What Do We Pray About?, Matthew 6
- Michael Dennis
- Aug 22, 2010
- Series: Why Pray?
Welcome to North Village Church. My name is Michael and I am one of the pastors here this morning. It is good to see everyone. This morning we are going to be in Matthew 6 and continue our series on “Why Pray”.
I remember when I first started praying I would just go on walks and talk to God about Scripture, my relationships with others, my sin and it wasn’t eloquent or impressive. It was just me having a conversation with God, and then I started going to church and meeting other Christians and I started feeling like my prayers were inadequate. I learned about formal introductions to start my prayers, I learned about prayers that repeated the same phrases over and over, I learned about how to end my prayers, and before I knew it prayer had become really intimidating. I was no longer talking to God, but more concerned about how I was talking with God and it created some confusion.
In Matthew 6 Jesus speaks into this confusion to bring some clarity on prayer. He is going to simply give us some direction on how not to pray and how to pray, so let’s get started in verse 5 of Matthew 6.
5 "When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.
Verse 5 starts off teaching us if we want to learn how to pray the last people we look to are the religious leaders because they are hypocrites. What does it say they are doing? Bringing attention to themselves! There is something in all of us that hates hypocrisy and Jesus starts off rebuking the religious leaders because our spiritual hypocrisy reveals a lack of authenticity between us and God. This is what makes Jesus different than religion. Religion is doing and saying things to put us in a better standing with God and others and when Jesus shows up the religious leaders are just practicing religious behavior
Jesus would much rather us come before Him with honest prayers rather than working so hard to impress other people because we can mimic phrases, patterns, tone, inflection, and give the appearance of having a vital prayer life, but all the while have hearts that are far from God. Look at verses 6-8:
6"But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. 7 "And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. 8 "So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.
In contrast to verse 5 Jesus gives us some description of how to pray. Prayer isn’t about how you sound when you are praying in public. It isn’t about having alliteration in your prayers, rhyming prayers, cute prayers, but it is about capturing an intimacy between you and God. Prayer isn’t about meaningless repetition where we say things over and over and work ourselves into spiritual trance where we have no idea what we are praying. Prayer isn’t about trying to get God to do something that He doesn’t want to do as though we could beat Him into submission through our long and belaboring prayers.
Prayer isn’t about those religious behaviors, but a relationship between us and God. Notice when Jesus speaks of prayer God is described as a loving Father who knows what we need before we even ask. It isn’t religious behavior, but a relationship between child and father. Jesus is teaching us if you want to know how to pray then look at the loving relationship between child and father before you look at the religious leaders.
What is it like when a child comes to their father? Their father is the one who provides food, roof over their head, and clothes on their bodies. He plays with them, hugs them, listens to them, and as a child their communication isn’t eloquent or impressive. It is slurred with syllables left out of words. It is messy because they drool and spit when they talk so that you wipe it off your face. It is in a variety of pitches where some words bring pain to your ears at times. It is emotional with joy, fear, tears, frustration as they search for the words and I can tell you as a father it is awesome. It is awesome because every bit of it, as messy as it is, every bit of it fills your heart as a parent because you want to connect with your children. Jesus is teaching us that we don’t need to come like the religious people who are eloquent in their speech, but we come to our Heavenly Father like a child comes to their parent.
Starting in verse 9 Jesus gives us an example how to pray.
9 "Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
When Jesus teaches us how to pray it starts with seeing God as Father. Scripture gives us this title of God as Father because God is personal and knowable. I know some of us have had earthly fathers where there were horrible examples of what it looks like to be a dad. We have dad’s that drop the ball, never show up, work too much, and some just walk away, but you need to know this Father will never walk away. He will never let you down. He will never bee too busy. He will never brush you off to do work. He is a loving Father and we can crawl into His lap and find an intimacy that can only be filled by Him.
This last week I was sitting on the couch working on my computer and Kennedy and Tucker crawled up on the coach, didn’t say anything, but just started slowly nudging my laptop to the side until they were sitting on my lap and just had the biggest grin. I looked at them and said, “What are you doing?” Kennedy said, “We just wanted to hug you.” We just did a big family hug. When we see God as Father that we can always come to it will shape our prayer life.
He isn’t going to laugh at you, He isn’t going to condescend, He isn’t going to lecture, He isn’t going to shake His head in disappointment, but He is a Father that loves you, wants to be with you, talks to you, listens to you, and enjoys you. It doesn’t mean He will give you everything you want. Sometimes it is yes, sometimes it is no, sometimes it is later, but He is a Father we can run to in prayer. When we see God as a Father we are more likely to run to Him in prayer.
Also in verse 9 we see that He is in heaven and that He is Holy. To be Holy is to be set apart, to be without flaw, to be perfect and this means when we pray to God He is not only personable, but He is also perfect. When we pray to God who is perfect that means He knows best. He is in control. He is calling the shots. Sometimes we will conclude if God is in control then why should we pray? We pray because He is in control. He sees all things. He exists outside of time. I know this might be shocking, but He knows better than we do. We are coming to Him in prayer so that our hearts might be shaped to His. Sometimes we see prayer as the means to get God to do what we want, but that would be horrible because we aren’t Holy. We aren’t perfect. We don’t see all things. We don’t know what is best. We barely know what clothes to put on before we go to work. We don’t want Him adapting to us, we want to adapt to Him.
Again look it through a lens of a father and child. We not off to a good start if I am going to my 2 year old and getting financial advice, future of our family, health care answers, relational conflict, because He is only 2 years old, but Tucker can come to daddy when Thomas the Train gets stuck in the train station. I can see all things on the train set. I can disconnect the tracks and look inside. Tucker can’t do that so when his train gets stuck he just starts banging on the set, crying, and frustrated asking for help, and like I loving father I come running to help him. The Holiness of God doesn’t keep us from coming to Him, but instead pulls us toward Him banging our hands on the table for help because He knows. He is Father, He is perfect, and look at verse 10:
10 'Your kingdom come Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.
In verse 10 we see there is a kingdom where God is a Righteous and Benevolent King and His desire is that His Kingdom would be established here on earth, and through prayer God is inviting us to be involved in establishing His Kingdom. Sometimes we treat prayer as God helping us establish our kingdom, but His Kingdom is a lot greater than our kingdom.
I am not sure how it got started, but for the most part we reduced prayer to God helping us establish our kingdom. God help me get through college, God help me get married, God help me get a good job, God help us get a good house, God help our children be safe, God help us have a good retirement, God help us have good health. Those things aren’t bad, but God isn’t there to help us build our little kingdoms. This isn’t very popular in our culture today. If you watch or listen to preaching on the radio or television it is mostly about God helping you get what you want, however, Jesus is teaching about prayer so that it redirects our focus. We are living and praying for His Kingdom. What does His Kingdom look like?
It is a Kingdom where His name is exalted above all other names and God is inviting us to be apart of that. It is a Kingdom where there is justice for the poor, neglected, and abused, and God is inviting us to be apart of that. It is a Kingdom where there is peace and reconciliation in our relationship with God and with others and God is inviting us to be a part of that here on earth. Our prayers aren’t driven by what we want, but what God wants.
How is His Kingdom shaping how you pray? Is your heart for God’s will to be done? When Jesus is in the garden before the night of his crucifixion He prays a similar prayer in Luke 22 when Jesus says, "Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done."
Jesus is asking if there is any other way this can happen besides the cross, but His prayer is for the will of the Father to be done. The Son is submitting to the Father, and in verse 10 Jesus is teaching us through prayer to submit our will to His will. Sometimes the Father has us in a painful situation with our finances, our relationships, our health and we are working so hard to get out of those circumstances that we forget about His will being done. What is His will in the midst of that pain? What is His will in the midst of that conflict? That is why we run to Him in prayer. Prayer isn’t getting God to give us what we want, but submitting our hearts to His because He knows best.
In verses 9-10 we see the nature and character of God and through prayer we praise Him for His Holiness, we praise for His sovereignty, we praise Him for His Kingdom, we praise Him for involving us in His Kingdom, and in verse 11 we are going to see the prayer move towards requests. Look at verse 11:
11' Give us this day our daily bread.
What is the key word in verse 11? “Daily”! Prayer isn’t a religious act to impress others, but it is daily developing a dependant relationship between us and God. We tend miss the relationship and we just reduce them to requests, but Scripture teaches us we have a Heavenly Father who is perfect and sovereign and He created us to be in relationship with Him.
I think the hardest part of this is because we struggle to admit that we need God. Sometimes, because our country has been so greatly blessed, we tend to look around and conclude we did all of this and that we don’t need God. However, Scripture teaches us in James that every good and perfect gift comes from up above. He gave us our talents, analytical skills, our charisma, our favor with others, our home, our food, our children, and everything we have comes from Him. He makes the sun rise, the plants grow, and the rain fall; and we are completely dependent upon Him for everything. As we come to Him in prayer for our daily needs it will foster a more intimate relationship.
It goes back to the child / father relationship. Children are dependent upon their parents and that dependency fosters intimate relationship, and unfortunately all of us live like teenagers who take everything we can get and then slam the door in the face of God as we walk out the door. We take all of His blessings throw them in a trash bag and we tell ourselves if we are going to make it in this life then it is going to be up to us. How would God respond? Does he open the door and say, “Fine get out of my house!” Does He give us the silent treatment? Does He seem indifferent and not even notice? No. He is a loving Father that pursues us to a place of forgiveness. Look at verse 12:
12'And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
In our culture today we are confused about forgiveness. We either don’t think we need to be forgiven or we think if God is so great then why can’t He simply forgive us. We need forgiveness because we have sinned against a Holy and Righteous. He gave us life and relationship and we slammed the door in His face. Scripture calls that sin. When we talk about sin there is sin of omission and sin of commission. Sin of commission is when we think, feel, say or do anything that doesn’t line up with the perfection and holiness of God. Sin of omission is when we don’t think, feel, say, or do the things God created us for. Scripture teaches that God has created us to be perfect and to be in relationship with Himself, yet we rejected Him and it is called sin.
Our sin separated us from God and the result is death. This is why we need forgiveness. God has created us to be in relationship with Himself and we rejected and verse 12 describes it as debt. We may not understand sin, but we understand debt. We all experienced debt when we went off to college and there are fun people giving you T-shirts for simply signing up for a credit card. It is so exciting have a free T-shirt and they give you money. College was awesome! You quickly start using your credit card taking friends out to lunch, drinks are on me, buying some clothes because at college they just give you money. Until the end of the month when the bill comes they want their money back. How rude! They also charge you 25% interest if you can’t pay. This is not good. This is debt. We are really aware of our financial debt, but there tends to be a lack of awareness of our spiritual debt. Every time we cash in on sins of omission and commission we are accruing more and more debt. Imagine if every month God sent a statement that itemized our spiritual debt. We are spiritually bankrupt. This is why we need forgiveness.
We are running out the door and God is chasing after us and enters into human history and lives a life without sin and He dies on a cross to pay our debt. The wages of sin is death and Jesus takes that death for us. He rises from the dead to give us a new life that is no longer spiritually dead in sin, but alive in Christ. Colossians 2:13 says it this way, “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions”. He forgives us of our debt.
Our faith isn’t a religious behavior where we try to pay God back with impressive prayers, coming to church, tithing, mission trips, and bible studies, but it is one of grace through faith in Jesus’s death because He pays our debt. That is amazing. That is the God we run to in prayer. Our very first prayer is one of seeking forgiveness of our sin and trusting in Him. I remember when I prayed the first time to ask for forgiveness and it radically changed my life. Some of us here this morning need to do that for the first time. You can fill out the card on the back of our handout or talk to a friend, but our first prayer needs to be confessing our sin and asking for forgiveness, and trusting in Jesus’ death on the cross. It will radically change your life. Look at verse 13:
13 'And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.]'
In verse 13 Jesus is teaching us that we live in an evil world. I don’t say this to scare you, but we have an enemy that is violently opposed and working against the things of God, and as Jesus is wrapping up His prayer He teaches us to be on guard against the evil one. If you are sitting there thinking, “Do you mean that little red guy with a pointy tail?” I don’t know what he looks like, but Scripture tells us what he does. Scripture teaches that He will deceive you into twisting Scripture get you caught up in error and think that you don’t need prayer. He will disqualify you morally so you are embarrassed to even pray to God thinking He must be so disappointed in you. He will discourage you so that you feel so defeated that will just turn inward and feel sorry for yourself. He will distract you from prayer and make you busy with success, family, hobbies so that you are completely distracted from His Holiness and His word.
In verse 13 Jesus is teaching us to pray so that we are on guard against the evil one. Jesus is teaching us that we can be proactive through prayer. This means we can pray prayers like, “Help me not compare myself to other people, Help me to wake up tomorrow and read your Word, Help me to obey, and Help me not to get distracted and live for other things.” Too many times we avoid prayer until we are already in trouble and we think, “I guess I could pray.”
Jesus is teaching us we pray before we find ourselves in the midst of evil. We pray before we spend time with friends that it will be uplifting. We pray about the time we are going to spend with family / in-laws. We pray with our spouses in the midst of a fight. We pray before we go on that work trip for God to keep our eyes and our hearts pure. We can be proactive and through prayer we can deliver some punches to the enemy! We can fight back! Look at verses 14-15
14 "For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 "But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.”
Forgiveness isn’t only between us and God but also between us and other people. We want to keep healthy relationships with one another and that takes place through forgiveness. It means we don’t hold grudges, our hearts don’t get embittered, we don’t slander, condemn, or gossip, but we humble ourselves and we forgive one another. Verses 14-15 are teaching us that if we neglect forgiveness with others that we are going to hinder our relationship with God because we are carrying bitterness toward someone else.
Some of us this morning might be caring some really strong feelings of bitterness towards other people. Perhaps toward your spouse, your children, a parent, and Jesus is teaching us through prayer we can bring that pain to our Heavenly Father and He wants to lead us to a place of forgiveness.
Prayer is so special and when there is a developing relationship, when there is forgiveness in relationships, on guard against evil, and our prayers are lining up with His will it can be really powerful. Over this next week I gave us some cards to pray through as we foster our relationship with God so that ultimately we are hearing His voice. John 10:27 says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” We have so many noises in our world coming at us each day and we want to know His voice.
Communion