Sermon OTM – Matthew 6:5-8

Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord, Join us here today

Eagerly we thank you.
For all the good you give us
Every grace
Every mercy
Every reassurance
Every redirection
Every happy surprise
Every warm smile
Every hope

And for those things that confuse us
Upset us
Disappoint us
And those things that generate fear
And resistance
And resentment
And for those things that sap our joy
Undermine our confidence
Overwhelm us
Discourage us
Knock us down
Throw us back
We thank you just the same

Knowing all along of Your great love for us
Your abiding care
Your steadfast presence
How you catch us when we fall
How you make things new
How you repair what has been broken
How you walk beside us through everything

Thank you, Lord
Thank you, for all of it
Thank you, for every little thing
For this moment
For each breath
For life
Thank you, Lord
Thank you
Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, they have received their reward.”
Matthew 6:5

Intro: The next point of Jesus’ sermon has to do with prayer

I don’t think you need me to teach you anything about prayer
– one year in Russia, an orphan tried to teach me the alphabet
• but she gave up on me – there was just one letter, I could not pronounce well enough to please her
◦ I couldn’t even hear the sound she was making when she said the letter
• prayer isn’t like that– prayer is the native language of every child of our heavenly Father
◦ we may feel we’re not doing it right,
◦ but God hears what we feel and need even if we can’t put those things into words
– there’s no Christian life or experience without prayer
• if you want lessons on prayer, read the Psalms
◦ there you’ll find every prayer imaginable, and nothing is out of bounds
• otherwise, there is also Paul’s explanation of how God’s Spirit helps us and prays within us
◦ and in those instances, words are optional

Jesus doesn’t begin here by teaching us how to pray

He first tells us how not to pray
“you must not be like the hypocrites”
– for the people Jesus had in mind, prayer wasn’t primarily about seeking God, or his help
◦ they may have used familiar words of praise or petition.
◦ but that wasn’t what was in their hearts
• for the hypocrites, prayer was a means to draw attention to themselves
◦ to put their “deep devotion” to God on display

Let’s go back over the ground Jesus has covered one more time
– if his disciples were going to enter the kingdom of heaven,
• their righteousness would have to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees (Mt. 5:20)
• they had to live closer to the heart and spirit of the Law
◦ that meant being devoted to right relationships
1. Their relationship to God had to be right
• not by being religious and legalistic
◦ or be doing the bare minimum of what the Law demanded
◦ but in loving God above everything else; trusting him and obeying his voice (cf. Jer. 7:22-23)
• this devotion had to be internalized
“the LORD said to me, ‘I have heard the words of this people which they have spoken to you. They are right in all that they have spoken. Oh that they had such a heart as this always to fear me and to keep my commandments . . .” (De. 5:28-29)
2. Their relationship to everyone else had to be right
• acting toward them in loving ways had to be the priority
• and this had to be internalized as well
◦ it’s not enough to not cause harm to others, but they had to not want to cause harm to anyone else
– the scribe’s and Pharisee’s “righteousness” was inferior, because it was only external and grossly compromised
• they didn’t get it right, because God’s Law was no written in their hearts

So now, when it comes to prayer, what hypocrites loved about it,
– was the attention they got when others noticed them praying
• the hypocrites used prayer to enhance their image
◦ they were not praying with the proper purpose in mind
• to be seen praying, gave them instant gratification
◦ they immediately received the reward they wanted
◦ and, in the process, forfeited any reward they could have received from God

Is it possible to offer a prayer in public and not be conscious of others who are present?
– probably not – but even then we cannot lose prayer’s essence
• and that is to be aware of God’s presence and speak directly to him

Jesus recommends a better environment for prayer
“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” Matthew 6:6

Make it private and make it personal
– last week, Jesus told us when we give to charity, to do it in secret
• he gives the same instruction here
◦ but he adds something
• he uses the same phrase twice, changing only one word (in English):
“your Father who is in secret” and
“your Father who sees in secret”
– this is my greatest frustration with prayer: God’s hiddenness
• we do not live in the same dimension as God and we do not share his “nature”
◦ God’s existence transcends our existence
• so we cannot see, hear, touch, or physically approach God
◦ I assume this was also a frustration for the prophet Isaiah
(when God had made awesome promises that seemed impossible to ever fulfill)
“Truly, you are a God who hides himself,
O God of Israel, the Savior” (Isa. 45:15)
◦ God’s response to Isaiah, in essence, was
That may be so, but,
“I did not speak in secret,
in a land of darkness;
I did not say to the offspring of Jacob,
‘seek me in vain.’
I the LORD speak the truth;
I declare what is right” (Isa. 45:18-19)
– it seems to me that Moses spoke to this issue too
• he told Israel they didn’t have to go searching for God’s will
◦ it wasn’t far off, somewhere up in heaven or beyond the sea
“But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it” (De. 30:11-14; cf. Ro. 10:5-11)

Now we can understand the importance of contemplative prayer
– and why it plays an important role in the life of Reflexion
• it is one of our spiritual disciplines in seeking God
• we bring our awareness to God’s presence here and now
– when we approach our heavenly Father in prayer, we find him in secret
• and even if we don’t see him, he “who sees in secret” sees us

Jesus raises one other concern
“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” Matthew 6:7-8

Already, Jesus is giving more space to prayer than he did with charity or will do with fasting
– it seems to be important to Jesus, as though he wants to help us make the most of our prayers
• Luke provides several examples of Jesus encouraging his followers to pray
• so he tells us no not be like the hypocrites, on the one hand,
◦ and not be like the Gentiles on the other
– these are two opposite ends of a religious spectrum:
• the hypocrites were obsessive about their one true faith
• Gentiles were pagans who did not know Israel’s God
◦ The New Living Translation may get us closer to the point Jesus is making:
“When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again”

In the past couple of years, I’ve begun to catch myself praying “empty phrases.” It’s like I have, over the years, developed prayer habits, so that I make repetitious requests without any thought or sincere attention to what I am saying. God neither desires nor deserves this nonsense.

I want to clarify two points so we hear Jesus correctly
– first, Jesus is not saying we should not pray long prayers
• there are several long prayers recorded in the Scriptures
◦ in fact, Jesus prayed a long prayer in John 17
◦ he could also spend an entire night in prayer
– second, Jesus is not saying we can never repeat a prayer
• I’ve heard some preachers say, “Faith means you ask just once”
• when Jesus prayed in Gethsemane, Matthew tells us,
“So leaving [the disciples] again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again” (Mt. 26:44)
– give as much time to pray as you feel you need
• ask and keep on asking until you receive your request, or
◦ until God lets you know you can stop asking
“And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart” (Lk. 18:1)

What Jesus does here, is correct our assumptions regarding prayer
– there are gimmicks or devices we can use to try to make prayer “work”
– Jesus wants us to know that instead of those things, we have a heavenly Father,
• and he knows our needs, but still wants us to bring them to him
Amy-Jill Levine, “The purpose of prayer is not to get God’s attention. We already have God’s attention.”
• Jesus has more to say about this later in this same chapter

Conclusion: One of my resources this time, going through the Sermon is Jonathan Pennington’s
excellent commentary
Pennington wrote that Jesus’ point here wasn’t to “provide instructions on proper mode of praying”
I would not dare to disagree with such a wise, educated and gifted scholar,
yet I feel differently about this
Since personal and private prayer is the heartbeat of our spiritual life,
we need helpful, truthful, insightful teaching to get it right
So, even if the “proper mode of praying” is not Jesus’ main point,
he is at least reporting an assumption he has regarding his view of prayer
A proper mode of prayer includes having a secret place you share with our Father,
and that, in itself, forms a special bond between you and God