Sermons of Redeeming Life Church

“How To Pray” (Matthew 6:5-15)

Do you ever struggle with knowing what to pray or even how to pray? Join us this week as Pastor Josiah preaches a sermon entitled, “How To Pray,” centered on Matthew 6:5-15. In his sermon, Pastor Josiah walks through the Lord’s Prayer verse by verse and unpacks the model for prayer that Christ gave to us during his sermon on the mount.

Duration:: 34m
Broadcast on:: 30 Dec 2024
Audio Format:: other

You're listening to a sermon preached at Redeeming Life Church. Well church, if you have your Bibles with you and I know that you do, I'd like to invite you to join me in the Book of Matthew. We're going to be looking at Matthew chapter 6 today. If you're using an electronic device, all the verses in that are going to be on our You Version Bible app under today's event, you can just go into more, find events, and find our church. Or if you're using one of those red church Bibles near you, we're going to be on page 859 today, page 859. You know, with a new year comes New Year's resolutions, some of them stick, most of them don't. We usually end up making the same New Year's resolutions year after year. Often times it's the same ones like lose weight or exercise more. We look at things that deal with our physical body or are things like our habits, like watching less TV, or maybe reading more books, we want to read more, or maybe we even want to read our Bible more. We start thinking about spiritual things and changes we want to make in our lives, like reading our Bible more, or praying more. I think many of us, if you were to ask yourselves, we want to pray more. We want to be a people who pray and pray more. But quite often the question that really stops us in our tracks is, well, what do I pray? Or how do I pray? But thankfully, Christ has given us a model for prayer to follow in the center of His concern on the Mount, almost smack dab in the middle, Christ gives us a wonderful model, an example of prayer that's commonly referred to as the Lord's Prayer. This prayer contains six petitions in two symmetrical parts. The first part with its three petitions focuses on God, and the second half with its three petitions focuses on us. That's why the first half has words like your, and the second half of the prayer has words like ours or us. So this model of prayer that Jesus shares is a prayer that really turns our hearts towards God and focuses our desires on Him and His Kingdom. So let's turn our attention now to the Sermon on the Mount and pick up Jesus' instructions in verse five regarding prayer, and then we'll take some time later on to break down the text and examine the Lord's Prayer together. As you check verse six, verse five says, "Whenever you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners, to be seen by people, but truly I tell you, they have their reward, but when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. When you pray, don't babble like the Gentiles, since they imagine they'll be heard for their many words. Don't be like them, because your Father knows the things that you need before you ask Him. Therefore you should pray like this, our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors, and do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For if you forgive others, their offenses, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well. But if you don't forgive others, your Father will not forgive you of your offenses. This is the word of God for the people of God. Will you pray with me? Dear Lord, I thank You so much for Your word, and I thank You for the model of prayer that we find here in Scripture. Lord, I pray that You would open in our minds and ears to hear Your voice today, and may we leave here transformed by the power of the gospel. Let's see in Your name, Lord, we pray, amen. So in these first few verses of our text today, you could really sum them up with this question. What's your motivation for praying? Well, this is a simple question that Jesus is asking, "Well, why are you praying?" This question lies at the heart of what He's speaking about. Now, to frame His statements here in context, we need to understand that public prayer was a commonplace activity in and around the synagogue. Jewish people would pray aloud publicly in the mornings, in the afternoons, and even in the evenings. Now, as with most things in this world, some Jews would be somewhat private and somewhat discreet in their public prayers, but then there were others who could come across as pretentious or really over the top with their affections before God. It's kind of like cell phone use today. Some of us in public can be very discreet, very quiet with our cell phone use. Others of us invite everyone in the vicinity to join us in our FaceTime conversation. I'm not passing any judgment, but I will tell you this. There's a reason that when we had phone booths, they could only hold one person. This is why Christ instructs His disciples not to be hypocritical in their prayers by seeking attention and favor from others, but instead, He tells them, "Go find somewhere private to pray. I have this conversation between you and God in a secret and quiet place." Now, this doesn't mean that Christ is saying that public prayers are not okay and that we shouldn't pray publicly, not at all. Now, obviously, there are several instances in Scripture where we see Jesus praying in front of others. If Christ can take a moment to pray for the fish and the loaves before feeding the 5,000 people, then surely we should take some time to say a prayer before we dive into great grandmother's tuna casserole. So what Jesus is reminding His followers of here is that our prayers are between us and God. Our needs are between our Abba Father and ourselves. Which is why Jesus goes on in verse 7 to say, "Don't babble like the Gentiles," since they imagine they'll be heard for their many words. Don't be like them because your Father knows the things you need before you ask Him. The reason for this vital clarification is because it was very commonplace for pagans to repeat the names of their gods or to repeat the same words over and over as part of their prayers without really thinking about what they were saying or why they were even saying it. So the heart behind what Jesus Christ is sharing here is that our prayers shouldn't come across as meaningless or mechanical, but rather should serve as heartfelt petitions and prayers and requests before God. I don't know about you, but far too often I find myself saying the same old things about the same old stuff in the same old way that I've always said before. When it comes to our Heavenly Father hearing the same half-hearted prayers from us over and over again, I have to imagine it's quite similar to hearing our own children as the same question over and over again. Are we there yet? Therefore, when it comes to our prayers Christ tells us, "Don't be obnoxious, don't be boisterous in the public square, and don't repeat a bunch of gibberish or meaningless mumbo-jumble that you don't really mean or that you don't even understand, but instead separate yourself and your mind from the world around you, get along with God and talk to Him like this, our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have been forgiven our debtors, and do not bring us into temptation but deliver us from the evil one." You know growing up, the only time I really read the Lord's Prayer was when I attended my grandmother's Baptist Church. She attended one of those old Baptist churches with the stained glass windows and the wooden pews and the gigantic pipe organ in the back. It was a really beautiful building, and every Sunday we would recite these familiar words of the Lord's Prayer together at the conclusion of the service, but there was just one problem. I didn't really know what we were saying, and no one really ever took the time to explain to me what these words meant. So in order not to be like the Gentiles and babble on words in our prayers that we don't really understand, I think it would be beneficial for us to discuss this model of prayer that Christ has given us. Therefore, let's break down this prayer and examine this prayer together, verse by verse. Verse 9 says, "Our Father in Heaven, Your Name be honored as Holy, our Father in Heaven." In addressing God as Father, Christ is reminding His disciples that we don't have a distant and unapproachable God that we're unable to come before, but rather that God is our Heavenly Father, which means that we are His children, and like any good Father, He wants to hear from us. All I want as a dad is to hear from my daughter, to talk with my child, and all God wants is our Heavenly Father is to talk with us, to hear from us, and to spend time with us. Your Name be honored as Holy, or hallowed be thy name. Signifies that God's Name is sacred, and as Christ's disciples, we should be treating God's Name with respect and honor and live our lives in such a way that is righteous and honoring to God's Name rather than profaning it. God is holy, regardless of whether or not we view Him as holy. Sometimes I think we're at a disadvantage because we don't live in the Old Testament times, when there is a separation between God and His people, when He was confined to a temple, and there was a distinct difference between the sacred and the secular that doesn't exist anymore, which is a blessing, because now we can gather together wherever, we can gather together in homes, we can gather together in a recreation center or in a high school gymnasium, but we must remember whenever we gather, or whenever we approach God, that God is holy and ensure that we treat His Name as holy. I've shared before that I've seen pastors refer to the Holy Spirit as the genie from Aladdin. They joke about how He's blue, and He grants all their wishes. This is not okay. God is a holy God. Verse 10 says, "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven." This is a prayer of not my will, Lord, but your will be done. Just as God's will is perfectly expressed in heaven, our prayer should be that His divine will is fulfilled here on earth as well. This is also a petition, not just for God's will to be accomplished here on earth, but for His kingdom to come and be fulfilled once and for all. Each of us just spent time at Christmas celebrating Christ and reflecting on His birth, while the birth of Christ signifies the beginning of God's kingdom here on earth, there's an already not yet view and sees it that we're in here as we await the fulfillment of God's final confirmation in Christ's forever reign. Come Lord Jesus. Come Lord Jesus should be our prayer. This is where we see that the Lord's prayer can be a model and not a script that we have to repeat verbatim. Oftentimes, you'll hear me pray, Lord, as we anxiously await your return, that's my way of praying, Lord, your kingdom come. Verse 11 says, "Give us today our daily bread." Now here in verse 11, we see Christ shift gears as the focus of the prayer changes from God in heaven to mankind in our needs or our concerns. This is where the prayer moves from those first three positions to those second three positions. Now there's been some confusion and concern over the years as to what Jesus meant by our daily bread. The early church fathers, such as Tutulian and Augustine, thought that the word "bread" here was referred to either the word of God or to the Lord's Supper. But however, future reformers such as Calvin and Luther believed that this portion of the Lord's prayer was not in reference to the spiritual food of God's word or in the observance of the Lord's table, but rather speaks to the necessities of everyday life. So what is it? Is God talking about spiritual bread or physical bread? While it's important that we spend each day studying God's word and reading our Bibles, while it's also vital that we take part in the Lord's Supper each week, I would agree with those like Calvin and Luther who received this verse to speak about the physical needs of our daily lives. "Give us today our daily bread." It's a prayer for each day's provision such as food, water, a roof over our head, clothes for our bodies, electricity and gas to heat and light our homes, and so forth. This part of the prayer serves as a reminder to come to God with our needs rather than our greed. This is why it doesn't say give us today a Black Trans Am. But rather says give us today our daily bread, otherwise this would be a prayer that talks about the source of excitement versus the source of nourishment. I believe Proverbs 30 verses 89 speaks powerfully to what Christ is instructing us to pray. Give me neither poverty nor wealth. Feed me with the food I need, otherwise I might have too much or deny you saying, "Who is the Lord," or I might have nothing and still profaning the name of my God. Give us today our daily bread or give us what we need for today so that we can trust in you, so that we can rest in you, and we are not going to be worrying about everything or stressing about everything. We've prayed in the morning, this petition that God would be aimed at the day ahead of us. If you prayed this prayer in the evening, this part of the prayer would be focused on the needs that are going to wait us tomorrow. Verse 12, "Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors." Now here in verse 12 we see a powerful reminder to show the same level of grace and forgiveness to others as Christ Himself has bestowed upon us. Forgiveness is just as essential to the life of our soul as food is to the health of our physical bodies. Here Christ likens sin to a debt, because just as a debt is wiped clean when a payment is made, Christ has wiped away our sins by paying the price for the charges that have been brought against us. Through Christ's sacrificial act on the cross, the charges have been dropped, and the price of our ransom has been paid, so as a result, Christ is reminding us through this petition as those who have been forgiven much, we should be mindful too to pass on that same level of forgiveness to others as well. And near the end of Matthew's gospel, we're going to see Christ share the parable of the unforgiving servant, where he outlines the selfish actions of a man who's forgiven an insurmountable debt by his master, only to turn around and imprison his own servant owes him very little in comparison. The reason for that parable and the reason for this section of the Lord's prayer is to remind us that we have been forgiven an impossible debt. There's absolutely no way possible for any of us to gain entry into heaven and receive forgiveness for our sins apart from the unconditional love and grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It's in the light of this great debt that has been paid on our behalf that God is calling each of us to show grace and forgiveness to others. And often, many of us, myself included, find it difficult to forgive others for the wrongs they've committed against us. One of the problems with this is that we oftentimes do their sins against us as having a greater weight than the sins we've committed against God. What is the likelihood that this is actually the case? Distilling our parking spot or cutting us up in traffic really holds more weight than the sins we've committed against God and the violation of his laws? I'm going to go with no. True repentance results in both a willingness to forgive ourselves and a desire to forgive others as well. It would be inappropriate for us to beg God for our own forgiveness and that harbor feelings of resentment and bitterness towards others who have offended us rather than showing them the same grace and mercy that God has bestowed upon us. Now I get it. When we consider those in our lives who have offended us, it's usually more severe than cutting us off in traffic or butting in line at the grocery store. Otherwise, we wouldn't hold on to these grievances for so long. Forgiveness is the hardest pill to swallow at times, but fortunately for us, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can gain the ability to see others through Christ's eyes and experience the freedom that comes from letting go of resentment and hostility. If we actually stop and truly consider the debts that Christ has paid on our behalf, how can we not in turn show that same grace to others as well? Think about it. In the meantime, let's look at verse 13, final verse of the Lord's Prayer. "Do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." In addition to needing forgiveness for our past sins, we also need God's assistance in avoiding and overcoming any possible future sins. As believers, we rightly understand that God does not tempt us, but He does allow us to endure times of trials or testings in order to increase our faith and strengthen our dependence on Him. When Christ was on His way to the cross, He prayed for Peter and the trials that He was about to face. He said, "Simon, Simon, look out." Satan has asked to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail and that you, when you have turned back, will strengthen your brothers. Christ didn't shield Peter from the trials or the difficulties he was about to face. Instead, God used those events that were about to unfold in Peter's life to make him stronger and to build him into the rock that the church would be founded on. It's through the various trials of this life and the temptations that we face that our faith is tested before God. As believers, each one of us is refined by the fires of life which causes us to grow and enables us to withstand the enemy's future attacks against us. The idea behind these words is this, "Lord, don't let us succumb to temptation, or Lord, don't abandon us in temptation. This is a petition of utter dependence on God's provision, its protection, and its power." The Lord's prayer is the prayer of a weak person offered up to a great and mighty God. Thus our prayer should be, "Lord, though we are tested by the fire, may we not be consumed by it." The word "deliver" here in verse 13 could also be translated as the word "snatch." Christ is using a powerful word here to describe the importance of being rescued from the devil's trap. The petition here is, "Grab us away from the enemy and protect us from the devil's schemes." This prayer should not just be a prayer for ourselves, but a prayer that we offer up for our fellow believers as well. I'm reminded of the words from Jude who instructed his readers to build yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting expectantly for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life. Have mercy on those who waiver, save others by snatching them from the fire. Have mercy on others, but with fear, hating even the garment, defiled by the flesh. As Christians, we need to build ourselves up, not only to protect ourselves against the enemy's attacks, and guard our hearts against the devil's schemes, but also so that we can snatch others from the fires of hell as well. This is why the last verse of the Lord's prayer reads, "Do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." This ending here in Matthew of the Lord's Prayer feels almost abrupt, or sudden, which is why many of us prefer the doxology that's often tacked onto the end of this prayer. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever, amen. These words provide a lovely doxology, and the words themselves are in fact biblical because we find these words in 1 Chronicles 29, but where we don't find them is in the earliest and most reliable Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, which means that this doxology that many of us are accustomed to was most likely added on at some point later on by a scribe. So, as a result, the most honorable ending of the Lord's Prayer is the evil one, which sounds weird, but I believe there's a reason that Christ ended this prayer this way. Of course, there's nothing wrong with reciting the stocksology of the ascendant of the Lord's Prayer, whatever you pray it for yourself or pray it for others, but I want you to notice the intentional picture that Christ has painted for us with this prayer. It begins with God our Father in heaven and ends with Satan in his desire to lead us astray from our faith and away from God our Father. The structure of the prayer breaks down in three sections that go from God to us to the devil. These three parts make up the entirety of the Lord's Prayer. Though this model of prayer that Christ has shared with his disciples, he paints a visual picture for us of the battle between good and evil and the war that is raging for our souls. Are we going to be a people who seek after God and seek after his kingdom or are we going to be people that succumb to worldly temptations into the devil's trap? The best way to protect ourselves from sin and from temptation is to turn to God and depend on him to see us through the end. This Philippians 1-6 so powerfully states, "I'm sure of this, that he who started a good fork in you will carry it on until completion, until the day of Christ Jesus." This is our heartfelt prayers and our connection with God that helps us to endure until the end. Listen, the Lord's Prayer is not just a meaningless portion of Scripture that we have heartedly recite each week at the conclusion of a church service or in the observation of a funeral service, but rather it serves as a reminder to spend regular, intentional time with God each day in prayer. Seeking after him each day as our hearts hunger and thirst for him and the future fulfillment of his kingdom here on earth. After concluding this bottle of prayer to his disciples, Christ doubles down once more on the importance of forgiving others by reminding his followers of the need to forgive others. Look at verse 14 with me one more time. Christ says, "For if you forgive others, their offenses, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well. But if you don't forgive others, your Father will not forgive your offenses." Now, before we go too far, I want to clarify something here. Christ is not saying here that our salvation is contingent on our ability to forgive others. If that were the case, then that would mean that our salvation is based on our own good works, rather than being centered on the grace of the cross. Rather, what Christ is illustrating here is the importance of modeling the same grace and the same forgiveness that we received from Christ in our lives towards others. As we are being saved, the Holy Spirit is working and moving in our hearts each and every day to transform our hearts from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh. This is what theologians call regeneration. Because our hearts are being regenerated and our lives are being transformed by the power of Christ, there should be a spiritual shift inside of us that causes us to let go of feelings of anger, jealousy, bitterness, guilt, and grab ahold of love, joy, peace, patience, and so forth. This is why Paul tells us that if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old has gone away and the new has come. As I've mentioned before, there's a direct correlation between being forgiven by God and the forgiveness that we extend to others around us. Who are we? We would ask Almighty God to forgive us of the sins that we've committed against him, all while holding on to the pity grievances that our neighbor has committed against us. As a result of the redeeming work that the Lord has done in our own lives, Christ is calling each one of us to forgive others in the same way, and to the same extent that he has forgiven us. So with that in mind here in Matthew 6, we find that Jesus' disciples are given a pattern for prayer that not only centers on forgiveness but also turns their hearts towards God and focuses their attention on him. So as we look at the importance of prayer and consider the Lord's prayer specifically, why is it important to understand this prayer? Why is it important to model this prayer in our own daily lives? The Lord's prayer draws our focus towards God. It reminds us that God is not only our Creator, but He is also our Father. The Lord's prayer explains that God is our Father who knows our needs and provides for our needs each and every day. It shows us the importance of forgiveness, and it encourages us to guard ourselves that against the schemes of the enemy, the Lord's prayer charges us to put our faith and hope in God and God alone. When we live in a world that has been conditioned to seek out comfort, relaxation, and pleasure first and foremost, rather than seeking after God in His Kingdom, first in our lives. However, being a Christian stands in direct opposition to the ways of the world. The life of a Christian is a life that's lived counter-culturally to the world around us. As a result, this prayer that Jesus has just shared is a Christian prayer that stands in contrast to its non-Christian alternatives. This prayer is a God-centered prayer that's focused on God and His glory. It was very different from the self-centered prayers of the Pharisees who were preoccupied with their own glory. It's also an intelligent, well-thought-out prayer that expresses a dependence on God and stands in stark contrast to the mechanical incantations of the babbling Gentiles. Christianity as a whole is vastly different from the world religions of our day. It would make sense that the prayers we pray as believers to the one true and living God of the Bible are going to be vastly different from the prayers that are prayed to the false gods that others worship, which is why the Lord's Prayer is a model prayer that draws our hearts towards God, that focuses our attention on His will and His Kingdom. So in light of everything we've discussed, let me ask you this. How could our church and our community look different if our prayers were focused on God and centered on His will rather than our fleshly concerns and desires? Now oftentimes, prayers are what we turn to as a last-ditch effort. After we've tried everything else that we can, prayer is where we turn to when nothing else seems to have worked. However, based on what we've just studied from God's Word today, it's clear that prayer should be the first thing that we turn to when times are tough. God should be the first one that we turn to in times of disaster and in times of need. In verse 8, Jesus tells us that our Father knows our needs even before we do, which means that He knows the answer to our needs even before we do. So if God has the answer, why do we find it so hard to turn to Him first rather than last? I wonder how this new year might look different than the past year has, if we were to turn to God each day and spend more time with Him regularly in prayer. The Lord's prayer is not meant to be a list of empty words that we recite back to God, but rather it's a model of prayer that draws our hearts towards Him and focuses on the purpose of our desires on Him and His will for our lives and for the world. Your kingdom come, your will be done. Is that a prayer that we're heartfully praying every day? Do we truly long for God's kingdom to come? Are we longing for God to come and make all things right in this world? I hope so. There was an early 20th century theologian who famously said, and you've heard it before, "Prayer does not fit us for the greater work." Prayer is the greater work. Prayer is the work that draws our hearts towards God and pulls us closer to Him. Oftentimes prayer is the last thing that we turn to, but what if? What if prayer was the first thing we'd turn to each day? What would happen if we started each day with a word of prayer? How might a morning, spent in prayer, shape the rest of our day? Additionally, how might our lives look different at the last words that left our lips each night where words spoken to God before bed? How would an evening, spent in prayer, settle your mind and affect your rest at night? Lord's prayer is a prayer that centers our hearts on God and focuses our desires on Him. Prayer changes things. It changes us and it changes the world around us, but what would happen if we committed ourselves to being a people of prayer? How would our world look different if we were people dedicated to spending regular, intentional time in prayer every day? How might God transform the lives of those around us through our faithful prayers each day? How might God act? How might we see the Holy Spirit move in 2025 and the years to come through the faithful prayers of the saints that redeeming life church who desire to see their community redeemed by the power of the gospel? How might God move specifically through the prayers that you pray this next year? I can't wait to find out in Scripture we clearly see that the Lord has called us to pray. So with that being said, let's pray. Our Father in Heaven, your name be honored as Holy. Working them come, your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our debts so we also have forgiven our debtors and do not bring us into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. Lord I ask you today that you would help us to be a people of prayer, that we would be a people known in this community of seeking you first every day, of coming after you, of being dedicated and committed to spending time and prayer each day. Lord, may we see you move and see you act in ways that are unimaginable to us this year as we seek your will in your directions not just for our lives but for our families, for our schools, for our community and for our church. May we see our communities redeemed by the power of the gospel as we seek your face in prayer each day and seek to live our lives as living sacrifices fully committed and dedicated to you. So in your holy name we pray, Lord, amen. We'd love to have you as our guest for more information visit redeeminglifeutah.org. [MUSIC PLAYING]