Sermon, 2011-04-10, Matthew, Why Do Christians Pray?

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Title slide I’ve been praying the Lord’s Prayer a lot lately . For about a month I’ve been praying it every day, throughout the day, sometimes for an hour at a time in the middle of the night. I’ve been wanting God to show me something deeper in it, something old, something new. It’s right here in the middle of this sermon by Jesus, this Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, that we’ve been discussing for weeks. And so for me it’s been like calling to me “preach me.” And I’ve been saying, “but what should I say?” And I knew it was a text many Christ followers were so familiar with that I wanted sincerely to have it say something fresh to us. And I knew that it was a prayer. So me telling you a sermon about it without having prayed it and prayed it to discover it is like me trying to tell someone how awesome a symphony by Beethoven is just by showing them the sheet music. So, look at it with me. We will try to look at it with fresh eyes. We will try to look for new things in between the lines that we might not ever have seen before. And we will try to leave here inspired to pray the Lord’s Prayer more and to pray more as our Lord would teach us to pray. Matthew 6:5-13 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 “This, then, is how you should pray: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”

Sermon, 2011-04-10, Matthew, Why Do Christians Pray?

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Jesus what I think the main idea is here. Jesus is saying, “Here’s the issue about prayer: Why do you pray? Why do we pray? He gives us a couple reasons why people pray that are negative and a couple positive. And then he gives us a model prayer that is full of implications for why we should pray. So, today the message we can take from Jesus’ words is to ask Why do we pray? What should be your reasons or motivations to pray. This is exactly what he is speaking about when he begins ... “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.” Matthew 6:5 So in Jesus’ day . in their culture . people would stand on a street corner and pray out loud. And some of them, Jesus says, were doing it for the wrong reason – they wanted to be seen by others. It’s like Jesus is saying, “Why do we pray? What is our motivation? I’ll tell you why some people pray... They pray in public places b/c they want other people to be impressed with how spiritual they are. I’ve been wracking my brain trying to think of when do we do anything like that in our day? And I was thinking, some of us might have had an experience at a restaurant like ... Maybe you’re at Pizza Hut and the guy at the table behind you get’s his Meat Lover’s Pan Pizza for which he is truly thankful to God. But in a voice that is more than just a little too loud he says, “Lord bless this food to our bodies and us to thy service, Amen.” And if it’s more than just a little too loud, you might wonder “who is he trying to impress?” But then I also wonder, why do we ask God to bless Meat Lover’s Pan Pizza to our bodies. Do we expect God to somehow make it nutritious and non-artery clogging? “Dear Lord, make the empty calories and saturated fat in this Pepsi and this Pizza somehow miraculously nutritious. Somehow, Lord on the way down, please change its molecular structure and give it vitamins and take away the calories. Amen. (Tim Hawkins, anyone?)

Sermon, 2011-04-10, Matthew, Why Do Christians Pray?

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But seriously, that’s just one place we might be in the public square, on the “street corner,” when we might pray a prayer for other’s to hear us. And then it occurred to me, there is another public place in our world today, where people might make the mistake of praying a prayer for others to “hear” that could be a little too self centered. Can anyone think of where that might happen today? .... Facebook. Facebook is a great place where you can put your faith out there, where you can talk about Jesus Christ in the public forum of your friends and family. You can write and post a prayer on Facebook, and all your family and friends can see it. But, here’s the challenge Jesus would say is unique in our modern age of social media. If he gave this teaching today, he might say, “Some people love to pray posting on Facebook and in email forwards to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. So, none of that to discourage you from being courageous about praying in public or posting or sharing prayers or a testimony or your faith in public places, I just want to encourage you to make sure the focus is on the right thing. So here’s what I think the issue is. Why do we pray? 1. Because we want the focus on ourselves. (Wrong motive) Praying standing in the synagogue or on the street corner because we love to be seen, is about putting the focus on ourselves. When you pray in any place where others can hear you, in church, in a group, at a graduation ... or when you post or forward a prayer or a testimony ... here’s the test ... Is it focused on me? ... ... Or does it give glory to God? And then, even in your personal prayers, don’t make the mistake of putting all the focus in prayer on yourself. Why do we pray? Because we want the focus on ourselves. Jesus says, that’s the wrong reason to pray.

Sermon, 2011-04-10, Matthew, Why Do Christians Pray?

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And then Jesus continues... “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” Matthew 6:6 Why do we pray? This one is obvious ... 2. Because God rewards those who do. The reward here could either be 1. he rewards you now or 2. he rewards you in heaven. The word for reward here is translated elsewhere as: wages, or dues, or compensation. So the idea could just be that God gives you what you ask for when you pray. Or there is also a strong possibility that Jesus is talking about future reward. Later in this sermon, Jesus talks about storing up treasure in heaven as in reward in heaven. So I am sure that there are some among us who do not get very much praise among men, because they don’t pray much on street corners or anywhere anyone sees, but when they get to heaven, they are going to rewarded in wonder.ful ways. If that’s you ... who wakes in the middle of the night and you pray at length for us all, or who prays faithfully every day for needs you hear of, your family, our country, & our church ... thank you, keep on, and may your reward be wonderful. Jesus continues “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” Matthew 6:7-8 Jesus says, it’s not about whoever says enough words get’s what they ask. That is a wrong motivation for prayer... He says, God already knows what you need before you pray. Then, I say, why do we pray, Jesus ? He goes on ... “Here, then is how you should pray: Our Father... Matthew 6:9 Why do we pray? 3. Because it connects us to God and each other.

Sermon, 2011-04-10, Matthew, Why Do Christians Pray?

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We pray Our ... because in prayer we are to connect with each other. We pray Father ... because prayer connects us with God. When you pray and you say, “Father I love you. I thank you. I praise you ... you are connecting with God. When you pray and you say, “ Father help my sister. Father help my brother. ... Or when we pray with each other, you are connecting with others. Three of the ideas in this prayer are about God – Your name, your kingdom, your will. Three of the ideas in this prayer are about us – give us our bread, forgive us/others, lead us not Why do we pray? Here’s one reason ... we are all ultimately disconnected. Our existence is one of disconnection. Sin did it to us. In the garden of Eden, God made us to be connected. But then Adam and Eve sinned. What happened after the sin? 1. They hid from God – disconnect from God. 2. They blamed each other – disconnect from each other. We are estranged and disconnected, and we long to be connected. Face Book and Twitter are huge phenomenon because ... we want to be connected to others. TV gives us a false feeling of connecting with other humans. The only friends some people in our world have are characters on sitcoms. That’s one reason why we worship celebrities, I think. We think that we are connected to them. But we are not. Prayer is God’s way to help us truly connect to Him and to each other in our souls. I had a friend in Indiana who was the PE teacher at the local elementary school. She walked into my office one day and said she thought God’ wanted us to pray together. She would come to our house once a week and Beth and I and her would pray. And we became so connected and so close, just because we prayed together. These days, we have a small group in our home on Sunday night. We laugh. We eat. We talk about the Bible and the sermon. And when we pray, we connect in a deep, warm, and strong way with God and with each other.

Sermon, 2011-04-10, Matthew, Why Do Christians Pray?

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Why do we pray? Because it connects us to God and each other. Jesus continues “Our Father... in heaven, hallowed be your name. Matthew 6:9 Why in the world would Jesus have to add in heaven? Don’t people know where God is? I’ll tell you why, I think. The second commandment is what? ... Do not make idols. Do not make a statue or an object of anything and say, “This is God.” God is not a thing. He is not a statue. He is not a golden calf. Where is God? He is in heaven. So, I think Jesus put that little two word phrase in there so that over the years as we pray the prayer He taught us ... What would we be absolutely sure of about where God is? He is in heaven ... and we would make no idol or image. So, Why do we pray? I think 4. Because it shapes our beliefs. Prayer shapes what we believe. Prayer shapes how we believe. The same idea. Why would Jesus tell us to pray – hallowed be your name? Hallowed means holy, sacred, special. What is the 3rd commandment? “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. “You shalt not misuse the name of the Lord.” Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount is reiterating the 10 Commandments in his way.  

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His beatitudes are about how to live the blessed life – and there are 10 of them. He then goes on to teach about several of the commandments. o You have heard it said do not murder (commandment), but I say o You have heard it say do not commit adultery (commandment), but I say Here, between the lines, he is teaching on a couple of the commandments about God. And he puts the teaching into our prayer, because he knows that what we pray will shape what we believe.

Sermon, 2011-04-10, Matthew, Why Do Christians Pray?

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A couple weeks ago I showed the videos by the boys who videoed the tornado in Greensburg. And both of them were saying? ... “Oh, my God.” I gave them some grace, since they were very near a tornado, I didn’t think that was using God’s name in vain – they had reason to cry out to God. If they were playing a video game or riding a roller coaster and saying OMG, that’s misusing God’s name – that’s calling on God when you don’t need him. But, I would submit, if those two boys prayed “Our Father .. hallowed be your name” every day, They would not be misusing the name of the Lord ever. Their prayer would ingrain that in them. Prayer changes what you believe ... That changes what you do. There is a view that says that the people who pray are the people who have real faith. And the assumption is that the reason they pray is because they have real faith. I think the opposite is true ... the reason some have real faith is because they pray. Then Jesus continues “... your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:10 Why do we pray? 5. Because it orders our priorities. The kingdom of God is the rule of God in our lives. It is equivalent to his will being done on earth. Here’s a question for you ... Why do we have to ask God for his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven? Does God need us to ask him to do his will? I think not. So, I think prayer is not for God to get his will in line with our will – what we want. Prayer is for us to get our will in line with his will – what He wants. You don’t need to pray so that God will learn what you want. You need to pray so that you will learn what God wants. Praying for his kingdom to come is not something you and I want naturally. Praying this prayer helps us to put our priorities on the things of God working in this world. Prayer changes things. And when things won’t change, prayer changes you.

Sermon, 2011-04-10, Matthew, Why Do Christians Pray?

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Then comes “... Give us today our daily bread.” Matthew 6:11 Why do we pray? 6. Because we have needs. After you have your priorities in order and you’re not asking God for the wrong things, then you can ask for your needs. “... And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Matthew 6:12 Why do we pray? 7. Because we need forgiveness. We need to be forgiven by God for our sins, and we need to forgive each other. “... And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” Matthew 6:13 Why do we pray? Last one. 8. Because life is hard. This world is full of evil. It’s full of sin, and sickness, and suffering. Jesus implies, through what he says for us to pray, that one reason we pray is because God can deliver us or guide us or God can give us the strength or the power we need to resist or overcome it. Prayer gives us power. In Luke’s gospel, just before Jesus teaches this prayer, the disciples make a request of Jesus. Anyone know what it is? The disciples ask “Lord, teach us to pray.” Do you know why they ask it? They had just tried to cast out a demon from a sick boy. The demon would throw the boy into the fire and then into the water, the text says. But the disciples couldn’t cast out the demon from the boy. They had to get Jesus. He did it and he told them they had failed because they didn’t pray enough.

Sermon, 2011-04-10, Matthew, Why Do Christians Pray?

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They didn’t have enough power, because they didn’t pray. And a little soon after they ask him, “Lord teach us to pray.” Jesus we want power to face the evil in our world, teach us to pray. Jesus we need strength to overcome the sin and sickness and evil, teach us to pray. “This then is how you should pray ... Ask ... lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Who here has ever had a serious illness like cancer or heart attack in yourself or family? What did that do for your prayer life? There’s a simple truism that says “no one really needs prayer, until they really need prayer.”

I read a story by a man who was the dean of a seminary, Phillips Seminary. Fred Craddock. One day, his secretary told him a woman was there to see him. The woman asked him to come out to the parking lot. A little nervous, he wrote, he followed her. She opened the back door and inside sat her brother. He had been a student. He was in a bad car accident and had been in a coma for 8 months. She had quit her job as a school teacher to take care of him. All their money was gone. She opened the door and said,” I’d like for you to heal him.” Craddock said, “I can pray for him. And I can pray for you. But I don’t have the gift of healing.” She said, “Then what in the world do you do?” And she drove off. He said he went to his office ... and stared at his books ... and tried to forget what she said. Why do we pray? Because life is hard. This world is full of evil, sin, sickness, and suffering. And prayer is our source for power and strength.

Sermon, 2011-04-10, Matthew, Why Do Christians Pray?

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A couple weeks ago, the Sunday morning message was unusually powerful. The response that morning was strong. People have been commenting about it to me ever since. All that week, I was trying to prepare this message, and I was praying this prayer all the time. On Thursday the tornado hit. On Friday, I knew I needed to change the message and I spoke about the two men who build their houses on two different foundations. And that message just flowed out of me. It really wrote itself. The Friday after that message, I was still trying to write this message, and I woke up in that morning praying and the first idea that filled my mind was “you prayed this prayer all last week and that’s why that message was full of power.” I had been sick for a few weeks. I was literally up all night for a few nights in a row. I couldn’t sleep for coughing. I got so upside down then that I was sleeping all day and wanting to wake up at 3 am. I determined to get myself back into a normal sleep cycle by not turning on any screen at night. I just laid there and prayed this prayer for hours at night that week. I prayed for the message. I prayed for you all. I pray for every message. I pray all week as I’m preparing and for you and us on Sunday morning. It was just that that week, I prayed so much more ... and I know that’s why the message came across with power. I am not going to turn on the TV if I wake up at 3am anymore. I’m encouraged. I’m empowered. But I don’t need to be the only one praying for his power for us when we gather. Would you join me in praying for us and for me. If you would like for the Word of God to have unusual power in our midst, Would you join me in praying for it and for me? And I will pray for you.

Sermon, 2011-04-10, Matthew, Why Do Christians Pray?

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Why do we pray? Jesus tells us we pray 1. Because we want the focus on ourselves. That’s a wrong motive. 2. Because God rewards those who pray. 3. Because it connects us to God and each other. 4. Because it shapes our beliefs. 5. Because it orders our priorities. 6. Because we have needs. 7. Because we need forgiveness. 8. Because life is hard. I encourage you to pray the Lord’s Prayer in your life. It will give expression to all these needs in your life. And if you are like Jesus’ first disciples it will be the answer to the first and best prayer that we can pray, Lord, teach us to pray.

Please stand and let’s join in saying this prayer together in response to God’s Word, today. This then is how we should pray... Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 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 lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For thine is the kingdom, The power And the glory Forever. Amen.