Go To Your Room - Matthew 6:5-6 Series

Matthew 6:5-16 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 men. I tell you the truth, 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 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.' 14 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Introduction: Israel’s commitment to prayer

I do not think you could find any nation, anywhere in history that placed a higher priority on prayer than ancient Israel. They believed prayer was supremely important and they acted on that belief. Every morning, as soon as it was light enough to tell blue from green, and every evening before dark, the devout Jew was supposed to recite Deuteronomy 6:4-9, 11:14-21, and Numbers 15:37-41 as a prayer. Additionally, three times a day they were to recite the Shemena Esra, which was made up of eighteen prayers. That was to be done at 9:00, 12:00, and 3:00. On top of that they had prescribed prayers for every possible event. Light, darkness, fire, lightning, seeing a new moon, comet, rain, storm, sea, lakes, rivers, good news, bad news, new furniture, leaving a city, on the road, entering next city, etc. No nation in history that I have ever heard of has had the kind of devotion to prayer that ancient Israel had. Imagine their shock in the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus says for the men who were the most devoted to all that, all those prayers are absolutely worthless. And the thing that makes them worthless is also a surprise – love. A certain kind of love can make all your prayers completely worthless.

Authentic Prayer: Do not pray like the hypocrites

A bad love

Matthew 6:5 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 men.

The whole problem with the hypocrites is that they have a bad love. The most fundamental issue in assessing the condition of the heart is always to look at what it loves and does not love. Evil people love bad things and righteous people love good things. The problem with the hypocrites is not just that they pray in public in a way that impresses people, but that they love doing that.

Matthew 23:5-6 Everything they do is done for men to see … 6 they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues

Matthew 23:7 they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them 'Rabbi.'

They love the honor of men. They love the feeling of being looked up to and respected by men. This is exactly the sort of thing John is talking about in 1 John 2.

1 John 2:15-17 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world--the desires of the flesh, the desires of his eyes and the pride of possessions--comes not from the Father but from the world.

We are not to love anything that does not come from the Father. And the fact that Scripture so often focuses on the love of a bad thing rather than on the action itself can be very convicting. So often we avoid certain sins because of one kind of pressure or another, but in our hearts we still love those things. There are some people who would never dream of showing off, but in their heart they love human acclaim just as much as the worst show-off in the world. They would never be so ostentatious as to pray out loud on a street corner or to announce their giving with trumpets, so their desire for human approval just goes unfulfilled, but that desire is there nonetheless. That love of human acclaim is still there.