Prayer Luke Thompson
Series: The Journey Home
Speaker: Steve Jeffrey
Date: 1st April 2017
Passage: Matthew 6:1-15
00:00:00 --> 00:00:05 We live in a culture, in a world, that judges things by appearance.
00:00:06 --> 00:00:08 We do that all the time, I think.
00:00:08 --> 00:00:14 I always judge a book by its cover, or a movie poster, or a person even.
00:00:15 --> 00:00:15 We do it so often.
00:00:16 --> 00:00:18 We judge things by their appearance.
00:00:18 --> 00:00:23 And I think one of the great proofs of this in our culture is in advertising.
00:00:23 --> 00:00:29 If you ever watch much TV at all, and you haven't quite converted to Netflix yet,
00:00:29 --> 00:00:36 then you will know that every second ad on TV is basically helping you shape your image.
00:00:37 --> 00:00:42 Every ad is trying to give you something that will affect the way that people see you.
00:00:44 --> 00:00:50 Now, there are the classic things, like makeup and fashion items and hair transplants,
00:00:51 --> 00:00:55 that, yeah, they're very clear about shaping your image and how people perceive you.
00:00:55 --> 00:01:02 But then we get told that the car that you drive will greatly affect the way people view you and think about you.
00:01:03 --> 00:01:06 It will show off the things that you value in life.
00:01:07 --> 00:01:12 The type of beer that you drink says a lot about you, apparently, and what people might think of you.
00:01:12 --> 00:01:20 We live in a culture that judges by appearances all the time.
00:01:21 --> 00:01:27 And we are so often concerned with shaping how people perceive us.
00:01:28 --> 00:01:32 That we might put it on the appearance so that people will see what we want them to see.
00:01:32 --> 00:01:36 We do that in our culture all the time.
00:01:38 --> 00:01:45 And we would be really, really foolish if we didn't also believe that we did it in church.
00:01:48 --> 00:01:53 In fact, this is exactly what Jesus confronts in our passage this evening.
00:01:53 --> 00:01:55 If you've got a Bible open, that'd be super helpful.
00:01:55 --> 00:02:01 I want to take you back a few verses from before where Nick read to chapter 6, verse 1,
00:02:01 --> 00:02:05 where Jesus shapes this whole chapter in what he's talking about.
00:02:06 --> 00:02:07 Here's what he says in chapter 6, verse 1.
00:02:09 --> 00:02:09 He says,
00:02:09 --> 00:02:29 So straight away, Jesus is concerned about the way that we might seek to shape the appearances we put on
00:02:29 --> 00:02:32 that affect how people view us.
00:02:32 --> 00:02:36 And he spells out here in this chapter three particular areas.
00:02:36 --> 00:02:41 The way that we give, the way that we fast, and prayer.
00:02:41 --> 00:02:45 And we're going to particularly just focus on the prayer issue tonight.
00:02:46 --> 00:02:52 So I want to say three lessons I think we learn from this passage.
00:02:53 --> 00:02:58 And there are hundreds of them because there's such a richness to this teaching from Jesus.
00:02:59 --> 00:03:00 I want to highlight three for you tonight.
00:03:00 --> 00:03:03 The first one is this.
00:03:05 --> 00:03:10 Prayer is not about our actions, but our hearts.
00:03:11 --> 00:03:14 Prayer is not about our action, but our hearts.
00:03:16 --> 00:03:21 We see this as Jesus begins by teaching us how not to pray.
00:03:22 --> 00:03:23 Have a look with me from verse 5.
00:03:23 --> 00:03:24 Jesus says,
00:03:24 --> 00:03:39 And down to verse 7.
00:03:39 --> 00:03:40 He says again,
00:03:40 --> 00:03:55 Prayer is not about our actions, but about our hearts.
00:03:55 --> 00:04:07 Have you ever noticed that people are far more patient in a church car park than they are at the Chatswood Chase car park?
00:04:08 --> 00:04:14 I have never in my life heard anyone beeping their horn in a church car park.
00:04:14 --> 00:04:16 It just doesn't happen, does it?
00:04:17 --> 00:04:23 Ironically, I said that this morning, and someone had an accident in the car park, and I thought they probably should have beeped their horn in the car park.
00:04:23 --> 00:04:35 But isn't it amazing that we think it's really important that we look a particular way, calm and collected and not angry when we're in the church car park.
00:04:36 --> 00:04:39 But it's so easy to throw all that out the window at the shops.
00:04:39 --> 00:04:43 And to get really angry that somebody took your spot.
00:04:45 --> 00:04:47 Have you ever been angry someone took your spot at church?
00:04:48 --> 00:04:49 Seems a bit weird, doesn't it?
00:04:52 --> 00:04:55 But we love to play the appearance game, don't we?
00:04:57 --> 00:05:01 And on Sundays, when you come to church, it's actually really easy to do.
00:05:01 --> 00:05:06 To come to church and for an hour or so, you can hide your sin.
00:05:07 --> 00:05:11 And you can put on a nice smile and say, yeah, life's pretty good, I'm going alright.
00:05:13 --> 00:05:16 You might brag about your kids and how good they were at daylight savings.
00:05:18 --> 00:05:23 You can do a lot to look quite impressive in an hour, hour and a half on a Sunday night.
00:05:24 --> 00:05:26 It's actually not that hard.
00:05:26 --> 00:05:37 But when we do that, when we put on this appearance that our life is okay, our hearts are so far from God.
00:05:39 --> 00:05:40 And that's the problem.
00:05:42 --> 00:05:47 A friend of mine has a, his two-year-old daughter, Georgia, is learning how to pray.
00:05:48 --> 00:05:53 And loves to pray and gets praise, as is appropriate when you're a parent, to praise your kids for doing good things.
00:05:53 --> 00:05:57 But it's got to the point now where Georgia will pray.
00:05:58 --> 00:06:00 And when she's finished saying, she says, amen.
00:06:01 --> 00:06:04 And then she turns to her dad and says, daddy, say good girl.
00:06:05 --> 00:06:07 Daddy, say good girl, tell me I did a good job.
00:06:09 --> 00:06:12 And he says to me, it's so great she's praying.
00:06:13 --> 00:06:17 But I'm really worried that she's actually just praying to get my praise.
00:06:19 --> 00:06:21 He says, I'm worried my daughter's turning into a Pharisee.
00:06:21 --> 00:06:24 A two-year-old's really easy to read.
00:06:25 --> 00:06:30 We are so much better at hiding what's going on in here.
00:06:31 --> 00:06:33 We don't come out and ask for praise, do we?
00:06:34 --> 00:06:36 We just kind of hope it comes.
00:06:38 --> 00:06:42 It's so easy for us to do things because we want to be seen doing them.
00:06:42 --> 00:06:48 We want to appear that we are godly rather than actually be godly.
00:06:50 --> 00:06:51 Let me ask you this.
00:06:53 --> 00:06:56 Do you pray so that people might think that you sound holy and righteous?
00:06:58 --> 00:07:04 Do you pray and try and use big words or throw in a couple of Bible verses that people might be impressed?
00:07:04 --> 00:07:09 Do you end up just praying to other people instead of to God?
00:07:12 --> 00:07:13 Do you pray because you have to?
00:07:13 --> 00:07:18 Because you're on the roster at church or you're at Bible study and it's kind of expected of you.
00:07:19 --> 00:07:21 Are you saying grace before a meal and someone's got to do it?
00:07:25 --> 00:07:26 Maybe you do the reverse.
00:07:26 --> 00:07:30 Maybe you don't pray because you're worried about what people will think.
00:07:30 --> 00:07:34 Maybe you think, I don't have the right words.
00:07:34 --> 00:07:35 I'm not very eloquent.
00:07:38 --> 00:07:42 I've got a bit of a stutter and I just, I can't really string a sentence together.
00:07:44 --> 00:07:50 Are you so worried about how people will think of you when they see you that you don't pray?
00:07:54 --> 00:07:59 Now, should we wait till our hearts are right and pure 100% before we pray?
00:07:59 --> 00:07:59 Well, no.
00:08:00 --> 00:08:05 That would be kind of silly because we would never pray if we had to wait till our hearts were pure.
00:08:07 --> 00:08:12 And when Jesus says in this passage, in verse 6, he says,
00:08:13 --> 00:08:17 When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father who is unseen.
00:08:18 --> 00:08:21 Then your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
00:08:23 --> 00:08:26 Now, Jesus here is not saying that we shouldn't pray publicly.
00:08:27 --> 00:08:29 That you should always pray in a closet.
00:08:29 --> 00:08:34 No, rather he's saying, as we come back to verse 1,
00:08:34 --> 00:08:38 Do not pray so that your righteousness will be seen by others.
00:08:39 --> 00:08:41 Don't pray to be seen.
00:08:42 --> 00:08:44 Just pray and you might actually be seen.
00:08:44 --> 00:08:50 And in fact, it's really, really important and helpful for us to pray publicly.
00:08:50 --> 00:08:57 It's a great encouragement to hear others praying and to be prayed for.
00:08:57 --> 00:09:04 Of course, our kids will only learn how to pray by hearing us pray.
00:09:05 --> 00:09:07 And by hearing other members of our church praying.
00:09:09 --> 00:09:14 There's something really edifying and encouraging being in a group where you get to pray with and for each other.
00:09:14 --> 00:09:24 It is better to pray with a conflicted heart than to not pray at all.
00:09:24 --> 00:09:47 There's our first lesson.
00:09:47 --> 00:09:48 A kind of what not to do.
00:09:49 --> 00:09:50 Prayer is not about our actions.
00:09:51 --> 00:09:53 It's about our hearts in here.
00:09:55 --> 00:09:59 Here's the second thing we learn as we move on to what Jesus teaches us about prayer.
00:10:00 --> 00:10:02 Come with me to verse 9.
00:10:03 --> 00:10:04 Jesus then says,
00:10:04 --> 00:10:18 Here's our second lesson.
00:10:20 --> 00:10:23 Prayer is an overflow of relationship.
00:10:25 --> 00:10:28 Prayer is an overflow of our relationship with God.
00:10:28 --> 00:10:37 Emily, my almost three-year-old daughter, is learning that mum and dad have many ways in which they could be called.
00:10:38 --> 00:10:39 Other than just mum and dad.
00:10:39 --> 00:10:40 Like, we have first names.
00:10:41 --> 00:10:44 She's also recently learned that dad is a man and mum is a woman.
00:10:46 --> 00:10:47 And all of this is right and appropriate.
00:10:49 --> 00:10:55 But because she's not quite three years old, she can still sometimes use correct words but in the really wrong context.
00:10:55 --> 00:10:59 So the other day she was having breakfast with her mother.
00:11:00 --> 00:11:07 And she got to a point where she often loves, halfway through the food, someone helping her.
00:11:07 --> 00:11:10 She just kind of gets lazy and someone else can feed me and I'll just sit here.
00:11:10 --> 00:11:12 And she got to the point and she said,
00:11:13 --> 00:11:14 Come and feed me, woman.
00:11:17 --> 00:11:21 Which was kind of technically true, but that's not really the right way to say it, is it?
00:11:23 --> 00:11:25 Come and feed me, mum would have been better.
00:11:25 --> 00:11:28 Come and feed me, woman doesn't quite work.
00:11:29 --> 00:11:31 Even though mummy's a woman and she knew what she meant.
00:11:32 --> 00:11:36 Now there are lots of words and names that God has.
00:11:38 --> 00:11:39 There are plenty in the Bible.
00:11:41 --> 00:11:46 And some of them are more suitable and appropriate than others when it comes to addressing God in prayer.
00:11:46 --> 00:11:54 And here in this great prayer that Jesus teaches us, he instructs us to call God Father.
00:11:56 --> 00:11:59 It's not the only name we can use for God in prayer, but it's a significant one.
00:11:59 --> 00:12:04 Because Father is a relational word.
00:12:06 --> 00:12:07 That we are his children.
00:12:09 --> 00:12:17 And prayer is supposed to be this deep conversation we have, like we might have with a spouse or a great friend of ours.
00:12:17 --> 00:12:24 And you know when you have that great conversation with someone, you feel better and you feel closer to that person.
00:12:26 --> 00:12:28 And prayer is supposed to do that too.
00:12:28 --> 00:12:37 Now if you're anything like me, you very quickly forget that prayer is about an overflow of relationship.
00:12:38 --> 00:12:45 Prayer really easily becomes just a chance to give God a bit of a pat on the back and give him my list of requests for the week.
00:12:45 --> 00:12:49 So a prayer might sound like this.
00:12:50 --> 00:12:52 God, thank you for helping me pass my exam.
00:12:53 --> 00:12:55 Thanks for making me healthy again.
00:12:55 --> 00:12:57 And thanks for this food I'm about to eat.
00:12:58 --> 00:12:59 Please help Caitlin to get better.
00:13:00 --> 00:13:01 Please help Matt find a job.
00:13:01 --> 00:13:07 And please somehow get Kirsten either out of my life or just stop her from just annoying me generally.
00:13:11 --> 00:13:14 Can you imagine if you spoke to a spouse or a friend like that?
00:13:15 --> 00:13:16 Is that going to end well?
00:13:19 --> 00:13:19 No, it's not.
00:13:20 --> 00:13:22 Please don't speak to a spouse or a friend like that.
00:13:22 --> 00:13:27 Imagine if I went to my wife Jennifer and I said, come home after work, open the door and say,
00:13:27 --> 00:13:33 hey Jen, thanks for feeding the kids today, thanks for reading them, thanks for training them and for putting them to bed.
00:13:33 --> 00:13:39 Could you please wash these clothes, clean up these dishes, put the rubbish out, call my mum for me because I don't really want to talk to her
00:13:39 --> 00:13:42 and let me know when you've got some spare time, you can come fix my neck for me.
00:13:42 --> 00:13:43 I'll see you tomorrow.
00:13:46 --> 00:13:47 That's not going to end well for me.
00:13:49 --> 00:13:51 That's not the way to speak to a spouse.
00:13:53 --> 00:13:56 Because my relationship with Jen is much more significant than that.
00:13:56 --> 00:14:02 And our relationship with God is also much more significant than that.
00:14:04 --> 00:14:08 And prayer should be an overflow of that relationship.
00:14:08 --> 00:14:15 See, we pray for the things that we believe will make us happy.
00:14:18 --> 00:14:20 We ask God to remove the bad things, get them out.
00:14:20 --> 00:14:26 And we pray for the good desires or outcomes that we hope will make us happy.
00:14:27 --> 00:14:32 But it might be that we're actually just treating God like our own personal genie.
00:14:32 --> 00:14:36 That he'll just grant us the wishes that we ask for.
00:14:38 --> 00:14:41 But God is not our personal genie.
00:14:42 --> 00:14:44 He is our father in heaven.
00:14:44 --> 00:14:49 He is king of an everlasting kingdom.
00:14:49 --> 00:14:54 And he invites you and I to pray to him.
00:14:55 --> 00:14:58 Not because he can do things for us, although of course he can.
00:14:58 --> 00:15:02 But he invites us to pray to him.
00:15:02 --> 00:15:06 Because he wants you and I to enjoy our relationship with him.
00:15:07 --> 00:15:10 To see that he is a good father.
00:15:11 --> 00:15:13 That he loves to listen to us.
00:15:14 --> 00:15:19 That he wants us to hand over the stresses and burdens in our life.
00:15:20 --> 00:15:23 He wants to carry those for us.
00:15:23 --> 00:15:28 He wants us to see how much he loves us.
00:15:29 --> 00:15:33 He wants us to trust him with the things that concern us.
00:15:35 --> 00:15:38 And he does that because he loves us.
00:15:38 --> 00:15:39 He's in relationship with us.
00:15:40 --> 00:15:41 He is our heavenly father.
00:15:44 --> 00:15:46 See, prayer is an overflow of relationship.
00:15:46 --> 00:15:56 Here's our third lesson from the end of this prayer.
00:15:59 --> 00:16:06 Prayer reminds us that life is about God and not about us.
00:16:08 --> 00:16:12 Prayer reminds us that life is about God and not about us.
00:16:12 --> 00:16:23 So Jesus teaches this prayer, not because these words have special kind of power in being recited.
00:16:24 --> 00:16:29 But because these words are a model for how we should pray.
00:16:32 --> 00:16:37 Did you notice in the first half of this prayer, it's all about praising God for his name.
00:16:38 --> 00:16:41 Praying that his will might happen on earth.
00:16:42 --> 00:16:50 And the prayer is already half over before we even get to thinking about ourselves.
00:16:55 --> 00:17:01 I think this prayer models for us and reminds us that instead of prayer being about giving God a list of,
00:17:02 --> 00:17:04 here's God, here's my request for the week.
00:17:06 --> 00:17:11 Instead, we should first reflect on the things that delight God.
00:17:12 --> 00:17:15 We should reflect on the things that grieve God.
00:17:17 --> 00:17:21 We should reflect on what it is that God wants for this world.
00:17:23 --> 00:17:27 And let those things shape our prayers.
00:17:27 --> 00:17:35 Then we get to the second half of this prayer.
00:17:37 --> 00:17:40 And you might be thinking for a second, now I can talk about myself.
00:17:41 --> 00:17:43 Except it doesn't quite work like that either.
00:17:45 --> 00:17:50 Do you notice that all of this second half of the Lord's Prayer is actually really, really humbling?
00:17:51 --> 00:17:52 Have a look with me from verse 11.
00:17:52 --> 00:17:56 The first thing is, give us today our daily bread.
00:17:58 --> 00:18:00 Not riches, not status, not desires.
00:18:01 --> 00:18:02 Just what I need today.
00:18:04 --> 00:18:07 It's a prayer for our needs, not for our greed.
00:18:09 --> 00:18:11 And then verse 12, we go on.
00:18:11 --> 00:18:14 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
00:18:15 --> 00:18:19 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
00:18:22 --> 00:18:24 That is, we acknowledge our sin.
00:18:25 --> 00:18:29 And we acknowledge our struggle with sin, with temptation.
00:18:29 --> 00:18:34 And when you pray this, it's just an acknowledgement to say that you are not good.
00:18:36 --> 00:18:38 That you actually need forgiveness.
00:18:41 --> 00:18:46 And if you pray this prayer out loud, if you list your sins,
00:18:47 --> 00:18:50 people are not going to hear you and think, wow, you're an awesome person.
00:18:52 --> 00:18:54 You've done some amazing things.
00:18:54 --> 00:18:58 You are so holy and righteous.
00:19:00 --> 00:19:04 They're not going to think that at all, because you've just told them all the things that are wrong with you.
00:19:06 --> 00:19:10 And then we would avoid the problem of the hypocrites.
00:19:11 --> 00:19:13 In verse 5, where Jesus said,
00:19:13 --> 00:19:25 No one wants to air all of their sins to the world.
00:19:27 --> 00:19:30 And yet we are invited to confess.
00:19:32 --> 00:19:34 To acknowledge our need for forgiveness.
00:19:36 --> 00:19:36 It's very humbling.
00:19:39 --> 00:19:41 That we are not people who have it all together.
00:19:41 --> 00:19:46 We are broken and in such great need.
00:19:56 --> 00:19:59 Prayer is such a wonderful privilege.
00:20:01 --> 00:20:06 It's such a wonderful opportunity that there is a God in the universe who spoke everything to existence.
00:20:08 --> 00:20:11 And he actually wants us to speak to him.
00:20:11 --> 00:20:14 He longs for it.
00:20:15 --> 00:20:18 Jesus came to teach us how to speak to him.
00:20:20 --> 00:20:23 To praise God for who he is and how amazing he is.
00:20:24 --> 00:20:27 To realise our own fallen position before him.
00:20:28 --> 00:20:31 Our need for forgiveness and grace and mercy.
00:20:31 --> 00:20:36 What a wonderful privilege we get to speak to that God.
00:20:37 --> 00:20:39 Who loves to show mercy and grace.
00:20:39 --> 00:20:43 And so I want to encourage you tonight.
00:20:44 --> 00:20:48 To enjoy the wonderful gift that is of prayer.
00:20:48 --> 00:20:52 To enjoy praying in a closet if that's your thing.
00:20:52 --> 00:20:56 But also to enjoy praying together.
00:20:58 --> 00:20:59 Pray in your homes as families.
00:21:00 --> 00:21:02 Pray as Bible study groups.
00:21:03 --> 00:21:04 Pray as a church.
00:21:04 --> 00:21:05 Pray wherever you are.
00:21:05 --> 00:21:11 What a wonderful gift to encourage each other with our words of prayer.
00:21:12 --> 00:21:14 As we entrust all that we are concerned with to God.
00:21:15 --> 00:21:19 As we praise God for all the wonderful blessings he pours on us.
00:21:20 --> 00:21:22 Prayer is such a wonderful gift.
00:21:22 --> 00:21:28 And whether you have great words that sound amazing and someone should write a book with your prayers.
00:21:29 --> 00:21:33 Or that no one's going to remember your prayer 30 seconds after you said it.
00:21:34 --> 00:21:36 It doesn't actually matter.
00:21:37 --> 00:21:39 Prayer is not about using great words.
00:21:40 --> 00:21:44 It's about enjoying the wonderful relationship with our Father in heaven.
00:21:44 --> 00:21:50 About enjoying the fact that God sees our hearts in the deepest, darkest places of them.
00:21:51 --> 00:21:54 And he still longs for us to be in relationship with him.
00:21:56 --> 00:21:57 And so we should do that.
00:21:58 --> 00:21:59 What a wonderful privilege.
00:22:02 --> 00:22:03 And let's do that now.
00:22:03 --> 00:22:04 Let's pray.
00:22:05 --> 00:22:05 And thank God.
00:22:10 --> 00:22:11 Father, we thank you so much.
00:22:11 --> 00:22:17 That you're a God who knows each and every one of us in this room.
00:22:19 --> 00:22:21 You know the good things about us and the bad.
00:22:22 --> 00:22:25 You know the things we try and keep hidden.
00:22:26 --> 00:22:29 You know the things that we try and get praised for.
00:22:31 --> 00:22:32 God, you know it all.
00:22:32 --> 00:22:35 And you still invite us to be in relationship with you.
00:22:36 --> 00:22:39 You invite us to pray to you.
00:22:39 --> 00:22:41 And you promise to listen to us.
00:22:41 --> 00:22:46 God, thank you that you are our Father in heaven.
00:22:48 --> 00:22:53 Please help us to see the great joy it is to pray to you.
00:22:55 --> 00:22:57 Help us to love prayer.
00:22:58 --> 00:23:00 And to love encouraging each other.
00:23:01 --> 00:23:04 As we enjoy together our relationship with you.
00:23:05 --> 00:23:06 Amen.
00:23:06 --> 00:23:06 Amen.