Sermon Tone Analysis

Pray Like This: Hallowed Be Your Name

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By John Piper December 30, 2007

 

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*Matthew 6:5-18*

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.

16 And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others.

Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret.

And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

A Week of Extraordinary Prayer

At the beginning of every year, we dedicate a week to extraordinary prayer.

We pray every morning and every day at noon (see the prayer guide for times and places).

We pray through the night on Friday.

And I preach on prayer.

The aim of this focus on prayer is to help you see and feel in a fresh way how important prayer is so that you resolve to be a praying person.

My approach this year is not to give a detailed exposition of one text but a broad overview in answer to three questions: 1) What is prayer?

2) Where or with whom we should we pray? 3) And why should we pray?

And in the last part of the message, I will try to focus our closing attention on Jesus’ main, overarching concern in prayer that will give unity and depth and a magnificent scope to all your praying.

Lord, come and help us understand and love prayer.

1) What Is Prayer?

By prayer, I mean /intentionally conveying a message to God/.

It’s frustrating—isn’t it?—how

unclear language can be if we are not careful.

Why do I say “intentionally conveying a message to God?

Why don’t I just say that prayer is talking to God? Well, because Romans 8:26 says, “The Spirit helps us in our weakness.

For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”

I take this to mean that there are groans of our hearts that the Spirit inspires that are sometimes wordless.

So prayer is usually talking to God, but there are times when you can’t talk and can still pray, that is, convey a message to God.

Or why don’t I just say, then, that prayer is communicating with God?

Well, because that sounds like I’m talking to him and he is talking to me.

But that is /not/ what prayer is.

God talking to me is /never/ called prayer in the Bible.

When God communicates something to us, we call it /revelation/ or /illumination/.

It is not prayer.

And we get into a big, unbiblical muddle if we use the word /prayer/ for what God speaks to us.

Why then don’t I just say that prayer is conveying a message to God? Well, because people are conveying messages to God all day long, but we don’t call it prayer.

People are conveying messages like, /God is not important to me/.

Or, /God is irrelevant to this situation/.

Or, /God doesn’t exist/.

But these messages are not intentionally sent to God.

They are clear, and we can sometimes discern them.

God always discerns them.

*Intentionally Conveying a Message to God*

So I chose the words: /Prayer is intentionally conveying a message to God/.

And that prayer can be at least five different kinds of message:

       You can /ask/ for something—this is the most basic meaning of prayer, and God delights for his children to ask him for help.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7).

You can /praise/ him or marvel at him or give expression to your adoration of him.

“Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever.

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable” (Psalm 145:2-3).

You can /thank/ him for his gifts and his acts (which is not the same as praising him for his nature).

“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign” (Revelation 11:17).

You can /confess/ your sins and tell the Lord that you are sorry.

“I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin” (Psalm 32:5).

And finally, you can /complain/ to the Lord.

“With my voice I cry out to the Lord. . . .

I pour out my complaint before him; I tell my trouble before him” (Psalm 142:1-2).

Now here, again, language frustrates.

So are you saying, Pastor John, that it is good to have a complaining heart toward God? No. Philippians 2:14: “Do all things without grumbling or questioning.”

It’s not good to have a complaining heart.

The heart should trust God in all his sweet and bitter providences.

So why then do you say we should complain to the Lord?

Because sometimes our hearts do complain about the circumstances God has given us, even though our hearts shouldn’t do this, and it is better to consciously direct it toward the Lord than to think he doesn’t see it.

Acting like you are not complaining is hypocrisy and will make you a very phony, shallow, plastic person in the end.

So prayer is /intentionally conveying a message to God/.

And that message may be asking for something, praising God for something about him, thanking him for some gift, confessing your sins to him, or complaining to him.

*Continual Communion with God*

That is what I want you to do every day, all year long, in 2008.

Be a praying people.

Convey your heart to God over and over.

Let it be the way you begin and end everything.

Pray before every email, every TV show, every car ride, ever phone call, every conversation, every shower, every night’s rest, every meal, everything you read.

Convey your heart’s longings to God before and after everything you do.

Let it be the way you breathe.

Be in communion with God continually.

My wife complains to me that when I finish a cell phone call, I don’t turn my phone off, and so she can hear me going about my business.

I can see why that bothers her.

But it is certain that it does not bother God if you never hang up.

Just leave it on.

And I’ll do my best to help you keep your batteries charged.

2) Where or With Whom Should We Pray?

Now I have already answered in a sweeping way the second question, /Where or with whom should we pray?/ Namely, everywhere.

But let me be more specific.

*Alone in Your Private Room*

Pray alone in /your private room/.

The word in Matthew 6:6 means “inner room” or “storage room for storage or treasures.”

Verse 5-6: “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.