Series on Prayer Part 1: The Lord's Prayer

Text

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.

Before we get into the text today on prayer it’s important to define what prayer is.

In brief according to what is called the encyclopedia of the Reformed Faith: “prayer is human speech addressed to God.”

Calvin said of prayer that: “it is the chief exercise of faith, and by which we daily receive God’s benefits”

These ideas come from what we have discovered in Scripture. Here are some examples.

First, to pray means to enquire of God.

We see Rebekah inquiring of the Lord in Genesis 25:19-22.

To inquire here meant to seek God for knowledge.

In 2 Samuel 2:1 it meant to enquire God for guidance as David did.

So we do see that prayer (human speech addressed to God) meant that one would enquire of the Lord for knowledge or guidance.

Since we have the written revelation of God in the written word of God, our asking of God for knowledge now would have to mean clarity and wisdom for reading His word.

Second, prayer is upward, intentional communication with God.

We don’t pray to hear from God we pray to talk to God.

Psalm 123:1–2 ESV

1 To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens! 2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till he has mercy upon us.

Our focus should be upward. We petition to God but then are left with trusting God whether He answers the petitions and requests or not.

We enquire of God in prayer and we are to be careful to demand God in prayer.

So prayer is enquiring of God for knowledge or guidance through His word and it is done when we intentionally communicate with God with no demands put on God as we pray.

This does not mean we cannot persist in prayer in our requests. What it means is that we cannot come to God demanding that our requests be answered to our liking.

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.

And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites for:

they love to stand and pray in the synagogues

they love to stand and pray at the street corners

they love to stand and pray that they may be seen by others

Here Jesus is giving us the preconditions as to why we should pray. Notice at the end where He talks about a reward.

“Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward”

Hebrews 11:6 ESV

6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

God because He is a giver wants and desires to reward us. But in our seeking Him in prayer we must make sure that it is Him that we are seeking.

The hypocrites did not seek God in prayer. They only sought to be seen by others.

Jesus here is dealing with the fundamental question of why do we pray.

Question: Why should we pray? The answer would be in the opposite of the hypocrites.

they love to stand and pray in the synagogues but we should humble ourselves and pray secretly

they love to stand and pray at the street corners but we should humble ourselves and pray in our rooms

they love to stand and pray that they may be seen by others but we should humble ourselves and pray to God with only a concern for what God thinks of us

Verse 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.

Here we see why we should pray. We should pray in secret in our seeking God and He will reward us.

Question: Now, the next question is how do we pray?

Verse 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.

In Verse 7, Jesus tells us how not to pray.

The command to not heap up empty phrases was a warning about being meaningless in our prayer. Especially doing it at length without purpose and intention.

Don’t be senseless in your communicating with God. Be intentional and careful as to how you communicate with God.

Verse 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

This brings us back to the need to be humble in our prayers.

How humbling is it that God already knows what you need before you ask Him.

This is the necessary posture of one who comes to God in prayer.

That He knows what we need before we ask Him.

That is why it is good to ask according to His will.

These are the necessary preconditions to prayer.

We must remember that:

Prayer is enquiring of God through communicating intentionally with God

Why we pray is important. We should pray because God desires us to seek Him for what we need. And most importantly for who He is.

We must be intentional in how we pray. We should pray only to be seen by Him for what we need.

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.