Teach Me To Pray

Introduction

I want to invite you now, if you will, to get your Bibles, particularly your New Testaments in hand, and go with me to the Gospel of Matthew. Portion of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6. This will be our text for this morning’s lesson. And for the most part, we’re going to be camped out in this section of Scripture, but we may vary from it. And so put your finger or a bookmark there or be ready to always come back to Matthew chapter 6 in our study this morning. I want you to think of a time, that time may be right now, or a time in the past where you wanted to learn how to do something. Maybe it’s something that you didn’t know how to do at all, or maybe it was something that you knew how to do, but you wanted to be better at that.

Think about that feeling of wanting to be better or learning how to do something. And many times, when that’s the case, when we want to learn to do something or learn to do something better, we may seek out an instructor. Find somebody that knows how to do it. And knows how to do it at a top level, and maybe they can show us how to do that. And if you’re fortunate enough to be in a place where that person is, someone who is gifted and expert in that field that you want to learn about. To be able to have the opportunity to learn from that person how to do that thing. Let’s step it up a knowledge. Let’s just imagine that you can learn from not just someone who excels at that thing, but the very best.

The undeniable expert in that field can be your instructor to teach you how to do that thing you want to do or want to do better. Now, the first thought that may come to many of our minds is I’d be a little intimidated by the best. But let’s add this into the mix. That best person, the person who excels at that has demonstrated to you and to others tremendous amount of humility and a willingness to teach, even to teach those who are extremely flawed and inadequate. In Matthew chapter 6 and the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray.

That we feel like we need to be better at praying. Whether that better simply means frequency or whether it means the quality of those prayers. Most Christians that I come across would admit, if taking a survey, that I need to be better at praying. And I can think of no better instructor than our Lord.

Who better? Who better than our great high priest who can both understand heaven and deity? And because of his incarnation, can understand flesh and blood. And so if he’s going to teach us to pray, we should listen. His disciples, we read in our Bible reading this morning in Luke chapter 11, the disciples, prompted by two things, came to Jesus and said, Teach us to pray. They were prompted by seeing Jesus pray. And wouldn’t you love to have been there to be able to eavesdrop on one of Jesus’ prayers to his Father? And so they were prompted by the fact that Jesus prayed and did so, don’t we imagine, expertly? And they were also prompted by John’s disciples’ ability and willingness to pray. And so they come to their Lord, the best instructor they could find, and say, teach us to pray.

I want us to come to our Lord with that same attitude this morning. Teach me to pray. Now let’s talk just think just a little bit about prayer. Prayer is at its simplest form and definition is simply a one-sided communication with God. We bow our heads, close our eyes, and we talk to God. That’s prayer. Now, the other side of that communication is again one sided, is God speaks to us through his word. And if we think about prayer being simply a communication with God, one thing that we first marvel at is that Jesus would even need to pray. Because he himself possesses all the qualities of deity. He was with the Father from the very beginning. I find it interesting, humbling, and telling that when Jesus was here upon the earth, this, our form of communication to God, was his form of communication to God.

While in the flesh, if he needed to speak to his Father, he did what you and I do. He bowed his head and prayed.

And we may be tempted to think of prayer as being unnecessary in our position, and it equally is not. We understand the omniscience, the omnipresence of God, that he is everywhere and knows everything. And so, why do I need to communicate to a God that knows everything, including the thoughts and intents of my heart. I need to pray to that all knowing and all seeing God because He told me to. We’ve said before that prayer is simply a microcosm of faith, I believe. God knows our faith, but he still asks us, according to James and the words of Jesus Himself, to demonstrate that by our works, by our actions, our obedience. And so though God knows the thoughts and intents of art, not only does he know what I’m thinking and what I’m wanting to say to him before I say it, he actually knows what I really need.

Before I even express it in that prayer, but he has still said, pray. And so let’s go to the discip at the disciples’ feet and to our Lord’s feet and listen to the instruction that he gives them and us in Matthew chapter 6. He begins in verse 5 of Matthew chapter 6, and when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray, standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly I say to you, they have their reward. But when you pray, go into your room, and when you shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place, and your father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

1. Why We Pray Matters

But when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore, do not be like them, for your father knows the things you have need of before you ask them. Here’s the context of this model prayer that we sometimes refer to as the Lord’s prayer. And two things at least stand out to me in this context, the lead up to him teaching them how to pray. The first thing is Jesus tells them and us that why we pray matters. Before he instructs us in the model of prayer of what to say and how to say it to our Father, he first says, let’s make sure that your prayer is going to be acceptable and therefore heard by God by making sure that you have the right why or the right motivation in prayer.

He begins before telling us how to pray, he begins by telling us how not to pray. The false hypocritical decision to pray simply to be seen. He speaks of these hypocrites who we assume are the Pharisees, who he will tell in this very sermon, who do their charitable deeds to be seen by men, who do their fasting to be seen by men. It should not surprise us that they will do their praying to be seen by men. And so why do we pray? And Jesus says the best way to solve any kind of hypocritical motivation to pray is just to eliminate that as a possibility by doing this where nobody can see or hear. Go to your room, some translation says into your closet, where it’s just you and God.

Any kind of hypocritical pretense is eliminated if there’s nobody there to see. Now here we must strike a balance, as we often must do in spiritual matters, because Jesus prayed in the public. The scriptures enjoin upon us the idea of praying together at times, like we would in this assembly. And so Jesus is not precluding any kind of public prayer from our prayer arsenal. But he’s giving us one tool to guard against it, that is absolute private prayer, and then warning us against the pretentiousness of simply doing it to be seen by men. I can think of two large arenas where I must check my conscience. Number one is in the public assembly. If I’m one of the men privileged enough to be able to serve publicly in this way, I stand before an audience.

We bow our heads together, and I lead them in prayer. Two sobering thoughts should come to me. Number one is the awesome responsibility entrusted to me to engage an entire audience in prayer together. And secondly, and close to that is, why am I doing this? Am I doing this to be seen of men? To be heard for my eloquence, for my large vocabulary, to be patted on the back for my deep spirituality because of the way that I led that prayer, or am I simply trying to help my brothers and sisters talk to God? A second arena in which I think I need to check my conscience would be maybe when I go out to eat. But just my family are with other brothers and sisters in Christ, that many times our practice is that we will there in public, like we do in private, offer a prayer before this meal.

2. How We Pray Matters

And again, why? What is my motivation in doing that? Am I doing that so that I can be seen? I don’t know the answer to all these questions. But I know that there’s a balance that must be struck, and I think rather easily can be struck if we are conscientiously serving God between the idea of letting your light so shine before men, while at the same time not doing these things to be seen by men. And so Jesus says, why we pray matters. He says, how we pray matters. Not in vain repetitions as the heathen do. Now we need a little bit of a history lesson to understand that, because though you may think you live in a neighborhood full of heathens, not the ones that Jesus was talking about here in the first century.

These pagan idol worshippers would often speak to their God, communicate to their God, pray to their God, and they would do so by simply chanting the same phrase over and over again. Dozens of times. The one phrase or one sentence would be uttered dozens, if not hundreds of times, in the chanting of this prayer. And Jesus says, your God is not a lifeless, dumb idol. He doesn’t need that. He just needs you to communicate. Now we may broaden that application to vain repetitions today. I can think of two applications that might be more applicable to us today. And one, ironically, I find it ironic that in the very context where Jesus condemns vain repetitions, we have a prayer, the Lord’s prayer, that is memorized and vainly repeated over and over again in some religious ceremonies.

That we just echo that back by rote memorization with no thought or heart given to that prayer at all. The second tendency we might have to violate the concept, at least of vain repetitions, is by just repeating phrases, catchphrases, dare we call them, that we hear in public prayer and other prayers, and just repeating those. Now, let me say this. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with borrowing, at least portions maybe, of this prayer and saying that, as long as you are praying from your heart. And there’s nothing wrong with saying something that’s been said before. It’d be difficult to do otherwise. But when he makes sure, both in a public and a private prayer, is that we give thought and we mean what we say.

3. Our Father in Heaven, Hallowed Be Your Name

Because it’s communication. No human being wants communication that is merely some kind of form letter. We want meaningful, intelligent communication. That’s what our Father desires. And so let’s look at this model prayer and see how we are taught to pray by our Lord. He begins by saying, and one thing that we noticed immediately about this prayer is the succinctity of this prayer. It’s a short prayer. That’s not to say that Jesus was against long prayers. He prayed them himself. But we can learn something of the value of this short and pithy prayer. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. This prayer not only teaches us how to pray, I believe it teaches us so much about our relationship with God. First of all, we recognize him as our Father.

We recognize that relationship with him, that familial relationship, that bond, that closeness. We recognize him not as just some powerful potentate. We don’t recognize him just as the judge and the creator of this world. We also recognize him as our loving, sustaining, blessing Father. Language means something, and certainly language used by God means something. And so when God chose family terms to describe our relationship to one another, and certainly our relationship to him, that means something. That speaks of the relationship that he wants to have with us. Our Father. Hallowed be thy name. I find it interesting the juxtaposition of this first phrase, our Father, which speaks of intimacy, which speaks of a close relationship, a personal relationship that we have. And then it’s followed up with hallowed be your name.

Hallowed just simply means to be held in reverence, to be treated as holy. You notice that juxtaposition? Our Father, this close, intimate relationship, and then paired with that is the idea of absolute respect and reverence due to him. Our prayer, our everyday language, and our lives should reflect that reconcilable conflict of a personal, close, intimate relationship with one to whom we give the absolute reverence and respect. Let’s think about how we can do that in our prayers. Our prayers, certainly our private prayers, and hopefully even our public prayers are to be intimate expressions. That destroys the concept of the vain repetitions. And if I’m really communicating to God, I am doing as He has requested. I am pouring out my cares and concerns, my anxieties are thrown at his feet.

This is going to be a true communication with one that I have a relationship with. There should be some comfortableness there. There should be some intimacy and closeness there, but I cannot allow that personal, close, intimate relationship to cross over and to be demonstrated through trivial, frivolous language or a frivolous attitude.

4. Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done

To speak of our Father and always treat him in a hallowed and holy way, yet at the same time recognizing He is our Father in the most intimate of ways. Let’s let that extend not just to our prayers, but to our everyday speech. The concept of taking the Lord’s name in vain is just as applicable today as it was when it was written by God on those tablets of stone. Treat God with reverence. The flippant and frivolous use of, oh my God, or its abbreviation, OMG, should have no place in the vocabulary of a child of God who holds his Father’s name as hallowed. Our Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done. This to many Christians is the most troublesome line in all of the prayer, because we recognize that that kingdom has now come.

That the rule of Christ and the rule of God is fulfilled in his messianic kingdom, and we experience that today. But this sentiment still should be a part of our prayer. That we still pray that God and Jesus rule not only in our lives, but in the lives of everyone with whom we have to do.

Now again, the ironic thing about this being expressed in prayer, thy will be done, because the Bible teaches us, I believe, that prayer, this communication to God, is an attempt to at least in a small way change the will of God. Or to at least affect the will of God. That’s much of what our prayers is about, isn’t it? We’re asking God to do something. God do this thing. We’re wanting to affect the will of God in some sense, but yet in its absolute sense, as demonstrated by this Son by His prayer in the garden, we accept ultimately and finally that the will of God be done, and certainly universally that His will, that obedience to His name be done on earth as it is in heaven.

5. Daily Bread and Debts: A Request Mingled With Recognition

Give us this day our daily bread.

But it’s a request mingled with the recognition. It is a request, give us bread. Give us our necessities. And by the way, the list there was of necessities, not of extravagant luxuries. But it’s not only a request to give us our daily bread, our daily sustenance, those things that we need to live, but I believe it’s also mingled with the recognition of the source of those daily breads. I recognize that this is from God. That He is the giver of every good and perfect gift. And every time I make this request or I make any request of God, I am also recognizing that He is the source of all of those blessings. Forgive us our debts. Sin is spoken of as a debt, as of a transaction that on the ledger sheet that there is something against us.

We recognize that concept. Unfortunately, we recognize all too well that concept of debt. But here we must recognize it in a different sense, not just in a spiritual versus a financial sense, but also in a sense in which this is a debt unlike any other debt. Because it is a debt that will cost both our physical and our spiritual lives. It is a debt which we cannot diminish. And so this is again not simply a request, this time a spiritual rather than physical request, but this is also a recognition of the source of that forgiveness. And it is also a recognition not just of the source of this forgiveness of our sins, listed here as debts, but it is also a request understanding the condition because Jesus says, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

6. Do Not Lead Us Into Temptation, Deliver Us

There’s a teaching moment in that. But there’s also the recognition of our obligation that if God is to give us these blessings, there’s something that we must do in turn to be a blessing to others. Forgive us our debts. And then finally, there is the request for spiritual help and guidance. Do not lead us into temptation. But deliver us from the evil one. Again, I believe this is a request that’s mingled with a recognition. And maybe a unrecognizable recognition. Because we certainly believe that this is a legitimate prayer to preach to pray. Do not lead us into temptation. Deliver us from the evil one. But how will God accomplish that? I do not know. But it’s a recognition that God works not just in my physical life to give me my daily bread.

And not just in some transactional sense to forgive the debts for the sins I’ve already committed. But that he works, or at least he wills to work in my life in a spiritual sense, inserting himself into my life, much the way he would in the physical sense by providing my daily bread. And again, how he does that, I do not fully understand. Because in all the times I’ve prayed this prayer or similarly, I’ve never seen bread magically appear upon my table. But I still recognize that God makes it so. And so it is in a spiritual sense. I pray, do not lead me into temptation, but deliver me from the evil one. I recognize that God not only has the power to do that physical and spiritual thing in my life, but that he has the willingness to do it.

Though I may not always see his hand at work. I know it’s at work. And he can provide for me physically, and he can help me spiritually.

For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Conclusion

Whether we call it the Lord’s Prayer or the model prayer, we’re all familiar with this. Probably most of us this morning could recite it from memory. But let’s recognize what this really is. This is Jesus answering his disciples’ request. This is Jesus answering our prayer in teaching us how to pray. You want to be better at this? Look at this prayer. Don’t just recite it mindlessly through some vain repetition, but look at it. What is Jesus telling me? The best instructor I could ever have in speaking to our Father is telling me how to pray. Would you join me in prayer? Dear God and Almighty Father in heaven. We’re humbled this morning, Father, as we bow our heads. Humbled that you would even hear our prayers.

We do not understand how one so high and holy, one in whom there is no flaw, no sin, or even temptation to sin, would want to hear from us. We are but filthy rags in your side. We don’t understand, Father, how one so powerful who could simply speak and all that we see and hear and marvel at came into existence. Would want to hear from such lowly, weak creatures. But we marvel at your love and at your humility. That you would not only listen to our prayers, but that you would covet those prayers. And that you would answer our prayers. Work in our lives, Father. Continue to bless us with the physical things of life. We know that our daily bread comes from you. We know, Father, that you can forgive our sins.

We know, Father, that you can work in our lives in a spiritual way that we cannot fathom as you lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from temptation, from evil, and the source of that evil. And Father, we need that more than all. Help us to live this life in a way that reflects your glory. And Father, we long for that day, that blessed eternal day where we can see you face to face and speak to you in hymns of praise. Help us to pray, Father. Hear our prayer when we fail. This is our prayer this morning in your Son. Through his instruction, we pray. Amen.