A When You Pray…

Good morning…Bibles out…Matthew 6:5-13.

There is a main theme that Jesus is combating in His preachings in Matthew 6…”HYPOCRISY”

Last week…When you give…don’t give like a hypocrite

Hypocrisy is defined as “claiming to be something you are not” and it leads to behavior that contradicts what one claims to believe or feels is right

WHY IS JESUS PREACHING ON THIS???

THE SAME REASON WE ARE PREACHING IT…

Even the humblest and strongest of Christ followers, both men and women can fall into this very easily…

As Christ followers, we can easily fall into hypocrisy…

Ill be transparent…here is one area where I fall into hypocrisy…

The Lord calls us to be patient and forgiving, and graceful…and I am…

UNTIL I GET BEHIND THE WHEEL OF A CAR…

I become the most impatient, non-grace having, unforgiving Christ follower when I am in a hurry in a vehicle…

Heres the weird thing about this hypocrisy…no one sees it but me…

Im in the car alone mostly when it happens (no one else sees or hears it)…

And even when Im in the car with others…you might not hear me road rage (road agitation) when someone forgets to turn their brights off as they pass me and blind me….

BUT its happening in my heart…

No grace, no forgiveness…Just a big ole hypocrite…

Acting like I’ve never forgot to turn my brights off, or use a turn signal…

Today, as we look at this text in Matthew 6, we are going to see Jesus address some hypocrisy He is seeing during this time

Background-

Sermon on the mount- Disciples, large crowd of Jews containing Pharisees and scribes (religious elites, men of the cloth).

Jesus begins to call out the hypocrisy in the false spiritual lives of the Pharisees…

And as Jesus does this, in turn he is going to show the disciples and us today the standard of a true spiritual life

Again…Last week Jesus addressed the hypocrisy that he sees in giving to the needy with the Pharisees and the religious elite…a hypocritical walk

How to avoid praying like a hypocrite.

2 things Jesus directs our attention to when He explains how a true Christ follower should pray…

-He directs our attention to who our Audience is (who we are praying to)

AND

-What the content of our prayers should be

READ Verses 5-15 ALL

The first stop…

Who is your Audience? (v5-6)

How do you know you are praying like a hypocrite?

If your audience audience is man…

-MAN? (v5)

Illustration:

How many of us are guilty of this? How many of us have ever prayed (at a church gathering or a social gathering, or in the presence of a pastor or church leadership), and in the middle of that prayer been thinking about how we’re being perceived by the people listening to our prayer.

We can look back and realize…the prayers we are praying out loud for the eyes and ears of men, sound drastically different from when we’re on our knees worshiping God through prayer by ourselves.

Its not as sincere…like the actors tears in a broadway performance…self manifested sincerity.

Why do we think this happens? This temptation to self-worship.

This happens because there is no holy moment between you and God that Satan doesn’t try to interrupt.

JOHN MACARTHUR QUOTE: “Nothing is so sacred that Satan will not invade it. In fact, the more sacred something is, the more he desires to profane it. Surely few things please him more than to come between believers and their Lord in the sacred intimacy of prayer. Sin will follow us into the very presence of God; and no sin is more powerful or destructive than pride. In those moments when we would come before the Lord in worship and purity of heart, we may be tempted to worship ourselves.”

We must be aware that we can easily fall to this…when in prayer

And Jesus tells us that those who pray in this way, so that they will be seen by others, they have received their reward from man. (a good job!, a pat on the back, or an applause). But in the end, this reward from man means nothing.

-Jesus is going to explain to us as we move on to verse 6 that GOD IS OUR ONLY AUDIENCE

-GOD? (v6)

“But when you pray”

This the word room here in the Greek is the word Tameion which means inner room, this was a room that was often hidden in secret and stored the most valuable and prized possessions.

In this text Jesus calls us into this place to pray to Him

But why is He doing this? Is Jesus telling us never to pray in public and only in this room? Not at all, what He is discussing here is the state of your heart in prayer.

These Pharisees are using prayer to be seen and rewarded by the likes of men. Jesus knows the state of our heart when we are praying to Him. And when we are in secret prayer, Jesus looks to purify our motives. When you have one on one quite time with God, there is no one else there to hear your words, no eyes upon you, no one to impress, just you and God. That’s what He wants, no distractions, just you and Him.

Application: So as we take what Jesus is saying now to His followers, and we apply it to our lives today, if you are a follower of Christ today ask yourself are you praying sincerely to Jesus EVERY TIME ?

John 16:24 “Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”

When no one is looking or listening, are you seeking quite time between you and God? He is calling us to seek Him in the most private way. But what’s this look like in our lives today? It’s one on one, quiet time with God that is undistracted and nonnegotiable. This has to be intentional, one on one time with Jesus. For some of us that could be outside on our property, in the woods, in our houses, in a closet, anywhere that’s secluded where you are not distracted and can give 100% of your attention to speaking, loving, and worshiping Jesus.

And He tells us that when we come to Him in prayer in genuine heart, with sincerity and in secret, seeking only Him, we will be rewarded.

The oneness and communion with Jesus in fellowship is a great blessing we receive in sincere prayer time with God.

As Christ followers we are called to always pray sincerely…because of who we are praying to!

What is your Content? (7-13)

DO NOT pray like the Gentiles, in empty, long, lofty, frilly, elegantly worded prayers full of repetition and ritual.

-MAN GLORIFYING (v7-8)

During this time, many pagans had the tendency to pray in ritual, they used rehearsed prayer, long meaningless prayers to false gods.

These long pagan ritualistic and repeated prayers began to influence the Jews

Jesus is speaking against this mechanical way of praying, mostly rehearsed, all lip service and no heart.

The content screams “check the box”

We can fall into this easily church…

Illustration: I have discussed this in the past…A few years ago I found this unauthentic prayer in my life. Sitting down for a meal with my family, which if you have multiple children under 10 you know is complete chaos. So I tell my kids to bow their heads and rattled off my usual “dinner prayer” without skipping a beat! As I began to pray “Lord we love you, we thank you for this food, and ask that you allow it to nourish our bodies” ….then this text in Matthew popped into my head. And I realized that I’m falling short here. I’m not praying authentically to God.

-And as you look at your own prayer lives, does an instance like this stand out?

-Application: For us today, authentic prayer is shown in a posture of dependence on the Lord and His will. As believers, every word in our prayer should be meaningful, because of who we are praying to, WE ARE PRAYING TO THE LORD!! The creator of all who knows all that we need!!

-GOD GLORIFYING (v9-13)

-Imagine if you had the opportunity to sit 1 on 1 with Jesus face to face in your living room! Just you and Him sitting on the couch and He just said, “talk to me.”

-Would you start reciting something rehearsed? Would you speak to Him in long, drawn out, elegantly worded sentences?

-NO WAY! We would pour our hearts out to Him! The conversation would be filled with direct questions and worship and love and needs!

-That’s what our authentic prayer should look like!

-Our authentic prayer means that we are heartfelt in love and worship of God through our prayer because of who He is!!

-We are praying to Jesus, THE KING OF KINGS, who took on the sin of the world…who rose from the dead…defeated sin and death…THE GREAT I AM! THE LORD OF ALL!!!

As Christ followers we are called to pray authentically…because our prayers are going to a sovereign, in control, holy, all knowing God!

SO HOW DO WE PRAY? WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY IT SHOULD LOOK LIKE?

LORDS PRAYER

2 truths coming into verse 9: The Lord is our audience, and He is powerful, and mighty, and omniscient.

WORSHIP (Gods Sovereignty and Glory) > Verses 9-10

-”Our Father in heaven” - Lord you are head over us

-”Hollowed be your name”- you are holy

- “Your Kingdom come” - You are head over all things…You are King of all

-”Your will be done”- Transition verse- Your will is best…give us your will

WILL> Verses 11-13

- ”Give us our daily bread’ -sustain us

-”Forgive us”-

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

-”Lead us”-

-”Deliver us”- Protect us Lord

-YOURS IS THE KINGDOM AND THE POWER AND THE GLORY FOREVER- Your will be done forever!!!!

BIG IDEA: WE ARE TO PRAY IN WORSHIP TO THE LORD FOR HIS WILL AND HIS GLORY

CLOSING PRAYER TIME!!!