When You Pray

Matthew 6:5-13

Matthew 6:5-13 “When You Pray”

Over the last four week we have been looking at the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5-7 and today we will continue that journey. I am not going to do a full review of what we have seen thus far but there are three things I want to remind us of. If you have one of those Bibles that has the words of Jesus in red you will notice that everything we have looked at thus far are Jesus’ own words. These are the words of Jesus and no one else. We know who preached the sermon. Second, Jesus was preaching to those He had called to be His disciples. There were undoubtedly others there but He was talking to His own followers, the ones who had left their businesses, their families and their homes to follow Jesus and learn from Him. The others liked the miracles and healings and even Jesus’ condemnation of the religious leaders but they were not followers of Jesus, they were followers of the crowd. And third, Jesus was using this sermon as a training seminar of sorts. He wanted those who followed Him to know how to live as He lived, to walk as He walked, to react to struggles as He reacted. He was training His disciples to look like Him. Last week in looking at the first 4 verses of this chapter we looked at the attitudes one who is a disciple of Jesus is to have when he does what he is supposed to do. Last week was charitable giving and I asked three questions; Who do you want your audience to be? Who do you want to receive your reward from? And who do you want to receive the glory? This morning we are going to look at praying and I noticed that Jesus doesn’t command His disciple to pray, in fact He didn’t command His disciples to give either. When we get a little farther we will see that is true of fasting as well but we my just have to skip that part; fasting, that’s not for us Baptists, right? It appears that Jesus just assumes that those who are His disciples will give, pray and fast and instead of bearing down on the act itself He again points to our attitudes as we give pray and fast. Today we will be looking at the passage we all know as the Lord’s Prayer found in Matthew 6:5-13. Let’s go ahead and pray asking the Lord to bless the reading and preaching of His word.

In verses 9-13 of this chapter there is the part of the passage known as the Lord’s Prayer. People say that before basketball games or in movies when everyone is about to die. But looking at the Scriptures there is no evidence that Jesus ever prayed this prayer. To be frank I think we should start something here and change the name from the Lord’s prayer to the Lord’s model prayer. It is a good model, in fact Jesus said “when you pray, pray this way”. The true Lord’s prayer is found in John 17. Jesus had just had communion, the first Lord’s Supper, with His disciples and they had gone out to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray just a few hours before His bloody crucifixion. Just before Jesus is arrested He prays, first for Himself (we will read that in a minute), then He prayed for His disciples to be strong and unified, then He prays, now get this, for you and me. If you really want to see the heart of Jesus for His Father for those He came to save just read that prayer in John 17 remembering that it is just hours before His death on that cruel cross.

That is enough background for now so let’s go ahead and read our passage; Matthew 6:5-13 5 “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. 7 And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. 9 In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11Give us this day our daily bread. 12And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. 13And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.[1]

As I was studying this passage, like last week, I came up with three more question for you to answer concerning your attitude in prayer. The first question is: Who are you really praying to? Ya, know Jesus didn’t teach His disciples a whole lot of “thou shalt nots” But here He makes it very clear that there were some things, in prayer, that His disciples were not to do. 5 “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. When He says that they were not to be like the hypocrites standing in the synagogue He is talking about establishing yourself where everyone can see you so everyone can hear you. And as to the street Jesus is not talking about some side street He is talking about the intersection of two broad streets where everyone would have to pass you by and hear your eloquence proclaimed. I can just hear the Pharisee in his best preacher voice standing on the busy street corner or ensconcing himself in the synagogue saying “Oh Lord, thank you that I’m not like these other folks. Oh Lord thank you that I’m not an extortioner or a murderer or an adulterer. Oh Lord I fast all the time and I tithe everything except what I can get out of. Oh Lord thank you I’m superior to those people.” Jesus told a story about that in Luke 18. Who was he praying to? He was praying to his god “I”. Jesus said he didn’t go away justified. So don’t stand on the corner or in the synagogue trying to put on a show declaring your religiosity. When or if you do that you are as Jesus said a hypocrite, a play actor. A long prayer or a loud prayer will not make it an effective prayer any more than a long sermon or a loud sermon will make it a more effective sermon. Charles Spurgeon, the prince of preacher from the 1800’s had a school for preachers In that school he taught his young preacher boy that the opening prayer should be held to under an hours. And then he would get up and preach for 2 hours. I have read Charles Spurgeons sermons and I wish I could preach like Spurgeon but the truth is he did it for the glory of God not for his own glory. So I ask again, when you pray who are you praying to?

He also tells them not to make vain repetitions like the heathen do. This can have two different meanings and neither one is good. First it can mean repeating the same thing over and over again believing that if you say it enough, if you claim it hard enough God will do it because you drew up within yourself the faith to bring it about. That of course is what the Buddhists do, the Hindus, the Zoroastrians do and to some degree the Muslims as well. The Word of Faith preacher or teacher or charlatans teach this, people like Joyce Myers, Kenneth Copeland, Crefalo Dollar. If one of those is one of your favorites then all I can say is “bless your heart”, they are heathens. They teach that if you remind God enough He has to do it because you have claimed it in Jesus name in your prayer. Back in the 70’s it was called “name it and claim it” now it is called Word of Faith. I just call it blab it and grab it. Jesus says don’t repeat yourself over and over believing it will make God hear you and respond to you. He already knows what His children need. But his can also mean just vain babblings. The word for vain repetition comes from the name of a mythological king who was a stutterer and could not get a proclamation out. If you want to see that played out in Scripture look at 1 King 18 the battle of the bulls, as I call it, on mouth Carmel. Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal to light the fire of their sacrifice and they babbled from morning to evening and never even a spark. The problem with loud and long and babbling prayers is that others hear your prayer and they begin to be manipulated by the proclaimed “need”. That is why most of those heathen today have several mansions and jet plains. Let me be as plain as possible, that is nothing more than manipulation and superstition. If I give them $1,000 God will give me $10,000. If I do this then this will happen and that is nothing more than superstition; pagan heathenism. Prayers like that are just talking to other men to get what you want; even if it is just the recognition. And just to shoot another one of your horses, just because you tag on to the end of your prayer “in Jesus name” does not mean that you are praying in Jesus name. To do that you have to be praying just as Jesus would be praying. That requires much following Jesus and obedience and seeking after Him. To tag “in Jesus name” on the end and expect God to act because you did so is nothing but superstition. But think about it for a moment, why would you need to put on a show for God who is present everywhere, all the time and is all powerful to answer and all knowing to already know your need? If you are praying for men to hear you have already received your reward and there will be none coming from the God of the universe, you may manipulate men but you cannot manipulate God. Get this straight if you don’t get anything else today. Praying is not persuading God to give you what you want, it is preparing you to receive what He has for you.

Like I said earlier there were a couple of “thou shalt nots”, do not pray as a show and do not repeat yourself over and over again, just babbling. Jesus usually taught His disciples with “thou shalts”. 6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. [2] Notice that Jesus starts out with “But you”. He is making a very clear distinction between those who are His disciples, people of the Kingdom of heaven and those who are of the kingdom of the world. Those who are the citizens of the kingdom of heaven need to stay away from public exhibitions of loud and long prayers or babbling to make a show but instead they are to go into their room or (kjv) closet and shut the door and spend time alone with God. This does not mean that you have to have a corner set aside to pray or a closet with a cross and candles. If you do I’ll not condemn it but it is not necessary scripturally. There are two places that I have much of my prayer time. In the shower, no one is there with me and I can pour my heart out and if there are tears no one sees them and they are washed away. Some of my greatest time of prayer when God has spoken to my heart in that still small voice has been in the shower. The second place is when I am driving, I do not close my eyes so don’t be afraid if you see me on the road. If I am alone it is a good time to be alone with God. If Raechel is with me she gets nervous so she plays games on her phone so I am basically alone. I pray. Those are two of my favorites, you pick your own but find a time when you can be alone and cry out to God, because He did say “But you, when you pray”, there is an expectation that you will if you are His. Does this mean that we cannot pray in public? How about at church, or when we are out at restaurants are we supposed not to bow our heads and pray, thanking God for His provision. When I was a youth we took mission trips each summer to Montana, Bozeman a couple of times and Shelby once. We traveled in an old school bus and we would stop at a restaurant to eat, usually a hole in the wall. But we would all keep our eyes on our youth minister, David and when he would put his thumb up everyone would follow suit. If someone wasn’t paying attention and didn’t get his thumb up he got to pray asking God’s blessing on the food. Yes we are to pray in public, in church, before basket ball games, civic functions and in restaurants. But if that is the only time we pray then we are woefully lacking in prayer. We are to pray but we are not to put a show on when we pray, it is all about our attitude. Jesus also said not to have vain repetition of our prayers. Does this mean that after we pray for something we are not to bring it up again because it would be like nagging God or coercing God? No! This is what Jesus said in Matthew 7:7-8 “Ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened to you. Everyone who asks receives, he who seeks finds, and he who knocks it will be opened to him.” I am not going to spend a whole lot of time here because I will be preaching this passage later on but the grammar on these verses is saying; keep asking, keep seeking and keep knocking. We find in Luke 18:1 that Jesus begins a parable about a widow who goes before a godless judge and keeps asking until he goes ahead and gives her the request. To begin the parable Jesus says He is telling this parable so that “Men might always pray and not lose heart”. Keep on praying because we cannot forget Paul’s words to the Thessalonians in 1 Thess. 5:17 to “pray without ceasing”. Pray out loud if you want pray in public if you want, ask again and again if need be, but the point is remember Who it is you are talking to, He already knows what you need before you ask, but ask, seek and knock.

“Who are you talking to” is the first question. The second question is the simplest to answer: Who do you want to answer your prayer? Do you want it be man who you can manipulate to give you what you want but he cannot give you anything that you cannot give yourself? Or do you want God to answer your prayers? Do you want man the creature or God the Creator? Man the sinner and unjust or God the holy and just? I could go on drawing comparisons between God and man but honesty there is no comparison. This question; “who do you want to answer your prayers?” really doesn’t need a lot of explaining. You just simply need to answer it for yourself.

This final question I guess is the whole of the sermon. Really it is the whole of our relationship with God through Christ Jesus. We are talking about prayer so I have to ask you “who are you going to glorify with your prayer life?” Of course we could be talking about any aspect of your life. Who do you want to get the glory in your church attendance, in your tithing, in your charitable giving. Who do you want to get the glory for your righteous living? But who do you want to glorify?

Most of us can recite the Lord ’s Prayer found in verses 9-13. Most of us learned it in the King James English so it is easier to recite it in the KJV. That is what I want us to do this morning, I want us to recite the Lord’s Prayer, however you learned it but try to use the KJV and I want, as you recite it, to see if you hear even one word that draws attention to the one praying the prayer. Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Did you hear anything in that prayer that would draw attention to the one making the petition to God? Is there anything that glorifies anyone other than God? I will go ahead and answer that question; NO! Now I want to ask you to turn over John 17, I mentioned it earlier. We will look at verses 1-5. While you are turning there, let me tell you again this is the passage that I told you if you want to see the heart of Jesus for His Father, for His disciples and you and me this is where you go. I am going to read this and as you follow along remembering this is just hours before His crucifixion I want you to look for Who it is that Jesus is really seeking to glorify, to draw attention to. John 17:1-5 1Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, 2as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He £should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. 3And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 4I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. 5And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. Who did Jesus seek to glorify? He sought to glorify One and that was His Father. He could have sought to glorify Himself, He is God after all. He is worthy of glory, in Revelation we read that He is worthy of all glory and honor. But Jesus glorified His Father not Himself. Who do you want to glorify?

Our Father in heaven Hallowed is Your name. Folks let me say this, if we could just get a glimpse, if the church could just get an inkling of the holiness of God it would totally change our prayer life, it would totally change every aspect of our life. We usually think of holiness as being good but God is all good, there is no shadow of turning with Him. He is perfectly holy and if we could get a glimpse, a glimmer of that our prayer lives would be completely different because we would know and revere and properly fear the One we were talking to. Our Father in heaven Holy, holy, holy is Your name. We would be like Isaiah was in Isaiah chapter 6 where when all he saw was the outer skirts of the glory of God. He didn’t pray Lord help me with my relationships, Lord I need to pay my bills, Lord I’m scared, he proclaimed “Woe is me, I am undone, I am ruined!” If we had a true glimpse of His holiness that is the way our prayers would begin and end. When we get a vision of the holiness of God we will recognize our sin and we will confess and repent of our sin on our faces before the Holy holy holy God. When we recognize that His kingdom is here, His kingdom is now and His will is going to be done regardless and we have been chosen to come alongside Him to be the disciples of the King of king and Lord of lords, that whole part of the prayer “Thy kingdom come Thy will be done” will take on a whole new meaning because we know His will is done on earth as it is in heaven. It won’t just be words in a prayer it is be known by us; when we get a glimpse of His holiness. And guess what; our prayer life will reflect that. We won’t pray those little prayers we will pray those big prayers. Prayers that will reflect that we are the salt and the light we have been called to be. Oh Lord take this hard hearted man and give him that heart of flesh so that I care about the lost, I care about the hurting, because then I know Your will, will be done and I get to be a part of it. We will pray those big prayers. Lord change me.

When we recognize His holiness we will also recognize that He provides for His own. Give us this day our daily bread. The One who holds the world in the palm of His hand and measures the sky with the span of His hand provides you everything you need. And our prayer life will reflect it. If we truly recognize that He is the provider of every good thing then our prayer life will show and we will be so thankful for what He does.

And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. When we get a real picture of how much forgiveness we really need because our sin is against the holiness of God our prayer lives will show it. We often come before Him thinking we aren’t all that bad, but when we think we are not that bad we are admitting that we are bad. What we are is relatively good in comparison to all others in rebellion against God and God does not judge on relativism. We will talk about that another time. When we get a glimpse of His holiness we will recognize our need for forgiveness. And we won’t have to be coerced to forgive others, we will look for opportunities to extend to others what we have received so abundantly. When we are convinced of the holiness of God we recognize our need of forgiveness and our need to forgive and our prayer lives will reflect it.

Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. Lead us not into temptation simply means, don’t let us fall in it. There will be temptations but don’t let us fall to those temptations. When we realize that our only relief, our only salvation from the work of the evil one is through Jesus Christ, the blood of Jesus and there is no other deliverance our prayer life will reflect that. As creature we have no power over the evil one save the Holy Spirit indwelling us and that is because Jesus died on the cross cleansing us.

Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. If we can get a glimpse of His holiness then we will know His kingdom has come and His will is done now not someday in the sweet bye and bye, we will know His provision, we will recognize our great, great need of forgiveness and have a desire to extend that same forgiveness to those who may have hurt us, we will recognize that our only deliverance is through Christ and His shed blood and that He alone through the power of the Holy Spirit can deliver us from the evil one. When we get a glimpse of His holiness our prayer life will change and it will be all about the glory of God.

So I ask you again this morning, who are you praying to, who do you want to answer your prayers and who do you want to get all the glory in your prayers? Let’s pray.

[1] The New King James Version. (1982). (Mt 6:5–13). Nashville: Thomas Nelson. [2] The New King James Version. (1982). (Mt 6:5–6). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.