and who will usher it in at the end, the God to whom the nations are but as ‘the small dust of the balance’—that such a God should be prepared to consider your little needs and mine even down to the minutest details in this matter of daily bread! (Quoted in Storms, S. (2016). Biblical Studies: The Sermon on the Mount (Mt 6:7–15). Sam Storms.)

Consider how utterly dependent you are on God, and how utterly delighted He is to take such notice of you! When you pray out of your utter dependence on God, you show your true regard for His mercy toward you—Jesus teaches His disciples to pray in a way that shows every bite of food that they eat, every breath in their lungs, every sunrise that finds them walking the earth and not under it is a gift of His undeserved mercy! Because the very next petition in the prayer that He teaches is a reminder that

We are utterly SINFUL before God (v. 12; 14-15)

Matthew 6:12 (LSB)

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

The word debt here (or tresspasses) conveys the idea of an insult or injury to someone that they have a right to “pay you back” for—like a settlement in a civil court case. And the way Jesus instructs us to pray here uncovers just how deep the corruption runs in us. Because everyone wants to be forgiven, but no one wants to let go of their grudges. We balk at this verse, calling it “works righteousness” that we will only be forgiven by God if we forgive others. But Jesus doesn’t let us get away with brushing off His words—He comes back to this again in verses 14-15, doesn’t He?

Matthew 6:14–15 (LSB)

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

One of the most helpful things to remember is that this is a prayer that Jesus is teaching His disciples—these verses about forgiveness are not referring to the forgiveness of salvation from sin; it is about the restoration of fellowship with God as believers. Salvation is always (and only) ever by grace alone; there is never anything we have to accomplish or achieve in order to receive the forgiveness of Christ for our salvation.

But as Christians we can (and certainly do) find ourselves estranged from fellowship with our Heavenly Father—we grieve Him with our foolishness and sin (Ephesians 4:30), even though we are sealed for the day of redemption. Remember Jesus’ parable a few chapters later in Matthew 18 of the king that forgave his slave a million-dollar debt while the slave would not forgive his neighbor a hundred dollar debt? This is what Jesus is reminding us of here, and this is what our prayers will reveal about the way we regard God: If you have never come face-to-face with just how utterly wicked and sinful and twisted and hateful and miserable we are in the eyes of God, we will never have the proper perspective on how others have sinned against us. As John R.W. Stott put it in his commentary:

Once our eyes have been opened to see the enormity of our offence against God, the injuries which others have done to us appear by comparison extremely trifling. If, on the other hand, we have an exaggerated view of the offences of others, it proves that we have minimized our own. (Stott, J. R. W., & Stott, J. R. W. (1985). The message of the Sermon on the mount (Matthew 5-7): Christian counter-culture (pp. 149–150). InterVarsity Press.)

Jesus makes it clear here that if we cannot let go of our grudges against what others have done to us, it is a sure sign that we don’t understand who we are before God in our utter sinfulness. It’s one of my favorite quotes from Oswald Chambers in My Utmost For His Highest, who said, “I never met the man whom I could despair of after discerning what lies in me apart from the grace of God.” (Oswald Chambers (2011). “My Utmost for His Highest Classic Edition”, p.348, Discovery House)

Jesus teaches us that the fundamental nature of prayer is the mercy of God toward us—we are utterly dependent upon God, utterly sinful before God, and in verse 12 we see that

We are utterly HELPLESS without God (v. 13; cp. James 1:13)

Matthew 6:13 (LSB)

‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’]

Once again, we need to think carefully, or we will miss what Jesus is saying here. Similar to verse 10 where it is nonsensical to pray that “God’s will be done on earth”—it is always done on earth!!—it is irrational to pray that God not “lead us into temptation”, since the Scriptures are clear that God does not tempt anyone to sin:

James 1:13 (LSB)

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.

So what is Jesus teaching us to pray here? If we consider this verse together, the picture begins to become clear: “Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the Evil One”. Consider that we do have an Enemy, the Devil, who hates us and desires nothing more than to destroy us:

1 Peter 5:8 (LSB)

Be of sober spirit, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Picture yourself walking through a dark, dense forest, full of bear traps that have been set by a devious, hateful and cruel enemy who is bound and determined to catch you and torture you. It is getting dark, you don’t know the way through the woods, and you have no idea where the bear traps are.

This is the context of this petition here that Jesus is teaching us to pray. “Lord, lead me around the bear traps! I don’t know where they are, I will never see them coming; my Enemy is too cunning, too subtle, too crafty for me—he wants to destroy me, and if I don’t have Your help to navigate through this jungle, he will devour me!”

The temptations and snares and traps and pitfalls Satan has strewn across your path, Christian, can only be navigated as you keep your eyes on your Father in Heaven! He sees every pitfall, He knows where every tripwire is laid; so depend on Him to guide you safely around them! Praying for God not to lead you into temptation means pleading with Him to show you how to fight the temptations that beset you! To recognize the traps, see the hook inside the bait, to learn to avoid the places and spaces where you know you will be laid open to attack from the Enemy of your soul.

What does your prayer life reveal about the way you regard God? Do you consider prayer a way of making it more likely that you will get the things in your life that you want—you want a raise in your job or you want your health to improve or you want a good GPA or you want your kids to be more manageable and prayer sort of “increases your odds” of those things working out? In short, do you regard God as a means of you achieving more of what you want your life to look like?

Or do you come to God saying “Thy will be done; hallowed be Thy Name”—that you come to God with His glory and His fame and His Kingdom in mind? The last phrase of the prayer Jesus teaches us is not found in some of the oldest New Testament manuscripts, but it is certainly in line with the way Jesus began. And it is another reminder that how you regard God will come through in the way you pray—is it your kingdom, glory and power that is in your view? Or do you come in humble acknowledgment that His is the only will that matters, that His glory and renown is the desire of your heart?

Now at this point a certain kind of heart will look at these things and say, “Ah! So that’s the secret! All I have to do is tell God that what I really want is His will to be done, and that will make my prayers valid and He will then give me what I want!” But you see, don’t you, that that’s just a more sophisticated way of treating God like some password-protected treasure vault: Say the right words, and God will automatically dispense whatever blessings you want.

Show me the way you pray, and I can tell what you believe about God. But He is neither a servant of your own glory, nor is He a cosmic vending machine that will dispense what you want when you push the right buttons. Look again at the fundamental truth Jesus is teaching about God in this prayer—for you who have experienced the New Birth of repentance and faith in Jesus Christ for salvation, God is your Father. He is not a servant to be commanded or a machine to be manipulated—He is a Father to be trusted. He is not governed by your self-centered demands, nor is He constrained by your manipulative words. He is constrained by nothing else than His grace and mercy toward you as His child in Jesus Christ.

Look back with me here in our text to verse 8—there is something about the way Jesus introduces this whole prayer that sets the context for everything He has taught about how to pray. Verse 8 says

Matthew 6:8 (LSB)

“Therefore, do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

Don’t be like the self-centered hypocrites, and don’t be like the vain babblers. Why? “Because your Father knows what you need before you ask Him”. And then He goes on to say in verse 9,

Matthew 6:9 (LSB)

“Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.

This verse can also be rendered, “Pray therefore in this way...” Pray this way because you have a loving Father in Heaven Who knows your needs! Because He is your Father, because He knows your needs and wants and desires, and because He delights in you as His child, you are free to pray this way.

You are free to pray for His glory and not your own—you are free to pray for His will to be done and not your own desires—because you know that He loves you and will not neglect you! Asking for God to glorify Himself and make His Kingdom come is not a prayer that deprives you, because you are praying to a Father who delights in you!

Because you have a Father in Heaven Who loves you, you are free to confess your sin and shame to Him! His love for you in Christ cannot be diminished by the sins you have been entangled in; your failure to fight sin in your life are not a source of condemnation with Him—because He is your Father. As we have noted before, you might as well believe that a dad hates his little boy who is hospitalized with leukemia. No, that dad doesn’t hate his son—he hates the disease. He loves his son enough that he would gladly take on that disease himself if his little boy could only be free of it.

Beloved, can’t you see that this is, in fact, what God did for you? Seeing you suffering the fatal illness of your sin and corruption that had cut you off from Him, He descended to earth in the flesh to take the sickness on Himself to free you of it! God the Son came to earth, taking all of your sin and tresspasses and debts and transgressions and died with them, descending down into the grave and leaving them there! And in His resurrection three days later, He rose to the right hand of your Father in Heaven where He daily intercedes for you in prayer! And because He is praying for you, Christian, you are free to bring all your prayers to Him!

Romans 8:34 (LSB)

who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

All of your self-conscious, stammering, repetitive prayers—all of your wrong motives, all of your impatience, all of your awkwardness in prayer is heard by your Savior, Who takes them and purifies them and perfects them and presents them to your Heavenly Father. You don’t have to impress Him, you don’t have to perfect some secret formula prayer, you don’t have to manipulate or apologize or qualify. You can simply talk to your Father.

But make no mistake—this prayer that Jesus taught here in these verses is a prayer of a child to its Father. As we said earlier, this prayer—which Jesus specifically taught in order to combat mindless repetition—is probably one of the most mindlessly repeated prayers in history. But this prayer, it has to be said, is not for everyone. If God is not your Father, you have no claim to pray in this way. And the only way that you have the right to call God your Father is to be found in the Son of God—Jesus Christ. John’s Gospel begins with these words about Christ:

John 1:12–13 (LSB)

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

You cannot pray in this way unless you have believed in the Name of Jesus Christ—that you have called on His Name to rescue you from the death-penalty that you have earned for yourself by your sin against Him. You cannot pray in this way unless you have been born again—not physically, but through the working of God’s Holy Spirit in you to transform your dead heart of sin into a living heart of righteousness. Only then can you pray in this way—when God is your Father because you belong to His Son, your Savior, Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION:

Ephesians 3:20–21 (LSB)

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or understand, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION: Write down something you learned from this morning’s message that is new to you, or an insight that you had for the first time about the text? ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Write down a question that you have about the passage that you want to study further or ask for help with: ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Write down something that you need to do in your life this week in response to what God has shown you from His Word today: ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Additional Notes: ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________