June 17, 2001
Secret Christianity - Part 2
INTRODUCTION
Some actors make a lot of money.
Julia Roberts
Tom Cruise
Bruce Willis and
John Travolta
Each of these currently make $20 million per movie.
And there you have Harrison Ford and Mel Gibson who each command $25 million per film.
A few years ago, a big deal was made when each of the cast members of the TV show Friends asked for $100,00 per episode.
Kelsey Grammar currently makes $500,000 per episode of Frasier.
And we seem to enjoy those who act. We reward them with our purchased tickets and patronage at the theatres and movie rental places.
Acting can be big business.
However when it comes to living out our faith in God, acting isn’t so highly regarded. In fact, Jesus says, those who play-act their Christianity have received their reward in full.
Nowhere is this as evident than in the issue of prayer. Through what we’ll learn today, we’ll see that Jesus wants you and me to say…
Big Idea: My prayers are for God’s ears only.
TRANSITION: Let’s take a look at how Jesus explains this for us in Matthew chapter 6. He has already given the reminder in verse 1, Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
In verse 5 he relates this to the practice of prayer.
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. (Matthew 6:5)
Jesus wants us to know…
I. PRAYER IS NOT FOR PUBLIC PERFORMANCE (v. 5-6)
The truth is…
The prayers of the Pharisees were selfish
Just as the Pharisees turned giving to the poor into an occasion for showing off, they also used prayer as a way to impress others.
Jesus isn’t discouraging prayer any more than he was discouraging giving. But thanks to the professional show-offs, prayer had become formal and overdone. Using their hypocritical example, we see what not to do.
He says they loved to pray, that is, standing in the synagogues – that’s true.
Jewish synagogue services would be led by a male who stood. The temptation might be to outpray the last guy – by being more eloquent, appearing more passionate, or using more deep theological terms. Maybe they wanted to hear – Boy oh boy – that man can really pray!
And they loved to pray on the street corners – to be seen by men.
When the afternoon trumpet sounded for the daily temple sacrifice it was customary to stop where you were, face the temple and begin to pray.
Could be quite tempting – to pray a little louder, a little more fervently, appear a little more righteous than the guy down the block. They did it all for the attention and the approval.
It was all for show. They were actors playing a part. Remember that word “hypocrite” just means “actor.” Seeking the applause of people. Wanting to hear, “My how holy that man is! Listen to how he prays!” Problem was, they weren’t praying to God. They were praying to impress people.
Their audience was people, contrasted to what Jesus tells us here – a Christian disciple lives his life or her life before an audience of One and only One.
Chuck Swindoll says, “Putting prayer on display is one of the most obvious and obnoxious forms of hypocrisy.” (Simple Faith, p. 127)
We’d never do this would we? Well let’s think about this….
When asked to pray out loud – are we ever tempted to put on a good show?
When praying out loud, do we ever take into account who is listening, and change the way we say things?
In a worship service, when singing a prayer to God does the thought ever cross your mind of who might be watching if you chose to raise your hands, clap or kneel?
Maybe we shouldn’t be so hard on the Pharisees, because it seems like Jesus might be talking to us too.
Some might take Jesus instruction here to mean we should never pray out loud at a worship service, small group, prayer meeting or community event. Because those prayers wouldn’t be a secret. But Jesus’ instruction isn’t that rigid. He prayed out loud immediately after saying these words.
And in the book of Acts, the Apostles pray out loud several times. Public prayer definitely has its place.
Jesus just means, when you pray…
Don’t be an actor instead of being yourself
Don’t seek to be seen when you pray
Don’t limit your praying to public places
So how can I avoid this prayer pitfall? Very easily…
Find a private place to be alone (read v. 6)
ILLUS -An exhibitionist would get a thrill from making love out in the open with others watching – inviting others to see. But the couple that cares for each other, goes into their room and shuts the door. They love each other and want to be alone – because that is private activity. No one else is invited to observe.
When we engage in the act of intimate love with God through prayer, it is a private encounter. Jesus says go in your room and close the door. That’s the language of intimacy. That’s an image of a love encounter.
Still sometimes we might be praying out loud in a group or with a friend. It’s important to remember that the person whose heart is right before God is praying in secret even if others happen to hear.
Do you have a private place? A place where you and God can go and be alone?
When I was in high school, sometimes I’d drive out in the country to this grove of trees on a hill. At the top of the hill was a tree taller than all the others. I’d climb the tree where I could see for miles and miles in any direction, and I would pray – alone – in private – in secret. I’m sure my parents thought I was a strange kid when they’d ask, “Where have you been.” I’d say, “Out in that grove of trees.” They never asked what I did, and I never told them I went there to pray. It was a secret.
In college I used to sit on a little bridge at the corner of the campus.
Today it’s usually the dining room table or in my office.
You and I need a place where we can go and be alone with no one else but God. If you’re hard up to find a spot, there’s always the bathroom. In most houses that room even has a lock!
If we’re serious about this we’ll avoid the pitfall of the Pharisees. We’ll avoid offering selfish prayers that are given with thoughts of who might see or hear.
TRANSTION: Alongside the error of the Pharisees, Jesus includes another group of people whose prayer practices we should avoid. Verse 7 says,
And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. (Matthew 6:7)
Jesus is telling us…
II. PRAYER IS NOT A MECHANICAL MONOLOGUE (v. 7-8)
The truth is…
The prayers of the pagans were mindless
In fact Jesus says they babbled. They thought if they named all of their gods, addressed the same requests to each of them, then repeated themselves a few times, they would stand a better chance of receiving an answer.
But Jesus would have us understand that prayer shouldn’t consist of heaped up phrases, idle repetitions and the ridiculous assumption that the probability of an answer is in proportion to the total number of words we pray.
This doesn’t mean we can’t repeat a prayer. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed three times for the same thing. If there was any other way to save the world than dying on the cross, he hoped God would bring it about.
He even told the story of the judge and the persistent widow in Luke 18, it says there, so we’d always pray and not give up. Jesus definitely taught persistence in prayer.
He just wants us to know here, that our relationship with God through prayer cannot be reduced to meaningless mechanical recitation of words.
Let me give you an example from home.
What if all I ever said to Kim was this:
“You look pretty in what you’re wearing
I hope you have a great day.
I’ll see you when I come home.
And I love you.”
What if that’s all I said?
Great stuff, but if that’s all my conversations ever amounted to, pretty soon I could say it with no thought involved whatsoever.
After a few weeks of this, Kim could probably say it along with me.
Where’s the depth of devotion in that? How does that express what I really feel at that moment. How will that further our relationship? It won’t.
The mind would be in neutral, reciting sentences without taking time to communicate. Don’t be like this to God. He deserves better!
I’m a fan of the book The Prayer of Jabez, by Bruce Wilkinson. I wrote about it a little for my column in the newsletter you’ll receive this week. The prayer Jabez prayed is found in 1 Chronicles 4:10 and says, Oh that you would bless me indeed…(etc.)
A great prayer, but we still have to be careful with it. If these words are all that we pray, or if we treat this prayer like a mantra or a prescription for getting what we want from God, we miss what Jesus wants us to know in Matthew 6. He wants us to steer clear of advice that says, “Here try saying this prayer. It really works!” Because that’s the trap of the pagans.
But if we see the Jabez prayer as a model or as an example – and as Wilkinson suggests – to consistently pray for the same things in our lives that Jabez prayed for in his – then we’ll reap the blessings of a rich life full of miraculous works of God! Because Jabez just prayed for things God already wanted to do in his life.
Here’s how Eugene Peterson translates verses 7-8 like this in The Message: The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply.
How can I avoid this prayer pitfall of babbling? Very easily…
Keep it simple
Keep it real
Simple in that God doesn’t expect a flowery piece of prose. Basically if we use phrases we don’t fully understand or phrases we’ve only heard someone else say in a prayer, we’re probably babbling. Keep it simple.
And real in the sense that God just wants to hear it from the heart. We need to be careful about carelessly using phrases such as “and God be with Aunt Becky” or “bless this food.” God probably thinks, “I’m everywhere, so I’m already with your Aunt Becky and by causing it to grow and make it to your table I’ve already blessed this food. What would you really like me to do? Protect your Aunt Becky from the people who attempted to break into her house? I can do that. Use this food to give you a healthy body so you can share Jesus with the young couple that just moved in next door? I can do that.”
A good rule of thumb might be, if our mouths are fully engaged and our minds are not, we’re probably babbling.
TRANSITION: After some brief words on what not to do, Jesus gives the crowd on the mountain a how-to lesson with…
III. A PUBLIC EXAMPLE OF PRIVATE PRAYER (v. 9-15)
This Example prayer or this Model prayer is sometimes called the Lord’s prayer.
Let’s read it together.
Notice he says in verse 9, This is HOW, not necesarily WHAT you should pray.
It’s ironic that the prayer which has been repeated through the ages with the most regularity, perhaps even at times mechanically and mindlessly, appears in a teaching where Jesus was explaining how to keep from doing that.
He begins with the words, “Our Father”
Father comes from the Aramaic word Abba – not the group who sang “Dancing Queen”
It was the word from the vocabulary of Jewish children – really close for us to translate it as “Daddy” or “Dad.”
Jesus was the first one to ever pray like this. And it blew people away. Before, people would only address God with phrases like, “Sovereign Lord,” or “King of the Universe.” God was understood to be so high and exalted that a personal relationship with God couldn’t really be imagined.
But God was Jesus’ Father. And He’s ours too. That ought to make it pretty clear why prayer isn’t for show and why mechanical formulas are silly. You’re talking to your Father.
And in this prayer, God is telling us, “This is how you can talk to me!”
But to keep us from thinking that God is so warm and personal that He’s not unique, Jesus completes the address by referring to God as our Father – in heaven – a reminder that he is also still high and exalted.
There are 6 components to this example prayer that should show up in our prayers as well. I want us for a few moments to examine it briefly. The first half of the prayer is all about God – God’s name, God’s rule, God’s will. Then the prayer shifts to our needs.
Concerning God, Jesus shows us when we pray, #1, we should…
1. Praise his name
Hallowed be your name (v. 9)
Hallowed just means “holy”
It’s really just a request that more and more people all over the world will give God’s name the proper respect it deserves – to give his name worship and praise.
When we pray, that praise, that hallowing of God’s name should begin with us. We can read the Bible for clues on how to praise God, and we can back it up with life experiences of how God operates.
For instance we hallow God’s name when we pray…
God you are incredibly loving
Your instructions for how to live are always best
Your words are always true, never false
You’re big, wonderful, amazing, awesome, incredible
You take what seems impossible and then you make it happen
Do you ever say things like this when you talk to God? This example prayer shows us we should avoid jumping right into requests by first spending some time praising or hallowing God’s name. It keeps our prayers from being selfish.
Second, we should…
2. Pray for Jesus to return soon
Your kingdom come (v. 10)
This is asking God to expand his saving rule – to usher in the coming Kingdom when Jesus returns in glory.
This verse always reminds me of a funny story.
ILLUS – On a shopping trip with my parents when I was kid no more than 7 or 8 years old, I was allowed to get a special gift. Something I had wanted for months. A water rocket. Maybe you remember those things. They were hollow and made of see-through red plastic, with a matching launch pad. You needed to fill the rocket about halfway with water, and then put it on the launch pad, which pumped air into the rocket. After a few pumps, you flipped the release switch and the rocket propelled upwards, about 20 or 25 feet in the air, releasing a trail of pressurized water behind it, then once empty, it fell gently back to the earth. One of my friends had one of these, and now I had one of my very own. I could hardly wait to try it out.
When we arrived home from shopping, I bounded out of the car, and ran into the house. I tore the rocket from its box and raced to the sink in the basement. With hands trembling from anticipation, I turned the lever on the faucet to and began to fuel that plastic space missile with a little cold H2O.
It’s strange, isn’t it, the things you can remember from childhood. But in my excitement to launch that rocket, I distinctly remember standing at the sink and praying this prayer, “God, please don’t let Jesus come back right now!”
It seemed to me that if He could just delay the 2nd Coming for just a few more moments, I could have my fun and life would then be complete.
An honest prayer, but a very childish one too.
Let me ask you something: How often do you pray for the immediate return of Jesus Christ?
Those being persecuted, those in pain for centuries have typically been the ones to pray for the kingdom to come. The early church cried, “Maranatha – or Come, O Lord” (1 Cor. 16:22). 2 Peter 3:13 says they looked forward to a new heaven and a new earth. The book of Revelation ends with the words, “Come, Lord Jesus.”
But us – well maybe we’re a little comfortable.
If the hidden thoughts of our hearts were exposed, we might hear something like this: “God, I’m fully in favor of you sending Jesus back here to take us home, but please don’t do it right now. Could you wait until I complete this degree, until I get married, until I get to see my business succeed, or until my grandchild is born? That would be a lot better timing for me, and then I think I’d be ready to go.”
I wonder sometimes if we get more interested in seeing our little kingdoms reach their fulfillment instead of God’s reaching his. I wonder that because of the secret things I know are in my heart. Do we really hunger for the Day of God?
We cannot pray, your kingdom come without truly being concerned for the things of God more than the things of us.
Third, we should…
3. Pray for God’s desires to be accomplished
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven (v. 10)
This is a prayer for God’s ways to occur now and on earth that same way that his will gets accomplished in heaven.
God has desires for people on earth. Desires for how they’ll treat each other (seen that in Matthew 5), desires for how they’ll take care of those in need, and desires for how we’ll treat the environment. He has an ideal vision of community – and that ideal already exists in heaven.
In praying this, we’re asking for God’s heavenly desires to be made into reality on planet earth.
To pray this honestly:
I have to commit to learning about what God’s desires are as they are revealed in the Bible
And I have to be open to letting God’s desires take hold in my life
“Your will be done,” or as Jesus prayed in the Garden, “Not my will, but yours be done.”
Now there is a shift in this example prayer. The pronoun changes from “your” to “our.” Now the attention is in on us. But only secondarily. Only after focusing on God.
Concerning ourselves
1. Pray for my needs
Give us this day our daily bread (v. 11)
In Jesus day, laborers were commonly paid each day for the work they had done. Typically the pay was so low it would only pay for the day’s food. So you had to trust God to provide daily – for survival.
Most of us probably make more than enough to just purchase food one day at a time. So the wording of daily bread may throw us off.
But in prayer we have to admit that God is the source of every good thing. We need to recognize that when we stand in line at the grocery store, and when we get paid, and when we write the check for our mortgage, and when we wake up tomorrow and go to work, it’s all because of God. “God, you meet my needs on a daily basis. You provide.”
Do you pray like this?
Second, concerning ourselves, we should…
2. Pray for forgiveness
Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors (v. 12)
This refers to sin, and sin is here pictured as a debt. If the debt isn’t paid, we bear the consequences. We can’t cover our own sins. But Jesus does for us. “Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe.”
READ VERSE 14-15
We have to forgive others. There is no forgiveness for the one who doesn’t forgive.
Jesus told a story in Matthew 18 about a wicked servant whose master cancelled a huge debt that the servant could never pay. What does the servant turn around and do? He went out and found a guy who owed him a few bucks – roughed up the guy – began to choke him. The guy couldn’t pay up, so the servant had him thrown in prison. When the master found out about this, he was ticked, threw the servant in prison until he could pay off the debt that he had owed before.
Jesus says, if you want to be forgiven by God, you need to be forgiving others.
Do you ever pray for God to forgive you?
Do you first pray for the grace to forgive those who’ve hurt you or wronged you, instead of holding a grudge against them? God says this is how we should pray.
And third, concerning ourselves, we should…
3. Pray for help in temptation
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one (v. 13)
Strange, but why should we have to ask God not to lead us into temptation? James 1:13 tells us God doesn’t tempt anyone. So why should we pray this.
The words “into temptation” are actually negated in the sentence. Lead us, not into temptation, but away from it – deliver us from the evil one.
We know the tendencies of our hearts. We know how cunning the evil one is – we say, “God lead me away from those things I give into – deliver me!”
1 Cor. 10:13 says, when tempted, God will provide a way out
TRANSITION: The reason Jesus taught on this was to keep us from spiritual play acting. To show us our prayers are for God’s ears only.
WRAP UP
It matters how we view God.
If God is just a commodity – we’ll use him to boost our own status – our prayers will be for show, so we can be noticed
If God is computer – we’ll feed him words in the same order over and over again – our prayers will be mechanical, mindless repetition
If God is Father – we’ll talk to him in a way that is simple, unpretentious, honest and real
My prayers are God’s ears only.
