WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:26.120 I’d like for you to open your Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew and I want us to look at Jesus’ pattern for prayer as we consider and think about the things that we’ve thought about for the past few weeks as we’ve considered this question of prayer. 2 00:00:26.120 --> 00:00:43.200 Matthew chapter 6, beginning in verse 5. 3 00:00:43.200 --> 00:01:01.820 On another occasion, it’s recorded in Luke chapter 11 that one of Jesus’ disciples came to him and asked him, “Would you teach us to pray like John the Baptist taught his disciples to pray?” 4 00:01:01.820 --> 00:01:12.980 Jesus gave some instruction there on prayer which includes some of the words that we have in the Sermon on the Mount that he gives here. 5 00:01:12.980 --> 00:01:29.600 So in Matthew chapter 6, beginning in verse 5, this is the instruction, the precious teaching of our Lord Jesus in guiding us as we take our prayer offerings to the Lord. 6 00:01:29.600 --> 00:01:42.860 Jesus said: “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. 7 00:01:42.860 --> 00:01:47.000 Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 8 00:01:47.000 --> 00:01:58.820 But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. 9 00:01:58.820 --> 00:02:08.860 And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetitions as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. 10 00:02:08.860 --> 00:02:15.160 So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. 11 00:02:15.160 --> 00:02:23.200 Pray, then, in this way: Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name. 12 00:02:23.200 --> 00:02:25.480 Your kingdom come. 13 00:02:25.480 --> 00:02:30.100 Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 14 00:02:30.100 --> 00:02:32.380 Give us this day our daily bread. 15 00:02:32.380 --> 00:02:38.440 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 16 00:02:38.440 --> 00:02:43.520 And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 17 00:02:43.520 --> 00:02:49.020 For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. 18 00:02:49.020 --> 00:02:51.380 Amen.” 19 00:02:51.380 --> 00:02:55.840 Let me ask the Lord to bless His precious word to us. 20 00:02:55.840 --> 00:03:05.580 Father, as we reflect on this wonderful guide for prayer that our Savior gave to us. 21 00:03:05.580 --> 00:03:23.120 As we look at this passage and think about it this morning, as we do a quick survey to reflect on what we have been thinking about and learning in regard to our pattern of prayer, how we are to pray, and what our heart is to be like as we pray. 22 00:03:23.120 --> 00:03:27.320 We ask, Father, that you guide us into this truth today. 23 00:03:27.320 --> 00:03:30.460 Please shape our hearts through your words. 24 00:03:30.460 --> 00:03:38.120 Help us, Father, to set aside our own agendas to be instructed by the purity of your word. 25 00:03:38.120 --> 00:03:42.820 We ask for your protective grace and the blessing of your Spirit. 26 00:03:42.820 --> 00:04:01.200 Please guide me as I speak, to not introduce anything that is extraneous to your word, my Father, to only reflect and be able to communicate better an explanation of its truth and practical ways so that we can live them out. 27 00:04:01.200 --> 00:04:05.260 Guide us in these ways, we pray, in Christ’s name. 28 00:04:05.260 --> 00:04:09.500 Amen. 29 00:04:09.500 --> 00:04:46.700 Back in January, we started looking at prayer because, as far as a study is concerned, there’s probably no study of the Bible that’s going to draw us closer to the Lord than learning how to come before our Creator God, our majestic God, and offering prayers to Him that we know are heard by Him. 30 00:04:46.700 --> 00:04:51.340 It’s a privilege that only believers have. 31 00:04:51.340 --> 00:05:08.240 In the first sermon, the idea was that true confidence and power in prayer comes to us through the righteousness of Christ, not through our own personal merit. 32 00:05:08.240 --> 00:05:25.400 We looked at some legendary prayer warriors like George Muller and John Nelson Hyde, and we gave some examples of the remarkable ways that God blessed through their ministry of prayer. 33 00:05:25.400 --> 00:05:40.720 We thought about how wonderful it would be if we were able to have a ministry looking to God’s grace and blessing that was effective like that. 34 00:05:40.720 --> 00:05:52.800 To be a prayer warrior, a person who can go to the Lord in prayer with confidence that God hears our prayers and that our prayers are answered. 35 00:05:52.800 --> 00:06:21.030 We began to look at what it means to abide in Christ, and the next sermon had to do with abiding in Christ and maintaining fellowship with God, walking in the light, confessing our sins to restore broken fellowship, and then coming confidently to the specific promises of God’s word as we offer them up to the Lord in prayer. 36 00:06:21.030 --> 00:06:50.080 One of the extraordinary things that we looked at that Sunday was how God uses ordinary people. 37 00:06:50.080 --> 00:06:56.160 The example that James gave is the example of Elijah. 38 00:06:56.160 --> 00:07:03.220 What James said about Elijah is that he was an ordinary man just like us. 39 00:07:03.220 --> 00:07:18.420 That made me start thinking, so even though this is a comment on a sermon two weeks back, I thought I would expand on that just for a moment. 40 00:07:18.420 --> 00:07:25.180 Our access to God is an extraordinary privilege. 41 00:07:25.180 --> 00:07:33.460 We think of ourselves as ordinary people, and we should, because we are ordinary people. 42 00:07:33.460 --> 00:07:39.040 There’s not much to me, and there’s certainly not much to a tiny group of people. 43 00:07:39.040 --> 00:07:49.000 If the world thinks about it, a handful of people in a little country church, what can they do for the Lord? 44 00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:50.880 We might be surprised. 45 00:07:50.880 --> 00:07:59.180 We might be able to do extraordinary things for the Lord if we put ourselves in His hands. 46 00:07:59.180 --> 00:08:11.120 We were recently reading through the book of Exodus, and I thought about Moses. 47 00:08:11.120 --> 00:08:18.480 In Exodus chapter 3, Moses has that encounter with the burning bush. 48 00:08:18.480 --> 00:08:29.520 God gives him the commission of going to the Pharaoh to deliver the Hebrew people from the Egyptians. 49 00:08:29.520 --> 00:08:33.220 Moses says, “Who am I to do this? 50 00:08:33.220 --> 00:08:34.860 Why would they believe me? 51 00:08:34.860 --> 00:08:43.620 If I tell them that the Lord appeared to me, they’ll just say they don’t think the Lord appeared to you. 52 00:08:43.620 --> 00:08:47.800 What if they deny what I say?” 53 00:08:47.800 --> 00:08:51.120 God said to Moses, “What’s in your hand?” 54 00:08:51.120 --> 00:08:53.120 He says, “A staff.” 55 00:08:53.120 --> 00:08:55.100 He says, “Throw it down.” 56 00:08:55.100 --> 00:09:22.400 He throws it down and it becomes a serpent. 57 00:09:22.400 --> 00:09:24.200 Moses flees before it. 58 00:09:24.200 --> 00:09:26.660 God says to Moses, “Pick it up by its tail.” 59 00:09:26.660 --> 00:09:28.560 He does, and it turns into a staff. 60 00:09:28.560 --> 00:09:34.780 He says, “So that they might believe.” 61 00:09:34.780 --> 00:09:36.180 What was that? 62 00:09:36.180 --> 00:09:40.720 A piece of wood that was cut from an olive tree. 63 00:09:40.720 --> 00:09:51.940 It turned into a serpent and swallowed up all the demonic serpents that the Pharaoh’s magicians produced. 64 00:09:51.940 --> 00:09:59.820 In the hands of Aaron, that staff turned water into blood when Aaron struck the water with it. 65 00:09:59.820 --> 00:10:14.760 It was stretched out over all of the plagues and judgments upon Egypt. 66 00:10:14.760 --> 00:10:30.680 One at a time, they stretched forth the staff and all those things happened: The frogs The lice The thunder, hail, and lightning The locusts It was lifted up to divide the waters of the Red Sea, serving as a rod of healing and escape for the Hebrews. 67 00:10:30.680 --> 00:10:49.220 It was used as a means of provision in the wilderness when Moses struck the rock at Horeb to miraculously provide all the water needed by the multitudes and the livestock. 68 00:10:49.220 --> 00:11:05.060 Moses held it up for victory for the Jews; they had to hold Moses’ arms up while he held up that staff. 69 00:11:05.060 --> 00:11:19.860 When Moses’ leadership was questioned as a test, that rod miraculously budded, bringing forth almond blossoms. 70 00:11:19.860 --> 00:11:29.840 Finally, it was used one last time at the end of the wilderness wanderings to bring water out of the rock in the desert of Zin. 71 00:11:29.840 --> 00:11:32.340 Moses says, “Who am I? 72 00:11:32.340 --> 00:11:34.680 I’m just an ordinary man.” 73 00:11:34.680 --> 00:11:36.800 God says, “What’s in your hand?” 74 00:11:36.800 --> 00:11:40.280 Moses says, “An ordinary stick.” 75 00:11:40.280 --> 00:11:46.120 God takes an ordinary stick and does some really extraordinary things. 76 00:11:46.120 --> 00:11:49.560 There was no magic in the stick. 77 00:11:49.560 --> 00:11:52.920 There’s nothing special about Moses. 78 00:11:52.920 --> 00:11:56.580 There’s nothing special about any one of us. 79 00:11:56.580 --> 00:12:06.260 But in the hands of God, because of the power of God, we can be used in wonderful and remarkable ways. 80 00:12:06.260 --> 00:12:11.300 The access to that God gives us is through prayer. 81 00:12:11.300 --> 00:12:15.080 Last week we looked at praying in the name of Jesus. 82 00:12:15.080 --> 00:12:25.660 We looked at the verse, “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 83 00:12:25.660 --> 00:12:29.440 If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” 84 00:12:29.440 --> 00:12:49.730 Praying in the name of Jesus is not something to punctuate the end of our prayer. 85 00:12:49.730 --> 00:13:01.700 It is approaching God through Christ’s authority, merit, and mediation for us. 86 00:13:01.700 --> 00:13:13.140 To pray in His name means to come to the Father clothed in Jesus’ perfect righteousness rather than our own sinful record. 87 00:13:13.140 --> 00:13:33.660 We have access to God because we are in Christ Jesus. 88 00:13:33.660 --> 00:13:40.520 That should give us confidence. 89 00:13:40.520 --> 00:13:51.610 Our confidence comes from the fact that it’s not something we merit, but something Christ has done for us. 90 00:13:51.610 --> 00:13:56.560 He has already purchased the answers to our prayers. 91 00:13:56.560 --> 00:14:19.360 As we reflect on Jesus’ prayer, I want us to consider these things we’ve already looked at and see how the pattern Jesus gives us to pray reinforces and helps us understand with clarity what we’re about when we come before the Lord to pray. 92 00:14:19.360 --> 00:14:27.320 Jesus says, “Pray then in this way: Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name.” 93 00:14:27.320 --> 00:14:35.960 The foundation of Christian prayer is the relationship we have with God. 94 00:14:35.960 --> 00:14:39.680 Without it, we have no access to Him. 95 00:14:39.680 --> 00:14:47.660 The very first thing Jesus said is that we come to God as our Father. 96 00:14:47.660 --> 00:14:53.060 He’s our Heavenly Father. 97 00:14:53.060 --> 00:15:02.500 We come to Him as one born into the family of God, as a child of God. 98 00:15:02.500 --> 00:15:20.140 When you have a baby, when Jared and Jess were expecting Edmund, we went to the hospital. 99 00:15:20.140 --> 00:15:30.650 Their baby hadn’t been born yet, but as we were walking through that ward, all of a sudden we heard the sound of a newborn baby crying. 100 00:15:30.650 --> 00:15:43.180 That is an emotional thing. 101 00:15:43.180 --> 00:15:47.320 When you hear that sound in real life, it’s powerful. 102 00:15:47.320 --> 00:15:51.160 It’s a very natural thing. 103 00:15:51.160 --> 00:15:53.280 The baby is saying, “I’m alive!” 104 00:15:53.280 --> 00:16:00.940 and proves it’s alive because it cries out as one who is dependent. 105 00:16:00.940 --> 00:16:17.900 As a little one dependent on its mother and dad, it comes needy and instinctively cries. 106 00:16:17.900 --> 00:16:26.720 When you come to faith in Christ, it is absolutely natural for you to cry out to God in dependence on Him. 107 00:16:26.720 --> 00:16:36.060 It’s a genuine expression of genuine life in God to have that occur naturally in you. 108 00:16:36.060 --> 00:16:40.400 We come to God as our Father. 109 00:16:40.400 --> 00:16:56.100 Jesus’ teaching on this was remarkable and introduced something new that wasn’t fully understood in Jewish history up to that point. 110 00:16:56.100 --> 00:17:08.920 Several times in the Old Testament, God is called Father. 111 00:17:08.920 --> 00:17:14.880 But in each of those times, He is called the Father of the nation. 112 00:17:14.880 --> 00:17:26.260 It’s not personal. 113 00:17:26.260 --> 00:17:41.420 Jesus teaches that we are to come before God recognizing we have a relationship with Him as a Father who loves us. 114 00:17:41.420 --> 00:17:50.360 He uses the word Abba , an Aramaic word for daddy. 115 00:17:50.360 --> 00:17:58.180 It is a personal name for a father. 116 00:17:58.180 --> 00:18:20.200 You come before God in this uniquely personal way, knowing He cares about you the way a parent loves a child and wants to meet their needs. 117 00:18:20.200 --> 00:18:30.710 That was radical and scandalous among the Jewish teachers of the day. 118 00:18:30.710 --> 00:18:55.880 But it is wonderfully true that we come before our majestic God recognizing He loves us as His dear child. 119 00:18:55.880 --> 00:19:03.700 It’s a precious reality we only have in Jesus Christ. 120 00:19:03.700 --> 00:19:12.980 Our Father who is in heaven. 121 00:19:12.980 --> 00:19:41.640 I’ve been working on a little project on the side, a catechetical instruction. 122 00:19:41.640 --> 00:20:04.280 In the study, I was looking at American Sign Language for some help and came across the sign for God. 123 00:20:04.280 --> 00:20:21.700 The American Sign Language for God is the hand held vertically coming down to the face. 124 00:20:21.700 --> 00:20:27.010 What it’s saying is that God is transcendent. 125 00:20:27.010 --> 00:20:29.090 He is far above us. 126 00:20:29.090 --> 00:20:32.160 He is way more than we are. 127 00:20:32.160 --> 00:20:41.940 The only way we have access to Him is for Him to condescend to us. 128 00:20:41.940 --> 00:20:44.400 We can’t climb up to Him. 129 00:20:44.400 --> 00:20:58.840 God accommodates Himself to us by giving us His Word and the person of Jesus. 130 00:20:58.840 --> 00:21:02.200 God transcends us. 131 00:21:02.200 --> 00:21:08.680 We should think about His greatness. 132 00:21:08.680 --> 00:21:33.640 Think about His attributes: He is infinite He is majestic He is holy He is perfect He is glorious He is all-powerful This entire universe, everything you can see, picture, or touch, has come about by the power of His creative work. 133 00:21:33.640 --> 00:21:43.080 You can’t think about those things without being overwhelmed. 134 00:21:43.080 --> 00:21:55.460 One of the things we absolutely should do each time we pray is spend a little time thinking about who we’re praying to and His greatness. 135 00:21:55.460 --> 00:21:58.130 It’s not like talking to a buddy. 136 00:21:58.130 --> 00:22:21.860 He is an exalted God. 137 00:22:21.860 --> 00:22:41.140 We come before Him confidently with childlike trust, to a God who is infinitely glorious and powerful, yet in a relationship with Him like a father and child. 138 00:22:41.140 --> 00:22:48.180 Then we come to the requests themselves. 139 00:22:48.180 --> 00:23:21.440 It’s really interesting that when Jesus gives the pattern of prayer, the initial and primary focus is God Himself. 140 00:23:21.440 --> 00:23:35.140 “Hallowed be Your name” “Your kingdom come” “Your will be done” The first prayer is that His name be glorified and kept holy. 141 00:23:35.140 --> 00:23:51.400 That everything we do works to His glory. 142 00:23:51.400 --> 00:24:18.420 That His kingdom is established in this world, and that His will is done. 143 00:24:18.420 --> 00:24:27.080 The fundamental purpose of prayer is not to bend God’s will to our will. 144 00:24:27.080 --> 00:24:31.100 That’s not Christian faith. 145 00:24:31.100 --> 00:24:51.620 That’s magic. 146 00:24:51.620 --> 00:25:32.100 In the ancient world, there was a collection of Greek papyri dating from about 200 BC to 500 AD called the Papyri Graecae Magicae . 147 00:25:32.100 --> 00:25:53.080 It’s a collection of texts compiled for magic scripts used in pagan worship. 148 00:25:53.080 --> 00:26:03.120 They believed that with the right formulas, they could command deities or cosmic forces to do their bidding. 149 00:26:03.120 --> 00:26:40.720 They thought they could bend the will of their god to their will using the secret languages of the gods, using words like Abrasax or palindromes like Ablanathanalba (which sounds a bit like Abracadabra). 150 00:26:40.720 --> 00:27:00.940 The idea was that knowing the secret language gave you power over the god. 151 00:27:00.940 --> 00:27:15.840 Why do we care what they taught in pagan worship? 152 00:27:15.840 --> 00:27:23.920 Because sometimes in preaching today, you get magic. 153 00:27:23.920 --> 00:27:41.880 There are people preaching a false gospel that is all about us, what we want, and how we can get it. 154 00:27:41.880 --> 00:27:53.540 They give formulas for how to bend God’s will to your will. 155 00:27:53.540 --> 00:28:11.100 They say things like, “When you pray, you must believe you have already received what you asked. 156 00:28:11.100 --> 00:28:30.250 And if you do, God has no choice but to bring those requests to pass because prayer and faith are spiritual laws that even God can’t violate.” 157 00:28:30.250 --> 00:28:52.560 They teach that if you think, speak, and believe big, God’s answer is automatic if your faith is strong enough. 158 00:28:52.560 --> 00:29:05.980 That is not Christian faith; that is pagan magic. 159 00:29:05.980 --> 00:29:11.780 The Bible never teaches that we can bend God’s will to ours. 160 00:29:11.780 --> 00:29:23.940 Jesus prayed, “Your name, Your will, Your kingdom.” 161 00:29:23.940 --> 00:29:42.760 Praying that God’s will is done requires us to humbly set our will aside in a spirit of self-denial. 162 00:29:42.760 --> 00:30:07.680 The purpose of prayer is to bring our will in line with His will. 163 00:30:07.680 --> 00:30:10.980 We don’t command God. 164 00:30:10.980 --> 00:30:37.580 If we come to Him in faith and prayer, He will use us to bring glory and good in this world for His eternal glory. 165 00:30:37.580 --> 00:31:33.680 Praying “Thy will be done” means we accept what He sends without complaining, trusting His guidance and what He gives us, even if it means hardship. 166 00:31:33.680 --> 00:31:54.620 Adding the name of Jesus to your prayer doesn’t force God to do what you want. 167 00:31:54.620 --> 00:32:03.440 God has given us power of attorney to sign requests with Jesus’ name. 168 00:32:03.440 --> 00:32:51.240 But if you were given power of attorney over your parents’ estate because they were sick, and you decided to sell their assets to take a long trip to Europe for yourself, that’s fraud. 169 00:32:51.240 --> 00:32:59.440 That’s a breach of fiduciary duty. 170 00:32:59.440 --> 00:33:23.400 Power of attorney means you use those resources for their purpose. 171 00:33:23.400 --> 00:33:42.680 If you’re given the right to sign the name of Jesus, you don’t spend it on yourself. 172 00:33:42.680 --> 00:33:46.000 You spend it to the glory of Christ. 173 00:33:46.000 --> 00:33:57.000 We are in a family relationship with God, and He knows your needs before you ask. 174 00:33:57.000 --> 00:34:36.120 Our life is important to Him, so we pray these other requests: “Give us this day our daily bread” “Forgive us our debts” “Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil” “Give us this day our daily bread” is an unselfish request. 175 00:34:36.120 --> 00:34:45.240 It’s not “give me my daily bread,” it’s “give us our daily bread.” 176 00:34:45.240 --> 00:35:08.180 We are praying for ourselves and the family of God to have our physical needs met to His glory. 177 00:35:08.180 --> 00:35:23.130 We also pray spiritually: “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” 178 00:35:23.130 --> 00:35:34.890 We ask God to show us mercy as we confess our sins, and remind us to show mercy to those who have hurt us. 179 00:35:34.890 --> 00:35:40.340 “Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” 180 00:35:40.340 --> 00:35:45.240 These are spiritual warfare words. 181 00:35:45.240 --> 00:35:52.620 We live in a world at war with God. 182 00:35:52.620 --> 00:36:05.600 It’s a dangerous place, so we look to God in humble dependence for protection from evil and temptation. 183 00:36:05.600 --> 00:36:59.140 We come to God daily to confess our sins and seek His guidance and blessing so we can survive this world spiritually. 184 00:36:59.140 --> 00:37:22.290 We have needs, and there is nothing wrong with taking them to the Lord, asking Him to work to His glory by bringing healing, blessing, provision, and strength. 185 00:37:22.290 --> 00:37:44.500 We should expect God to answer because those things are for His glory, but we trust His will. 186 00:37:44.500 --> 00:38:20.780 We are praying for the will of God to be done. 187 00:38:20.780 --> 00:38:45.020 We come to the Lord expecting His great blessing for His glory. 188 00:38:45.020 --> 00:38:59.680 Father, we struggle a bit as we consider this theology of prayer. 189 00:38:59.680 --> 00:39:02.920 We need this guidance from You. 190 00:39:02.920 --> 00:39:14.480 We won’t ever achieve this faithfully just by thinking about the principles. 191 00:39:14.480 --> 00:39:29.840 It takes Your work and change in our hearts to help us come with great joy, seeing ourselves as part of Your great kingdom work. 192 00:39:29.840 --> 00:39:42.360 Help us to bring these things to Your throne of grace for Your glory, and to share in that joy. 193 00:39:42.360 --> 00:39:53.340 Help us to grow in this and make it an everyday part of our life. 194 00:39:53.340 --> 00:40:05.880 We ask that You be glorified through what You will do with Your people here at Mayflower Hills Baptist Church. 195 00:40:05.880 --> 00:40:25.200 We ask this, Father, because the kingdom belongs to You, the power is Yours, and the glory is Yours forever. 196 00:40:25.200 --> 00:40:27.200 Amen.