What Prayer Should Look Like

Matthew 6:9-13

Introduction: Illustration “Teach us what to say in prayer”

I. Worship (v.9)

A. What is worship of God?

1. Recognizing who is of the highest worth.

2. Recognizing we are not it.

3. In worship we are submitting to God in a fresh way every time we do it.

4. Recognizing the Holiness of God.

B. How do those who are more intimate with God worship Him?

1. Even angels hide their faces and cry (Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts Isaiah 6:3)

2. (Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come! Revelation 4:8)

C. What causes us to fail to properly worship God?

1. Most often it is an incorrect view of God.

- We are too busy trying to make Jesus out to be just like us.

- But God is not just like us. The Bible says Jesus suffered like us but He is not like us.

- God is Holy and we cannot rightly view our sin and our lives if we reduce God to being like us.

- We must see God in His true estate, His holiness, his awe and wonderful existence.

- When we do that then we will see ourselves as we truly are and we can have genuine and sincere worship of God.

2. The other issue that is so prevalent in our churches is stubborn conflict.

- Not just conflict but stubborn conflict. Those who refuse to be reconciled.

- (Mat 5:22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment;)

- (Mat 5:23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you,)

- (Mat 5:24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.)

II. Confession (v.12)

A. What is confession?

1. Confession is expressing ourselves in the light of who God is.

2. Confession recognizes our failures and sins against God

3. Confession humbles us and puts us in a place where we are better able to submit to God

4. Confession humbles us and puts us in a place where we are better able to submit to God

5. Because we have taken time to put first things first, we can now make an honest confession of ourselves to God.

6. When we have been before the throne of God and have beheld His glory and holiness we cannot but help to see ourselves as we truly are.

7. (Isaiah 6:1-7)

8. And genuine confession of our own lives causes us to properly forgive others.

9. Until we have been in the presence of God through our prayers we are not ready for anything else in this world.

10. More importantly we are not ready for sincere and genuine confession in worship.

B. How does this affect our Sunday Morning worship services?

11. Why should we gather at the altar, and pray before each service?

12. Because prayer and His word brings us into His throne room where we can see who He is and only then will we be able to see who we are.

13. Then we are ready for worship

14. Then we are ready for confession

15. Submitting to God is walking in the Spirit of God

16. (Rom_8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.)

17. Without confession you can do none of that.

18. Without true worship you cannot genuinely confess.

19. (John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.)

III. Praise (v.9)

A. What is praise of God?

1. Adoration

2. Speaking well of the one whom we love and respect.

3. (Psa 150:2 Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness!)

4. (Psa 119:164 Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous rules.)

B. How do we praise God?

1. Look to scripture

2. In prayer

3. In public (surrounded by people you may not know)

4. In private (with family and friends)

IV. What should we pray for?

A. The will of God. (v.10)

1. Illustration “Prayer doesn’t change God, it changes me”

2. Prayer is not about getting God to do what we ask

3. Prayer is about discovering what God wants.

B. Provision. (v.11)

1. Remember what we have is not ours but God’s.

2. We are just stewards of what God provides.

C. Forgiveness and those who have offended us. (v.12; 14-15)

1. If we are treating the offender differently than if they had never offended us then we have not forgiven them.