2.7.11 2.9.2025 Matthew 6.5-15 Prayerful living

  Start:

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.

Entice: When teaching His first disciples Jesus knew that we all would need guidance not because spiritual disciplines are rare but because they are everywhere.  These familiar words which most can recite from memory seem to have little impact on the actual practice of people at prayer.         

Engage:  Prayer and other spiritual practices or disciplines are old, have varied socio-cultural roles, and several different purposes in the human family. Some of these roles are derived from Scripture. Other practices we’ve come up with on our own.  God’s ongoing revelation of Himself, culminating in the incarnation of Jesus calls for a human response. Some of our instincts are good, some are bad. Jesus was born among a praying people but much of what motivated them was not a deeper relationship with God but visible recognition in the Community. Consider a couple of contemporary circumstances.

When you pray in public for meals is it an intimate pause with those around the table with you or do you try and involve everyone in the restaurant?      

When athletes or celebrities invoke praise or strike a prayerful pose in public space who is the audience?

When we do pray in public we should stick as closely as possible to the guidelines in Jesus’ model, never ostentatious, conspicuous, or selfish.  

God with us not only gives us a model to follow, but the Gospels are also filled with examples. Much of His own devotional life is summarized with the Gospel authors telling us that He went off by Himself to pray. When His prayers are recorded, He is praying publicly with others.

Expand: The hardest lesson to teach is when the audience assumes they already know all there is to know about the subject. Jesus’ original audience consisted of prayer experts...how eager were they to really learn something new? The best lessons to teach are when a teacher has students eager to add something new and life-changing to knowledge they already have. We don’t have to jump up and down to get God’s attention. We can cultivate a deeper relationship with the Father through Jesus. That comes from following and imitating Jesus, always remembering that

prayer is about knowing and growing not getting.

   Explore:

Prayerful Living is a matter of intent and content.

Expand: Jesus provides some guidelines for proper intent and content in our prayer lives.

 Body of Sermon: It all begins with acknowledging

1 The Proper Audience.

…Perhaps we should interpret this as Jesus beginning with a little bit of comedy, an inside Joke. Can you imagine a “spiritual” society in which the most pious spent all their time in the public square acting as if they were competing together for God’s attention?!

 If God is our audience, we surely do not need to perform for Him or get His attention. to that end Jesus teaches us that

    1.1 We should come to God carefully.

He is God, not a Wal-Mart employee. You don’t have to shout or wave your arms. Jesus seems to imply that the more theatrical or public we are the less inclined God is to listen. Be careful!

Next,

      1.2 We should come to God secretly.

Not sneaky-secret or hiding.  I almost wish there was another word. If people spoke to God, the way they dated it would be aspectacle and many would be uncomfortable.

                  1.2.1 Prayerful secrecy is not for the sake of mystery.

               1.2.2 Instead, Prayerful secrecy is for the sake of personal intimacy.

Next,

        1.3 We should come to God with Dignity.

Once we understand who the audience for prayer is then we can consider

   2 The Proper Approach.

Here we consider the model prayer itself. And I think it is proper to think that all those times the Gospel tells us that Jesus went off to pray alone, that this is the sort of approach He had.

The proper approach begins with

      2.1 Devotion.

The proper approach expects  

      2.2 Participation.

The proper approach rests in

          2.3 Trust.

         Our needs.

(food)

        Our deeds.

(forgiveness for our sins)

        Where He Leads.

(away from temptation)

We know who our audience is, and we have considered the right approach. Last of all we come to

  3 The Proper Attitude 

This is really a parenthetical statement regarding our own forgiveness and our responsibility to forgive others. It is a perennial reminder that our Spiritual life whether prayer, worship, or service must be

    3.1 Inclusive.

     3.2 Obedient.

Shut Down

There are times when praying is difficult even for the most committed believer. We go through challenging times and suffer through bad experiences of heartbreak and loss. The one who teaches us how to pray went through all the human conditions we experience. What is so powerful about the Lord’s Model prayer is that it is not complicated. We orient ourselves around an attitude of inclusive forgiveness. We articulate an approach that is based upon integrating our human experience with God’s expectations. And we take seriously that God is the only proper audience for our hurting hearts.

Before our God we can doubt.

         Before our God we can cry.

                  Before our God we can celebrate.

                           Before our God we can find peace amid a combative world.

Prayer is not magic nor is the mark of the super Spiritual. God with us, came to be among us, to show us how to find the intimacy He had with the Father. The Father in heaven sent His Son among us to redeem our innermost places and fill them with Himself.