Well, good morning.
I do have one other quick announcement
that I heard from Chris Hill this morning.
Next Saturday is our Rake and Run event,
which is youth group and others are helping to rake people's lawns.
Now, you may have noticed in the last week,
all the leaves from all the trees fell onto the ground,
except for the oak tree in my backyard,
which is still holding back half of it for November or December.
So it's holding back.
But if you have a lawn and would like help getting it raked,
or if you have a neighbor who has a lawn
and they would use help being raked,
if you could please contact Chris Hill.
His contact information, this announcement's been in the weekly email.
It's on the website as well.
I just wanted to mention that
because he still has space in his slots for more people.
So contact him to see whether that will work into the plans,
but they would love to serve more than what they have signed up for right now.
All right.
Well, this morning, I have a desire,
and that is to renew your and my prayer lives.
Whenever we talk about prayer, it's easy to just feel guilty, right?
It's kind of like, how's your diet going?
How's your prayer life going?
It's always going to be guilt-inducing whenever we talk about it.
And it's easy for us to fall into seeing prayer as a duty and not a delight.
But in fact, prayer is a gift,
and I hope to renew that joy that God intends for us to have in prayer this morning.
Why am I talking about this?
Well, because this is what Jesus is talking about this morning in the Sermon on the Mount.
We're in a series going through Matthew chapters 5 through 7,
and Jesus is proclaiming the kingdom that he is bringing,
the distinctive nature of the kingdom that he will bring as he is coming into the world.
And as we've seen over and over again,
one of the major things is that it is marked not by external conformity,
but by heart transformation.
And what we see in chapter 6 of Matthew is one of three…
we see three spiritual disciplines,
and if you want to hear more about that,
Pastor Nick preached a great sermon that was a bit of an overview of this whole section
about the way that spiritual disciplines are God's gifts
to train our hearts to be active in pursuing his kingdom in the right ways.
And Jesus assumes that when we pray, when we give, when we fast,
that we're doing these things,
and he wants to instruct us on how to do it.
Not like the first century Jews,
not like the non-Jewish people of the first century,
but distinctively praying as followers of Jesus.
So that's what we're going to look at this morning.
If you want to turn in your pew Bible,
we're going to be on page 761.
We're going to be looking at Matthew 6, verses 5 through 15,
and we're going to be looking at the question,
what does Jesus have to say to us about prayer this morning?
Let's go ahead and read the passage,
and then we'll pray and ask God for his help in understanding it.
Matthew chapter 6, starting in verse 5.
And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites,
for they love to stand and pray in the synagogue and at the street corners,
that they may be seen by others.
Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
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.
Pray then like this.
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
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.
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.
This is God's Word.
Will you pray with me?
Lord, thank you for this word.
We thank you that in your, Lord, infinite wisdom,
you have given us instruction on how it is that we might pray to you.
And Lord, we need this.
I need this this morning.
Lord, by your Holy Spirit,
teach our hearts to delight in your ways.
Teach our minds to think after your thoughts.
Teach our will and our hands to do what you have called us to do.
Lord, we pray that we might know you more
in the grace that you've shown us in the gospel this morning.
May we sit under your word this morning, we pray.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
Kingdom prayer frees us from our self-centered hearts
to live a God-centered life.
So we're going to look at this in two sections.
They're not balanced in length.
The first section is verses 5 and 6
about how kingdom prayer frees us from self-centered religion
to communion with God.
And verses 7 through 15,
kingdom prayer frees us from self-reliant religion
to trusting God.
So let's see how this plays out
and what it is that Jesus has to tell us this morning about prayer.
Starting then in verses 5 and 6,
how kingdom prayer frees us from self-centered religion.
Jesus starts by saying in verse 5,
when you pray, you must not be.
So he's starting with a negative example.
He says you must not be like the hypocrites.
And if you remember from last week,
Pastor Nick talked about how hypocrites in Greek culture
were those who were actors who wore a mask.
And so they put on an external thing
to play a role that didn't match the internal reality
of their being in their heart.
And this created a dissonance.
And Jesus says don't be like these people
who are disintegrated between their outside and their inside.
He goes on to explain what does this look like for them.
For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues
and at the street corners that they may be seen by others.
And here Jesus hones in and focuses on the heart issue
that he really wants to get at in this first point about prayer,
that they may be seen by others.
Right?
Jesus isn't saying they shouldn't be praying in the synagogues.
He isn't saying that they shouldn't be praying on the street corners.
He isn't saying that you shouldn't be standing while you pray.
What he is saying is if you are praying to be seen by others,
this is the problem.
This is not a benign visibility where I want to live my life before others
so they can see God's gracious work in me.
This is a thirst and a hunger for the praise and acclaim of others.
This is a desire for us to improve our reputation
so that people will think,
oh, he's a great spiritual man or woman.
Look at the way he prays.
It's possible that some in the first century in the Jewish community
would time their day and their travels
so that they might find themselves on the right street corner
to be seen by the maximum number of people
when their time for prayer would come about during the day,
calculating so that they might be seen by the most number of people
as they pray or to make sure they get the right seat in the synagogue
so when they stand up, everyone says,
oh, yes, brother so-and-so is praying again today.
What a great prayer he is.
Friends, there can be such a danger, isn't it,
in us just wanting to look spiritual
rather than being spiritual
because when we look spiritual,
when we think other people think of us as spiritual people,
it helps us.
We feel secure.
We feel important.
We feel worthwhile in the religious community around us.
But in doing so,
we take something that God intended for us to be towards him
and we turn it towards others.
And we do it for our own selfish ego boost.
And Jesus does warn us.
He says,
if you do that,
you will have your reward.
Because we all know this is true, right?
We all know it's easy,
even in a church,
even in a good church,
even in a Bible church,
even in a humble church,
it's so easy for us to fall into this looking good before others
and other people are going to give us praise for it,
for our performance.
But Jesus says we are not to pray like this.
This is a misguided application
of the principle and the practice of prayer.
He says,
instead,
we should be seeking communion
with our Father
who sees
not in this assembly,
but who sees in secret.
He says,
go to your room.
And it's fun.
Do a little word nerdery into this.
Your room is probably
a storehouse
in the middle of a first century home
that had no windows
so that no one could see in
and was often the place
where the treasures of the household
would be kept
because they'd be most protected
and you couldn't break the window
to reach in and steal them.
I think there's richness
in that imagery of
this is the room to go in
where no one can see you
but God Himself.
Just a side note.
Jesus is not precluding public prayer.
Obviously, we just did it.
We'll do it again.
Right?
He's not saying that we shouldn't do this.
Jesus Himself prayed in public
when He fed the 5,000
before He raised Lazarus from the dead.
And the epistles seem to indicate
in 1 Timothy 2
and in 1 Corinthians 11
that in the assembly
people are praying before others.
So it's not a complete condemnation
of public prayer.
But again, it's the heart attitude.
When you pray,
and the instruction here is to say,
do the practice of closet prayer
so that you learn
that prayer is about communion with God.
So that even when you're praying
with others around,
you're not looking at them,
but you are looking at God.
He is to be our focus.
And friends,
what a great and wonderful
and beautiful invitation this is.
That God invites us
to actually talk to Him.
Think about how distinctive that is
from religions of the world.
How many people feel
are invited by their God
to come and have communion with Him
in a secret room.
And friends,
we need to be careful too
that this communion
isn't a baptized version
of what's running around
in our world today
of simply mindfulness.
Now I want to be careful here.
Mindfulness done properly
can be a helpful technique.
It helps us recognize
how our bodily positioning
and rhythms can affect
how we are in the world.
It can help us grow
in self-awareness
of the things it causes.
But so often,
mindfulness in our world
has replaced communion with God.
And mindfulness
can so easily be
emptying ourselves,
but ultimately,
it's actually still focused on us.
I want to be at peace.
I want to feel peace.
I want to lay aside my anxieties.
And ultimately,
it's about us.
But when God invites us to prayer,
He says,
we are to go into prayer
so that we can look to Him
and have communion with Him.
And if some of the techniques
of bodily position
or quieting your mind,
if that's helpful
in getting you there,
that's great.
But make sure that God
is the end of it
and the goal of it
and the center of it,
that you might have fellowship
with Him.
And recognize that
in all of this passage,
have you noticed
how many times
Jesus reminds us
that it's not just to God,
the transcendent God
who is the creator
of all the world,
but God, our Father,
who sees in secret.
Ten times in 18 verses,
Jesus calls God,
our Father.
He is a Father
who delights
when we turn to Him,
when we run to Him
to tell Him about our day,
when we call on Him
in an emergency,
because we need to hear His voice
and we need to hear His instruction
and we need to know His embrace
and His comfort.
He delights when we come to Him
with a single-minded devotion,
love, and dependence.
He delights when we know
that He is always there,
that He always loves,
that He always hears,
that He always sees.
this is the Heavenly Father
that Jesus knows
and calls us
to be in prayer with.
Some of us haven't had
human fathers like that,
and it's hard to imagine God
being like that.
But let the Scriptures
transform not only your thoughts,
but your emotional pathways
to see that God is a God
who loves you
and delights for you
to come to Him
in communion.
So do you see then
this pattern,
how it frees us
from the performing,
self-centered,
religious prayer
that so often
we fall into?
Right?
At a church like Trinity,
we might fall into
a danger of preaching
rather than praying.
Have you ever noticed that?
Sometimes we want to say
so much about God
that we're not talking
to Him in our prayers.
Something for us
to grow in.
Sometimes,
here at Trinity,
we're too self-conscious
about being theologically
correct and precise,
and some of us feel like,
oh, I can't pray at all
in this church.
Oh my gosh, no.
I might say something wrong.
Do you see how both of those
are still very self-centered prayer?
They're not looking to God
who is our Heavenly Father
who invites us.
And if we stumble,
and if our theology
isn't always right,
we can gently encourage
one another towards the truth,
but let us have freedom
in prayer in this.
What does it look like
to go into your closet?
Some of you are really busy people.
You never get five minutes
to yourself,
it feels like,
during your day.
What does it look like?
Maybe it's prayer along the way.
Maybe it's praying in the car
as you're running errands.
Maybe it's prayer before bed
or when you wake up
in the morning.
And look, there's no form.
You can walk.
You can kneel.
You can sit.
You can stand.
You can do it anywhere.
And you know what?
If you need to,
the church is open
from nine to four every day.
Come here if you want to come
and just sit in the quiet
and pray if you have
that freedom of time.
You can speak your prayers.
You can think your prayers.
You can write your prayers.
You can sing your prayers.
You can turn them
into spoken word poems.
Do whatever you want to to pray.
God gives us great freedom
and form and place
because He wants us to come
into communion with Him.
So this is the first thing
Jesus teaches us.
Don't fall into self-centered
religious prayer,
but let it be a pursuing
of communion with God
as we pray.
Jesus then goes on,
and if you're noticing,
Pastor Nick mentioned
this last week,
there's this pattern
verses three and four is one
and then verses five and six is one
and then we'll see
verses 16 and 18.
It's almost a formulaic pattern.
Verse seven,
Jesus breaks out of it completely.
He's like,
oh, I have more to say to you
about prayer than just this pattern.
So here we go.
He says,
kingdom prayer frees us
from self-reliant religion.
To trust God.
So,
he's already said,
don't be like the Jewish people
who do it to be seen by others.
That's their fault.
That's their heart condition.
It's not just because they're Jewish.
It's because their heart is wrong,
right?
And now he goes after the Gentiles.
And the Gentiles here
don't mean their ethnic identity.
It means people who don't know God.
People who worship other gods
who are atheists.
People who just don't know God at all.
And he says,
what do they do?
Look with me in verse seven.
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.
Empty phrases is a fascinating word.
It's only used once,
not only here in the Bible,
but throughout all of antiquity.
This is the only time
this word has ever been used.
So we have lots of translations.
Some say babbling.
Some say vain repetition.
Some say,
as the ESV,
heap up empty phrases.
Another says thoughtless repetition.
At the core of it,
what's the problem?
Again,
the form is not the key,
but it's the heart
that's the key.
That they will be heard
for their many words.
Artie France just mentions
that prayer in the non-Jewish world
in the first century
was often characterized
particularly by formal invocations
and magical incantations
in which the correct repetition
counts rather than the worshiper's
attitude or intention.
This seems to be at the heart
of what Jesus is warning us against.
And we might talk about other religions
and how other religions pray,
but I want to focus in
on how we as the church,
broadly speaking,
has fallen into some
of these patterns ourselves.
Right?
And I want to be careful
because there is a joy in learning.
I have experienced great joy
in learning from brothers and sisters
from different theological traditions,
from different parts of the world,
different cultures.
So I want to be careful to say
there's lots for us to learn
from one another about how to pray.
But here are two strands
that I could see
that maybe we would fall into
around here that might be dangerous.
One is because we live
in a predominantly Catholic,
I don't typically pick this out,
but the praying of the rosary
is problematic
in light of Jesus' teachings here.
Okay?
If you don't know,
the rosary is a necklace
and there's a process
that you go through
and you pray through things.
And there are ways in which
it could be a helpful tool.
But in the midst of it,
there's a repetition
three times
and then ten times,
multiple times,
of Hail Mary,
full of grace.
Right?
And apart from the theological
misdirection of prayer
that is a serious problem
because we're not called ever
to pray to Mary,
there's also this pattern
of repetition
that seems to be
a heaping up
of saying the same thing
over and over and over again.
The official Catholic website says,
repetition is to help us
to calm your head.
But when I look at this pattern,
I think,
really?
Three times?
Ten times?
Over and over again?
This is how everyone
ought to pray
all the time?
How easy is this
to start to feel like
it's mechanical
or magical
and formulaic?
So that's on one end
of the spectrum.
There's another kind
of problem with prayer.
This comes more
from the Pentecostal
charismatic end
of the church
where there's a deep rejection
of all liturgy,
of all formal...
But there is,
at times,
what creeps in
is this kind
of magical thinking.
If we pray
the name of Jesus
in just the right way,
there is power
and we're going to repeat it
over and over again.
And in that,
we're going to see
God moved
and the world changed.
And friends,
I have to tell you,
the kind of repetition
that I hear
sounds a lot like
what Jesus
is concerned about here.
because remember,
what is He concerned
about the most?
That God will hear us
because of our many words.
Friends,
is this the God
of the Bible?
Right?
This is a fundamental
misunderstanding of prayer
because it's a misunderstanding
of who God is.
God doesn't need us
to come to Him
in a particular form
or a particular way.
He is not impressed
or moved by the volume
or the repetition
of how many times
we pray for something.
Verse 8 is so central here.
God knows what you need.
Is God going to be moved
because you say,
hey God,
I have this need
that you don't know about.
What does He not know about?
God,
I have this thing
that I deeply care about.
Can you please do something?
As if He didn't already
care about you
and the situation
you're praying about.
God knows these things.
Don't believe
that you're going to move God
to do something
He doesn't want to do
because of how you pray.
We're not informing God
or convincing Him
by how we pray.
God is a good
and a loving
and a heavenly Father
and He delights in us
as we come to Him.
Every parent knows this.
We know the needs
of our kids
and sometimes
when they come
and ask for it,
it gives us great joy
to respond
in a particular way
in that moment.
But our provision
is not contingent
upon them asking
and our love for them
is not contingent
on how they ask.
God is a good Father.
And because this is true,
it means
some liturgical prayer
can be great.
It can be really useful.
I've been really helped
by reading
and sometimes
even actually
just praying the words
of historical prayers.
The Valley of Vision
is a great book
that's a book
of Puritan prayers
or Every Moment Holy
that you may have seen
that's prayer
in everyday life.
These are helpful tools
when we use them
to tune our heart
and to go to God,
not because we think
He's going to hear us
by how we do it,
but because these help us
in our prayer to God.
And it's okay for us
to pray for a long time.
Martin Luther used to get up
and pray for three hours.
Now, he was a monk,
so maybe he had a little
latent Catholicism in that.
But even so,
he, you know,
it's okay for us
to pray for a long time
as long as we don't think,
well, I'm going to be
more spiritual
and people are going to think
I'm a greater person
because I pray longer
or God's going to hear me more
because I pray longer.
Those are the things
that Jesus is saying.
Don't fall into these traps
because when we do that,
prayer gets misguided,
misdirected.
Rather than having communion
with God, our Father,
it becomes something else.
And so having warned us
about all these things,
Jesus gives us a form.
He gives us a model prayer
that we can repeat verbatim
or we can use it as a model
to think about how we pray.
It's called the Lord's Prayer.
You heard me
when I read it earlier
and it seems that it was
picked up early in the church
and used repetitively
or regularly in gatherings
of corporate worship.
Some of you may wonder,
what about the ending?
For thine is the kingdom
and the glory
and the power forever and ever.
Amen.
That I grew up learning
when I was a kid
in the church that I grew up in.
Well, the church added that
maybe from a verse in,
sorry, I didn't put it in my notes.
I can't remember.
Second Chronicles,
First Chronicles,
something or other.
They pulled this phrase
from somewhere else
and added it on to the end
in the form that the church used
outside of the Scriptures.
It's okay that we did that.
It makes it a rich prayer, right?
It's scriptural.
But it's not here.
It's not what Jesus taught
in Matthew 6.
He gives us this form to pray.
Now, you're all looking
at your clocks and thinking,
oh my gosh,
is He going to preach
through all of this now?
It's already 1115.
So, here's the good news.
We're going to come back to this.
We're going to preach this week.
We're going to have
a Thanksgiving service,
testimony service next week.
We're going to preach
one more time on fasting.
Then we're going to go into Advent.
And on January 5th,
we're going to come back
to the Lord's Prayer.
And we're going to preach through it
line by line
through January and February.
So, we're going to do this deep dive.
So, I'm going to do it
at a really high level
for the next few minutes.
What does Jesus teach us
in this model of prayer?
The first thing is
He starts with a God-centered focus.
Our Father who is in heaven,
hallowed,
that is,
make holy
or set apart
your name
is great
and beautiful.
Jesus says,
when we pray,
let's start by looking at God,
the personal
and transcendent God
who invites us
as a heavenly Father
to come to Him
because He is benevolent
and gracious.
And then,
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done
on earth
as it is in heaven.
Our focus is not,
God, this is what I need
and this is what I want
and this is how I want you
to act in the world.
But God,
what do you want in this world?
What do you,
what is your plan?
What is your will?
How is your kingdom
going to come to this earth?
Not my kingdom coming to heaven,
but your kingdom coming to earth.
We start with a God-centered expression
because we want to orient our hearts
towards Him.
And then from that,
Jesus says,
and then having fixed our eyes on Him,
then we can say,
give us this day
our daily bread.
God, provide for our everyday needs.
You know them all.
You are the one who provides
all that we have.
Lord, we are reminding ourselves
and reminding you,
God, you will provide.
Give us this day
our daily bread.
But recognize that
as He talks about His needs,
He doesn't go on about
my car that needs repaired
and Aunt Josie's,
you know,
corns on her toe.
Look, it's fine to pray
for all of those things.
But recognize that for Jesus,
in this prayer,
there's one line about
give us this day
our daily bread.
And then He goes on.
And the other needs
that He asks for
are actually more
spiritually oriented.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive others.
And deliver us from temptation.
Right?
Lead us not in temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Keep our spiritual lives
from being destroyed
by sin,
by Satan.
Lord, help us
to remember
and to live in
the grace in which
we now stand in Jesus
that is the grace
of Your forgiveness
of our sin.
I want to say something
really briefly
about verses 14 and 15.
And again,
we'll come back to this
probably much more in depth.
But I don't believe
Jesus is making
our forgiveness
from God
conditional.
That would seem
to be contrary
to say Ephesians 1.7
where it says
the forgiveness of sins
is a gift of grace,
not because we have
deserved it
or done anything
to earn it.
But I think instead,
maybe Ephesians 4.32
is a key,
that we are to forgive
as the Lord
has forgiven us.
Jesus is calling us
to remember
our salvation
and the forgiveness
that God has given us
and then to be forgiving
towards others
because that is true.
And there is a warning
in there,
which is,
if we aren't forgiving
of other people,
do we really know
God's forgiveness?
But it's not a condition.
God only forgives me
as much as
I forgive others.
Jesus ends His teaching here
saying,
this is the most important thing.
This is the central.
This is the core, right?
It's bringing us back
to the gospel again.
Do you see how
prayer flows
from the gospel?
Because in the gospel,
what do we confess?
That a grace-filled God
in love
has initiated
towards us
with a plan
of salvation.
He sent
Jesus His Son
to rescue us
when we were lost
in sin,
far from Him,
enemies of Him,
rejecting Him
in our foolish pride
that thinks
we can control God,
in our foolish plans
of self-delivering
that by success
or by doing
the right things
we might actually
be acceptable to Him.
We had rejected God
in all of these things,
but God initiated
towards us
to say,
no,
that is not the way,
but I am sending
you the way.
Jesus has come
to save us
from our sin
in grace,
giving us
what we don't deserve,
the forgiveness
of our sin
through Jesus' death
for us,
the renewal
of our personal
relationship
with God our Father
so that we can
enter into Him,
a high priest,
Jesus,
who now sits
in the heavenly realms
so that when we
approach a God
of all glory
and honor
and holiness,
He doesn't cast us
away because of
our sinfulness,
but covers us
with the righteousness
of Christ
so that we can
actually approach
God the Father
through Jesus
and be received
and accepted
and heard.
The gospel tells us
that we have
a new spiritual life
where the Spirit
of God dwells
within us,
and this Spirit
will help us pray
heart-oriented prayers
to God
that are right.
This is the kingdom
that Jesus
is bringing,
a kingdom of those
who pray
to God their Father
because they know
that He
is a good
and loving Father
who delights
when they come
to Him
in need.
Let's pray.
Lord Jesus,
we thank You.
We thank You
for all that You
have done for us
so that we can even
do what we're doing
right now,
coming to You
in prayer.
Lord,
we pray,
we pray that
as we meditate
on this passage
that You would
renew us,
renew us
in our understanding
of what a good
Father You,
we have
in our God.
Renew us
in our desire
to come
to Him.
Renew us,
Lord,
in our sense
of utter dependence
and in our delight
in bringing our needs.
Lord,
renew us
in our worship
of our God,
our Father,
through Jesus.
Oh, Lord,
we pray these things
in Jesus' name.
Amen.