Guarding Against Misguided Motives - Part 1 - The Secret to Praying Successfully

I. Introduction

Good morning Church! I want to start today by asking you a question…have you ever heard of a lying preacher?

Well, I want to apologize because I lied to you all last week. I told you that we were going to break this first half of chapter 6 down into 3 parts but the more I got to looking at it this week, the more I felt like I couldn’t do this entire section on prayer justice by putting it all in just one sermon so....what we’re going to do, is we’re going to cover Verses 5-8 this week and then we’re going to take Verses 9-15 and we’re really going to do a deep dive into the Lord’s prayer for the next 5 weeks.

If you’d like a deeper, more meaningful prayer life this morning say, Amen!

Well that’s our goal as we get into this section on the Lord’s prayer. To get closer to the Lord, to have our relationship with Him take off to a whole new level we didn’t even know existed! That’s what I pray happens as we dive into Verses 9-15.

So, if you have your Bible’s with you this morning, turn with me to Matthew Chapter 6 and we will continue on today with Verses 5-8 in our Series…Guarding Against Misguided Motives - Part 2 and the title of today’s message is “The Secret to Praying Successfully.”

Now, I’m just going to go ahead and spill the beans this morning and tell you that the secret to praying successfully is to pray in secret!

The secret of praying successfully is to pray in secret!

And we’re going to see that as we work our way through this message here before us today.

Before we get too deep into the message though, I want to share something with you that H.A. Ironside said that for me really gives this message a deeper thought. He said…

Think of the privilege of sitting at the feet of the great intercessor Himself and hearing Him tell us how to pray!

Can you imagine being able to sit at the feet of the one and only Son of God and have Him teach you how to pray to His Father!

And not only how to pray but how to be successful in prayer!

That, my friend, would be an opportunity of a lifetime!

So, with no further ado, if you have your Bibles turned to the Book of Matthew Chapter 6 Verse 5 would you say, Amen.

The Expectation of Prayer – (Vs. 5a)

Can I tell you this morning that the Lord expects us to Pray!

By saying "when you pray" here, the Lord is implying that prayer should be the norm in a believer's life!

He doesn’t say, “if you pray” but “when you pray!”

Listen friend, Paul said, “Pray without ceasing!” (1st Thessalonians 5:17) or in laymen’s terms, “Never Stop Praying!”

If you have been saved and born again this morning friend, there shouldn’t be one day pass by that you don’t have a conversation with your heavenly Father!

Let me put this into perspective for you parents this morning…how would you feel if when your kids come home from the baby sitter or from school if they just walked right on in the door, right past you like you didn’t even exist and just went on into their bedroom without stopping to say, “hi mom” or “hi dad” or “hey, how was your day?” If you care about your kids at all it would hurt your feelings a little bit wouldn’t it?

Listen, one thing I look forward to every day when I get home is the fact that when I walk through that door, I know both my kids are excited to see me and there to welcome me home with a big ole hug saying, “Daddy”!

That brings me great joy!

But now if I started coming home and they just acted like I didn’t even exist, it would hurt me! And God is the same way! When his children go day in and day out without talking to him it hurts him!

I mean He is the one who created us, and sustains us, and provides for us and carries us when we can’t carry ourselves and when we don’t acknowledge him, friend, it hurts him just as it would hurt you, if your kids never talked with you!

Leonard Ravenhill – No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying. We have many organizers, but few agonizers; many players and payers, few pray-ers; many singers, few clingers; lots of pastors, few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters. Failing here, we fail everywhere.

Listen friend, God “Expects” His children to talk to him just as you would expect your children to talk with you, so be sure not to let a day go by that you don’t go to him in prayer!

Next, not only does Jesus show us that there is an Expectation of Prayer, He then gives us some Elements of Prayer.

The Elements of Prayer

The first Elements I want us to look at are the “What “NOT” to do’s!”

1. What “NOT” to do’s – (Vs. 5b & 7)

A. Don’t be like the hypocrites! – (Vs. 5b)

We’ve talked about hypocrites for the last few weeks now and we’re going to continue talking about them today because apparently hypocrites were a sore subject for our Lord!

The definition of the word as used here, if you will remember, refers to a stage player (an actor) who puts on a mask and impersonates a character different from his own; a counterfeit, one who would be thought to be different from what he really is.

And Jesus tells us here, “don’t be like the hypocrites!” Don’t be fake, don’t pretend to be something or someone you’re not, but rather be just who God made you to be, Amen!

And the reason He said that is because God doesn’t see us the same way man sees us! The Bible says in:

1st Samuel 16:7 – the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.

God created us and knows every fiber of our being so don’t try and be something you’re not!

And then He even goes on to tell us why we shouldn’t be like the hypocrites!

Notice Jesus says there in the end of the verse, “Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.”

Last week, we talked about this phrase and the fact that this word "have" means "to be paid in full and given a receipt,"

In other words, the transaction is over or complete. You are paid with no other payment coming.

If you live for this life, you get the burdens or rewards of this life but on the other hand, if you live for eternity and the glory of God, your reward is yet to come!

So, when Jesus says here, “they have their reward” what He’s saying is this, “let them pray out loud for everyone to see! Let them glorify themselves instead of God here on this side of eternity because that’s all the reward they’re going to receive!”

That’s why he said in:

Mark 7:6 –This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

Now the thing to take away from this verse here is this…it’s not wrong to pray in public but when you pray, make it genuine, let your prayer come from your heart and not your head and don’t pray to be seen of men but rather to be heard of God!

Next, not only does Jesus tell us not to pray for recognition but he also tells us not to use “Vain Repetitions” when we pray!

B. Don’t use vain repetitions! – (Vs. 7-8a)

Dr. Robert A. Cook said, "All of us have one routine prayer in our system; and once we get rid of it, then we can really start to pray!"

The problem here is not repeating one's prayers but "vain" repeating. It is not necessarily wrong to repeat a prayer or a request. Jesus did it in the Garden of Gethsemane. If you’ll look in:

Matthew 26:44 — And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words.

It is not repetition in itself that is condemned here, but rather the "vain" repetition that is condemned.

The words translated "vain repetitions" are from the Greek word “battologeo {bat-tol-og-eh'-o}” which means "to speak foolishly, to babble, or meaningless jabber, much talk without content, repeating the same thing over and over again."

How many of you ever get annoyed when your child or grandchild gets stuck on repeat and just keeps making the same request over and over and over without thinking about it?

I mean I do for sure! When Harper was small she’d be watching her iPad and she’d ask for something or say something over and over until someone answered her!

I mean I seriously believe that she’d of went on all night long if the iPad wouldn’t die! It was annoying to say the least!

Well, what we need to realize is that God is the same way! He’s not impressed with insincere repetitions.

Now don’t hear what I’m not saying, it's not wrong to come to God many times with the same requests. Jesus even encouraged persistent prayer, but He condemned the shallow repetition of words that are not offered with a sincere heart.

We can never pray too much if our prayers are honest and sincere. So before you start to pray, make sure you mean what you say.

God is not impressed with mere, empty words and mindless prayer but with the genuine outcry of a needy heart.

Someone has said, “never use a gallon of words to express a spoonful of thought.”

I love what John Bunyan said..."In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without heart."

Listen, the Bible says in:

Ecclesiastes 5:2 — Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.

Every request we make to God should be of the utmost importance and every word spoken should be with purpose for which we are talking to God! There is no time for meaningless, repetitious requests!

Now that we’ve looked at the Elements that Jesus told us “NOT” to do, let’s look for a minute at what he tells us “TO” do!

2. What “TO” do – (Vs. 6) – (CSB) But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

A. Pray in a Private Place

The first thing we see here in what Jesus tells us “TO DO” is the same thing we covered last week when talking about The Secret of Supplication.

Jesus tells us to go into our private room, our secret place where we can get one on one with God and then I want you to notice a very important detail here!

Notice what He says to do next? He says, “shut your door!”

So many people have a problem with being alone with God!

The problem with so many Christians today is that we don’t mind entering the private room but we don’t want to shut the door behind us! We want to leave it open so that the world can get in if need be!

Friend that’s not how it should be! If you want to be in communion with God, then when you enter your prayer closet or wherever it is that you get one on one with God, you have to make sure you tune everything else out! God doesn’t enjoy half-hearted prayers! He wants your full attention!

B. Pray to the Father

The next thing I want you to see, once you’ve gotten in your Private Place, is who it is that you’re supposed to pray to!

Someone tell me who it is here that the Bible says we are to pray to? The Father, right?

Listen friend, Jesus tells us to pray to the Father! He didn’t say to pray to Mohammed or Joseph Smith or Buddha or Mary or any of the disciples or even Himself!

He said to pray to the Father!

And here’s something else for you to chew on, who is Jesus talking to here? He’s talking to his disciples, right? How does one become able to call God, “Father?”

You must be born again! That’s how!

John 1:12-13 – 12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Friend if you are sitting here and lost and think you can pray and have access to the power of God the Father without believing upon His Son Jesus, your wrong!

The only prayer the Father is going to hear from a lost person is the Sinner’s Prayer where you repent of your sins and believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, that’s it!

How can I be so confident of this you ask? Because Jesus himself said in:

John 15:7 – If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

John 16:23-24 – 23 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. 24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.

He said, if you abide in me, if you believe in me and trust in me, then you shall ask what ye will and it will be done unto you and then He said in the second part there to ask in His name!

You can ask in His name but if you don’t believe in His name then asking won’t do you a bit of good!

You can’t access the power of the Father until you believe in the Son!

Story of Father with Son & Paintings

Do you see what all we receive when we trust in the Son? By trusting in the Son we have access to the Father and can I tell you my Father owns the cattle on a thousand hills, He set the moon and the stars in the sky and knows them all by name, He hung the sun and stuck this earth right where it needed to be so that we don’t get to hot and neither do we get to cold but it’s right where it needs to be for life to exist and then He said, “you know what, I think I need to tilt it just a little that way and then give it a good spin and it will be just right!”

List to me friend, when you have access to the Father, you have access to the creator of the Universe! The creator and sustainer of life!

And because of this type of access we should find an Enjoyment in Praying to Him which is the last point I want to talk to you about this morning! Look down in Verse 8 with me at what it says there.

The Enjoyment of Prayer – (Vs. 8)

(CSB) Don't be like them, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask him.

A. There is a Peace & Joy that comes from Praying!

I love how the Bible tells us here that God knows our needs even before we pray! The Bible also tells us over in:

Isaiah 65:24 (CSB) Even before they call, I will answer; while they are still speaking, I will hear.

Listen friend, there should be a comfort that comes from knowing that our Father knows what we need even before we pray and that when we call He’s already listening!

Now here’s the question of the day though…how many of you has God been waiting on to pray to him?

How many of you is God saying, “hey, remember me, yeah, I’m still sitting here listening, waiting on you to pray!

I’ve got a big ole blessing just waiting to give you but you haven’t asked for it so I’m just going to hold on to it! It will be here when you decide to pray and ask me for it!”

I want you to imagine something with me for a moment. You see, I believe when we get to heaven God is going to walk us by this door and when we ask what’s in there He’s going to open it up and say, “this is the storeroom of unclaimed blessings!

This is where I store all the blessings that I have for people but unfortunately many people don’t ever ask for them! You see that pile right over there, that one’s yours!”

So many times, we limit ourselves to the blessings of God because we don’t ask Him for them! The Bible says in:

Matthew 7:7-11 – 7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. 9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? 10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? 11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

But herein lies the problem, the Bible also says over in:

James 4:2-3 – 2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. 3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

There’s two reasons we don’t have the desires of hearts:

1) We don’t ask.

2) When we do ask, it’s not with the right mindset!

I like how the God’s Word translation puts it…. James 4:3 (GW) When you pray for things, you don't get them because you want them for the wrong reason—for your own pleasure.

The Bible goes on to say in:

1 John 5:14-15 – 14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us: 15 And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

If we ask Him for something and it’s according to His will, then the Bibles tells us He will hear us and we can know that He will give us the petitions we desire!

Now here’s the thing though, the Bible also says in:

Matthew 21:22 – And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.

Can I tell you one of the biggest mistakes we make in our prayers?

We defeat ourselves before we ever get up from praying!

We say, “well, I’m gonna ask for this or that but I doubt God is going to let it happen or give it to me!” Don’t we?

I mean, if your going to doubt He can do what you’re asking Him to do then why would He give you the petitions and desires of your heart?

This verse here tells us when we go to God and ask for something, we need to believe that he’s big enough to do it!

Say, “God, I know you are God over heaven and earth and that there is nothing out of your reach and if this thing is according to your will, I know that you will provide it!”

You have to believe that He can and will! Jesus said in:

John 15:11 – These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

Listen friend, when you go to God in prayer knowing that He knows your needs before you pray and knowing that He will provide anything you ask of Him according to His will, friend that should bring peace to your prayer life!

Now some of you are probably saying to yourselves, “well, if He knows my needs before I even pray what’s the since in me even praying?”

That’s simple, it’s all about dependence! We depend on Him just as our children depend on us! They don’t know what they need but we do and therefore we provide for them just as God provides for us!

When they say I’m hungry, we get them something to eat, when they say, “my shoes are to small,” we get them new shoes, when they say, “my clothes are to small,” we get them new clothes. They depend on us just as we depend on God!

We may think we know what we need but the reality is this…we have no clue what’s going to happen tomorrow, but God does. Therefore, we need to pray and ask Him for provision and guidance for what tomorrow may bring!

And because we know that He hears us and loves and wants to provide us with our needs, we can lay down at night with a peace that surpasses all understanding because we know who holds tomorrow, Amen!

Closing

This morning, as we come to a close, I want to share a prayer with you that Paul prayed in the Book of Ephesians.

Ephesians 3:14-21 – 14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. 20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

I love how Paul finishes this out! Read Verse 20-21 again!

We serve a mighty God this morning who loves His children and the only thing He wants from us is to believe on His Son and to talk to Him just as we would our own Father!

He loves to hear from His children and more than that, He loves to bless His children and that my friend should bring Peace and Joy to you when you kneel to Him in prayer.

The Secret of Praying Successfully is Praying in Secret.

Coming to God humbly, sincerely, wholly and completely; mind set on Him and His will for your life.

When was the last time you did that?

When was the last time you just came to God and bowed your knees to Him and got honest with God?

If it’s been a while, I’d encourage you when we give the invitation here in just a moment, to simply come and get in communion with God.

Pour out the requests and desires of your heart to God who wants to hear from you and a God who is big enough to handle any care you bring His way!

And if you’re here and you’ve never bowed before God and turned your life over to Him, dear friend, today would be a great day to do just that!

If God is dealing with your heart, why don’t you come, confess to Him that you realize your a sinner and in need of His saving grace. Ask Him to save you and I assure you He will do just that!

John 6:37 KJV 1900

37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.