The Purpose of the Church - Prayer (Matthew 6:5-15)

Announcements

Don’t forget that on Wednesdays we offer a Bible Study & Prayer time virtually through YouTube. If you’re a member of the church or if you’ve requested the emails, you already receive weekly notifications of the Bible Study & Prayer time along with the current week’s prayer list. If you’d like to add a prayer request or praise to that list you can simply email [e-mail], text Natalie or me with it, or message the church on Facebook and we’ll add your request to the list.

As of right now, the plan concerning the new facility is that on September 1st, we’ll have keys to the building. The landlord has agreed to allow us access to the building for the month of September for no charge as we work on the renovations that need to be done (our first month of rent will be October).

There are several projects that we need to work on as soon as we have access to the building, but the first set of projects are going to be done by a contractor—these projects include some construction work and minor electrical work so it’s better for a contractor to handle it than volunteers.

After those first sets of renovations are completed, we’ll need help with cleaning, painting, and setting up the rest of the building for services. Until that point, please pray about ways that you can get involved with the projects at hand and come talk with me as soon as possible.

We’re still sitting at about 70% of the amount that we need to pay for all of the projects, so please continue to pray for God to provide for our needs; and if you can help in any way to reach that goal, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Don’t forget that next week, September 5th, 2021 our morning worship service will be at Cold Stream Dam under Pavilion 2 at 10:30am. The service will be followed by a cookout. I want to express some gratitude to those that have graciously signed up to bring side dishes, thank you for showing hospitality and serving in this way. It is very much appreciated.

And on Sunday, September 12th, 2021, at 5:30pm, we’ll gather for baptisms at 935 Brisbin St. in Houtzdale. If you need to be baptized, please contact me as soon as possible. And of course, we’ll still have Sunday AM worship at 10:30am, here at the YMCA.

As always, let me remind you to continue worshiping the Lord through your giving. It is only through your giving that we can even consider moving the church into a permanent location and it is only through your faithful giving that we’ve been able to reach as many people as we have thus far. We give because God has graciously given to us and in order to help you give, we have three ways for you to do so: (1) you can give in-person through the offering box in the back of the room. This is where you would give by cash or check; checks should be written to Grace & Peace and if you’d like a receipt for cash giving, please slide your gift in an envelope with your name on it. (2) You can give digitally either by visiting us online at www.graceandpeacepa.com and selecting “Giving” in the menu bar or (3) by texting 84321 with your $[amount] and by following the text prompts. Everything you give goes to the building up of our local church and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Call to Worship (Psalm 29)

Our Call to Worship is Psalm 29, which is a psalm of David in which David calls on the angels and heavenly beings to give glory to the Lord. Some consider it an attack against pagan beliefs in which one of the gods is responsible for storms and thunderstorms—with the idea that in reality, God is the Lord over the waters, God is the God of thunder. God is the all-powerful one who causes lightening, earthquakes, and floods. The psalmist essentially ascribes what unbelievers would’ve typically given to their false gods to the one, true God and after the Psalmist calls for praise of God and explains the reasoning for that praise he prays for God’s blessing on his people with peace. Let’s stand and read Psalm 29 together—I’ll read the odd-numbered verses, please join me in reading the even-numbered verses.

Psalm 29 ESV

A Psalm of David. 1 Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. 2 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. 3 The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over many waters. 4 The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. 5 The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon. 6 He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox. 7 The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire. 8 The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness; the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. 9 The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth and strips the forests bare, and in his temple all cry, “Glory!” 10 The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord sits enthroned as king forever. 11 May the Lord give strength to his people! May the Lord bless his people with peace!

Scripture Reading (Acts 2:37-47)

I’ve asked Natalie to read our Scripture reading for us today. As she comes up, let me remind you of why we keep reading this text: Over the past month to month-and-a-half, we’ve been working through a series concerning the purpose of the church. This series has been based on a passage in Acts 2:37-47 in which we’re told that the early church was dedicated to certain elements that the Lord then utilized to build up that church. My argument has been that even today, the church ought to be dedicated to these same elements; and if a church isn’t, than it’s not a biblical church. Since we’ve been working through this series based on this passage, I’ve asked that each week we re-read that passage to keep it fresh in our minds. Let’s read together Acts 2:37-47.

Acts 2:37–47 ESV

37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” 40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. 42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Congregational Singing

Be Thou my Vision

Mercies Anew

As the Deer

Sermon

Introduction

This morning, we’re looking at the final element that Acts 2:42 lists as something that the early church dedicated themselves to; and that final element is that of prayer, which let’s be honest—prayer is something that we all know we ought to do as Christians, but just about every Christian will openly admit that they don’t pray enough. And yet, prayer is an element of the local church and the universal church that we are to be dedicated to—it is something that is commanded for us to do, it is something that we’re encouraged to do, and it is something that we’re exhorted to do without ceasing. No one would ever argue that prayer is not an essential part of the Christian life; and in my experience, very few people would ever make the claim that they pray enough or even too much—usually, even spiritually mature Christians will admit that they don’t pray near as often as they should; and if I were to ask you this morning if you thought you prayed enough, I’d imagine that most (if not all) would say no.

This whole message is based on the concept of prayer—how we should pray and what we should say, but before we can really dig into how we should pray and what we should say; and before we really jump into the text for this message, we have to spend some time answering what is prayer? And why should we pray?

What is Prayer?

This is a bit of a difficult question to answer from any one particular passage in Scripture, because no where in the Bible does it tell us precisely what prayer is. No where in the Bible says, “this is prayer,” followed by a succinct definition of what it means to pray.

Rather, what we see in Scripture is the first mention of prayer in Genesis 4:26, and then throughout the whole Bible, we see example after example of what prayer is like—all in all, we see 650 different prayers throughout Scripture.

As you study the Bible, you see many different people praying—you see the patriarchs praying, the prophets praying, you even see Jesus praying during his earthly ministry, the apostles, and the church.

You see many different people praying different types of prayers—the prayer of faith, prayers of agreement, prayers of request, thanksgiving, worship, consecration, intercession, and imprecation.

And you see people praying while sitting, standing, kneeling, with one’s face to the ground, and with hands lifted high.

The Bible is saturated with the prayers of God’s people; and in 450 instances, the Bible shows us answers to those prayers.

We can tell that prayer is vitally important in the Christian life, but knowing these facts about prayer in the Bible doesn’t necessarily provide us with a definition of what prayer is.

Let’s start with looking at the passage in Genesis 4:26, and then we’ll utilize that verse and a few statements from theologians, pastors, and Bible dictionaries to give a good definition of prayer before we dig into our passage for the morning.

Genesis 4:26 is after the creation of mankind by the direct act of God, it falls just after the death of Abel at the hand of Cain. The Bible tells us in Genesis 4:25, that “Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, ‘God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.’” And then in Vs. 26, it seems as if the Bible is just continuing the genealogy of Adam and Eve, but there’s an important phrase that closes off that chapter. Vs. 26, “To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord.”

That last phrase is vitally important to our understanding of prayer, because that’s the first time in Scripture when prayer is actually mentioned—prior to this point in history, no one prayed.

And there’s a reason for that, it’s quite simple—they didn’t have a need to pray, because they spoke to God face-to-face. They had no reason to pray because they conversed with God physically in-person. Remember, Adam and Eve walked with God in the garden; after Cain killed Abel, God confronted him face-to-face.

But by Vs. 26 of Genesis 4, God was no longer communing with the people face-to-face, their sin had become too great; so the people began to call upon the name of the Lord.

The idea of calling upon the name of the Lord is the essence of prayer. You pray in order to speak to God.

Now let me make one clarification--prayer is not the primary means that the Father speaks to you, it is the means in which you speak to the Father. God speaks primarily through his Word (we know that from Hebrews 1:1-2, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.”) So, while God previously utilized visions, audible voices, and other miraculous means to speak to us, in our current era, God has spoken to us primarily through his Son, whose words are recorded in Scripture for us.

While you pray in order to speak to God, you read his Word in order to hear from him.

Prayer is the means through which you speak to the Father.

Got Questions, “The most basic definition of prayer is ‘talking to God.’ Prayer is not meditation or passive reflection; it is direct address to God. It is the communication of the human soul with the Lord who created the soul. Prayer is the primary way for the believer in Jesus Christ to communicate his emotions and desires with God and to fellowship with God. Prayer can be audible or silent, private or public, formal or informal. All prayer must be offered in faith, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the power of the Holy Spirit.”

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, “Christian prayer in its full New Testament meaning is prayer addressed to God as Father, in the name of Christ as Mediator, and through the enabling grace of the indwelling Spirit.”

Unbelievers have no desire to pray, but God’s children have a desire to pray. Because prayer is the means through which God’s people speak to him through Jesus Christ.

The second question is intimately related to the first question. Now that we know at a basic level what prayer is, why should we pray?

It’s related because the definition of prayer gives us the primary reason for prayer, “Prayer is the means through which God’s people speak to him through Jesus Christ.”

Why should we pray? Because if you are a Christian, you’ll want to speak to God and prayer is how you speak to God.

But if you want additional reasons for prayer, let me give you some Scripture to meditate on:

Prayer is something that all of God’s people who were actually trying to follow God did—we see Moses praying, Aaron praying, Jacob, Joseph, all of the prophets, apostles, disciples, and authors of Scripture all prayed. The simple fact that Scripture gives us so many examples of people praying shows us that prayer is something that we ought to be doing.

In addition, the very fact that Jesus prays during his earthly ministry shows us that it’s something that we ought to be doing. If anyone ever had the right not to pray, it would’ve been Jesus; and the only reason that he would’ve had a right to not pray would be because he is God; and yet, he prayed in order to commune with the Father while living on earth as the God-man.

Jesus tells us to pray in Matthew 6, which is our passage for this morning. He also tells us to pray in John 15, Luke 11, Matthew 7, 26, and several other passages.

Paul tells us to pray in several passages, but let me highlight just three of them:

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

1 Timothy 2:1-4, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Vs. 8, “I desire then that in every place the men should pray.”

Romans 8:26, “Likewise 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.”

Scripture not only encourages and exhorts us to pray, it commands us to pray—and it commands us to pray in the Spirit, with rejoicing, with thanksgiving for all circumstances, with different types of prayers for all people including political leaders because every person ought to pray.

I think knowing what prayer is and knowing why we should pray should then lead us to ask how do we pray? And ideally, the best way to determine the methodology for prayer is by working your way through each prayer recorded in Scripture, but we don’t have the time nor ability to do that this morning. And quite frankly, what you would learn if you were to look at every single passage throughout Scripture about prayer is that prayer looks different depending on who is praying, the purpose of that prayer, and where they’re praying. But what we can do is go to a passage in which the disciples specifically ask Jesus how they should pray and study the response that Jesus gives to them, which we can do in Matthew 6:5-15, which is a correlative passage to Luke 11:2-4, which both occurs sometime around Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Let’s read together Matthew 6:5-15.

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.

As we study this passage, we’re going to look at it in two parts: (1) Vs. 5-8, The Methodology of Prayer, isn’t about praying itself but the mindset that we should have as we come to the LORD in prayer—a mindset of humbleness and realization that we can only come into the LORD’s presence for prayer because of grace and mercy; (2) The Model of Prayer (9-15), is what is typically called “The Lord’s Prayer,” which provides us an example of what prayer should be like. Know that I’m not saying that when we pray it should sound identical to this prayer, but our prayer should have similar elements to the example that Jesus gives us in Matthew 6. All of which should convict us of our own prayer lives and it should compel us to grow in our own prayer lives as individuals but also as a church.

Prayer for Illumination

The Methodology of Prayer (5-8)

In Matthew 6, we find ourselves in the midst of several different topics in which Jesus is teaching; and in Matthew 6, he’s centering his teaching around the topic of hypocrites. You’ll notice that he repeatedly tells them not to be like the hypocrites who pretend to be spiritual, but are really just seeking the praise of men.

He tells them in Vs. 2, not to publicize their giving to the needy like the hypocrites do to be praised by others, in Vs. 16, he tells them that when they fast, they shouldn’t distort their faces to make them look gloomy like the hypocrites because the hypocrites do this in order to be seen by the people around them. In our text for this morning, he tells them in Vs. 5, to not pray like the hypocrites do, which is simple, don’t pray to be seen by others. Vs. 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.”

Starting with that first phrase, “when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites.” Gives us two insights that are worth noting:

Jesus considers it a given that you’re going to pray. It’s not if you pray, it’s when you pray. Jesus expects you to pray; and he expects you to pray in a certain way, not like a hypocrite.

Hypocrite is a word that’s often thrown around, but I do want us to know what exactly it means before we continue in the passage. Merriam-Webster, defines hypocrite in two ways:

“a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion”

“a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings”

Concise Oxford English Dictionary, says that hypocrisy is “the practice of claiming to have higher standards or more laudable beliefs than is the case.”

In our modern-day vernacular, what that means is this: a hypocrite is someone who says one thing and does another; a hypocrite is someone who talks one way, but walks a different way.

And Jesus tells us not to be like the hypocrites when we pray. How do the hypocrites pray?

“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.”

They’re hypocritical in their actions because they pray in such a way that people can see them—they aren’t trying to do what prayer is actually intended to do, they’re doing it to portray a false sense of spirituality so that those around them would praise them for their supposed spiritual maturity. They want people to notice them.

But remember from the introduction, what is prayer? Prayer is the means through which you speak to the Father. The very fact that they wanted people to notice them means that they aren’t actually praying to the Father because they aren’t actually praying, they’re giving the people around them the impression of spiritual maturity when in reality they weren’t spiritual at all—they just wanted the accolades of man.

And you know, Jesus actually says that they’ve received their reward. What that means is this, when they pray in such a way, they’re doing it for people to notice them; and people have certainly noticed them. That’s their reward.

But what Jesus tells us is not to be like the hypocrites and don’t be like the unbelieving Gentiles, Vs. 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, 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.” Jesus tells them to not be like the hypocrites or the Gentiles, but pray in this manner—he tells them to pray in private, and pray authentically.

Pray in private—and I want to clarify, Jesus isn’t condemning the practice of corporate or public prayer. God expects us to pray together, but he’s forbidding the concept of praying in order to be noticed or praying in order to be seen. Because that isn’t what true prayer is about.

He tells them that when they pray, they should “go into [their] room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

The word secret might trip you up a bit in that you might think of the word in the sense that we utilize it today—that someone’s keeping a secret from you; which sometimes carries a negative connotation—as in, “what is he hiding?” But the idea is simple and it’s really about the idea of being hidden.

Go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father carries the connotation of going into the innermost room of your house. In the first century, the inner room of a house was secluded, probably windowless, and it probably was the only door within the house that could lock. It is the idea of going into a place that was quiet, distraction-less, and private. It’s the idea of going to a prayer closet to be alone.

Because God sees you and hears you even when you are in a quiet, distraction-less, and private place. Your Father is in that private place with you.

Now while I do recommend finding a quiet, distraction-less, and private place to pray to the Father, that isn’t the primary point being made in the passage

The point that’s being driven here is the idea that prayer is meant to be between you and God—it is not meant to be something in which you try to showcase your spiritual knowledge or prowess to your brothers and sisters in Christ. It is meant to be a communion between a disciple with his Father. Thus, keep your prayer between you and God.

Pray authentically

Vs. 7-8, speaks of this idea of offering up “empty phrases” like the Gentiles do. And Jesus explains that the Gentiles do this because they think God will hear them because they talk more in their prayers.

Now let me point out, that the verse isn’t saying that the Gentiles are hypocrites in their prayer. And is a coordinating conjunction that could be seen as something along the lines of “in addition to.” So in this context, he’s saying don’t be hypocrites and don’t pray like the Gentiles do. We’ve already seen how the hypocrites prayed, so how did the Gentiles pray?

Keep in mind that while the Jewish people were familiar with what it meant to pray to God, the Gentile people weren’t. They were familiar with how to pray to false gods.

And up to this point in time, the idea of Gentiles becoming believers simply didn’t exist. So the Jewish people knew how the Gentile people prayed to their false gods and rather than emulating what the worshippers of false gods did, Jesus tells them to not be like them.

R.T. France, makes the argument that “Prayer in the non-Jewish world was often characterized particularly by formal invocations and magical incantations, in which the correct repetition counted rather than the worshipper’s attitude or intention. . . This is not a prohibition either of repetition in prayer or of a set forms of prayer, but of thoughtless, mechanical prayer. It is not many words that God responds to, but an attitude of prayerful dependence.”

God isn’t really concerned with how long or short your prayers are, he’s concerned with the prayers themselves. And God isn’t so concerned with you utilizing a set system to pray, he’s more concerned with you being dependent on him in your prayers

And he’s more concerned with you coming to him with authenticity rather than praying prayers that were simply memorized.

There’s a reason for this found in Vs. 8, “For your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

Your prayer is not meant to be a system in which you inform God about things he doesn’t already know—God is omniscient (he knows all things), God is sovereign (he controls all things), and God is omnipresent (he’s everywhere). He knows what you’re going to pray for, but he still wants you to pray authentically as you commune with him.

God expects authenticity and he expects private communion with him through regular and consistent speaking to him and regular and consistent listening to him. And then Jesus gives us a model of what this looks like for us to not necessarily memorize, but to emulate and utilize in our spiritual lives. Vs. 9-15, gives us what is commonly referred to as the LORD’s Prayer, let’s read it together:

The Model of Prayer (9-15)

Matthew 6:9–15 ESV

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.

There are several elements that are necessary in prayer, we don’t just pray to ask God for things, there are other parts to how Jesus wants us to pray; and because this is a model for prayer and not necessarily the exact wording for our prayers, I want us to look specifically at the different elements and not just talk about the words themselves. The elements that are in this prayer are such:

Worship and Reverence (9)--”Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.”

Jesus calls on God as “our Father,” which emphasizes the personal nature of the relationship that those who believe in God have with God. It’s more than just asking the king for help, the king is very literally your spiritual Father—and that’s how God has defined the relationship between him and those who believe in him.

The word hallowed comes from the Greek άγιος, which is the idea of revered or holy. Taken together, the first sentence of this prayer is very much the idea of worshiping the one who we revere.

Which is what worshiping really is all about, Oxford Dictionary, “the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity.” And in our case, that would be the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for God.

Part of prayer is the expression of worship and reverence towards God. In fact, we could say worship and reverence is the essence of prayer.

The desire for God’s will to be accomplished (10)--”Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

This sentence reflects the individual believers’ desire for God’s will to be done. Prayer is not just asking God to do whatever we would like for him to do. In fact, James 4:2 makes the argument that part of the reason you don’t have is simply because you don’t ask and the other part of the reason why you don’t have is because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your lusts.

So, clearly prayer isn’t just asking for whatever we want. 1 John 5:14-15 tells us that “if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”

It’s when we pray according to his will that God hears us—it’s when we pray with a desire for God’s will to be accomplished in which he listens. Which causes us to question if what we’re praying for is according to God’s will—we might want something or we might want something to happen, but is it what God wants to happen?

What does it mean to pray according to God’s will? It is to pray for things that honor and glorify God, it is to pray for what the Bible reveals God to be. It is to pray for all things to work out how God wants it to work out. And it’s to give thanks regardless of what the outcome is.

We should be praying this daily

Part of prayer is desiring for God’s will to be accomplished and giving thanks regardless of the outcome.

Personal petition (11-13)--”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.”

This last piece of the prayer that Jesus models for us is what I would call personal petitions. They’re personal requests and they range from daily sustenance, repentance, and perseverance.

Concerning the daily sustenance, it is of note that out of the whole prayer, only one phrase is dedicated to physical needs. It is just one aspect of the prayer, which should convict us because many times our prayers end up being focused almost entirely on physical needs. Physical needs are but a small component to our prayer lives and yet we typically allow physical needs to monopolize our prayer time. Physical needs are definitely important, but they shouldn’t be the only things that we pray for.

Concerning repentance, I consider this a personal request because repentance is personal. Repentance is between God and man, and thus, when asking for forgiveness, it’s between man and God. Now I do want to take some time to discuss that phrase, “as we also have forgiven our debtors,” but because Jesus goes back to it after the prayer, I’m also going to come back to it after we finish working through the prayer.

Concerning perseverance, that’s what Jesus is asking when he says, “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” I do want to clarify that this is actually talking about testing, not tempting to sin; and we know that from James 1:13, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.” This isn’t concerning the idea of temptation from sin, this is concerning the idea of not facing unnecessary testing.

The last two verses are simply comments about the concept of forgiveness, but because it’s mentioned in this context and the idea comes from Vs. 12, “forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors”, I do want to talk about it just briefly. Vs. 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.”

The last two verses here are misused and abused so frequently that it’s important for us to spend some time discussing it. I know that it’s been misused and I know that you’ve heard it misused, so let me explain where the confusion is, the confusion is in “if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

I know that you’ve heard it misused before because I’m certain that you’ve heard someone at some point say that if you don’t forgive others, God won’t forgive you; but here’s the issue with that. It isn’t what Scripture says.

How does the Bible tell us that salvation is gained? Romans 10:9-10, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” Romans 10:9-10 doesn’t mention you forgiving anyone to gain salvation.

Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9 says salvation is by grace through faith alone. It doesn’t mention you forgiving anyone to gain salvation.

Salvation is by faith, through faith alone as a person confesses that Jesus is Lord and believes that God has raised him from the dead. No part of Scripture tells us that we must forgive in order to be forgiven, if that was a prerequisite of salvation, that would add work to our salvation—salvation is by grace through faith alone. Adding the requirement to forgive others as part of your salvation is heretical; and because we know other passages of Scripture don’t corroborate this idea, we have to determine what Matthew 6:12, 14-15 are saying.

Let me posit what’s actually being said in this passage—this isn’t saying that you must forgive others in order to be forgiven. This is making the statement that we’re asking for forgiveness just like we’ve forgiven other people. And you can see that in Luke’s record of the Lord’s prayer in Luke 11:4, “and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.”

Keeping in mind that one of the overarching ideas running through this section of Scripture is hypocrisy, it gives us a better idea of what’s going on in Vs. 12, 14-15. Jesus is essentially pointing out the hypocrisy of going to the LORD for forgiveness and being unwilling to forgive those around you.

R.T. France, says that “the point lies not in the time-sequence, but in the insincerity of a prayer for forgiveness from an unforgiving disciple.”

Louis Barbieri, says, “though God’s forgiveness of sin is not based on one’s forgiving others, a Christian’s forgiveness is based on realizing he has been forgiven.”

Being unforgiving won’t result in loss of your salvation, but it is odd when you consider how much God has forgiven you in Christ Jesus. How can you withhold forgiveness after experiencing such great forgiveness yourself?

Now as we start to wrap everything up, let’s take the remaining time to discuss how to properly apply this to our lives today. My assumption is that from the introduction, you’ve gotten a good and concise definition for prayer, that prayer is the means through which you speak to your Father; and that you’ve gotten a robust reasoning to pray: that Scripture not only encourages and exhorts us to pray, it commands us to pray—and it commands us to pray in the Spirit, with rejoicing, with thanksgiving for all circumstances, with different types of prayers for all people including political leaders because every person ought to pray. The question then is, how do we apply the rest of Matthew 6 to our lives?

Application

The Methodology of Prayer (5-8)—Jesus teaches them to not pray like the hypocrites who pray in such a way as to receive accolades from man and don’t pray like the Gentiles do who pray empty phrases thinking that their false gods would hear them better if they simply repeated themselves, but prayer should be private and authentic:

Let’s start with the first one, prayer should be private. I mentioned that this doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t pray in a group, what this means is that you shouldn’t be praying in a way to impress those around you. In reality, the idea here is that your prayer is between you and God, which means that you should intentionally seek moments of privacy to pray between you and God:

That might mean very literally finding a place within your home where you can lock your door, turn off the tv, put your phone somewhere else, and simply call out to God.

That might mean very literally leaving your phone at home and going into the woods and finding a spot to sit at and calling out to God.

The idea is that you find a place in which you are free from distraction, free from noise, free from other aspects of life; and you simply talk to God.

Thus, the application for this section is simple: be sure that you find time to be alone with God and simply talk to him.

Secondly, prayer should be authentic. And in this context, the idea is that the Gentiles like to pray vain repetitions or empty phrases to their false gods because they assume that the false gods will hear them better the more that they talk.

But that’s not who God is and that’s not how he is—God isn’t as concerned about the frequency as much as he’s concerned about the heart. God isn’t concerned with how eloquent your prayers are or if they’re long or short, he’s concerned with you actually being dependent on him and you simply being honest in your prayers with him.

God wants you to depend on him through prayer, but you aren’t dependent on him if you’re too busy with inauthentic prayer, just tell him reverently, how you feel (that’s what David did in the Psalms and he was right to).

Prayer is a time in which you can show your dependence to the LORD, so the application is simple, be authentic in your prayer, don’t try to wow God, he already knows who you are. Simply be honest with him through prayer.

As you pray, authentically call out to God when you’re free from distraction and simply talk to him.

The Model of Prayer (9-15)—from the section typically called the Lord’s Prayer, the application is really based on the different elements of the prayer: worship and reverence, the desire for God’s will to be accomplished, and personal petition. I explained that each of these elements should be a part of our prayers.

So, the questions are:

When you pray, do you worship God reverentially? Or are you too busy asking God to do things in your life that you don’t get to the worshiping of God part?

When you pray, do you express desire for God’s will to be accomplished? Or are you more concerned with your own will being accomplished?

When you pray, do you make personal petitions? Or have you resigned yourself to never asking God for anything?

If these elements are supposed to be part of your prayer life, let me ask you to take a moment to consider your own prayer life:

First off, are you praying regularly? Are you praying authentically in order to commune with your heavenly Father?

But Secondly, when you pray, are you worshiping God? Are you praying for God’s will? Are you making personal petitions?

Prayer needs to include all of these elements and you can see these elements in the examples of prayer found throughout Scripture—the Lord’s Prayer, the High Priestly Prayer, the magnificat, prayers throughout the Old and New Testaments all include worshiping God, desiring God’s will, and personal petitions.

So, your prayers should include these things as well—regularly and authentically.

And if you find yourself in a position in which you realize that you’re lacking in prayer and you’re trying to figure out how to do these things better, here’s my application for you:

Set aside time in your day in which you can be alone without distractions—no phone, no kids, no work, nothing. This needs to be longer than 15 minutes and the reason for that is of that if you don’t have at least fifteen minutes set aside, I can promise you that you won’t even get to the praying part because your mind will be thinking about everything other than prayer.

Pray in private authentically realizing that God already knows what you need and want—he just wants you to depend on him through prayer.

And if you get to this point and you wonder what exactly you should say—start with worshiping God in reverence, expressing desire for the will of God to be accomplished, and then give personal petitions (e.g., forgiveness of sin, provision of sustenance, prayers for endurance and strength)

If you’re still at a loss, let me encourage you to pray through prayers in Scripture and pray through certain passages of Scripture:

The Lord’s Prayer is in Matthew 6:5-15, pray through it

Mary’s Magnificat is in Luke 1:45-55, pray through it

The High Priestly Prayer is in John 17:1-26, pray through it.

You can pray through the Psalms, some of my favorites to pray through are include: Psalm 1, 8, 9, 19, 25, 27, 29, 34. If you’re looking for something a little more somber because life is difficult at the moment, pray through Psalm 130 or Psalm 139.

Pray through 1 Corinthians 13, which is commonly referred to as the love chapter, but gives you insight into who God is and how you should be.

And let me recommend a book for you called the Valley of Vision, it is a collection of puritan prayers, they are phenomenal to work through one prayer a day—not just reading them, but actually praying through them.

Prayer is essential to the Christian life—so learn to pray reverentially to the LORD in an authentic way regularly and consistently; and learn to worship God, desire his will, and personally petition the Lord through your prayer.

Which then extends to our church as well—we need to regularly and reverentially pray to the LORD authentically; and we need to learn to worship God, desire his will, and corporately petition the Lord through our prayer together.

Put simply, prayer is vital to the Christian life; and what Matthew 6:5-15 teaches us is that (1) prayer is literally calling out to God as we commune with him and we need to do this regularly and authentically, (2) we need to worship God, desire his will, and petition the Lord through our prayer, and (3) we need to do this as both individual Christians and as a church community.

As a local church, we are to be dedicated to Scripture, sharing life with one another, not just the physical act of the Lord’s Supper, but the daily examining of ones spiritual life; and we ought to be dedicated to prayer. Only then will the LORD add to our number day by day those who are being saved. Our last week in this series is next week and it is a culmination of all that we’ve worked through this last month-and-a-half as we tie it all together into one cohesive mission for the church. Let me encourage you that if you’ve missed any part of the series to go back and watch it on YouTube or listen to it at graceandpeacepa.com before next week’s service, so that you’ll be caught up as we wrap up the series.

Pastoral Prayer

Congregational Singing

10,000 Reasons