“Authentic Prayer”
Matthew 6:5-15
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Many products are designed to imitate the real thing. There is plastic decking that looks like real wood. Vinyl flooring that appears to be ceramic tile. You can purchase fake fur or jewelry, You can buy knock-offs of name brand shoes, purses, and clothing. The purpose behind all of these items is fairly obvious, but what about a can of Spray-on Mud?
Spray-on Mud is designed for use on the outside of your SUV. It makes it appear that you use your SUV for more than just driving around town or touring down the interstate. Spray it on and friends might think you've just returned from a wilderness adventure. The mud is even filtered to remove stones and debris that might scratch the paint. Apparently, $15 a can seems a reasonable price for the appearance of authenticity.
Anything authentic has a counterfeit. Prayer is no exception. There is authentic prayer and there is a knock-off version of prayer.
This morning, we’re going to look at a passage from the Sermon on the Mount. The main theme throughout the Sermon on the Mount is authenticity. How do we live authentic Christian lives? How do we live when we’re part of the kingdom of God – children of God? Jesus gives some extensive teaching on that very subject. This morning we’re going to focus on the section about authentic prayer.
Authentic Prayer is Practiced in Private
Not Performed in Public
Mt. 6:5-6 – “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. 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.”
Jesus says, “WHEN you pray…” not “IF you pray…” Jesus expects that those who claim to be Christ-followers will practice an authentic prayer life. But He gives a warning concerning prayer. Jesus warns against prayer motivated by public recognition and a desire to impress others.
Don’t misunderstand what Jesus is saying here. The problem is not praying in public. Jesus prayed in public. He did it at varying times: when He was healing, when He gave thanks for the 5 loaves and 2 fish, when he raised Lazarus from the dead. The problem is not praying in public. It’s praying in public to be seen and noticed by other people.
The basic principle is that if I’m not making time to talk to Him privately, then I shouldn’t be praying to him publicly. If I pray in pubic when I don’t pray privately, people might think I have a great prayer life. But it wouldn’t be true.
Jesus says that this particular practice is hypocritical. Our word hypocrite comes from a Greek term that referred to an actor who changed roles by changing masks. In its biblical application, it’s pretending to be someone in public that you are not in private.
I recently ran across a letter written by a father who wanted to apologize to a certain young man for not allowing him to marry his daughter:
Dear Marty,
I have been unable to sleep since I broke off your engagement to my daughter. Will you please forgive and forget?
I was much too sensitive about your Mohawk haircut, tattoos and pierced nose. I now realize motorcycles aren’t really that dangerous, and I really should not have reacted that way to the fact that you have never held a job.
I am also very sure that some other very nice people live under the bridge in the park, too. Sure my daughter is only 18 and wants to marry you instead of going to Harvard on full
scholarship. After all, you can’t learn everything about life from books.
I sometimes forget how backward I can be. I was wrong. I was a fool. I have now come to my senses and you have my full blessing to marry my daughter.
Sincerely,
Your future father-in-law.
P.S. Congratulations on winning the lottery! (Can you say “ulterior motive”?)
This section of the Sermon on the Mount has to do with authenticity. Jesus starts the section with this statement in Mt. 6:1 – “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.”
Jesus raises the question: Who is your audience? Are you motivated by the applause of people or the applause of God? We need to be careful that our acts of righteousness do not become just a show. Prayer can become a performance.
I’ve been in situations where I’ve been with a group of people gathered for prayer. We’d sit or stand in a circle, take prayer requests, hold hands, and we’d then go around the circle with everyone offering prayer for the needs requested and for other “felt” needs. There’s nothing wrong with this particular method of group prayer. I think in many cases it’s a great way to have group prayer but there have also been times that I’ve felt I was in some sort of “prayer competition”.
If I was toward the end of the circle of prayer, I was too busy trying to figure out what I was going to pray and hardly heard the prayers of the others in the group. Sometimes you get a person in the group who is extremely articulate at prayer then I was worried about how I’d sound when it came my turn. Jesus saw how easy it is for us to begin trying to win some sort of prayer competition; even going so far as to pray publicly in such a way that others can see how well WE pray instead of focusing on God who hears and answers our prayers.
Authentic Prayer is Based on a Loving Relationship
Not a Lifeless Ritual
Mt. 6:7-8 – “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.”
Authentic prayers don’t have to be long prayers to be effective. Some of the most powerful prayers in the Bible are short in length but outstandingly effective. The example that Jesus gives us can be spoken in around a minute.
Jesus uses the example of the pagans as being contrary to what he is teaching us to do. The Gentiles would pray to their false gods by utilizing as many titles as they could conceive and then recite all the favors they had done for their deity and the sacrifices they had offered. They thought that by repeating things over and over again, they could move their false god to act in ways that were beneficial to them.
One Old Testament example is found in 1 Kings 18. Elijah is God’s prophet. The people of Israel had followed the wicked king Ahab and his wife Jezebel in the worship of Baal. Elijah challenged the priests of Baal to a showdown: Who’s God is the true God?
Elijah ordered two bulls to be brought for sacrifice. The prophets of Baal would go first. They readied their sacrifice and began to pray to Baal.
1 Kings 18:26-29 – Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. “Baal, answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made. At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” 28 So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. 29 Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.
You hear their repetition. For 8-10 hours they repeated over and over again, “Baal, answer us!” You see their desperation. The more desperate they became, the more repetitious they got.
Then Elijah prepares his sacrifice. He dug a trench around the altar and ordered that four large jars of water be poured over the sacrifice and the wood. He has them repeat it twice more. Elijah then offers a simple, honest, and sincere prayer based on his relationship with and his trust in God.
1 Kings 18:36-38 – At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. 37 Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.” 38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.
In Matthew 6, Jesus is reminding us about the purpose of prayer. The purpose of prayer is to connect and communicate with God so our relationship with Him grows. Anything authentic in our prayers comes from our relationship with God.
Sometimes we recite ritualistic and repetitious prayers because we just want to get it over with. It’s something to check off on our “to do” list. Authentic prayer can be hypocritical by praying just because it’s an obligation.
A foursome of golfers was on the green at the 11th hole. Down on the road, a funeral procession of cars passed by on the way from the funeral home to the cemetery.
One of the guys in the foursome named Larry took off his hat, stood at attention, and had a somber look on his face as he watched the procession go by. The other three guys look stunned.
After the funeral procession was out of sight, one the of the guys said, “Larry, I didn’t know you were so respectful of the dead.” Larry said, “Well, I felt kind of obligated. After all, we would have been married for 37 years here in another month.”
Sometimes our obligations can be misplaced. When we pray out of obligation, we’re missing out on the kind of relationship that God wants to have with us.
Starting in vs. 9, Jesus gives us what we call “The Lord’s Prayer.” What we call the “Lord’s Prayer” should be called the Disciples Prayer or the Model Prayer. Jesus’ intent was to teach us how to pray authentic prayers so he gives us this short prayer as an example.
Ironically, this model prayer is the only prayer some people know. They recite it at church but they don’t mean what they say. It becomes public performance.
Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. Nowhere, I repeat, NOWHERE, is there any time that Jesus says that we cannot pray these particular words in private or in public. And, sometimes our prayers can get so grandiose and over the top that we need to return to this simple prayer in order to restore our relationship with God. We can get to the point where we put too much credence in our turn of a phrase and our own cleverness to humble ourselves before God.
Earlier in this message, we learned that Jesus does not prohibit public prayers. And neither does he prohibit communal prayers – everyone praying the same thing at the same time. We might think of it as congregational prayer. This is not a command against praying these particular words privately or corporately.
Communal prayers were not unusual in Jesus’ day. Many of the Jewish people recited what they called the Eighteen Benedictions and they prayed at given times of the day: 9:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m., and 3:00 p.m. The Qumran community (the Jewish group that gave us the Dead Sea scrolls) had numerous communal hymns and prayers. The early church as described in Acts was known for their intense times of corporate prayer.
Jesus wasn’t necessarily placing a ban on communal prayers. However, he did recognize that we have a tendency to engage in form rather than function. We tend to become more engaged with ritualistic and repetitious formulas and forget that prayer is about
relationship.
What we call the Lord’s Prayer is in reality a prototype – a sample or exemplar – to guide us and not just a prayer to repeat. Mt. 6:9a – “This, then, is how you should pray…” He didn’t say, “Pray these words…” He was saying, “Pray in this manner…”
You don’t just have to repeat this model prayer to fall into routine. Robert Cook: “All of us have one routine prayer in our system; and once we get rid of it, then we really start to pray.”
Have you ever found yourself sometimes praying and then realizing when you were done, you really have no idea what you had just said? I know that I have and if you’ll be honest, you’ll make the same admission.
Authentic Prayer Exalts God
Instead of Elevating Me
Hypocritical prayers are about exalting self and putting on a public show. Prayer is a privilege; not an obligation. It recognizes God as a loving Father who delights in relationship with us and delights in meeting our needs.
Let’s pay close attention to the words of this model prayer. Mt. 6:9-13 – “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.”
Some translations add words that are referred to as a doxology (words of praise): “for Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” The oldest manuscripts don’t include these words. The first time they’re recorded with this model prayer is in a document called The Didache.
Didache simply means “teaching.” It was produced somewhere around 130 A.D. and contains summarized New Testament teaching for use in instructing new Christians.
So, should we use these words – “for Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever”? Simply, it doesn’t matter if we use these words because they are correct in their doctrine e and they honor God which is the purpose of this model prayer. So let’s honor God this morning by looking at the elements of this model prayer.
It begins with “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” One little kid prayed, “Our Father in Heaven, Howard be your name.” What does that word “hallowed” mean? It means to be holy. Before we utter one word or even think one thought we need to acknowledge God as
Holy Father.
There are multiple references in the Old Testament that refer to God as Father. Jesus speaks this word “Father’ over 60 times in the Gospels. He is our Father because He created us, provides for us, and guides us. When we acknowledge Him as Holy Father, we’re simply saying, “God I worship you. You are worthy of my worship.”
Tony Campolo used to use the illustration of his then teenage son. He would ask his audience how they think he would feel if his son came to him and droned on in this fashion: “O thou who dost clothe me and feed me, who provideth shelter and a place to rest; I beseech thee: Lend me the car.”
Campolo said that if his son ever did something like that, he would probably smack him in the head. This was a father-son relationship. He said that he expected intimacy in that father-son relationship; not high sounding words.
Rom. 8:15 – For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” “Abba” is an Aramaic term of intimacy like our word “Daddy.”
The next phrase is “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
It’s a statement of priorities. In it we say, “God I’m committed to You and Your will.” We recognize Him as Lord of All.
In authentic prayer, we glorify God’s name and ask for help in accomplishing His will on this earth. Prayer needs to begin with God’s interests not ours.
David Jeremiah: “The Bible teaches that if you are a Christian, the kingdom of God is within you; the King has come to live within your heart. So when you pray, ‘Thy kingdom come,’ you are saying, ‘God you are the King. You live in my heart and I want your kingdom principles and purposes to be lived out within my life.’” It’s been said that prayer is a mighty instrument not in getting man’s will done in heaven but getting God’s will done on earth.
Billy Graham: “Prayer is a simple two-way conversation between you and God. It is not the body’s posture but the heart’s attitude that counts when we pray. Prayer is not our using of God; it more often puts us in a position where God can use us.”
The next part of the prayer is “Give us today our daily bread.” We recognize God as our Great Provider.
In authentic prayer we say several important things:
1. God, I need You
2. God, I’m going to completely trust in You for my needs
3. God, I’m going to trust in You on a daily basis
Once there was a Christian lady who lived next door to an atheist. Every day, the lady would sit on her front porch and pray. Her neighbor, an atheist, could hear her. He thought to himself, “She sure is crazy, praying all the time like that. Doesn't she know there isn't a God?”
Many times while she was praying, he would go to her house and harass her, saying “Lady, why do you pray all the time? Don't you know there is no God?” But she kept on praying.
One day, she ran out of groceries. As usual, she was praying to the Lord about her situation and thanking Him for what He was going to do. As usual, the atheist heard her praying and thought to himself, “I'll fix her.” He went to the grocery store, bought a whole bunch of groceries, took them to her house, saw that his neighbor had gone back inside, and dropped them off on the front porch. Herang the doorbell and then hid in the bushes to see what she would do.
When she opened the door and saw the groceries, she began to praise the Lord with all her heart – singing and exclaiming God’s goodness. The atheist then jumped out of the bushes and told her, “You crazy old lady! God didn't buy you those groceries. I bought those groceries!”
The lady stood on the porch, appearing to be startled by what had happened. Her atheist neighbor was quite pleased with himself. But his smugness was short-lived when he heard his neighbor start laughing and then say, “I knew the Lord would provide me with some groceries, but I didn't know He was gonna make the devil pay for them!”
Why should we ask God for a daily provision of our needs? For the purpose of serving and glorifying Him.
The fourth part of this model prayer is “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”
Drawing closer to God also means growing closer to others. When Jesus gave us this model of prayer, His mention of “Our Father,” wasn’t just referring to me and Him. “Our Father” recognizes others who are in the kingdom of God. So we’re to pray about personal relationships.
God hates unforgiveness. Do you know why? When we refuse to forgive we display a stunning lack of gratitude. He has forgiven us even though we don’t deserve it and He asks us to do the same thing.
Jesus warns us in Mt. 6:14-15 – “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.”
Kingdom living involves forgiving other people as well as having God forgive us. In this way we honor God as our Loving Forgiver. Lord Herbert: “He who cannot forgive others, breaks the bridge over which he himself must someday pass.”
Jesus then says we’re to pray: “Lead us not into temptation., but deliver us from the evil one.” 1 Pet. 5:8 – Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Since the beginning of time, Satan has desired to lead us astray. He wants to lead as many people as possible away from relationship with the heavenly Father. In Eph. 6, Paul warns us about spiritual warfare and the wiles of the Devil. Satan wants to destroy us.
The idea here in the model prayer is not to ask God to remove temptation from our lives. Rather, it leads us to seek not to sin when tempted. 1 Cor. 10:13 – No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
We see God as our Powerful Deliverer. God wants us to seek His will and guidance. He wants us to be aware that Satan is looking to trap us. But if we’ll trust in the Father, His Spirit will show us how to avoid the Devil’s traps and schemes.
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Where does authentic prayer start? It starts with Jesus. He says in Jn. 14:14 – “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. The only hope we have of approaching the throne of God is through Jesus Christ.
Heb. 4:14-16 – Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
In the book of Acts, Luke records an account of some fellows who tried to use the name of Jesus without following Him as Savior and Lord. Acts 19:13-16 – Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” 14 Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15 One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” 16 Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.
Just as there are counterfeit prayers, there is also counterfeit faith. Pretending to know Jesus and working in His name without knowing Him is a dangerous proposition. Not only will you be able to deceive some people, you’ll begin to deceive yourself. When the time comes for you to demonstrate the authenticity of your faith, the results can be disastrous.
Our only hope is authentic faith in Jesus. We’ll never be perfect in our faith here on this earth but God knew that when he sent His Son. Our imperfection is covered by Jesus’ perfection when we authentically trust in Him.
