We are going to be looking today at Matthew chapter 6, so we've
got a good stash of Bibles over here.
We've got some sermon question sheets as well you can use.
So basically if you want to turn up Matthew 6, Danny's going to
read the first bit of it to us. And again, during the session,
we've got that outside space. If you need some fresh air at
all or a bit of quiet, you can just head out that way through
those doors there and you can still probably hear us what's
happening on in the main room. But we're going to be looking at
Matthew chapter 6 verses 5 to 8 initially.
So quite a short bit. Danny's going to read that for
us. Put your hand if you want a
Bible. Put your hand if you want a
sheet for for following along questions as well.
Right, It's so Matthew chapter 6 starting at verse 5.
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 others. Truly, I tell you, 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. And when you pray, do not keep
on babbling like pagans, but they think that 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. Thank.
You, Danny. So we're going to look at this
first subtle section before we get into the Lord's Prayer
itself proper. But yeah, I guess we just began
with that quote. I guess that definition of
prayer from CS Lewis, if we get the slides up, that thing, he
says true prayer is the real me speaking to the real God.
And again, Jesus reveals who God is to us.
And because of that, actually Jesus is the best teacher on
prayer we could ever wish for because we said, what's the best
things about prayer? There's lots of things we can
say, but there's plenty of things that are hard for us
about prayer. It's said if you want to humble
any Christian, ask them about their prayer life.
You might be feeling pretty good about a lot of things, but
going, how's the prayer life? How how often are you praying?
How regular are you praying? Most of us will feel, yeah,
probably not as much as I should do.
And we struggle to pray. We don't know what to say.
We struggle to concentrate long enough.
We maybe find prayer boring. If we're honest, God seems very
far away. And occasionally, if you're
feeling brave, you might read a book on prayer, maybe learn
about some great hero of the faith who prayed.
But often when you read about someone else's great prayer
life, you end up being a bit crushed, actually going, well,
that's not me and I don't think I'll ever be me.
So we don't quite know where to go.
Sometimes we want to learn how to pray.
But Matthew 6, we're going to see today very, very familiar
words. Jesus is the greatest prayer
coach we could ever wish for. As the Son of God, he knows
exactly what God is like. He knows exactly what we should
be praying for. But as the Son of Man, he
understands that we find it hard.
He understands that we struggle with temptation and doubt.
He's been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet without sin.
So where other prayer experts can often make us feel
inadequate, Jesus never does. I want to just begin by sort of
like just paraphrasing the word Jesus says in Matthew 11, verse
28, where he just says, come to me all you hear, weary and
burdened. Come to me all you who struggle
with prayer. Come to me all you who are
tempted to give up on prayer, and I will give you rest.
Learn from me for I'm gentle and humble in heart and you will
find rest for your souls. So want us to really just
preface everything that we're going to look at in Matthew 6,
remembering who it is is speaking.
He is good, He is gentle, He is humble with us and that is
amazing news. So we're going to be spending
this weekend looking at Matthew Chapter 6.
A little bit of it today and then the rest of it tomorrow.
I guess the context of Matthew 6, it's always important to get
an understanding of that. This is the Sermon on the Mount
often referred to. It's Jesus vision for life in
the Kingdom of heaven. He deals with lots of questions
in Matthews 5, Matthew chapters 5 to 7.
So what will follow to Jesus look like in this world?
What does it mean for us to live for Jesus?
What will we love? What will we hate?
What will we fight for, what we fight against?
And in Matthew 6, he kind of zeroes in on three key areas in
the Kingdom of heaven, giving to the needy, fasting and prayer.
And he introduces each one of those with a warning.
This is Matthew 6 verse 1. He says be careful not to
practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by
them. If you do, you'll have no reward
from your Father in heaven. It's according to Jesus.
It's possible to do lots of what seems spiritual things, but to
do them for the wrong reasons. And it's a challenge.
We're gathered together publicly thinking about praying together.
He's got some quite challenging things of of how not to pray
that he begins his teaching on prayer with.
So Danny, read out for us Matthew 6 verses 5 to 8.
What I'd love you to do is just in groups.
Maybe it could be just 2345. Just turn to the people near
you. Look again at Matthew 65 to 8
where Jesus is teaching us how not to pray and then just go
through those questions. What sort of praying does he
warn the disciples against? Why does he say those sorts of
prayers are not real prayer? Why are we tempted to pray this
way? Maybe you don't think you are,
but why? Why is this a warning we need to
hear? And what encouragement did Jesus
give his disciples about the God we pray to hear?
So this is how not to pray. What are the challenges?
But also what are the encouragement Jesus gives?
OK, yeah, so it's just, it's a set of warnings that are
preparing the ground, clearing the ground really for how we
pray. So again, there's warnings and
promises. So don't pray to impress other
people. Don't be like a hypocrite, Jesus
says. But the promise alongside that
is that you are seen by God. So again, my my line of work,
sometimes, you know, I've got to pray in public.
It's got to be impressive. You know, it's got to be
whatever. And actually so many times like
I've felt that in my own heart. Am I praying to impress other
people? Once I was at a summer school of
theology years ago because I'm really rock'n'roll my life.
And, and it was I was asked to give thanks for the food and
just suddenly my voice changed. I tried to do like an overview
of the Old and New Testaments. I was talking to every member of
the Trinity, but probably thanking the Father for dying on
the cross. And I don't know what.
And, and I just, I, I said when I got to Anne and I was
deflated. I think the food was cold and,
and it was just that that I wasn't praying to my father at
all. I was praying to impress other
people. And I dare to think I'm probably
not the only Christian who's fallen into that trap.
So, but the promise is that you're seen by God.
You don't have to impress him because he's your father.
And the challenge is we can't see the God we pray to, but
Jesus says he can see us. He sees us and he sees us as his
children. It's not just like a secret
police officers on under surveillance.
He sees what you're doing so we can catch you out.
You know, he's your father who delights in you.
The God who sees us is our Father who loves us, says Jesus.
So we don't have to impress him. Yeah, that's actually the second
one. We don't pray to impress God.
That's the pagans. They do that.
They go you we need to do all this stuff so that God the gods
will give us what we want. And again, how often we might
think if I can just pray long enough, hard enough, God will
give me what I want. If I can just use the right
language, God will give me what I want.
But verse 7 he says when you pray, don't keep on batting like
pagans. If they think they'll be heard
for their many words. Don't be like them for your
father knows what you need before you ask him.
And that's amazing because because God knows what you need.
But then verse 9, this then is how you should pray.
We kind of go and verse verse, it could be just like, therefore
we don't have to pray at all. You can say, well, father knows
what I need, so I don't need to pray at all.
But actually, because your father knows what you need, then
you can come to him and you can talk to him knowing that his
purposes for you are good that he he sees you at your worst.
He sees you the things that you're ashamed of.
He sees that, and yet he still invites you to come to him in
prayer through faith in his Son Jesus, with him as our heavenly
Father. So there's amazing promises here
that actually we are known by God and that is good news.
As Shao Jian said at the beginning, that is good news.
That sounds frightening. But because he's compassionate,
because he's gracious, He knows us.
Therefore we can just say, right, Lord, you don't need to
explain the situation. Just help.
Please just help. Help my heart, Help this other
person's heart and intervene. Please let your Kingdom come in
this situation. So Jesus begins with these
warnings how not to pray. And then we're going to look at
the first half of the Lord's Prayer this morning and then the
second-half tomorrow morning we're back at Ave. primary
school. So Jesus starts with saying how
not to pray. But then from verse 9, normally
he goes on to teach us how to pray and Jack is going to come
and read Jesus model prayer to us.
Jack. So verse 9 This then is how you
should 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 today Our Daily Bread
and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil
one. For if you forgive other people
when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also
forgive you. But if you do not forgive others
their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
It's actually when you listen to this model prayer, one thing
that always strikes me is just how short it is.
You always say don't keep on babbling like pagans.
And actually this prayer I think you can probably read out in
about 15 seconds. Maybe I have a memory of COVID
era. You're meant to wash your hands.
Was a happy birthday to you. Maybe was that once or twice,
maybe twice. And the Lord's Prayer, some,
some Christians come up with a great idea, which I, I find just
weird. Didn't do it.
But apparently you could, you could also time yourself by
saying the Lord's Prayer by washing hands for 30 seconds.
There's no, I think it was twice again.
Anyway, that's not in my notes. But yeah, but it's short.
That's a big thing. And actually there is something
liberating about that. That's not to say that all our
prayers have to be just these words.
And it's not to say that all our prayers should be 15 seconds and
no longer, but it is amazing that Jesus, when he wants to
teach us how to pray, he doesn't give us a massive big long
prayer. He gives us this prayer which is
short and simple, and yet it has so much to teach us about the
attitudes we should have when we pray and about who it is we're
praying to. So again, the big starting point
is that we are praying to our Father in heaven.
We are praying to God who is our Father and that makes all the
difference when we pray. I don't know about you when I
when I was when I was a child back into the playground.
You somebody argue your mates like whose dad was best like my
dad's bigger than your dad. My dad could beat your dad up.
If you annoy me, I'm going to get my dad on you.
You some of us did that, but actually what we are learning
when Jesus invites to pray is actually our dad really is the
greatest. Our Father really is stronger
than anything standing against us.
He really is able to protect us when perhaps no one else can.
He really does help us as we cry out to Him.
And the foundational truth for Jesus teaching on prayer is that
God is your Father and you are his child.
Again, this is a definition that I just have come back to the
last 10 years or so because I just love the simplicity of it.
Prayer so simply as a child asking their Father for help,
that's just fundamental. That's like at its simplest,
that's what we do we pray Father, I need your help.
It's as simple as that Prayer begins and ends with the
fatherhood of God and the theme of this weekend is is praying
together. And so want to see that actually
that that that the Lord's Prayer so reminds us that actually we
never pray alone. It's our Father in heaven and we
need to see that because actually remember the context,
Jesus saying Jesus is telling his disciples, go into your
room, verse 6, close the door, be alone with God.
You might think he's going to say just going to say, well then
my father or just father. Luke 11.
He just starts with father, but here he says our Father, even
when we're on our own, we're not on our own.
Our Father reminds us we are always praying with Jesus and
we're always praying alongside other believers.
We're always praying with Jesus. Actually remember Jesus is
saying this our Father, He's saying that's my father is now
your father. Disciples, remember he said that
to Mary Magdalene when he rose from the dead.
He says I'm going back to my God and your God, my father and your
father saying now God is your father.
Therefore talk to him like your Father.
Jesus relationship with God becomes our relationship with
God when we trust in him. Jesus intimacy with the Father
becomes our intimacy with the Father.
When we pray, our Father remembering we are praying with
Jesus, but we're also, we're praying with other believers.
Remember we're on our own in our room.
Jesus says, but we are always part of God's great community of
believers, brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers in Christ.
And that's in a local church setting and that's the universal
church across the world. Our Father reminds us that God
isn't just my Father, He is the father of everyone who trusts in
him. That I don't follow Jesus on my
own. I'm part of the community of
God's people and therefore I don't pray to God on my own.
I pray as part of God's family of believers.
So that's kind of remembering that prayer is about praying
with Jesus and praying alongside other believers.
But we come into the body of the, of the Lord's Prayer itself
and it's kind of in a game of two halves.
People say there are about 6 requests here and you can sort
of split them in two in a sense. The first set of requests you're
going to look at today, we're praying for God's glory.
The second set of requests we are depending on God's grace.
So we'll look at that second bit a bit more tomorrow morning at
Ave. School.
But I think the order of those halves is significant.
Actually, if I was praying, I would go straight to give us
today Our Daily Bread. I basically all that I, I need
help, Lord, and I've just said prayer as a child asking your
Father help. That's not wrong, but it's
interesting. When Jesus teaches how to pray,
he starts with God. He wants us to not just make the
whole world revolve around us. He wants to go actually pray
this way. Jesus says, and remember that
you're not the center of the universe.
God is. And that's actually really good
news. It's good news because he's
still your Father and he loves you, but he's got other purposes
in life than just maybe what you can see right now.
And in the first half, the Lord's Prayer, we see that
prayer is how we get involved with God's saving purposes for
us and for our world. This is how we get involved with
what God is doing in the world. We're children asking our Father
for help, but our Father saying, you've not got a part to play in
the family business. You've got a part to play in
what I want to do in this world, across this world, through the
lives of people you know and people you don't even know.
And prayer is a massive part of how you play a part in God's
family business of rescuing people and bringing them into
his family. How we pray and the things we
pray for in Jesus name play a huge part in God's saving
purposes. And I always think that's just
an amazing statement that God would involve people like us in
what he's doing. So the first half of the Lord's
Prayer is about praying for God's glory, seeking God's
glory, living for God's glory in this world.
That begins with that opening phrase, Hallowed be your name.
Jesus encouraged us to include praise right at the beginning of
our prayers. Prayer is about praising your
Father in heaven. Again, hallowed be your name.
It's a weird phrase, sounds very alien to our to our ears.
To hallow something or someone is busy, to honour it, to set it
apart, to say this is special, holy.
And Jesus invites us to begin by praying to our Father and
heaven, saying your name is holy.
And we're not making God's name holy.
God's name is holy anyway, but we are recognizing that his name
is holy. And we're responding to that.
Basically, when when Jesus opens his prayer this way, he's
saying, ask your Father to show you who he is.
Ask your father to show just how different he is to us, how much
better, how more good, how more loving and compassionate he is
to what you imagine him to be. He is gloriously different to us
and that is really good news. So again, your name in the Bible
is very much your character. So it's who someone is, what
makes them tick. And God has many names in
scripture. He is names like father, king,
creator, refuge, rock, fortress, lover, sustainer, Redeemer,
judge. But again, hallowed be your
name, remembering who it is speaking here it is Jesus.
And it's through Jesus that we get to see God's character
perfectly. And when we see God's love for
us in Jesus, Jesus invites us. Hallow that hallow the name of
God. Say, Lord, thank you for who you
are. Thank you that you're different
to us. Thank you that you're more
forgiving than I think you are, that you're more just than I
think you are, that your purposes are me are better than
I think they are. Again, just think of like the
core values of our church from 20 years ago.
We want to be God centred, actually hallowed be your name
is about that. It's saying God, this is about
you. It's about your glory, not about
us. But amazingly, when we realize
it's about your glory and not about us, we get blessed by
discovering how we're meant to live with the God who made us
and the God who loves us. So that's why as a church, we
pray together, that's why we hear God's word together.
That's why we sing God's praises together, because we want to
hallow God's name, because that's what we're made for.
That's what we've been rescued to do.
Just a generation of Christians a long time ago, the 17th
century in the Westminster Confession, they began a whole
set of question and answers about what life should be all
about for a Christian. And the opening question was,
what is the chief end of man? But no, but this is it.
Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.
And hallowed be your name actually is an invitation to
glorify God. But it's by glorifying God we
enjoy him, realizing who God is and how good he is, that we
delight in knowing him. And that's important because of
the second request Jesus teaches us.
He says pray this your Kingdom come prayer is about partnering
with your Father in heaven. Again, we we've seen this
already, but we each have a vital part to play in declaring
the goodness of God in this world.
More than that in the building of God's Kingdom here on earth.
And that's an amazing statement that Jesus invites his ordinary
weak, foolish disciples to play a part in building God's
Kingdom. And he does that right up to the
present day. So the Kingdom of heaven and
Matthew's gospel, if you flick back a couple of pages, we just
see this is about God beginning to establish his Kingdom on
earth. So Matthew chapter one, verse
21, we hear that this Jesus has come to save his people from
their sins. Matthew chapter 3, Jesus is
baptized and empowered for his mission by God the Father and
God the Holy Spirit. He's coming to build God's
Kingdom. Matthew chapter 4 Jesus fights
his first recorded battle against the devil, and Jesus
wins. Jesus bringing the Kingdom of
heaven, Matthew 4 verse 17. From that time on, Jesus began
to preach, repent, for the Kingdom of heaven has come near.
Jesus is God's king, He's come to build God's Kingdom.
But then in the middle part of Matthew 4, something amazing
happens. Jesus calls 4 ordinary fishermen
to follow him, Peter, Andrew, James and John.
And he says your job is to call others to follow me.
I'm going to make you fishers of people.
Jesus really early on, he's God's king.
He's the one who's going to win the battle for God.
But he straightaway involves ordinary followers in that task.
And in this prayer that Jesus taught his first disciples and
has taught all of his disciples throughout history ever since,
he says we have a part to play. We get to partner with our
Father in heaven by praying. Lord, would your Kingdom come?
That's a big part of how we build God's Kingdom by praying
so much. Christians have got that wrong.
We said it's about what we do. We just is all on us to build
God's Kingdom. It's not just on us to build
God's Kingdom. God's going to do it, but he
invites us to play a part and a big part saying your Kingdom
come, please let me show who you are through my actions, through
the way you're changing me. Again, we don't always get an
opportunity to speak for Jesus in this world, but we pray this
prayer, your Kingdom come in my life, and then through it to
others. We're saying, Lord, would you
just change me into somebody belongs to your Kingdom?
And then would others see who you are through that?
This is a prayer to say that we would work at our jobs as
working for Jesus. We would do our studies as
working for Jesus. We would help our friends as
working for Jesus. We would raise our kids as
working for Jesus. We'd spend our money as working
for Jesus. Your Kingdom come reminds us of
the mission Jesus has given us and to ask God to bless that
mission so other people will know Jesus as their king.
And your Kingdom come can be a bit of painful prayer to pray
sometimes it reminds us that God's Kingdom isn't here.
We see that on the news around us.
We see it in our own lives. God's Kingdom hasn't yet come.
But we do not despair because Jesus says, pray this prayer.
Your Kingdom come, remind yourself God's Kingdom is
coming. It will not always be like this
in this world. It will not be like this in our
hearts. God's Kingdom is coming.
And he invites us to pray that that would happen.
But actually then the last request we're going to look at
today kind of follows on nice that your Kingdom come.
The challenge with that prayer is again, it could just be all
about what we are doing. We want God to put things right
and we get really frantic. He wants to do that.
But actually Jesus also says your will be done.
Trust God's purposes and timing in everything.
Your Kingdom come as a prayer for God to put things right.
Your will be done is a prayer about submitting to our Father
in heaven. We said earlier on what some of
the hardest things about prayer. Some of the hard things are we
just don't seem to get the answers we'd like that God
doesn't seem to intervene the way we want him to and that can
be painful. Sometimes I think about my older
brother actually, if I was writing this time think it's
well over 30 years now. I've been praying for him to
come to faith in Jesus and at the minute there's no change and
it's easy to give up sometimes. But you go actually hallowed.
Be your name God, you're good, Your Kingdom come break into my
brother's life. Your will be done.
Keep me trusting in you as I don't see it happening just yet.
Your will be done is not a prayer of defeat or giving up,
but it's a prayer of trust in God's saving purposes even when
we don't understand them. And of course this is the
prayer. I just always loved that Jesus
when he tells us to pray this way.
It's not a prayer. He doesn't know all about you.
Think about the Garden of Gethsemane the night before the
cross. He goes.
Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me yet.
Not what I will, but what you will when we say your will be
done. We're following in the footsteps
of Jesus and He's able to help us trust Him and submit to our
Father. Because our Father is good and
he is loving and his ways are best.
So this is how Jesus begins his master class in prayer.
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your Kingdom come,
your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Prayer is how we get involved with God's saving purposes for
us and for our world.