The Way of Prayer

Welcome to week five of our Bible study through the Sermon on the Mount. I titled this week, The Way of Jesus. We're halfway through the Sermon on the Mount. We're starting the second half. This week's lesson is called The Way of Prayer. And so I wanna ask you a question as we start. Do you think that you're a hypocrite? What a question to begin with, huh? Do you think that you're a hypocrite? And honestly, honestly, if we look in our hearts, sometimes we know that we care more about how other people perceive us than we care about pleasing God. Like not all the time, not all of us, but all of us sometimes have experienced that and continue to experience that. Our main topics today are giving, fasting, and praying, but Jesus isn't, those are great activities, but the real point of it wasn't that Jesus said, so you should be giving, you should be praying, you should be fasting. That wasn't the real point. The real point was when you do those things, do them in the way of Jesus, not the way of the hypocrites. I kind of should have titled this The Way of the Hypocrites, but that's not the positive aspect, but that was the point. And so we're going to handle that word quite a bit because Jesus said it quite a bit. I had you look it up in your study guide, write a dictionary definition. I wrote a dictionary definition, but I went to Noah Webster's 1828 Dictionary of the American Language, which I love to go to, so I'm going to put it up on the screen for you to enjoy this definition of a hypocrite. It is one who feigns to be what he is not, one who has the form of godliness without the power, or who assumes an appearance of piety and virtue when he is destitute of true faith. The phrase that caught my attention was the form of godliness without the power. And when I read that, I thought to myself, Lord, I need your power. I need that in my life. I don't want to go through my Christian life having a form of godliness, of fake godliness, without the power. Like when I don't want to give out of compulsion or to match what other people are doing. I want my giving to be with the power of God. I don't want to pray just so other people will mistakenly think that I'm spiritual. I want to pray with the power of God. And when I fast, if I fast, I don't want to do it just because all my girlfriends do it on Thursday so that my kids will turn out right. I want to fast with the power of God. And so that was my takeaway this week. I do not want to be hypocritical because it's a form of godliness without the power. We all need the power of the Holy Spirit. We need the power of God in our lives. And that is the main point of this lesson is a genuine relationship. So I want to review where we've been in the Sermon on the Mount. I love, continue to love the Sermon on the Mount because both Matthew and presumably Jesus were very organized and very, and there was a rhythm. There's been a consistent rhythm so far into the Sermon on the Mount. We started with the Beatitudes and we had these, all of these, you know, blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. And it had a consistent rhythm to it. And then Jesus went right into those six topics that we spent the last week on. And it had a consistent rhythm to it. You know, you have heard that it was said, but I say to you, and it helped us to organize that out. And now we go right into this section. There's a new rhythm to it. It's these three topics of giving and praying and fasting. And I'll point out even another rhythm as we get a little bit farther into it. But this week, more than any other week in our lesson, I have enjoyed the markings that I have suggested that we do in the study guide. If you have done them, it is so, it makes it so colorful to then see what is the main point? What are the repetitive words? And this week in particular, it really helped me. If you have not done the markings, I wanna remind you then just be listening for some of these words, reward, secret, father in heaven, and hypocrite. So we're gonna start right in with the first passage. We're on Matthew chapter six, verse one. And Jesus says,

Some of the main points in here, some of the key words and phrases that we see are the two distinct personalities. First of all, the hypocrites, and then your father in heaven. The hypocrite is the one with wrong motives who gets no reward other than what people give at the moment. And your father in heaven is the one who sees the motives and has the power to reward you, okay? We see the repetition of the word secret. Do what we do to please the Lord. Not to match the generosity of others, not to impress others with how compassionate we are or how good our heart is, but to give a return to the Lord for how much he has blessed us. That's what giving is, is a return to the Lord for what he's done for us. And then we see the repetition of the word reward, and we realize that we are rewarded when we give. Jesus already mentioned rewards two times in the previous chapter. And now in this lesson, he uses the word seven times. So Jesus wasn't shy about talking about a reward that was coming to us. In fact, it was one of the main points. And so we shouldn't be shy about mentioning it either. It is okay. Now, these verses are super simple to understand. They hardly need any comment. But what is our application today beyond do not do it as the hypocrites do? Well, last fall, we were in Titus, and this verse came to my mind. I wanna show you Titus three, verse 14.

God has designed to use his own sons and daughters to meet people's needs. And we should be generous, and we should be willing, and we shouldn't merely meet those needs to be seen by others, or to receive advertising in exchange, okay? Giving so that your name will be on the program or giving so that your name will be on a plaque or something. There's nothing wrong with that, but that's marketing. Okay? That's advertising. Just call it advertising, and then that's okay. But don't call it giving, because that's not giving. True giving is to be done in secret for the Lord's pleasure, to give a return to the Lord. All right, let's go on to prayer in verse five.

And we find the same repetition of words, that the reward is mentioned. There is a reward for us taking time to be praying, sincerely praying. The secrecy, again, is emphasized. That creates an ideal, genuine relationship with the Lord when we do it between just Him and us. We find the same contrast with the hypocrites and the same promise that your Father who sees in secret will do the rewarding. But then there's a little additional thing that Jesus talks about, and He says, and don't be like the Gentiles. What is the characteristic of the Gentiles? Well, they're praying to their God, and they do it with a lot of repetition and with a long, drawn-out prayers and reciting things over and over again in hopes that their God will pay attention and hear them. And Jesus is saying, that's not what your Heavenly Father is like. So don't use that as a model. I'm giving you a model, okay? And so He's calling out something else that they might look at as a model. Now I want to skip down past the Lord's Prayer to fasting so that we keep these three spiritual devotions in order. So verse 16,

All the same principles apply. We don't fast necessarily. Now there's nothing wrong with organizing yourself and saying, let's both fast on the same day. I didn't mean to make light of that. But if that's your motivation is like, I have five girlfriends that are doing it, I better do it. Or they'll think I'm not very spiritual. Okay, then that's an improper motivation to be fasting. Or the one who you invite to lunch on Friday, it's like, oh, I can never go to lunch on Friday, that's my fasting day. Well, okay, but do you have to tell me that every Friday? So we want, again, those things to be done between us and the Lord. Now what I want to do is I want to spend the bulk of our time back in the Lord's Prayer. Because I think whenever we find in Scripture inspiration for our prayer life, we need to slow down and really take advantage of everything that we can find. So we're going to move back up to verse nine. In my day, everyone knew the Lord's Prayer. Even if they didn't know the Lord of the prayer, they knew the Lord's Prayer. And they could recite it along with everyone else at a potluck with all the passion of an escalator ride, right? Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God. Have you noticed that everything that we memorize, you know, humpty dumpty had a great fall? It all sounds the same. And you can just barrel through something like that with zero processing going on in your mind. Also, in my day, I've had plenty of encouragement from the Lord's Prayer and I've had some discouragement from the Lord's Prayer. I'm a little bit intimidated to teach these verses because I don't consider myself a prayer warrior. I don't consider myself an expert on prayer. I look out in this group and I could identify some that I think are an expert. I'm not one of them, but that means I'm probably really qualified because I'm still trying. I'm still learning and maybe some of you are as well. But you know, way back in the day, there was a prayer movement that came across the church and there was a book written called, Could You Not Terry One Hour? And it was about the Lord's Prayer. And everybody was doing this. And I had a two-year-old and an infant. And no, I could not Terry One Hour. It was a huge discouragement to me because what I was trying to do at the time was fit in to the system that was abounding. And I couldn't fit in. And so I was discouraged. I felt small. I felt insignificant. I felt like I couldn't pray. But look, what was my motive? To fit in, to be seen by others, to be part of the movement. And then I've had a lot of encouragement with prayer. And one of the biggest pieces of encouragement came just, you know, five or ten years ago when I was just all by myself going through the Lord's Prayer. Not because there was a movement, not because everybody was reading this book, but because I just wanted to be able to pray better. And so the Lord was gracious to me to help me take the pieces of this prayer and learn them a little bit better. And that was an encouragement to me. Of course, it was something that was done in secret. But I want to take this prayer and maybe help you. Maybe some of you are brand new to the Lord, brand new to praying, still looking for that inspiration in prayer. So I want to take this apart in a very simple way because I think Jesus was trying to teach about prayer very simply. And so what we have is six sets of pronouns. The first three are all your, speaking of God. And the second three are all us, speaking of us. And so I'll put those first three on the screen for you. And it begins,

Okay? When we look at the very beginning, that first phrase, our Father in heaven, we stop right there because Jesus is again reminding them that they are not praying to a force, they are not praying to the universe, they are not praying to nature, they are praying to a person, our Father who is in heaven. And you know, this word in Aramaic would have been Abba. Okay? Jesus used it nine times, the word Father, Abba, nine times in this passage, 15 times in the Sermon on the Mount. And we talked about last week how this was different for them. They knew about God, they knew about people referencing Elohim or Yahweh, but Father was something very different for them. And so he was reminding them. And this phrase should remind us too, of the precious relationship that we have. We also are not just praying out to the universe, we're praying to our Father. It is a precious relationship. It reminds us that we are sons and daughters of our Father in heaven. So the next we have, hallowed be your name, your name. These are God's interests as we begin our prayer. And this isn't a formula that we must follow. Jesus was giving them a simple understanding of what genuine prayer was like. And so we shouldn't see it as a formula, but it is a good model. So the first thing is your name. A first importance is who God is. Like I said, we're praying to a person, a personality, not just to nature or just to the universe. And the concept of a name encompasses who someone is. If someone says my name, you kind of know whatever you do know about me, it comes to mind, right? And you like, oh yeah, I know that girl and this is what I know about her. So his name, God's name or person should be honored, hallowed, set apart. I really love how the NLT, the New Living Translation, translates this. Almost all the translations have hallowed be your name, but the NLT says may your name be kept holy. And I really like that extra layer of understanding. May your name be kept holy. You know, Paul's going through Ezekiel on Wednesday nights, and I'm underlining every time we see, every time, often when we get to the end, God has given Ezekiel a prophecy and it will end with this, then you will know that I am the Lord. And that is Yahweh there. Then you will know that I am the Lord, or then they will know that I am the Lord. Then when these things happen, you will know about me. And I, Paul even mentioned on Wednesday night, the world views God through his people that bear his name. The world views God through his sons and daughters that bear his name. May your name be kept holy. I like that. The next phrase is your kingdom come. This is the second of God's interest, his kingdom. May your kingdom come. Every kingdom has a king. And I have a little kingdom, all of my own, and I am the king of my little kingdom. And I have interests in my kingdom. It's all about me. It's about my comforts, my desires, my ambitions. You do too. This is what comes naturally to us. We are born with this, introspecting. So it's natural when we get saved and when we begin to pray that we just start praying about all the things in our kingdom, right? And that our will would be done. That is how we begin until we are kind of faced with scripture. It's like, oh, wait, this isn't about me. This is about your kingdom. May your kingdom come. And this isn't just like the ultimate kingdom of God on earth, but his kingdom right here, the body of Christ. Anyway, that's what I think of, to be praying things about the body of Christ and God's kingdom on earth. And the third one is your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I love this phrase because it threatens my kingdom and it threatens my will. We were talking this morning about just complexities with different things going on. And what a relief it is to be able to sum up and say, well, let's pray that God's will would be done. But that's a hard thing. to pray, because you know where my reading was in my Bible? I was in Mark chapter 6 this morning with the beheading of John the Baptist. And I was thinking about this lesson, and then reading about persecution and martyrdom. Those two things are very, very difficult for us to marry together. So we pray that God's will would be done, and then we don't like how his will has been done. But that brings us to another level of submitting to how God's will is accomplished on earth as it is in heaven. Well, the second part of the Lord's Prayer talks about our interests, and this is where the pronoun changes then to us. And I'll put this up on the screen again. First we had, you know, God's name and his kingdom and his will, and now the second part is give us, forgive us, and deliver us. Very simple. The things that we need from God. Verse 11, give us this day our daily bread, speaking of our physical everyday needs. Verse 12, forgive us our debts, as we have also forgiven our debtors, speaking of relational challenges that we have, both with God and people. And then 13, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, speaking about our spiritual needs. So let's take a look at this. Give us this day our daily bread. The mother in me always wants to correct it and say, no, may I please have my daily bread? But it's okay. Apparently Jesus said, give us this day our daily bread. But the thing of it is, is that God doesn't matter how we ask, okay? I would correct my children. I'd say, may I please? God doesn't care if you use the right manners. He doesn't care if you use the right words. He doesn't care if you cry or if you beg. God is listening when we say, give us, okay? He is listening. He knows that we might ask for things that aren't good for us. And he knows that we might appreciate the things he gives us that are good for us, that we don't think are good for us. He knows those things. There's two parts of this first verse, verse 11, and that's the frequency. Give us this day, okay? And the second item is the object, daily bread. But let's look at the frequency, this day. Do you ever get tired of people depending on you? If you're a mom, if your kids are at home, you have or do get tired of them depending on you. Remember when we were getting close to women's retreat, one of our gals in church put something on Facebook and said, I can't wait three full days of no one asking me for anything. You know, I get it. I understand. And people, we can get tired of people depending on us. Maybe you have a fairly needy friend, but they are a good friend, but they depend on you. Or you have coworkers or a boss or somebody. People, we grow weary of people depending on us. And we kind of want out sometimes. God never, ever, ever grows weary of you depending on him. Never, ever. You can come back every single day. He's not weary. He's not tired of you. And he doesn't mind you depending. So we never apologize for our requests that we make daily. We never have to say, I know I asked last week. No, no, no. He doesn't grow tired. He loves that we ask him. And then the object here is mentioned, daily bread. That is one of the basic human needs in terms of our physical needs. I have good seed bread toasted with peanut butter every single day of my life, pretty much with coffee. It's a basic thing. It's boring, but it's dependable. But God invites us to seek him to supply our physical needs. Now, listen, we live in an affluent society. When's the last time that you really prayed for food? When's the last time that you really prayed for clothing or for shelter? Like sometimes, but I feel like even way back when we were first married, we had to pray for money for car repairs. Everybody's got a credit card. Government throws out money. I mean, we're just in an affluent place. But take this daily need. And still, that's good to pray for the things that we need. But take this idea of daily bread and now think about other physical needs that we have. Like, Lord, I can't sleep. I just can't sleep without your intervention. And every night asking God to enable you, to help you. Lord, these fears that come over me. I just, I don't know. Lord, I need to ask you every day, will you help me manage these fears? You know, there's all kinds of physical things that we have that aren't consuming food that we can be asking God to supply the need. Just last night, Paul and I prayed for a friend that lives on the East Coast, and she had sent a long text explaining how she was just struggling. She was fearful. She lives alone. And it just wasn't an easy situation. I'm feeling particularly vulnerable tonight. Would you please pray for me? We did. We grabbed hands and we prayed for her. And so I sent a text this morning. How did you do? I did great. But here's the temptation. Well, I bugged him about it last night. Maybe I shouldn't ask again tonight, right? So we need to remember we can keep going back and asking this, not just about stuff, but Lord, I need courage. Today, I need courage for the thing that I need to do. I need strength. I need health. I need a sound mind today. Those are all the physical needs that God will supply. All right, the next is forgive us as we have forgiven our debtors. And this speaks to relational challenges that we have, both with God and other people. This is not asking God to forgive us for salvation when we are born again, okay? Forgive us our debts. When we are born again, when we come to Christ, when we receive the Spirit, we are forgiven at that point for all of our sins, all of our debts against God in the past, in the present, and in the future. So that's not what this is talking about. What this is talking about is those relational, those missing the mark when we sin, when we miss the mark. And maybe we continue to miss the mark. Maybe we continue to sin against God in some way. And what happens with our relationship with him? Does he come to us and say, well, I'm taking away that robe of righteousness that you're clothed with Jesus? No, you are still saved. But now there's like a walking away. There's a distance that's happening between you. And so we need to come and humbly admit that we have missed the mark. Admit that we have racked up a debt against the Lord, and we need to come to agreement with God about our sin, and we need to ask forgiveness. Forgive us this day. Okay? Forgive us. This is repent. This is the same as what we talked about at the beginning, to repent, to change your mind, turn the other way. So now the context of this is us asking forgiveness of God, but notice God assumes as you have also forgiven your debtors. They're like, oh, right. It's like asking your kids, would you please put those dirty clothes in the laundry? Just like you did the wet towels in the bathroom. They're like, oh, I didn't do that either. But there's an expectation here that we do. It is expected of us. Why is it expected? You're God's daughter. You should look like him. Family resemblance. Remember? So there's an expectation. So I want to drop down to verse 14 and keep it in context of this forgiving. Right? There's a little bit more about forgive us.

Okay? Now last week, we talked a lot about loving our enemies. And I would say the definition, a simple definition of an enemy is someone who needs to be forgiven. Right? Someone who has devalued us in a way, inconvenienced us, insulted us in some way that they need to be forgiven. That's our enemy. Okay? And maybe they have asked forgiveness of us and maybe they have not. But we see the need here, the importance to forgive them. Okay? We always like to make clear what passages mean and what they don't mean. So these two verses here, 14 and 15, what do they not mean? Jesus was not teaching that we earn God's forgiveness when we forgive other people. Okay? Because that's out of agreement with other scriptures. I sent you to other scriptures in your study guide. So that's not what it means. And he was also not teaching that when we forgive someone, that necessarily we have to allow them access back into our life. Okay? And this is delicate. This takes discernment because we can see scriptures we already covered in this Bible. from Romans 12, we don't just merely cancel difficult, what did we call them, irregular people out of our life. We don't just cancel them out of our life because Romans 12 says be willing to associate with the lowly. But then we've got that passage in Galatians that says bad company corrupts good character. And so we need some discernment about people in our life that are dangerous or a bad influence. So just because we forgive someone doesn't necessarily mean we invite them to Thanksgiving. We need to have discernment. What Jesus was teaching is that when we pray and we ask him to forgive our sins, forgive our debts, that we must do so with a forgiving willingness to forgive other people in our life. Otherwise, we're doing it like the hypocrite. Okay, ask God to forgive me when I'm harboring unforgiveness to someone else. What was that wonderful definition of the hypocrite? A form of godliness with no power. I'm done going through life with no power. And so we cannot be harboring when we ask God to forgive us. And we need to ask God to forgive our debts because I don't know about you, but I still got the sinful nature. I still have bad thoughts. I still have bad actions. I need to ask forgiveness for what I rack up as a debt before the Lord. So this is super simple, but it is not easy in any way. I just wanna wrap it up by reminding us of phrases that Jesus has said, so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven from last week, and you must be perfect like your father who is in heaven. These are the things that grow us, this having to forgive other people and remembering, you know, I don't think this is super popular in our prayers to say, to like confess all of our sins. I don't think it's super popular. So it's a good reminder for us. It's an important, confession is an important part of our prayers. And forgiving others is an important part of the confession that's an important part of our prayers. This matures us that we may be perfect like our father in heaven. Last one is verse 13, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And this relates to our spiritual needs. I think the influence of evil is under emphasized in our Christian culture. And if it is emphasized, it's usually emphasized in such a way as we're doing battle with the enemy ourselves all the time. So I like the simplicity of praying, Lord, would you deliver me from evil, okay? Lead me away from temptation and evil influences, okay? God doesn't lead us into temptation when it says, and lead me not into temptation. He doesn't ever lead us into it, but that's the contrast here. Lead me away from the temptation and lead me completely the other direction. You know, we do need to avoid evil as much as we can. I think about all the other things that we tend to avoid in life. We like to avoid processed foods, refined sugar, red dyes, pesticides, GMOs. We think about those things. Do we think about avoiding evil, avoiding temptation as much as we do some of those things that we try to avoid in our life? What we want to remember for me this week, the point is, do not be like the hypocrite who has a form of godliness, but without the power. I need to rely on the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. I need to rely on God's power, and maybe there's something in this prayer that has really gripped you. I know it has for me to remind me what that genuine prayer with my Father in Heaven is to look like, how to continue to grow. Jesus was, I think, attempting to inspire them in how simple and how genuine their prayers with their Heavenly Father would be. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the simplicity of your word. Lord, I want to thank you that you've given such a good contrast. Lord, I think we can all relate to the fact that sometimes we just do our Christian life and there's no power behind it. So, Lord, I pray that you would strengthen us with your Holy Spirit to activate the power of your Holy Spirit by being genuine in our relationship. Lord, if we need to confess our sins, then lead us that direction. Lord, if we need to be giving to someone generously without anybody knowing about it, then lead us that direction, Lord. Lord, if we need to come to you every single day and ask for the courage to face this day in the situation that we're in, then lead us that direction, Lord God, and give us what we need. And thank you, Lord, that we can just come to you and depend on you, and that you never grow tired of our dependence. We thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen.