Matthew chapter 6, verse 5. This is the section
where Jesus has given us some instructions on
how to pray. This is a passage that we've looked
at a lot. I know in my time of being here, we
look at it from time to time. But I think it's
good for us to kind of refresh ourselves. With
these words, sometimes maybe we get in a spot
where we just don't really know what to say.
But I think it's always good for us to go back
and look at the Lord's Prayer. Sometimes you
may encounter people and they may say, well,
I don't know how to pray. Well, it's not really
a right or wrong way to pray so long as your
prayer comes from the heart. There is certainly
a wrong way to pray, as we're about to see Jesus
say. But the real key to all of it, which is
the key to everything that we do, is what's our
heart? What's the heart in which we're doing
it with? And so it's not about the words we say
or how long it is or how short it is or any of
that kind of stuff. It's about the heart in which
we pray. But Jesus gives us the prayer, the model
prayer, the Lord's Prayer here in this passage.
Let's pray, and then we'll get started. God,
we come to you. We thank you for your good words.
I pray, dear Lord, that we would be a people
that would seek you and that we would pray to
you not just for our needs but also offer up
praise to you, dear Lord. And I thank you for
each one that's here tonight. I pray that you
would free us from the distractions and the worries
of the world and that in these few moments that
we would see your word, that your word would
speak to us and your Holy Spirit would speak
to us. And I ask these things in Jesus' name.
Amen. Matthew chapter 6, verse 5. And when thou
prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites
are. Now let's stop there. Jesus says, when you
pray, don't pray like the hypocrites. Well, what
is a hypocrite? Well, a hypocrite, if you look
up the definition of that, that's somebody who's
essentially playing a role. It's somebody who's
wearing a mask. What you see is not really what
they are. And I think we need to be careful in
our life to make sure that we don't fall into
the trap of hypocrisy. Now maybe we say, oh,
I don't do that. And maybe we don't. I hope we
don't. But maybe sometimes we do. Maybe sometimes
we kind of play a role when we're in church or
we're around church folks. We kind of play a
role in the way that we act and the things that
we say and the things that we do. which is not
really genuine to who we are. Because maybe when
we go home, we act a total different way. You
come to church and you say, Oh, praise the Lord.
God is good. Let's follow the word of God. Praise
God. I love you, brother. It's a good day. And
then you get home, and then you start beating
on your wife. Well, that's kind of hypocritical.
It's kind of hypocritical to act one way like
you're something that you're really not. And
that's a trap of religion. Now that's one example,
but there's plenty of ways that if we think hard
enough, and probably don't have to think that
hard, that there are probably some days that
we come to church and maybe we look one way,
but maybe when we leave here there are some things
that aren't what they should be. And so it's
good if we recognize those things. Now we have
to say, okay, Lord, I see that. I see that in
my life. I don't want to be hypocritical. I don't
want to play a role. I don't want to try to make
myself look better when really there's all these
things that's in my life, flaws that are in my
life, things that are wrong with me. I don't
want to pretend, dear Lord. I just want to ask
you to help me, God. And Jesus says here, when
we pray, that we don't want to be like the hypocrites.
Now let's see what the hypocrites do. It says
that... For they love to pray standing in the
synagogues and in the corners on the streets,
that they may be seen of men. Now, I don't believe
that it's necessarily sinful to pray in public.
I think we see plenty of examples of that through
Scripture in the Old Testament and the New Testament,
that there are times that we see people, I think
we even see Jesus pray in public when he raises
Lazarus. So we see examples of people praying
in public, and I don't think that Jesus here
is just condemning all public prayer. Now, by
all means, if you read this passage and you feel
convicted that it is wrong to pray in public,
then by all means, you follow that conviction.
If you don't feel like that that's what God wants
you to do, I would never tell you to do something
against the conviction of the Lord. However,
I don't believe that Jesus is necessarily condemning
praying in public. What Jesus is really condemning
is the heart in which they pray in public. Okay,
they're praying on the street corner. They're
praying in the streets. Well, perhaps you've
done that too. It's a good chance, I'm going
to guess, that at some point in your life, maybe
you've encountered somebody on the street or
in the store. And they were going through something.
And maybe you say, can I pray for you? And if
you've never done that, maybe you need to consider
that. Man, that's a powerful thing. If somebody's
struggling, instead of saying, I'm going to be
praying for you, say, can I pray for you right
now? And maybe you've done that. I'm going to
guess that a lot of you probably have. And you
may have done that in public. I'm going to guess
that probably all of you have been to eat food
somewhere in public. And you probably stopped
and you probably said the blessing. Jesus prayed
in public whenever he fed the 5 ,000. And he
blessed the food before he served it. And so
I don't think Jesus is condemning the prayer
in public. He's condemning the heart in which
they are doing it. And what does he say? He says
they do it so that they will be seen by man.
So they know that if a friend comes by, then
that's going to seem pretty impressive. And so
maybe they see that friend coming down the street.
And instead of just praying when they want to
pray, they wait until that friend gets right
next to them. And then they say, Lord, I call
out. and the friend walking by says, boy, look
at that guy praying in the street. He is so holy.
And maybe we've been guilty of something similar.
Maybe there's a good work that we feel that we
need to do and maybe we do it and maybe it's
a good thing that we're doing. But maybe we're
guilty of waiting to do it until somebody's looking.
Waiting to do it so somebody knows that we've
done it. So that they can tell somebody else,
oh, did you see what he or she did? And word
can get back to you and you say, oh, stop it.
I don't want to hear it. But really, you do want
to hear it. Really, you do. You say, oh, I was
just doing what I was supposed to do. But really,
what you were doing is you were wanting that
praise. And maybe we're guilty of that sometimes.
Maybe you're not now. Maybe you have been in
the past. Maybe you're tempted to that regularly.
Maybe you'll be tempted to it tomorrow. Well,
that's what Jesus is talking about. He says,
look, don't. Don't do anything just to be seen
by people. What does he say moving forward? Verily
I say unto you, they have their reward. So if
what they want is the praise of men, if what
they want is for people to come by and say, look
at him or her saying that prayer, then that's
what they want, that's what they're going to
get. They're not going to get any blessing from
God. They're not really praying to God. They're
just... Praying to themselves, essentially. They're
praying for themselves. They're praying so that
they'll be seen. And Jesus says, there's their
reward. There's their blessing for their prayer.
Verse 6. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into
thy closet. And when thou hast shut thy door,
pray to thy Father, which is in secret. And thy
Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee
openly. Okay, so Jesus gives a good command here,
and some are very convicted that Jesus is strictly
saying you should only pray in private. And again,
man, if you believe that's what this passage
is saying, then by all means, then that's how
your prayer life needs to be. Don't ever feel
under pressure to pray in public if you don't
feel like that's what we're supposed to do. But
I think Jesus is just making a point here. He's
making a contrast. Not only do you don't get
out in the street to make a big deal out about
what you're doing, But let your prayer life just
be between you and God. Because that's really
all that matters. When we pray, it's between
us and God. Or at least it should be. But these
hypocrites, they're playing this role. They're
really pretty evil people. These are some of
the same people probably that Jesus has in mind.
The same ones that wanted to nail him to a cross.
I mean, they're wearing the mask of religion
and godly people. But really, they're just hypocrites.
They don't care about the word of God. They only
care about themselves. And so Jesus says, look,
don't be like them. Don't be like them in any
area as far as that goes. But in this particular
context, Jesus says, don't be like them in their
prayer life. Because they're praying to be seen.
And when you pray, that's not what our prayer
life should be about. He continues on. Verse
7. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions
as the heathens do, for they think they shall
be heard for their much speaking. Okay, so don't
use vain repetitions. Don't just say the same
phrases over and over like these kind of pre
-baked prayers that I'm just going to repeat
the same thing and same thing and pretty soon.
If we get in the habit of doing that, I think
our prayers are just, it just becomes habit.
We just do it. We just can recite the words without
there being any heart in them. And Jesus doesn't
want us to ever have a prayer life that falls
into that trap. So he says, do not use vain repetitions
as the heathens do, for they think thou shalt
be heard, for there are much speaking, or for
there are many words. That is to say, they say
all these long things, they just repeat the same
things over and over and over, and it's probably
long prayers that linger on forever and ever,
and they think that because they're saying all
these words that it must make them better. Well,
it doesn't matter how long or how short that
we pray. I don't think that that makes a bit
of difference. Now we can ramble on and we can
babble on and we can say all the right church
words, right? Sometimes we may do that. We think
we've got to use some special language or special
words that we never ever use anywhere else in
our life. But when we pray, we say all these
words because we think, well, this is how you
pray. Because we hear people maybe that's prayed
before us and they've used these specific words
and there's certain vocabulary that maybe we
just say, okay, well, I've got to use this vocabulary.
Now, I don't think there's anything wrong with
any particular word. But what we have to realize
is it's not about using certain words. It's not
about praying for a long time. Some people, I
can't pray good. Well, what is praying good?
Can you pray to God from your heart? Yeah, well,
you can pray good. If you can pray to God from
your heart and your prayer is, God, I love you.
Thank you for being good to us. Amen. Well, there
you go. That's a good prayer if that came from
your heart. But just rambling on forever and
ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and
ever. Now, maybe some people in the congregation
say, boy, that guy really knows how to pray.
Really? Well, he knows how to say a lot of words.
It'd take a long time, but we don't know anybody's
heart. Maybe that long prayer is straight from
the heart and praise the Lord. But Jesus in this
context says, hey, there are some who pray and
they pray really long prayers. But it's all just
for show. There ain't any substance to it. So
we don't want to fall into that trap. We don't
want to overthink our prayer life. I know sometimes
maybe we're tempted to do that. If we think,
oh, I'm going to have to pray in public. Or,
oh, what if I get called on? What am I going
to say? And maybe sometimes we're just overthinking
instead of just saying, what's on our heart?
Whatever that may be. However short that may
be. And that's what Jesus really wants from us,
is for a prayer life that comes from a good heart.
He says in verse 8, Be not ye therefore like
unto them, for your Father knoweth what things
ye have need of before ye ask. So we don't have
to say any fancy words or a lot of words for
God to make our case. It's not like God is a
judge sitting on the bench and we've got to try
to persuade him. to do what we want to do. Okay,
by the way, here's the thing. I need this person
to be healed, so I'm going to use these really
fancy words, and I'm going to pray for a long
time, and you're going to be in such awe of the
words that I am about to say, God, and how long
I'm going to pray. It is going to win you over
to answer my request. Well, God knows what we
need before we ask it, Jesus says. We're not
going to win God over. He's not going to say,
well, boy, I wasn't going to answer that prayer.
But man, he used some words there that not many
people use. So I'm going to answer that prayer.
That's not how God works. God knows what we need.
He just wants our heart to come to him and say,
God, man, here's what I need. Here's where I'm
struggling. God, I'm weak and I've failed and
I've sinned. God, forgive me. God, have mercy
on me. God, this person has done stuff to me
that's hard. I know I'm supposed to forgive them,
but God, I'm really having a hard time, so just
help me do that. Just whatever comes from your
heart. That's what God wants to hear. He already
knows what's there. He already knows what you
need. He just wants you to come to him. And so,
with that in mind, Jesus gives the following
instruction, which is why I'm reading from the
King James tonight. I suspect me, like many of
you, you probably learned the King James Version
of the Lord's Prayer growing up. And so, like
a lot of times, like when we say the Lord's Prayer,
like that's just the default version that comes
to our mind. And so that's why we're looking
at the King James tonight, because that'll be
the most familiar to us. Verse 9, Jesus says,
After this manner, therefore, pray ye, our Father
which art in heaven. hallowed be thy name thy
kingdom come thy will be done in earth as it
is in heaven give us this day our daily bread
and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors
and lead us not into temptation but deliver us
from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power
and the glory forever amen now what a beautiful
prayer now i think It's a beautiful thing for
us to pray that prayer, like just pray that specific
prayer. Jesus says, pray like this. I think we're
in pretty good shape if we pray this prayer.
I'm not saying our prayer life should be just
limited to these words, but even if it was, I
think we'd be doing pretty good. But the prayer
in and of itself is beautiful, but even if we
begin to look at it, it gives us a structure
for what our prayer life should look like. Okay,
what do we see in the first verse? Our Father
who art in heaven. Right? Okay, God is above.
He is above. We are below. It is God who has
created everything. Our Father which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. God is holy. He is holy
and he is worthy of our praise. So we are praying
to a holy God. We need to remember that when
we make our request. Now, we can talk to God
just like we would talk to a friend, but we need
to remember who we're talking to. We are talking
to the Lord God. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be
done. Okay? Whose will are we praying for? Whatever
it is that we ask for, we're praying for the
will of God to be done. We want the kingdom of
God to come. It's God's kingdom. We're working
to... Build the kingdom of God. We're working
to tell people about Jesus Christ so that they
can come into the kingdom. Jesus says the kingdom
of God has come near. And so when we pray, are
our prayers to build God's kingdom or are our
prayers something to build our kingdom? Jesus
says pray for the kingdom of God. Pray for the
will of God. Forgive us our debts. Okay. That's
another way of saying forgive us of our sins.
Well, that's pretty important. We probably sin
more than we care to sin. Probably sin every
day. Maybe not, but I think there's probably
a good chance we sin every day. So this is a
good thing. We need to continually bring our
sins before God and say, God, I've blown it.
I've sinned. I shouldn't have done this. I shouldn't
have said this thing. I shouldn't have acted
this way. So God, forgive me. But there's a second
part to that. Forgive us our debts. We forgive
our debtors. Okay. Well, that's good instruction.
That's a good reminder that we need to be forgiven.
And because God is willing to forgive us, then
we need to be willing to forgive others. Lead
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Well, that should be our desire, to be delivered
from that evil, that on whatever path that God
leads us on, that we stay away from whatever
evil or whatever temptations. Now, temptations
may come. They don't come from God. The Scripture
tells us that. But when we talk about temptations,
or we can say being tested, kind of the same
idea there, sometimes God does allow us to be
tested. We see a good example of that in the
story of Job. God doesn't test us. He doesn't
tempt us himself. But sometimes God will allow
temptation in our life, and that's the only way
that our faith can truly be proved to be true.
is we have to be tested. We have to go through
the fire so that the impurities can come to the
surface. We have to take the test, and sometimes
we fail the test, and hopefully when we do, we
go back and study a little more and see God a
little more. So lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one. Okay. We're
constantly going to be under attack. But dear
Lord, help me just to focus on you and to stay
on your path that I don't go astray, that I don't
get in a situation where I'm going to be tempted,
and that I'll have the power to overcome the
tactics of the evil one. For thine is the kingdom
and the power and the glory forever. Amen. And
just that simple. Just that simple. In these
couple of little verses, Jesus says, this is
how you need to pray. You need to pray to God.
You need to seek God. You need to seek God's
will. You need to seek God's forgiveness. You
need to seek to forgive others. You need to try
to walk on the path of God. And you need to pray
that God will protect you, that the enemy doesn't
tempt you along the way. And Jesus says, this
is how you pray. But it all comes down to the
heart in which we pray. Because I believe we
could say these words, and if our heart wasn't
really in it, Maybe they're no better than the
words of the hypocrite. So when we pray, we want
to be a people who pray from a right heart. We
don't want to be a people who put on a mask,
who put on a show in front of everybody else,
who pretend to be something we're not, because
what we are are sinners in need of a Savior.
We are sinners in need of grace. We fail more
than we care to admit. We are weak, but God is
good, and God is strong, and God is gracious,
and God is merciful. And God is holy and He is
worthy of our prayers. He is worthy of our praise.
And so let us be those who are not ashamed to
pray to the Lord and go to the Lord. Let us not
ever feel like, man, I don't know the right words
to say. You say what's on your heart. Those are
the right words to say. No matter how eloquent
you are or how short the prayer is, if you pray
the words that are on your heart, those are the
words that God hears. If we're praying for show,
That's our reward. If we're praying for the recognition
of men, then congratulations. Men have praised
you. But if you're praying for God, then pray
from your heart. And that's a prayer that God
will hear. Let's pray. God, we thank you for
your word. I pray that you would help us not
to fall into the trap of hypocrisy. And maybe
we have done that, dear Lord. Maybe there's a
part of us that likes that. that likes for people
to know what we do, that likes for them to say,
oh, how good and beautiful that prayer was. But
dear Lord, let us not fall into that trap with
our prayer life or anything else that we desire
the applause of men. But to dear Lord, we'd just
be a people that would seek you, that would pray
to you from our heart, that we would know that
you are God, dear Lord, that we would just come
to you with all of our needs and all of our struggles.
and all of the praise that you are worthy of.
And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.