Lord Teach Us to Pray

A little over a year ago, Jace started a series walking slowly through the Sermon on the Mount. In it he talked about the imagery of Jesus being like the new Moses as he pulled up a stone and sat down on a mountain, turned water into Powerade and taught his disciples. During the messages on Jesus’ sermon, Jace carefully and thoughtfully walked through many aspects of the sermon on the mount - but he wasn’t able to finish. Over the next several weeks, we’re going to working through the sermon on the mount.

In case you’ve missed any of his sermons, they are all available online. Simply go to the website and begin browsing. In January, he finished off with part of the Lord’s prayer, or as some would say, the model prayer.

Before we dive too deeply into Jesus’ discussion on prayer, I do want to point out that Jesus teaching on prayer seems to be part of a broader point on practicing righteousness - it’s almost a subset of the sermon - much like the “you have heard..., but I say to you” lessons.

Look briefly in - Jesus says “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them....” This statement seems to start a new section in his sermon on righteous acts. In this section, He covers acts of giving, praying, fasting, work, and anxiety. In several of them, he addresses the temptation that exists to practice like a hypocrite would - for personal gain and popularity. In a couple of them, he includes a discussion on how gentiles or non-religious responses. I tell you that because in our discussion on prayer, we’re picking up right in the middle of a broader point. It would be an injustice to talk about this without referencing or exposing the overall point that scripture is making.

That being said, let’s open to Matthew chapter 6. We’re going to begin reading in verse 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.

“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. 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.

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

“Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

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

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016. Print.

Let’s pray.

So, as Jesus is talking to His disciples about this what it means to live in the Kingdom of God as Kingdom people, or as Jace said, in an upside down Kingdom, Jesus gets to these acts of righteousness - giving to the needy, praying, fasting and more. When it comes to praying, this is a discipline that seems elusive to some of us. It seems like a wonderful privilege to others. But how do we do it? Is there a certain way to pray? Is there a formula or pattern? I’ve heard people talk about A.C.T.S. - adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication. But is a formula rooted in scripture or is that just an easy thing to remember?

In Jesus’ discussion on prayer, he seems to talk about how to pray and then gives the what to pray and then concludes with an extra exhortation to watch out.

So let’s begin where Jesus does with...

How to Pray ()

Like a good teacher, Jesus not only gives an example of how to do it, but He begins with examples of how not to do it. Essentially, Jesus seems to be telling His disciples to pray privately and to pray briefly.

Pray Privately ()

The religious leaders, whom Jesus refers to here as hypocrites, were revered in public places. They were seen as the spiritual giants. I think for many they were honored and exalted - and it went to their heads.

Have you been in a class when a teacher asked a question and the same person always raised their hand or blurted out the answer? There are people who do that because they are excited about learning or participating. There are others who do that because they know the answer and they want you to know that they know.

I think these hypocrites that Jesus is referring to are a bit like that. When it class and asked to pray, they would gladly stand (which was the normal posture of prayer - everyone would stand when praying) - but then they would wax eloquent with big words and deep phrases to amaze you at their spiritual knowledge. They might even pray for a long time. And this is just in the synagogue.

There are other times when it would come time for the hour of prayer - which happened a few times each day, and some of these religious leaders would “happen” to wander into a public square and stop right in the middle of everything to begin praying a loud, self-righteous prayer.

I don’t think Jesus is against praying in public - after all even He did it, but He is against praying for a public audience or public acclaim. Jesus says that those who pray in this way have already received their reward.

Instead, Jesus’ preference is that we would pray in private, go to where no one can see and pour out our hearts to the Lord. God sees - and that’s all that matters - we don’t need to seek public acclaim for our prayers.

In addition to praying privately - or at least from a heart that is focused on pleasing God, Jesus seems to be urging his listeners to...

Pray Briefly ()

Instead of focusing on religious leaders, Jesus switches his focus to the irreligious as his example this time. These are people who might go on and on chanting empty phrases or mantras in order to get the attention of God.

In - Elijah has a spiritual battle with the prophets of Baal. He calls them to prepare a bull and then pray to their god to put fire to it. For several hours, they dance around the bull, limping, cutting themselves, crying out with a loud voice, but to no avail. Only silence.

Elijah, in response, very simply and briefly prayed -

Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016. Print.

The one true God answered this simple and straightforward request.

I think the point that Jesus is making is that when we pray, simply pray; talk to God. Don’t pray to impress the people around you - pray from the heart - privately and briefly. Don’t try to repeat with spiritual phrases or profound statements, simply call on the Lord.

I have a good friend who used to be in the bad habit of saying “Father God” throughout his prayers. He says it almost like a verbal pause - like we might say “um.” Instead for him it’s a spiritual “um.” I don’t think there is a biblical support for that kind of spiritual language in prayer.

So, after charging the people how to pray: privately and then to pray briefly, Jesus gives some thoughts to...

What to Pray ()

So, imagine the scene here. Jesus is on the mountain (or hill), and he has just removed from his listeners two visible examples of prayer. Certainly, in the minds of his disciples, there was no one who was greater at praying than the pharisees. These guys are spiritual giants. These are religious superheroes.

And as if that wasn’t enough, Jesus also ripped out of their minds the passion of the pagans. These people could go on and on chanting, singing, pleading to a god they do not know. Certainly the fervor of these unbelievers had some appeal to the disciples.

Even today, there is a tendency for us to look to the prayer patterns of other people as a means of instructing us in the discipline of prayer. There have even been some Christian churches that have adopted non-christian prayer techniques as a means of trying to be relevant.

In taking away these unhealthy and unhelpful patterns, Jesus lays out a simple prayer as a model for us to follow.

Elmer Towns, in his book Praying the Lord’s Prayer for Spiritual Breakthrough outlines this prayer as an opening address, followed by seven petitions and then a benediction. He distills it down to seven points that make up the essence of that prayer (p. 121). My hope is that this will help to guide us as we pray.

Praise/worship/revere/sanctify/adore

Submit/Yield/Let what’s up there be down here/

Our Posture Before God (9)

Supply/

“Our Father in Heaven” - as we enter into prayer, Jesus invites us into an intimate conversation with God. There is the reverence and respect that a child should have before their parent, but yet the intimacy of mutual understanding and shared experiences.

For those of you who are parents, your kids may be a bit more confident or bold in asking for something from you than they would a stranger or a teacher. It certainly seems like this is what Jesus is getting at - come respectfully but confidently.

The writer of Hebrews, based on the confidence that we have to approach God directly because of what Christ has done for us, urges...

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. ( -ESV)

Now, in some ways, this seems disrespectful to come before God as our father - is it too much to call him dad? Is it too intimate to come with the confidence that you and I might approach our parents? It seems that Jesus urges us to do this.

Imagine

Betsy Childs Howard spoke last year at a Gospel Coalition women’s conference about the life of Helen Roseveare. In this talk, which is available through the TGC website, Betsy shared a beautiful story about confidence in prayer - from the perspective of a child. You see Helen was a missionary doctor in The Congo in Africa. One night a woman died in child birth. The new born baby desperately needed a hot water bottle to keep the baby warm. Unfortunately the last one in the hospital had just broken. So one of the midwives cuddled the baby for warmth on the first night. The next day Helen gathered some of the children in the orphanage and asked them to pray. A 10 year old girl confidently prayed:

“Please God, send us a hot water bottle. It will be no good tomorrow as the baby will be dead. So please send it this afternoon. And while you’re at it, would you please send a dolly for the little girl as well?”

This girl approach God confidently and boldly, with the intimacy that I child would approach a parent, and yet the faith that she was talking to one who could make a difference.

That afternoon a box came. In four years of being in Africa, Helen had never received a package. She gathered the children and opened the box. With great anticipation, they pulled out various medical supplies. They pulled out the hot water bottle for the baby. The very last item they pulled out was a doll. Shipping things to Africa in the 1950s meant that it would take months for the package to get there. God had been working long before there was a need.

When we come to God, we can come with a posture of closeness to God as our father and a respect that He has the ability to work according to His will. Do you and I pray with that kind of faith?

With our approach to God or our posture in place, Towns suggests seven petitions (that conveniently all begin with “P”) make up the “heart” of the prayer.

“The Praise of God” (9)

This part of the prayer could be rendered - “let your name be holy.” The petition here is seeking the holiness and reverence of the name of God. We talked last week about the fact that God is above all other deities. There are no others like him ().

Do you notice the tension here? We’re invited to come close and yet seeking to treat his name in “highest honor and set apart as holy” or wholly separate/distinct. Is it possible to do both?

Over the last several years, there have been a variety of movies and TV shows that focus on the royal family in England. In the movie The King’s Speech there is an interesting scene. King George had died. The rightful successor to the throne abdicated because he loved and wanted to marry someone with whom he could not rule (she was, in the eyes of the powers that be, unfit to be queen). As a result, Albert or Bertie, the stammering spare son became King. Just before his coronation, he could be seen playing with his daughters, hugging them, and rolling around on the floor. Just after his coronation, his eldest daughter Elizabeth, initially sought to run and give him a hug, but stopped mid-stride and curtsied. He was still her father, but he was also her king. His office (and now his new name - King George II) demanded a new level of respect.

To a much greater extent, in our praise to God, we need to see him as holy, different, unique, set apart.

In , we get a picture of this praise around the throne in Isaiah’s vision as the cherubim cry “holy, holy, holy.” By repeating this word, the angels acknowledge the uniqueness of God.

The next petition in this prayer focuses on...

“The Purpose of God” (10)

“Let your kingdom come” - this is a request that longs to have God’s reign manifested more fully here on earth. Jace summarized this by saying - “let what’s up there be down here.”

In this whole sermon on the mount, Jesus is talking about what life is like for Kingdom people - what it would look like for us to live the way that God desires for us - poor in spirit, hungering for righteousness, living uprightly, being different from deep within - not just in our actions.

On a similar note, the next petition centers around...

“The Plan of God” (10)

“Let your will be done” - The will of God is something that many Christians long for. I know this is something that I have prayed and sought. But what is the will of God or his plan? What does God want?

Here are a few things that we find out about the will of God in the NT.

English Standard Version Chapter 4

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you.

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. ( - ESV)

So God’s will is that we control ourselves - sometimes easier said than done.

A little later in the same book, Paul writes:

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 The. 5:16-18)

These could be even a bit more difficult - rejoice always, don’t stop praying (but didn’t Jesus just say that we should pray briefly/succinctly?), give thanks - even when things are hard - when you fail the test or don’t make the team or when your best friend leaves or when you bury a loved one - give thanks?

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016. Print.

Living out the will of God is getting a bit more complicated and difficult.

- talks about enduring hardships, caring for those in prison, accepting people might steal from us.

Peter, always the practical one, talks about the will of God in this way...

Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. (1 Peter 2:13-15)

He later points out that we should live for the will of God, no longer encumbered by passions of this world ().

John seems to add to this...

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. ()

So, Jesus is calling us to pray that the purpose or Kingdom of God and the plan or the will of God would be done here on earth. Some of this makes sense from human ears, and yet some of the will of God seems extremely burdensome - enduring hardships, theft, oppression… is that really the will of God?

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016. Print.

I think that the challenge we face in praying for the will of God is that this world is so fallen and so far from the will of God that while we live in the tension between what’s up there and what’s down here, that there will be trials and stress.

However, when you look throughout history, in places where biblical Christianity has made a larger impact in society, we find that education increases, corruption decreases, financial well-being improves.

So after we’ve asked that the purpose and plan of God be worked out here on earth, the prayer moves from You or Thy to us as we seek for...

“The Provision of God” (11)

With this request - we are essentially asking that God provide what we need - that He would “sustain” us. He knows what we need - we are simply asking “give this to us.”

seems to get to the heart of this request:

Two things I ask of you;

deny them not to me before I die:

Remove far from me falsehood and lying;

give me neither poverty nor riches;

feed me with the food that is needful for me,

lest I be full and deny you

and say, “Who is the Lord?”

or lest I be poor and steal

and profane the name of my God. (Prov. 30:7-9)

Essentially the writer of Proverbs is simply saying - give me what I need - no more, no less.

This request for our daily bread is recognizing that God is the one who would supply our needs.

On the heals of asking for the Provision of God, the Lord’s prayer leads us to ask for...

“The Pardon of God” (12)

“and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” This request seems to get a bit longer and more specific.

Spiritually speaking, debts are just like they sound - things that are owed. Because we have sinned, we owe something to God in retribution. Romans states that what we owe is ultimately our lives.

God has already offered us a pardon. Romans says that the wages or the reward of our sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. If you are not yet a follower of Christ, I hope you will take time to pursue God’s pardon. I’ll be glad to talk with you after the service - or catch one of the other elders or someone you’ve seen up here. God knows that you and I are born in sin and that we daily fall short of his standards and cross the line of His perfection - but He also has made a way for you to be in a right relationship with Him. Call on him - repent of your sin, turn and trust in Jesus Christ - receive his eternal pardon.

But there is a phrase in this petition that is a bit more tricky - “as we have forgiven our debtors.” There seems to be a correlation between the how we forgive others and God’s forgiveness. We will come back to that, but I think it’s important that we remember, when we confess our sins, have we been forgiving when people have repented to us?

After asking for the pardon of God, Jesus seems to be calling people to ask for...

“The Power of God” (13)

“Lead us not into temptation” - In praying this, we seek the power of God to help us avoid the traps that temptation leaves for us.

In his famous hymn “Come Thou Fount” - Robert Robinson acknowledged this tendency in he saw in himself to fall into temptation and veer away from God.

Logos Hymnal Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

O to grace how great a debtor

Daily I’m constrained to be!

Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,

Bind my wand’ring heart to Thee.

Prone to wander—Lord, I feel it—

Prone to leave the God I love;

Here’s my heart—O take and seal it,

Seal it for Thy courts above.

Thankfully, God has given us His Spirit as a seal - permanently fixing us to God, and yet we’re still tempted by the things of this world to stray. We need God’s power to help us.

So we’ve entered this prayer with a posture of intimacy, praised him, asked for his purpose, plan provision pardon and power. Finally we come to as for...

“The Protection of God” (13)

Our enemy the devil roars around like a lion seeking to devour us (). This final element asks for the protection of God from the clutches of the enemy.

Satan wants nothing more than to make God’s people stumble and fall. He wants us to get caught in sin. I’m sure he rejoices when he hears about pastors and priests acting immorally, or christians being arrested for breaking laws.

We need God’s power to stand up to temptation and then His protection to keep us from traps that the enemy would lay for us.

Your Bible may also have a benediction - “for yours is the Kingdom, the power and the glory forever.” Many scholars think that was added later - which is why it’s only footnoted in some translations. I don’t think it’s wrong to include that when you pray, it’s certainly theologically correct.

In his teaching on prayer, Jesus concludes with one final note...

Watch Out When You Pray ()

If John Crist - a Christian comedian was teaching this part, he might say “check your heart.”

I find it interested that after talking through how to pray and what to pray that Jesus seems to harp on this element of forgiveness. He says...

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Mt. 6:14-15)

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Mt. 6:14-15)

There are a couple of things that I want you to notice. First of all, in the prayer itself, Jesus used the word that get’s translated “debts” and here in the end he uses a word that gets translated “trespasses.” Debts refer to what we owe, trespasses refer to someone stepping over the line or over a boundary. I think this especially important in our age where we find people taking offense at the smallest things. As a society we want to get offended, we want to play the victim card over little and small things. Now I’m not saying that there are not legitimate reasons that we should be upset, but Jesus here seems to want us to let it go.

The second element of this is the correlation between our willingness to forgive and God’s willingness. It seems like it would be difficult for us to receive forgiveness from God if we are self-righteous toward others. Jesus later told a parable about an unforgiving servant (). Essentially he owed his master the equivalent of 200,000 years of wages - and we thought a mortgage or college debt was bad. The master forgave him everything - 200,000 years!!!! After being forgiven, he turned to one of his co-workers who owed him 100 days of wages and refused to forgive him. In the story, the first servant was then thrown in jail until he could pay all of his debt - 200,000 life sentences.

Closing Thoughts

Jesus, in this teaching on prayer, seems to be communicating that he wants our hearts in the right place -

praying to God alone - not for public acclaim,

praying simply

Praying intimately and confidently

Praying with a clear conscience - it’s difficult to pray and have peace with God if you lack peace with other people.

Who do you need to forgive?

What do you need to pray confidently for?