Matthew chapter 6 will be in verses 5 through 13 this morning, a passage that contains what in your Bible may be called the Lord's Prayer.
I prefer the title the model prayer and you'll see why pretty shortly.
But in this portion of the Sermon of the Mount in Matthew, we see that Christ is teaching on charitable giving, on prayer, on fasting, and in each of these cases in each of these subjects He's giving an emphasis or He's giving a very simple yet profound teaching here and that is in each case that we should have a genuine motive or a genuine heart to please the Lord in charitable giving, in prayer, and in fasting.
We see this phrase come up"Give in secret" or "To pray in secret" or "The secret place" or in"Fasting" says that "Let it be done in secret" not showing off, not putting on a performance, not proclaiming to the world that you're giving to a need or that you are praying for this that or the other or that you are fasting.
This morning I'm focusing in on Christ teaching on prayer and what's funny or what strikes us in the first reading of this is that Christ assumes private prayer in the Christian life. He doesn't begin this section explaining to us that we should pray or why we should pray, but he assumes that those that are His disciples, Christ followers, have a practice of private prayer.
So he doesn't teach us that we should do it. He teaches us in this section of this Sermon on the Mount how we should do it.
So it's not enough to pray at church.
It's not enough to pray at your Bible studies. It's not enough to pray just at the dinner table with the family.
We see here that we should have a practice a habit of private prayer.
Prayer is easily, all too easily, practice just out of religious duty. It's all too easily practiced as to be pleasing before men.
It's all too easy to pray with a wrong motive.
At least that's my experience. It's all too easy to find prayer difficult, but Christ here gives us a great grace and He gives us a simple instruction on prayer that I believe is to be an encouragement to His followers, an encouragement in a motivator to us to seek the Lord in this neglected blessing of prayer.
So I think through, I believe through Christ's instructions here, He's giving us instructions on how to pray and how to pray in a way that God hears.
Prayer that God hears. Let's read our text this morning together.
Starting in verse 5, Matthew chapter 6, "And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men.
Assuredly I say to you, they have their reward.
But you, when you pray, go into your room and when you have shut your door, pray to your father who is in the secret place and your father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.
Therefore, do not be like them, for your father knows the things you have need of before you ask him.
In this manner therefore 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 this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen." So the first thing we see here in Christ's instruction, his simple teaching on prayer, is that we should not pray to be praised by men.
Do not pray to be praised by men. And this is exactly what the hypocrite, or you can exchange that word for the pretender, is doing here and what Christ is addressing.
We see that the hypocrite or the pretender is not motivated by what the very calling and essence of prayer is.
Which is the very, which is to have a communion with the one and true God.
Rather, this hypocrite or this pretender is motivated by the praise of man.
That by going and praying great discourses in the temple or in the city corner and at the corner of Oak Street and Hark Rider, if you will, right in downtown Conway to be praised before men.
This is his motivation to pray in public places so that others may see how holy, how spiritual, how righteous they are.
Really, all they were showing was how self-righteous they are. And the Lord tells us that their reward is superficial. They have their reward. They get the praise of men. That is all they get.
Their reward is superficial.
It's like a treasure that moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.
They've got the praise of men that disappears as fast as it comes to them as they're praying in these public places.
So rather, what is Christ's instruction here? To not be praying, giving these discourses of prayer out in the city square.
Out in the common place of the temple where all will see, but he says,"Pray in the secret place." That's where to seek the Lord is in the secret, private, quiet place.
Let communion with God be your motivation for prayer. There's nothing to gain.
You're not going to gain any praise of man.
You're not going to gain any recognition for your prayers quietly in your room or at the breakfast table or in your home office or in your work office with the door closed or for some of you moms hiding in the bathroom or the laundry room to get some privacy from your children so you can seek the Lord.
You're not going to gain any recognition, no praise. It's not going to be on the newspaper headlines.
You're not going to have a viral YouTube video, but guess what? The Lord is going to hear you.
He is your reward.
Communion with him is your reward and this is a treasure.
This is a reward that moth cannot trust, that rust cannot destroy, rust cannot cover it, Steve's cannot come in and steal that from you.
This is a great reward, a heavenly reward that the Father sees you in secret, but blesses or rewards you openly.
I can think of no better example. I think a perfect illustration of this is the story of Daniel and the lion's den. That's one of every kid's favorite story.
Most of us grew up hearing it and we see that this principle take place in that story.
We know that Daniel is valued by the king of his day and we know that there are some jealous counselors that counsel the king to make it illegal for Daniel to pray to his God.
So what does Daniel do?
He doesn't go out to the street corners.
He doesn't go to the pagan temple of the day and begin praying in defiance of this law and defiance of the false gods in Babylon.
What does he do? He does what he did every day.
He goes to his home and prays just as he did day after day after day.
He was not doing for any praise of man. He was not doing it to be this praised martyr.
No, he was doing it because he was he desired communion with the Lord.
So he sought the Lord in secret. He sought the Lord in private.
And yet what did God do? He blessed him openly.
He rewarded him openly.
When Daniel was thrown into the lions den, the whole city, there I say the whole kingdom knew that the Lord had delivered him from the mouth of the lions.
What Daniel sought the Lord in secret.
God blessed and praised him, delivered him openly before all men.
And here's the main here's the amazing thing about this. Is it Daniel and not seeking his own praise?
When the Lord delivered him, the king did not praise Daniel.
The king did not the kingdom and the counselors did not fear Daniel.
They recognized that it was Daniel's God who had delivered him.
God received all the glory.
Were the man who's the hypocrite, the faker, the pretender, who's out in the city gates, out of the city square, out in the temple seeking the praise of men with his prayers.
The Lord is not hearing that prayer.
The Lord is not blessing that prayer.
The Lord is not delivering that prayer and this man is seeking his own glory.
And yet the man Daniel, who sought the privacy of the privacy of communion with the Lord.
The Lord glorified himself.
He blessed Daniel and Daniel was not seeking glory for himself.
He sought the glory of the Lord.
The second thing we learn from from Christ teaching here, the second thing he commends to us is is first, do not pray to be praised by men.
And secondly, do not pray with vain repetition.
So in the first teaching, he is contrasting false prayer with true prayer by giving the example of the hypocrite or the pretender.
And this one he's instructing us to not pray with vain repetition by giving us the example of the heathen or the pagan.
This is addressing both types of people that would have been in the audience here at the Sermon on the Mount.
Both both Jews and Gentiles, both those who were seeking to worship the one true God and those who were pagans, false gods, Gentiles from wherever about.
So he's really addressing a guy at his target hairs and his cross hairs.
Both types of people are all kinds of people that would be listening to his sermon.
And he applies both truths to everyone.
Do not pray out in the open seeking the praise of men and do not pray with vain repetition.
So what is the point of this?
Do not pray like the heathen or pagan as if you are trying to win God with a performance.
That's the that's the point to help us understand vain repetition.
What would what might Christ mean by by vain repetition and the book of Ecclesi Ecclesiastes, actually, it's one of the underrated books of the Bible.
Ecclesiastes in Chapter five, verses one and two, it instructs us to walk prudently when you go to the house of God and draw near to here rather than to give the sacrifice of fools.
Of that of they do not know that they do evil.
Do not be rash with your mouth and let not your heart utter anything hastily before God.
For God is in heaven and you on earth.
Therefore, let your words be few.
So what do we see here in Ecclesiastes?
What we see that the sacrifice of fools or the worship of fools will be that.
What did that look like?
It was then being rash with their mouth.
It was their heart uttering hastily things before God.
This is what vain talk would look like.
It's foolish talk.
It's rash.
It's hasty.
And in their offerings or the worship or their prayers to God.
And so what is Ecclesiastes tell us?
Let our words be few.
Walk prudently when we go to the house of God and draw near to here rather than to give the sacrifice.
That's the more important thing in the house of God is drawing near to hear from the Lord God Almighty.
It's not about all the words that we can offer up and praise and give to him.
Although the Lord does call us to do that and the Lord does praise us in that.
But God meeting with us is more important than the words that we give to him.
And this is the point of Ecclesiastes.
God is in heaven and we are on earth.
We don't need to chant things up to him.
We don't need to fester up our worship to him for him to meet with us or for him to hear us.
That is the sacrifice of fools.
The Old Testament gives us another perfect example to illustrate this point.
I think many of us will remember the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal.
We find this in first Kings chapter 18.
We see that the prophets of Baal called on the name of Baal from morning till noon.
They he didn't hear them from morning until noon to send a fire to burn the sacrifice that they had put on the altar.
Remember, this is a challenge between Elijah and the prophets of Baal to make a sacrifice and whoever's God lights the sacrifice on fire with whoever's God brings the fire is the winner.
It's like the greatest race ever, the greatest challenge ever.
Whoever's God lights this fire proves himself to be the true God.
Well, the prophets of Baal create make the idol.
They put the sacrifice on it.
And from morning until noon, they are calling upon the name of Baal.
They are chanting.
They begin dancing when Baal does not hear hear them.
They begin dancing around the altar.
He doesn't hear them by noon.
It goes afternoon and starting to approach the evening and they begin to cut themselves and prophesy all the way until the evening time of the offering.
And the scripture says, but there was no voice.
No one answered.
No one paid attention.
And then Elijah at the evening time of the offering builds the altar, prepared it with wood, cut the bowl, put the pieces of the bowl on it and drenched it with water.
Not once, not twice, but three times filling the latrine around the altar.
And this is listen to Elijah's prayer and notice the contrast between all the chance, all the prophecies, all the dancing, all the self mutilation that the prophets of Baal were doing to try to gain the attention of their God, lowercase G, Baal.
And then Elijah puts the altar together and listen to his simple prayer.
Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel and I am your servant and that I have done all these things at your word.
Hear me, O Lord, hear me that this people may know that you are the Lord God and that you have turned their hearts back to you again.
And what happened?
Within a matter of a 15 second prayer, the Lord sends a fire that not only consumes the bull, but consumes the wood and consumes the stones.
All of it as it's drenched with water, consumes the water in in the latrine or in the ditch around the altar.
Not chanting, not dancing, not performing so that the Lord might hear us, but in a simple, genuine, faithful prayer, the Lord sends the fire.
God does not need a performance to be informed or convinced of what you need.
God looks for quality, not quantity in our prayers.
This should be encouraging. I don't want you to be confused. I'm not encouraging to pray less. I'm trying to encourage you to pray more, but I'm trying to encourage you from the words of God that you're not needing to prove to God through your prayer anything.
You're not needing to make a position, your words in such a way that the Lord might hear you.
The Lord instructs you here. He's calling upon you to commune with himself in a simple, genuine, faithful way.
Why is it that God does not need a performance? Why does all the chanting not help? Why does he not pay attention to that or hear that?
Well, it's because of what Christ says. Your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask of him.
He's not needing to be informed. He's not needing to be convinced. But like a child who comes to his father in need of something, his father is eager, willing to give it.
This is perfectly illustrated again in Luke chapter 11. This is the companion chapter to Matthew on the model prayer or the Lord's Prayer as your your Bibles might put a label on it.
But in Luke chapter 11 verses 11 through 13, Christ in teaching on after after teaching what the model prayer is says this.
If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone or if he asked for a fish?
If a serpent instead of a fish or if he asked for an or if he asked for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
If you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?
This is the point in similar point in our text in Matthew chapter 6 when he says for your father knows the things you have need of before you ask him.
So yes, we're supposed to be persistent in prayer. There's another parable about this. I don't have time to get into today, but persistence is not the same thing as what is being taught against here in praying with vain repetition.
Brothers and sisters, I hope you're comforted with this. I hope you're comforted that you don't need to perform for God. You don't need to have a vain chance, vain words, repetitious prayers so that God would hear you.
Rather, just a simple, genuine, faithful prayer is what the Lord hears.
Now this is an easy sermon to preach because the Lord himself, Jesus Christ gives the application of this. So do not pray to be praised by men. Do not pray with vain repetition.
And so you're like, well, Danny, okay, how do we pray then? Well, I'm glad you asked.
Jesus Christ himself gives us the application. He gives us the model prayer in verses 9 through 13.
Now, I think this is, I believe we should interpret this as a model prayer and the sense of that it is a template.
This is not a restrictive prayer and that this is the only prayer we can pray or that we're tied to this or anchored to this in a way that is constricting on what we can pray for.
And clearly it's an example. It's an example to follow. It's a template to shape our other prayers around.
It's a simple instruction, an example from Jesus Christ himself to say, look, it's simple. Prayer is simple.
Pray like this. And we'll read it again. In this manner, therefore, pray. Or the Danny Thursby interpretation is pray like this.
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
For yours is the kingdom and the glory and the power and the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
So the first thing we see here is that again, this is given to us as a template as an example. It's not an exact recipe.
And we see that it's simple. It's genuine that even a child can learn to pray this way.
The first part of this prayer we see starts with praise. The Christ instructs us to begin our prayers addressing praise to God the Father.
This is the biblical template of prayers that prayers are addressed to God the Father. They're given in the power of the Holy Spirit.
And we say them, and what authority and the name of Jesus Christ.
But the prayer begins with praise to God the Father.
And what is being praised here? That phrase hallowed be your name is simply this.
It's that the name that's the prayer in this case, it's Jesus Christ said the name of God would be known and glorified.
The name of God represents everything he is his perfect goodness, his justice, his mercy, his love, his holiness fill in the blank.
The name of God represents that. And so we're being instructed here to offer our prayers beginning with the praise and glory of God that we begin our prayers with praise.
And we're working to and praise the very Heavenly Father at whom we're praying to that the name of God may be known and glorified.
And then Jesus moves to areas of petition or you might call it supplication or to put it simply, he has a couple prayer requests here.
And we see that these are both spiritual and earthly or you could say spiritual and physical prayer requests, the spiritual being in verse 10 and 11.
Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Jesus is praying for the work of God, the very decree of God to take place on the earth. The very will of God would be executed in the prayer.
Christ is committing us to be to pray for this, to be eager for this, that the gospel, the kingdom would come, that the gospel, the gospel would would be going forth now and that we would be anticipating the second coming of Jesus Christ.
And that his kingdom would advance and that his kingdom would be consummated at the coming, second coming of Jesus Christ.
We also see a request for a very simple, very what seems very small prayer request here to give us this day, our daily bread, our physical day to day need.
So our prayers are to be filled with the grand glory and decree and will of God and also for the lunch that we're going to meet this afternoon, Lord willing.
That our daily necessities, our essentials, our daily cares, our daily worries, our daily sorrows would also be met by the Lord.
And that's an amazing thing that God cares about his grand work of redemption throughout history. And he also cares about what you will eat today and tomorrow and the next day.
And this is given to us as an example, not just to pray for what we will eat, but also to pray for many other essential, seemingly little things, our daily provisions, our food, our rest, the ability to work, employment, etc.
The God cares about these things is an amazing thing in Christ is encouraging us to take these things to the Lord. Remember, he is our good heavenly Father.
We're not just praying to the God who is in heaven, but our Father who is in heaven.
Next, we have a prayer of confession and a word of clarification here. Christ has given us a model of prayer for us to pray. Christ needs no confession.
Christ has no debts. He needs no forgiveness. But he is he is there to bring forgiveness. He is there to accomplish forgiveness in his life and in his death.
And of course, he's commending to you and to me to pray the Lord to to to in our prayer to Lord to take hold, take advantage to hold on dearly to this forgiveness that is accomplished in Jesus Christ and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
And that shows the disposition in which we should pray as we are praying a prayer of confession that we are not asking forgiveness for something that we are also not willing to give.
It shows a heart of forgiveness for the Christian that we forgive because we know we ourselves have been forgiven in Jesus Christ himself.
So this is not a this is not an entitled request for forgiveness, but this is a self. This is a request for forgiveness, a prayer of confession with a with a self understanding of our own sinfulness that we are in need of continual continual sanctification from.
Lastly, we have another supplication or another petition, but it's closely tied to the prayer of confession and and understanding of forgiveness that and that is to not be led into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
So this is this shows the faithfulness of the prayer giving that they're trusting in the Lord for him.
And when we pray prayer similar to this, we trust in the Lord by praying this. We trust in the Lord for him to protect us from temptation.
We're confessing you of our we're confessing to your sins. We're in need of forgiveness of our debts as we forgive our debtors. But Lord, at the same time, would you keep me from temptation? Would you keep us from temptation, Lord, that we don't want to send?
We don't want to fall. We don't want to come to you tomorrow and ask you for forgiveness for the same very thing. Lord, would you help me in this sin? Would you sanctify me?
Would you come for me to the very image of Christ in this way? This is the type of prayer that is being prayed there and requesting the Lord to not lead us into temptation.
And then in the ultimate sense to deliver us from the evil one that we would not be caught in the snare of the devil, that we would be delivered ultimately from our sins in Jesus Christ and in Christ alone.
And then the Lord says, Satan would not entrap us into a practice of sin because Christ is modeling for us. He knows where this temptation comes from, the very deceiver himself.
So in leading us not in temptation, the Lord is protecting us and keeping us from the evil one.
And in the end, we are not in temptation. We are not in temptation. We are in temptation. We are in temptation.
And in the end, we are in temptation. And in the end, we are in temptation.
And in the end, we are in temptation. And in the end, we are in temptation. And in the end, we are in temptation.
And in the end, we are in temptation. And in the end, we are in temptation.
And in the end, we are in temptation.
Lord, we do praise You as the God from whom all blessings flow.
Lord, we pray that You would help us in prayer, that Your revealed teaching on how to pray would sink into our hearts and motivate us to take hold of this great blessing.
This means of grace, Lord.
Forgive us when we seek the praise of men when we pray.
Father, we want our reward to be communion with You.
That is our reward, that prayer in itself is our reward.
Lord, forgive us when we try to perform for You and our prayers become filled with vain repetition.
You know what we need, Lord, even before we ask it.
And we know from Your Scripture that the Holy Spirit is interceding with us, for us, while we pray, making them happy.
Making them complete before You, O Father.
We take comfort in Christ's teaching to pray simple and genuine prayers.
We praise Christ most of all because it is due to His accomplished redemption that we can come boldly before Your throne of grace.
It is in His name we pray. Amen.
Amen.
[ Silence ]