Well, we're starting a new series on prayer,
and if you've got your Bibles in front of you,
that'd be fantastic. Today I want to tell you
about Gary. Gary woke up at 6am to the sound
of his alarm. He wanted to hit snooze, but he
knew he'd run out of time if he did. So he begrudgingly
swung himself out of bed. He had a shower. He
had a cup of coffee to kind of wake himself up.
He read some of the Bible, still yawning, still
wiping sleep from his eyes. And after thinking
a little bit about what he'd read, he decided
it was time to pray. But then a horrible thought
invaded Gary's mind. What's the point of getting
up early to pray? Gary wondered, am I just talking
to the ceiling? Is anyone actually listening?
Does this even make a difference? Gary couldn't
help thinking, do my prayers even do anything?
He especially thought that because there's some
things he'd been praying about for ages and nothing
seemed to happen. He was finding it really hard
to pray. Now, most of us at one time or another
have asked what Gary was asking. Does prayer
actually do anything? If you're a sceptic, you
might think, no, of course not. At best, maybe
it's just a psychological trick that kind of
gives you some comfort. But if you're a Christian,
I hope your answer is, yes, prayer does do things.
But it might be a struggle for you to want to
pray. Because it often doesn't feel like prayer
really does anything. It can look a little pointless
at times. So today I want to ask, is prayer actually
rewarding? Does it actually accomplish anything?
And over the course of this series, I want to
show you just how life -changing, beneficial
and rewarding prayer can be. And not because
it's some sort of psychological trick, you know,
you just wooed yourself into feeling better.
No, prayer is rewarding because of who we pray
to. When we pray, we're not just talking to anyone.
We're talking to our loving Heavenly Father,
the creator of the universe. When we pray, we're
relating to him. Our prayers are only powerful
They're only rewarding because he is powerful
and because he rewards them. And seeing this
can help you and I get out of our prayer ruts
when we fall into them. But if prayer is going
to be rewarding, well, we need to relate to God
in the right way, don't we? We need to have the
right approach to God. If you go to the gym,
which, you know, as you can tell, I do all the
time. If you don't use the machines properly,
it's not rewarding, is it? It actually can be
quite damaging, can't it? You can cause serious
injury. And it's the same with prayer. It's rewarding
if we do it properly. It can actually be harmful
to our hearts if we don't approach God the right
way. So today we're not just going to ask, does
prayer actually do anything, but also if it is
rewarding. And how do I pray in a way that brings
benefit to me? And here's the thing I hope you'll
see as we look at this little passage on prayer.
Here's the way to pray. Why you pray changes
what you get when you pray. I hope you can remember
that from today. Why you pray changes what you
get when you pray. Why you pray changes what
you get when you pray. See, what you get depends
on what reward you're actually seeking, what
benefit you're trying to get from prayer and
how you go about it. We're going to see two different
things as we look at our passage today. Two approaches
you can have with prayer. Don't pray to be seen
by others. That's what Jesus is telling us. Don't
pray to be seen by others. Pray to be seen by
your Father. Pray to be seen by your Heavenly
Father. So let's have a look at each of these.
Firstly, don't pray to be seen by others. Have
a look at what Jesus says. And when you pray,
do not be like the hypocrites. For they love
to pray standing in the synagogues and on the
street corners to be seen by others. Truly, I
tell you, they have received their reward in
full. So Jesus warns us about the wrong way to
pray here, to pray like the hypocrites. In our
day, a hypocrite is someone who says one thing
and does another. But in the Bible, a hypocrite
is a play actor, a mask wearer. Think of Mission
Impossible. Anyone like Mission Impossible? I
named my son Ethan. I mean, Ethan Hunt from Mission
Impossible. His middle name's James for James
Bond, so that we covered all the super spies.
Well, I don't know, not really. Maybe subconsciously.
Anyway. But think Mission Impossible. What happens
in Mission Impossible? They go on these impossible
missions, don't they, that no one can do. And
one of the sort of gimmicks that happens in Mission
Impossible all the time is they make these masks
that look perfect, just like the real person
themselves. And they put on this mask, they pretend
to be someone else for the sake of the mission.
Well, that's what hypocrisy is in the Bible.
It's putting on a mask so that you look like
someone else, so that you pretend to be someone
else. A hypocrite is someone who plays a part.
And the hypocrites in Jesus' day, they acted
pious. They were pretending to be pious to impress
a human audience so that other people would think,
oh, wow, aren't they pretty godly? Did you see?
Jesus says they love to pray. Not because they
get to be with God when they pray. They love
to pray standing in the synagogues and on the
street corners. To them, prayer is a show, a
performance that they can do. So others look
at them, praise them. It's the virtue signalling
of the ancient world. And this sort of hypocrisy
is easy for Christians to slip into today, isn't
it? It's easy at growth group or at a prayer
meeting. You know, I think I've shared this before.
I often struggle. I'm sitting there, I'm praying,
and people start going, mmm, amen. And I start
counting the mmms and amens. That one got five.
That must have been a good prayer. But at that
point, you're not really talking to God anymore,
are you? You're playing to the audience. Or say
you're praying up the front at church and you
fill your prayer with all sorts of Christian
jargon. Almighty and ever -living God, the potentate
of time, we beseech you to... And it's all about
looking deep and spiritual to everybody instead
of being genuine and authentic with God. It's
playing the part of the mature Christian instead
of seeking to actually be one. That's the problem,
isn't it? And what would the mature Christian
do? Well, they wouldn't care what others think
of them. They'd only care about what God thinks
of them. They'd have an audience of one. They'd
pray the same way if the room was full or empty.
The focus is on communing with God, not with
impressing other people. It's a bit like singing
to someone you really like in a karaoke bar.
Never thought I'd do that illustration. There's
two types of people in a karaoke bar. The one
who wants to impress the crowd. You know, they're
thinking, what song can I sing that I can really
nail so everyone's going to go, wow, can't they
sing? Or there's that person who's singing that
song for that special someone. Even if they don't
really nail it, they're trying to think what
song will convey to that special someone how
they feel. Even though the crowd's listening
in, it's not for them. It's for that special
someone. That's what Christian prayer is like.
We're praying to an audience of one. Sadly, if
our goal is human approval instead of God's,
there is a reward we will get. That's what Jesus
says, and it's not a good one. Did you see at
the end of verse 5, truly I tell you they've
received their reward in full. What's the reward
they'll receive? It's the human praise that they
crave. But it's in full. Because that's all they're
going to get. See, God's not impressed when we
approach him that way. We've treated him like
he's not there. He won't hear our prayers or
reward them. I love the way Don Carson puts it.
He says, could it be that the primary reason
we do not see more prayers answered is because
we're less concerned with bringing our requests
to God than with showing off before men? And
I'm not innocent of this either. I know I'm guilty
of trying to look righteous to others. I often
care too much about what others think of me.
And that's when I need to go to the death and
resurrection of Jesus all over again to help
me stop caring about people's opinions. To see
that I am justified in Jesus. I've been made
completely righteous by his death on the cross.
I don't need to go prove myself to anyone and
make people, you know, con them into thinking
I'm mature. I'm already righteous in God's sight.
Pretending is a delusion. Seeing reality is the
way to go. And when the death and resurrection
of Jesus informs my prayer life, it makes me
more secure and joyful. I stop caring about what
others think. Instead, I seek to have a rich,
genuine, authentic connection with God. So what's
it look like to pray like that? To have that
sort of connection with God? Well, that's our
second point for today. Pray. to be seen by your
Father. Pray to be seen by your Father. Have
a look at verse 6. But when you pray, go into
your room, close the door and pray to your Father
who is unseen. Then your Father who sees what
is done in secret will reward you. Jesus is saying,
go hide away and pray. But to do that takes faith,
doesn't it? Being alone with God where no one
can see your piety, it takes faith. You've got
to believe that God will actually reward that.
Praying to a God you can't see, you've got to
actually believe that it will be worth it, don't
you? Believing that God actually rewards our
prayers, you've got to believe that he's the
sort of God. Who does? It takes faith to pray
on your own and to keep praying on your own because
there's no visible benefit to doing it. It's
like when you go to the gym. Again, I told you
I don't go that often, but if you go to the gym,
you don't see the effects straight away, do you?
You feel a bit sore, but that's it. You don't
suddenly come out of the gym and go, wow, look
at my guns. They've grown so much. One session,
awesome. It just doesn't work like that. You
have to be consistent. You have to keep going
with it. And it's the same with prayer. Often
it doesn't seem to have any visible benefit.
Sometimes it doesn't even feel that great. But
it's worth doing. It's worth persisting with
it and prioritising it. And the key is to not
just pray, but to spend quality time with God,
being real and raw with him, pouring out your
heart's requests. That's depending on God, isn't
it? And we see... That God rewards that. We see
that in the end of verse 6. You know, he talks
about a reward. What's the reward? Is the reward
worth all the effort you put into it? I had a
friend who, when she was at school, she was in
the national swim team. She would get up at stupider
clock to swim. She spent countless hours training,
lap after lap after lap, watching what she ate,
giving up. a whole bunch of fun things because,
hey, you know, I want to be amazing at swimming.
Maybe one day I could go to the Olympics. Free
time, fun, no, I've got to swim. And she did
it for a while because she knew you only get
out what you put in. But eventually she went,
it ain't worth it. And for swimming, she's probably
right. Swimming's not bad, but... Physical training
is of some value, isn't it? Godliness is of value
in every way. There is a great reward to prayer,
a far better reward. It is so much worth it to
get up and consistently pray. And I get it, it's
not easy. When your calendar's full... You're
tired, you barely had a good night's sleep. You
just want to scroll on Facebook. And you don't
feel like praying. Oh, you know, like, I just
want to get on with my day. What will make you
pray? It's the confidence that being alone with
your father is worth it. That it truly is rewarding.
So let's think for a second. What is the reward
of prayer? What's the reward Jesus is talking
about? I reckon there'd be three things at least.
You get to enjoy God when you stop and take the
time to pray. You know, I love it when Laura
and I do that, when we stop and have some quality
time together. You know, that's what we need
to do with God just as much as anyone else in
our life. Stop and have quality time with him.
When people feel far away, when you feel like
there's distance in any relationship, it's probably
a part of it is you haven't had any quality time,
isn't it? And it's the same with our prayer life.
When God feels far away, a lot of it is we just
haven't taken the time to sit and be with him.
You get to enjoy God, the riches of praying to
him. It is an absolute joy. But not only that,
you become like God. Now, not that you're going
to become omniscient or all -powerful or anything
like that. But you actually, your heart changes
when you pray, doesn't it? It's like a wheel
alignment. You know, you've got to get the car
in and they align the wheels and sort it all
out, get it back to where it should be. That's
what prayer does for our hearts. It gets our
priorities aligned. It gets our guilt sorted.
It takes away our worries and calms them and
soothes our hearts. Prayer helps us to become
more other person centred and Christ -like. When
you spend time praying, having that quality time
with God, you become more like him. And finally,
you get help by God. See, we're asking God for
help when we pray. Prayer doesn't just change
us, it changes what happens. It doesn't change
God, he doesn't change. It doesn't change his
plan because his plan has been set before the
beginning of the world. But God incorporates
our prayers into his plan and he honours them
and blesses them just as he does other things
that we do. So when we ask God for help, It really
does change things. And here's the great thing
to know about prayer. You might think, oh, if
I pray, what's God going to do? I remember when
I was a kid, I was told there was three ways
that God would answer prayer. He'd either answer
with yes, no, or wait. But what I've learned
since getting a little older and reading more
of the Bible is that there's two ways that God
answers prayer, yes and better. Yes and better.
Because he's a good heavenly father. So he's
either going to answer my prayers with yes or
because he's all -knowing, all -powerful, all
-wise, he's going to do something better. I may
not always see it. I may not always like it.
But that's what God does when we pray. I remember
talking to someone about this a while ago. And
we were talking about what's the most powerful
weapon on the battlefield. And I asked them and
they said, oh, it's like the bazooka or the tank
or the, you know, I said it's the radio. Because
with a radio, you can call on all the reinforcements,
can't you? You can call in and suddenly the big,
you know, fighter planes are coming in, dropping
bombs, you know. And prayer is like that. When
we pray, we're saying to the God who runs the
universe, can you use the resources of the universe
to help me? That is an amazing thing, isn't it?
Prayer is worth it. It changes what happens.
But Brennan, how do you know prayer really does
this, that it really is this rewarding? You might
say to me, I've prayed many times and I've not
seen anything or felt a thing. Well, if you doubt
how rewarding prayer is, you can always look
at the cross. Because at the cross we see what
we already have, don't we? The curtain has been
torn in two. Remember, Jesus was forsaken by
God. The curtain is torn by two. We now have
access to God. We have a new relationship with
God to enjoy. Prayer is raw. I know it is. Jesus
thought it was so worth having that he died for
me to have access to God. And actually, think
of Romans 6. The old self has been crucified
with Christ. We've been changed. We've become
new people who are like Jesus. That's why Jesus
died. Prayer is so rewarding because it's through
that that we actually appropriate that blessing
and become more like Jesus. I know it is worth
it. Or think of Romans 8, 32. He who did not
spare his own son but gave him up for us all,
how will he not also with him graciously give
us all things? If God gave up his own son for
you, what help is there that he won't give to
you to make sure that you get to glory? He will
go to the greatest lengths to make sure you get
to glory. You can trust when you pray that he
will either answer it with yes or better, and
the cross proves it. See, the cross shows that
these blessings are already ours. Prayer is just
us appropriating them, making use of them. The
cross is like a glorious deposit in our spiritual
bank account. And prayer is our ATM card. It's
how we pull out and enjoy the blessings that
Christ has given us. So are you using your ATM
card? Are you accessing the blessings that are
yours in Jesus? Prayer is one of the major ways
in which we do that. All right, well, let's recap.
We asked today, does prayer actually do anything?
And if so, how do we get the most out of it?
And we saw that it's about genuinely seeking
God by faith. primarily privately, so that our
prayers won't be prostituted by what others think
of us. It's about enjoying God and being alone
with him, having that audience of one. We saw
two things, don't pray to be seen by others and
pray to be seen by your father. They're the two
ways to pray. And that leads to our big idea,
why you pray, your motivation, why you pray changes
what you get. when you pray. God's going to reward
and answer your prayers differently depending
on the motivation, the approach that you have
when you pray. So what's all this mean for us?
Well, let's draw some implications from all this.
Firstly, public prayer is important yet dangerous.
Jesus is not forbidding public prayer here. He
and the apostles prayed publicly. We're commanded
in 1 Timothy 2 to pray for our leaders and all
people so that the gospel can go out. We're commanded
to do that, to pray in church. That's why we
do it each week at church. And yet just because
we do it doesn't mean there's not a danger to
it. Jesus is highlighting the danger here of
public prayer to show off. to others, to seek
the approval of people instead of the approval
of God. We all face this danger when we're not
careful of what's going on in our hearts, don't
we? This is not saying don't pray at all publicly.
It's saying watch your heart, guard your heart.
Again, I love Don Carson. He says on this, two
tests. He says, do I love private prayer? more
than public prayer? Is my public prayer an overflow
of my private prayers? It's a great way to test
where your heart is at. I mean, I hope we be
a church that gets together to pray. for things
like the boiler room, for 357, in our growth
groups. I hope we get together for public prayer.
I hope we continue to pray publicly here on Sundays.
But one of the challenges here is that we guard
our hearts, that we truly seek to have an audience
of one when we pray. Secondly... Another implication,
who you are in private is the real you. I love
this quote from Robert Machain. He says, we can
all put on a good show. Sorry, I'm reading my
notes. What a man is on his knees before God,
that he is and nothing more. Isn't that powerful?
This one convicts me a lot. What a man is on
his knees before God, that he is and nothing
more. We can all put on a good show, but who
we are in private is the real you. Don't worry,
I'm not going to do this, but if I snuck under
your bed and listened to your prayers, that would
be a great way to actually see the state of your
heart. I'm not going to do it. I'm going to get
other leaders in church to do that. But you can
actually find out a lot about where your heart's
at by analysing your private prayers, can't you?
Are you prayerless? What's that tell you about
your heart? Are you praying sometimes? Well,
what's that tell you about your heart? Are you
praying joyfully and fervently and consistently?
What does that tell you about your heart? Look
at your private prayers to see where you're really
at. And then ask yourself, what am I going to
do about it? Is it time to do some of that heart
work with God? And then thirdly, third implication,
private prayer that's raw and real is incredibly
rewarding. Private prayer that is raw and real
is incredibly rewarding. Think back to Gary.
Does prayer do anything? Yes. You enjoy God when
you pray. It transforms you. God actually hears
and helps us when we pray. Even when it doesn't
feel that way, the cross assures us that our
prayers are worth praying. So pray raw and real
prayers, authentic prayers to God. And when you're
filled with doubt, look to the cross. All the
blessings are there in the cross. It is worth
the effort. The cross proves it. And then finally,
I want to leave you with this. If you're here
today and you're not yet a Christian, I want
to encourage you to say a prayer. What are you
going to do with this from today? I'd encourage
you to say a prayer. Get alone with God. You
don't have to do it here where we're all watching.
And just talk to him. You might want to say something
like this. Dear God, I'm not sure if you're there.
If you are, please reveal yourself to me. Show
me what you are like and help me to seek the
truth about you. Amen. It doesn't have to be
that. Just that's an idea of what you could pray.
But I want to ask you, do you want to keep? Living
in a world where you don't know that God's got
your back. Where you don't enjoy that relationship
with the creator of the universe. I love knowing
that God loves me. It is such a joy. When those
times in life are so hard and you just get hit
for six, to know that there is a God who cares
about you and is... listening to your prayers
and is using things for your good, gee, that
is a wonderful comfort even in the worst times,
isn't it? Don't you want that? If you're not
a Christian, pray that prayer and start seeking
whether God really is there. If you are a Christian,
well, what I want to say to you is when you doubt
that prayer is worth it, Can I leave you with
this? I encourage you to compare the pair. You
know, like those super ads where they compare
the pair? Well, here's what you need to do. Trace
out the future, just like the super ads. What
is the outcome? What is it going to look like
in the future if I don't pray? If this becomes
my pattern, what is it going to look like? That's
one outcome. My heart's going to go colder. Sin's
going to become more tempting. My joy is going
to reduce. But what if I do pray? Well, I'm going
to enjoy God far more. I'm going to become more
like Jesus. It's going to transform me in profound
and radical ways. And you know what? God is the
sort of God who will answer my prayers. It may
be yes, it may be better, but he will do something.
He will honour those prayers and bless them.
I know which of the two seems to be worth doing.
I think we all do. When you face with those doubts,
compare the pair. It makes it clear that prayer
is truly worth it. Let's pray now. Heavenly Father,
we thank you that prayer is rewarding, beneficial
and powerful. We thank you that you have blessed
us so abundantly through the death and resurrection
of the Lord Jesus. We thank you that you hear
our prayers, answer our prayers and do what is
best for us. through our prayers. Please, Father,
whether individually, whether corporately, make
us a people who love prayer. And we ask this
in Jesus' name. Amen.