When We Pray... Part 2 "Our Father" Matthew 6:9

 Nov. 19^th, 2023

Series: When We Pray…

Today’s Message: Our Father…

Matthew 6:9

Mountain View Evangelical Missionary Church

 

This blog post will continue my series entitled “When We Pray…” I hope you will enjoy this series.

I have been speaking so much about prayer, and how I would like Mountain View EMC to be known as a praying church, and I just thought it would be beneficial for us as a congregation to take a step back and examine what Scripture says about prayer. I used Pastor John Piper as an example of how before he begins any discussion with anyone, he usually begins by defining the terms that will be used in the discussion, thus ensuring everyone is speaking the same language.

Let’s start today with a brief recap of last week’s message.

We started the series last week and during the very long introduction to that message we first examined three questions regarding prayer:

1.      How should we pray?

2. What should we pray for?
3. Should we pray at all?

Next, we started to look at some biblical examples for answers to a series of three statements:

•      God is personal. The Bible does not present Jesus as some far-off entity that is distant and difficult to relate to. God is personal. In fact, He is so personal, that for Believers, we have God living within us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

•      We saw that God hears our prayers. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are unlike all the false Gods because we know for certain that they hear our prayers. We looked at the example of the false gods of Baal and Asherah and how the 900 false prophets came up against the true prophet Elijah and the true God Yahweh on Mount Carmel, and we saw whose prayers were heard and answered. We saw which God had the ability and power to answer prayer.

•      After that we examined how God answers our prayers. Generally speaking, there are one of three answers that the Lord in His wisdom, grants to each of our prayers that are sincerely offered up to God. Those answers are yes; no; or not now.

 

After looking at the text for that day, we came to three conclusions and applications for our lives regarding prayer:

1. Do not pray hypocritically. Like so many other areas of our Christian lives, Jesus is concerned with our heart attitude when it comes to our prayers and our prayer life. We are warned “Do not be like the hypocrites” and who were the hypocrites of that day that Jesus was most critical of? The religious leaders and teachers, the Pharisees, who were singled out by Jesus several times in Scripture for their false teachings and bad examples of godly living.
2. The next lesson that we extracted from the text was that you are not limited to a “sacred space”. As a contrasting example of the hypocritical Pharisees who did their loudest praying in public, so that others could see how righteous they were, Christ's followers are given the example of a prayer closet. A personal space where prayer is done solemnly and in private so that your prayers are offered to the Father and not to your fellow man or even yourself. We also saw in other places in Scripture that we were taught that prayer is not limited to a closet or a “sacred space” but… when we come before God in prayer, wherever we are praying, we should consider it sacred ground because we are in the presence of God when we pray. We saw the example and the warning from God to Moses when he was on the mount in front of the burning bush, a representation of the presence of God, that Moses was told to remove his sandals for he was standing on Holy Ground. We will be well served if we keep that same mindset when we come before the Father with our prayers.
3. Finally, we saw that Father knows best. We must trust that when the Lord grants, delays, or denies our prayer requests, He is doing so for the reason that it is best for us and will bring the most Glory to God. We can have this trust, or faith, in God… based on His unchanging Nature of who He is and the many attributes we see revealed about Him in Scripture. According to the Westminster Larger Catechism, a series of lessons and questions that were written to bring us a deeper understanding of who God is and our relationship with Him, according to question one of the Larger Catechism, “What is the chief and highest end of man? Answer: Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy Him forever.

Ok, that’s it for the recap. If you were not here last week, I would encourage you to listen to the message on the church’s website.  In that message, I tried to lay down a good foundation for what we will be covering in this series on prayer.

Let’s open our Bibles together and look at today’s text. Please open your bibles or turn on your devices and follow along. If you did not bring a bible with you today, you should find a bible underneath one of the chairs in front of you. Matthew chapter 6 is found on page number 787 of the pew bible.

READ MATTHEW 6:9-15

This morning we are going to dive deeper into the first verse of this prayer. There is just so much theology behind this little verse. Some very foundational teachings, that if we do not get right, we will miss some very important things regarding prayer. Critical things even, that if we get wrong, may derail our entire prayer life.

Let’s go back and read verses 9 and 10 again and not be in a hurry this morning. Rather, let’s just remain here for a bit and examine them and the teaching behind them more closely.

READ MATTHEW 6:9

Let me start by asking this question: how is your prayer life? Do you pray? Do you pray regularly? Do you pray every day? Are you praying several times per day? If not, why not? Are you too busy to pray?

Martin Luther is credited with saying, “I have so much to do today that I shall need to spend the first three hours in prayer”. Do we share that attitude if not that discipline? When you consider all that you must accomplish in a day, is your first instinct to calm yourself and get organized before the Father in prayer? How counter-cultural is that? Have you ever heard Tony Robbins or Brian Tracy offer that advice?

Here is a quote from Charles Spurgeon regarding prayer, "True prayer is neither a mere mental exercise nor a vocal performance. It is far deeper than that. It is a spiritual transaction with the creator of Heaven and Earth."

Let me repeat that, "True prayer is neither a mere mental exercise nor a vocal performance. It is far deeper than that. It is a spiritual transaction with the creator of Heaven and Earth."

When you pray, are you approaching your prayers with that mindset? You are engaging in a spiritual transaction with the creator of Heaven and Earth. I don’t mean like a business transaction, or that God is this spiritual vending machine in the sky, that you simply insert your prayers into, and push the right buttons, to get what you ask for.

But I am getting ahead of myself here this morning. Getting what we ask for is not some sort of guarantee with the right prayer. That is something we will examine next week.

There is a similar account of this same prayer found in Matthew, being taught in Luke chapter 11 beginning in verse 1. I say that it is a similar account and that it is not a parallel account or the same instance we see here in Matthew. What is presented in Luke is a different account.

Let’s turn to Luke chapter 11 starting in verse 1 and see what Jesus had to say to His disciples then and there. That will be page 843 of the pew bible.

READ Luke 11:1-4

So, we see right away that this is not the same account. Through careful study, we know that Jesus taught people how to pray more than once. We notice several examples of Jesus praying in the Gospels, so it is reasonable to assume that Jesus would have spoken about prayer more than once.

Here in Luke, we read that it is recorded that Jesus was praying in a “certain place”, and once He returned to the group… one of the disciples asked, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples”. The John that is mentioned here is, John the Baptist and we see from this passage that it is clear in Scripture that John had his followers, some of whom became disciples of John.

So, Jesus returns to the group after some private prayer time and an unnamed disciple asks Jesus to teach them to pray. This is an important lesson for discipleship for anyone who is mentoring another Christian. Jesus modeled proper prayer techniques, He didn’t walk around just talking about how to pray, he coached His followers by showing Himself praying.

It is clear from this pericope that Jesus had private prayer time with the Father, it is also clear that the disciples knew exactly what He was doing. Jesus didn’t make excuses or was ashamed of offering up prayers to the Father. Jesus simply fulfilled His task of talking with the Father through prayer.

I’m sure this would have been a time of unity and togetherness among the members of the Trinity. I am sure that the Holy Spirit would have been present at the time of prayer for Jesus just as the Spirit is present with us during our time of prayer with the Father. Since this was a time of reuniting with the other members of the Trinity while Jesus was in His incarnate form, no wonder Jesus spent so much time in prayer.

 

This is a wonderful example for us about desiring a time of unity and communing with The Father in our times of prayer. Are you following Jesus’ example in this regard? Do you look at your time of prayer as an opportunity to commune with the Father? To commune with the Father is an excellent way to think about prayer.

 

According to Dictionary.com, the definition for to commune with someone is:

1.      to converse or talk together, usually with profound intensity, intimacy, etc.; interchange thoughts or feelings.

2.      to be in intimate communication or rapport:

 

We see here in Luke, that Jesus is asked to show them how to pray, not what to pray. There must have been something in the demeanor of Jesus after His time of communing with the Father that was desirable to others. It seems like the disciples noticed something different about Jesus after He had been praying. A glow, or a peace that was evident and pleasing enough to prompt someone to ask this question of Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray…”

Just like in Matthew 6, Jesus then teaches them, “‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. ³ Give us each day our daily bread. ⁴ Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. ^g And lead us not into temptation.’”

Did you notice what was missing here? During this private time of instruction about prayer, Jesus omitted the line, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”. Two things to note here, first this is a direct demonstration against mindless repetition of prayer. There was something different in this circumstance on this teaching on prayer and something different from the time that Jesus taught about prayer in the Sermon on the Mount. The second thing to note is that just because the teaching of God’s will is not mentioned in this prayer doesn’t mean that it is to be ignored in our prayers. The circumstances were different, and Jesus may have taught the lesson on God’s will at a different time or in a different manner and Luke did not record it here in his Gospel.

The four Gospels were not an exhaustive record of everything that Jesus said or did.

Remember the words that John closes out his Gospel with. Found in John 21:25 are these words, “²⁵ Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.”

The Gospel records are not exhaustive writings. John tells us many other things that Jesus said and did were not recorded. The things that were recorded were the most critical things that we must know. We must always guard against other extra-biblical teachings that are brought to the table under the guise of tradition or the writings of Early Church Fathers. What the Church Fathers such as Tertullian or Justin Martyr wrote was interesting, you can see by their writings that they were still working out their theologies, and oftentimes they were writing to defend the Christian faith against heretics and false teaching. So, beware of people and institutions that read into Scripture thoughts or practices that are not there. Sola Scriptura or “Scripture Alone” is a suitable enough guide for our Christian walks. This is also why I quote other passages of the Bible so much in my sermons, and why I list every Scriptural reference in the bulletins. I use Scripture to illuminate and explain Scripture. I list the references so that you can go home after the service and look up the Scripture for yourself if I have said something that you disagree with. I encourage you to see for yourself what Scripture says about Scripture.

Ok, let’s get back to today’s text in Matthew chapter six. We are back on page 787 of the pew bible.

Look at verse nine, “This, then, is how you should pray:” Stop there for a second. We have already stated that this is just a pattern for prayer. This is not a mandatory prayer. These exact words do not have to be used. They can… and there’s nothing wrong with that, provided the words are offered up with the right heart attitude. As we saw last week in the preceding verses, we are being warned against mindless repetition.

I really can’t stress that enough. Proper prayer is about having the correct attitude. If you find that your prayer life is getting stale, let me give you a bit of homework. We don’t have time to turn to these verses or even read them on the screen, but if you find your prayer life is lacking passion and appreciation in your time with God let me encourage you to read in Matthew of the humiliation and insults that Jesus endured on your behalf. Matthew records that Jesus was spit upon and punched and slapped, Mark adds that Jesus was beaten first by the Temple Guards and then turned over to Pontius Pilate and the Roman soldiers. Matthew records that Jesus was mocked by the very soldiers who would go on to crucify Him. Mark records that the soldiers mocked Jesus as King with a crown of thorns and a purple robe.

Jesus endured all that physical humiliation and then He was beaten and scourged across His back, forced to carry the very means of His crucifixion to the place where He would be nailed to that rough-hewn wooden cross, It would then be raised and dropped into a hole in the ground and the Messiah would be on public display between two common thieves and even mocked by passers-by and the thieves hanging next to Him.

Jesus endured all that for what? To reconcile you and me, rebellious sinners back to a loving and merciful God. Jesus paid the sin-debt that we owed, so that we could have the privilege of coming before the Father and pouring out our fears, and wants, and needs, and come into the very Holy presence of the Creator through the simple act of prayer. Communing and speaking most intimately with our adopted Father. A Father who loves us so much that He sent His only begotten Son, born of a virgin, to be nailed to a Roman Cross for sinners like you and me.

Friends, please do not disregard that privilege. We are granted access to the Father only through the blood of Jesus. Don’t ever forget that. Do not be indifferent to that honor.

Watch the Passion of the Christ to feel the full cruelty of those events that I just described. But if you watch the movie, let me warn you of one thing that the director did that was not biblical. If I remember correctly, during the scenes of the scourging of Jesus, Mel Gibson depicts Satan walking around with a gleeful look on his face. Scripture does not mention Satan being anywhere near this event.

The humiliation and crucifixion were not of Satan. They were fully orchestrated and controlled by the Holy Trinity alone. The crucifixion was the final nail in the coffin of Satan. That whole event was planned before time began according to Titus 1:1-4 and was the unfolding of the events promised in Genesis 3:15 way back at the fall of mankind. The death, burial, and resurrection spelled complete defeat for Satan; he had nothing to do with the events that day. These are the subtle heresies that we must guard against when we watch these types of movies and television shows.

OK, back to today’s passage in Matthew, let’s continue with verse 9. “This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven,” Look at the wording here, “Our Father”. Once again, I want to point out the personal and intimate nature of our God. “Our Father” is a personal term. As adopted children of God, we have the right to claim God as our Father. We know His name, Yahweh, and we can claim Him as our Father. I repeat, not a cold and distant entity like the false Gods that you are taught elsewhere.

God the Father, through the atoning work of Jesus Christ, has allowed us the blessing of a personal relationship with Him. There is another intimate term that I sometimes use to bring myself closer to God. That is the proper attitude to have if you are feeling distant from God, we must bring ourselves closer to Him. As born-again Christians, if we are experiencing a season of distance from the Father, we are the ones in error. We may have some unconfessed sin in our lives keeping us apart, or we may need an attitude adjustment, but it is on us to move toward the Father. We can pray that He draws us near to Him, but we return to Him.

Anyway, the term that I use when I wish to get even closer to the Father is the Aramaic term that Christ used in His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus addressed the Father as “Abba” in Mark 14:36 when in complete submission to the Father’s will, Jesus asked if the cup of God’s wrath that Jesus was about to partake in, if that cup could be removed from Him. Paul also used the term in Romans 8:15 and it is a personal and intimate term. In English, we could equate it to the term “Daddy”. When I am particularly heavy of heart in my prayer time, I will sometimes begin with the term “Abba”. We are to think of prayer as an intimate time with our God.

Moving on to the second point of today’s sermon let’s try switching gears, a little bit, I want us to consider prayer in a different light. If you are having trouble getting the right mindset about your prayer life, maybe you should consider thinking about prayer as a form of worship.

Prayer as a form of worship is a great way to remain humble throughout the process of prayer.

Prayer has several elements, and if we look at just two of them—praise and thanksgiving—we can see that prayer is, at its very core, worship. When we praise God, we are worshiping Him for His attributes and His work in our lives. When we offer prayers of thanksgiving, we are worshiping His goodness, mercy, and loving-kindness to us. Worship gives glory to God, the only One who deserves to be glorified.

In the final chapter of Hebrews, the author gives us this advice, “¹⁵ Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.” Hebrews 13:15. The author is referring to prayer. Prayer is the fruit of the lips.

Other elements of prayer such as repentance, confession, and petition are also forms of worship. We repent knowing that God is a forgiving and loving God and He has provided a means of forgiveness in the sacrifice of His Son on the cross.

We confess our sins because we know “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” 1 John 1:9 and we worship Him for it.

The third and final point of today’s message is that we are to pray to the Father only. We have looked at the importance of praying to the Father.

Equally important is whom we are not to pray to. Some non-Christian religions encourage their adherents to pray to a pantheon of gods, dead relatives, saints, and spirits. Such prayers are not scriptural and are, in fact, an insult to our heavenly Father. To understand why, we need only keep in mind the nature of prayer that we just looked at. Prayer is also worship.

The problem with praying to anyone other than God is that Yahweh will not share His glory. In fact, praying to anyone or anything other than God is idolatry. “I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols” Isaiah 42:8.

Praying to someone outside the Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is idolatry. It is the sharing of God’s glory with a created being, something expressly forbidden in Scripture.

We come to Him with our petitions and intercessions because we know He loves us and hears us, and we worship Him for His mercy and kindness in being willing to hear and answer. When we consider all this, it is easy to see that praying to someone other than our triune God is unthinkable because prayer is a form of worship, and worship is reserved for God and God alone.

Whom are we to pray to? The answer is God. Praying to God, and God alone, is far more important than to which Person of the Trinity we address with our prayers.

CONCLUSION

When we pray… we are to pray to the Father through the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus. When we do this, we must be mindful of the fact that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are distinct persons, and one must speak to them as a saved sinner would- humbly and with gratitude.