Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount Part 12
Lord, Teach us to Pray!
Pm Service January 18th 2009
Matthew 6:5-15
Introduction
Prayer is one of the greatest acts of the Believer. Taking to God weather it is by spoken word or by thought, is the actual act of fellowshipping with almighty God.
When we think about prayer, we often times don’t understand how it works, but we must believe by faith that it does.
One preacher wrote, “I don’t understand prayer, but I believe it works. There are a lot of other things that I don’t understand. I don’t understand how I can push a button in my car and my garage door opens before I even get there. But I use it. I don’t understand how a cordless phone works. I don’t know how your voice can travel through the air, through a transmitter and amplifier and then someone can hear you clearly across town or across the nation or around the world. I don’t know how. But it works.
“I don’t understand how prayer works, but it works. So I pray in faith to my unseen God and He promises that He will hear.”
Billy Graham once said, “Heaven is full of answers to prayers which no one ever bothered to ask.”
In this particular passage of Scripture Jesus is concerned about how we pray. Because of that Jesus has given us some guidelines in this text for prayer, we will learn tonight those guidelines.
Read Scriptures: Matthew 6:5-15
I. When you pray, don’t put on a show.
Vs. 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…”
When Lyndon Johnson was President, he had several guests in for a meal at the family room of the White House. LBJ had given the honor of giving grace to journalist Bill Moyers (an ex-Baptist minister). As Moyers began to softly say grace, LBJ - who couldn’t understand what was being said, interrupted Moyers, "Speak up man." Without looking up and barely stopping in mid-sentence, Bill Moyers replied, "I wasn’t talking to you."
Preacher D. L. Moody said, “A man who prays much in private will make short prayers in public.”
There is nothing wrong with praying in public but we must not be too quick to offer a public prayer. Why do we want to lead in public prayer? Is it to communicate with God and ask on the behalf of others? Or is it because we want to appear “religious” to others?
If you are asked to pray in public, just remember that we are not in the “show business.” We are in the God business of trying to honor and please Him. Any time you pray you are talking to the Lord, not to people.
II. When you pray, get away from people.
Vs. 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.”
Mark 1:35 “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”
Luke 6:12 “One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.”
We all need a private time for prayer. We need this both for ourselves and for the sake of others, for those on our prayer list.
Jesus recommended that we go off by ourselves, in our room. Your private prayer place could be anywhere. It could be your car while driving to work; that is, if you can pray and drive at the same time.
Getting away by yourself for prayer, no matter where that place is, can be a time of refreshing! It can be a time of worship, praise, thanksgiving, and intercession on behalf of others. But it can’t be done effectively unless you have your own “getaway” spot.
Jesus would get up early in the morning and leave the house where he was staying so He could talk with His Father. Or at times He would spend all night in prayer. WE ALL NEED THIS TIME, FOR OUR SAKE, FOR THE LORD’S SAKE AND FOR THE SAKE OF OTHERS!
III. When you pray, don’t babble on and on
Vs. 7-8 “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.”
A young boy was observed by a minister in church praying very fervently; but much to the preacher’s surprise, he was also heard to say from time to time: "Tokyo, Tokyo, Tokyo."
So preacher approached the boy after he had finished his prayer and said, "Son, I was very pleased to see you praying so devoutly, but tell me, why did you keep saying ’Tokyo, Tokyo, Tokyo?"
The boy replied, "Well, you see sir, I just finished taking my geography test in school, and I have been praying for the Lord to make Tokyo the Capital of France."
Sometimes I wonder if we do any better in the church today. I wonder if we are on parade with our praying. We work on saying the right phrases. We pray with great enthusiasm. We pray with a holy pitch. And we pray with holy language. I wonder if it is not just all babbling to God.”
Sometimes we think that we get more for our money the slower we go. Or perhaps the longer we pray, we think the more spiritual we are. Jesus said: “When you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.”
IV. When You Pray, Surrender to God
Vs. 9-13 “This, then, is how you 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. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one”
Our Prayer is to be surrender. When a we genuinely says “Father”, we surrendering to God. We are denying our humanist, our self-sufficiency, and all other gods. We are surrendering to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There is surrender to God’s kingdom, surrender to God’s will, surrender to God’s forgivness, and surrender to God’s deliverance.
When we pray, we are to surrender to God.
V. When you Pray, forgive others
Vs.14-15 “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins your Father will not forgive your sins.”
One of the hardest things that we have to do in life is to forgive others when they offend us or sin against us. It’s almost unspeakable some of the things that people can do to others and even some who claim to follow Christ, BUT FORGIVE WE MUST.
If we want God’s forgiveness, we too, must somehow learn to forgive. Jesus did it best and did it on Calvary when He prayed for those who crucified Him, “Father, forgive them for they know not…” When you pray, forgive others.
Conclusion
E. M. Bounds in his book on prayer said that Stonewall Jackson was a man of prayer. Jackson said, “I have so fixed the habit of prayer in my mind that I never raise a glass of water to my lips without asking God’s blessing, never seal a letter without putting a word of prayer under the seal, never take a letter from the post (office) without a brief sending of my thoughts heavenward, never change my classes in the lecture-room without a minute’s petition for the cadets who go out and for those who come in.”
That’s the kind of praying we need! We need to be in constant prayer, praise and petition!
(Thanks sermoncentral contributor, Preacher’s outline and sermon bible)
