Matthew chapter 6, and I'll pick up reading in verse
5. And when thou prayest, thou shalt
not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing
in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that
they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have
their reward. But thou, when thou prayest,
enter into thy closet, and when thou shut thy door, pray to thy
father which is in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret
shall reward thee openly. But when you pray, use not vain
repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they shall
be heard for they're much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto
them for your father knoweth what things you have need of
before you ask him. After this manner therefore pray
ye our father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom
come thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven give us this
day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our
debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from
evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever
amen it's in my heart this morning to speak to us about prayer. Somebody says, well, I don't
understand prayer. Well, most of us don't understand
electricity. I don't. But we're not going
to sit around in the dark till we do. And. It's not about understanding,
it's about the privilege and the duty to pray. Somebody said,
well, what do we have to pray about? What a ridiculous question. What do we have not to pray about
is the question. Somebody says, well, I feel so
unworthy trying to pray. Good. Good. You sure wouldn't get to first
base if you thought you was worthy. God does not require a lot on
our part, except that we come to Him. We're guilty of viewing prayer
from the human side, but it's very needful that we
consider prayer from the divine side. Some things are accomplished
when we pray, whether we're conscious of it or not. One, God is honored. in that
we acknowledge Him alone as the High and Holy One. The psalmist
said the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity. Acknowledging Him in His majesty,
His glory, His superiority, His sovereignty. You find this many times in the
Bible. You remember back there in Kings when Elijah prayed for
rain. It hadn't rained in three and
a half years. He didn't spend a lot of time
and a lot of words begging. He simply acknowledged the universal
dominion of God and said, Oh Lord God, let it be known this
day. that thou art God in Israel. He's saying, Lord, show yourself
mighty, glorious. Do this for your glory, not just
for my benefit. You remember when Jonah cried
out from the fish's belly? He never says a lot about his
pleading. He just says this. This one thing is obvious. Salvation
is of the Lord. He acknowledged the universal
dominion and it honored God. Another thing, real prayer is
worship. It redounds to the glory of God
in that we acknowledge full dependence on Him. How guilty we are of
thinking that we make it on our own and we don't depend fully
on Him, but oh, we must, we must. And then real prayer humbles
us in the sense that coming into God's presence, it produces a
realization of our nothingness and our unworthiness. Another thing, prayer is designed
for the exercising of our faith in the living God. We believe
He hears. We believe He listens. That's
why we cry to Him. Another thing, prayer is designed
to unburden ourselves by casting all our cares upon Him, pouring
our hearts out to Him. What a privilege! What a privilege! At the same time, what a duty,
praying for his glory, for our own needs, and for the needs
of others. Now, this account of what is
sometimes referred to as the Lord's Prayer, it's really the
model prayer. In Luke's account, chapter 11,
The Lord gives this model prayer in answer to the disciples' requests. Lord, teach us to pray. Teach us to pray. And so that's
what he does here in Matthew 6, as well as Luke 11. And we've
gone through this several times through the years, looking at
it statement by statement. This morning, we're just looking
at some general things about prayer. I want us to look first
at the verses we read preceding the actual prayer, verses five
through eight. And there are six things the
Lord said that I'd like to mention in these verses before we proceed.
Number one, the certainty that believers do pray. Notice verse
five, Christ says, and when thou prayest. Not if, but when. Believers do pray. You say, well,
I know I don't pray as I should. Well, I'm sure we'd all say that.
Prayer is a greatly neglected privilege and duty in the lives
of God's people today. Secondly, the sincerity with
which we're to pray. He continues on in verse five
and says, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are. For they
love to pray, standing in the synagogues and in the corners
of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say
unto you, they have their reward." That's the reward they're looking
for, is for somebody to say to somebody else, boy, oh so-and-so,
what a prayer warrior they are, standing there on the corner
of the street praying. No, he said, don't bother, don't
fool with that. Don't fool with that. And then the third thing,
the importance of privacy in prayer. He said, when thou prayest,
verse 6, enter into thy closet. That's not talking about the
clothes closet. It's talking about a private place. And when
thou hast shut thy door, not a wooden door, but when you shut
this door, shut everything else out, and shut yourself in with
the Lord, When thou hast shut thy door, pray to the Father
which is in secret, and thy Father which is seeth in secret shall
reward thee openly. Oh my, this privacy, it's not
so much to hide from people as it is to eliminate distractions. All kind of things, and you that
pray know this, all kind of things will happen when you try to pray.
I mean somebody will holler at you, the phone will ring, the
doorbell will ring, the dog will bark. This is the Lord Jesus
Christ speaking. And He knows what He's talking
about. And He emphasizes you and I being dogmatic in this. Get alone somewhere. Shut everything
out to pray. And number four, beware of pretense.
Don't try to be somebody else. The Lord knows what you talk
like and how you sound and the words you use. He can understand
broken English. And He's not hard of hearing.
And He's not impressed with a dozen unnecessary adjectives in every
statement you pray. No. Look what He said here. But when you pray, Use not vain
repetitions as the heathen do. That's what they do. And then
the fifth thing, don't place any value in unnecessary length in prayer. They said, well, I prayed for
30 minutes. I didn't say that ain't nothing.
I prayed for an hour. So what? The real business might
have been done in one minute instead of an hour. That's not
the issue. Because he says here about these
heathen, about these hypocrites, they think that they shall be
heard for their much speaking. He warns against this hypocritical
praying. And then the sixth thing, we're
told in verse 8, that prayer is not to inform our Heavenly
Father of anything He don't know. He knows it all. It's not to remind Him of something
He's forgotten. He don't forget anything. He
chooses not to remember some things like our sins. He said,
I'll put them away. I'll remember them against you
no more. But he don't forget. He never forgets anything. And
here, Christ says, your father knoweth what things you have
need of before you ask him. But he's teaching us to ask him.
And now in verse 9, he says, after this manner, Therefore
pray ye." Then he begins the actual prayer down through verse
13. In the various statements, parts
of this prayer, there is a seven-fold emphasis
of the believer's relationship with God. Note with me these
seven relationships that I've marked here. First, our Father. means we have a father-child
relationship. Secondly, hallowed be thy name
means we have a deity-worshipper relationship. Third, thy kingdom come means
we have a sovereign-subject relationship. Four, thy will be done means
we have a master-servant relationship. Five, give us this day our daily
bread means that we have a benefactor-beneficiary relationship. Six, forgive us
our debts or trespasses means that we have a Savior-Sinner
relationship. And then number seven, lead us
not into temptation, means that we have a guide-pilgrim relationship. I'm interested this morning in
just the first of these seven, the father-child relationship. And it's the first two words
of the actual prayer In verse 9, our Father, our Father. In the first little word, our,
there is emphasis on the unselfishness that is to be our attitude in
prayer. It's not to be selfishly all
about me, but for the good of all the family.
That's why Christ uses this word, our, repeatedly. That there is
no personal pronouns used in these lines. Look at it with
me. It's not my father, but it's our father. Our daily bread. Our debts. Our debtors. And then it's not me, but it's
us. Forgive us. Lead us. Deliver us. So, it's not a selfish thing. In this brief phrase, Our Father,
it's so very full of things to be considered, and I'll talk
about a few of them. I want to narrow it down to just
three thoughts, if I might, this morning. Number one, the comfortable
title. the comfortable title. Why should it be uncomfortable
to any child of God to call Him our Father? Well, it shouldn't
be. It shouldn't be. I mean, when
a baby is born into a home and it gets to be a year or two old,
that child will feel no shame in calling his father Dada. No shame. The child will not
feel uncomfortable. Not because the child has done
anything to win its father's approval, but simply because
of the relationship. That's all. And so it should
be with us as God's children simply because of the relationship. That's how we come to him in
prayer and call him our father on the simple basis that he is
our father. You say, well, I feel so unworthy
when I try to pray. Sure you do, because you are. But worthiness is not the basis
on which we come. It's the relationship. He's our
father. Peter said he had begotten us. That is, he's our spiritual daddy. James said James 1.18, Of his
own will begat he us. That word begat means he's the
pappy. Of his own will he begat us. Just because he wanted. It was
a planned parenthood. He wanted his children. John chapter 1 says that we were
born, not talking about physically, but spiritually, we were born
not of blood. That is, it's not nationality
that makes anybody a child of God. Nor of the will of the flesh.
It's not so-called free will that makes anybody a child of
God. This is John 1.13, by the way. Nor of the will of man. Nobody talked you into it. They
might have talked you into becoming religious, but nobody had anything
to do with you being a child of God except God. Not of blood, nor the will of
flesh, nor the will of man, but of God we were born. John 1.13. We were born from
above, born again, Peter says. 1 Peter 1.23. Not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible. In other words, it's a life that
cannot die. It's the life of God. Isaiah said this, Isaiah 64.8,
But thou, O Lord, thou art our Father. We are the clay. and thou our potter. And we all,
all the family, are the work of thy hand. Oh, he has become,
the psalmist said to us, a father to the fatherless. We have received
the spirit of adoption, Paul said, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. It's a comfortable title, Our
Father. You're supposed to be comfortable
with it. And whatever the need is, He is our Father. Psalm 103 verse 13, like as a
father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that
fear Him. There's a lot of things we can't
do. There's a lot of problems sitting
right here this morning. But I want to tell you, we have
a Father who can. We have a Father who can. How
often does a little child come running in the house, Daddy,
Daddy, would you please come help me? Would you please come
do this for me? In that child's mind, there's
never a thought whether Daddy is able to do it or not. Oh,
he's able. He can do anything. Daddy can
do anything. The child never questions his
ability. But he appeals to his will. Will you come? Would you
help me? And this morning, we don't question
our father's ability. Oh, no. But we sure question
his willingness. How very shameful that we worry
and we fret over things and never even ask him to intervene. But he's our father. And we're
supposed to be comfortable asking Him simply because of the relationship. He's our Father. How very foolish is it to pray,
now Lord, I've tried to be good. You hadn't been that good. You
hadn't been good enough to get anything from God. Oh no. But
if we bow and say, Our father. That's enough for him. That's
enough for him. It would do you good to get somewhere
and bow and just start with these two words, our father, and then
pause for a little while and think about what all that means.
Consider the truth of that. that He is our Father, a caring
Father. Oh, the preciousness of it, the
privilege of it, our Father. You remember that boy in Luke
15? Everybody knows this story. He had run away, messed it, you
know, really made a mess of things. He had him a speech all made
up. He said, I'll go home and I'll say to my Father, Father,
that's his first word, I have sinned against heaven and before
thee. And then he said, I'll tell him,
I'll tell him my plan. I'm not coming home on the basis
of relationship as a son. I'll just ask him to let me be
as one of the hired servants. But now you know the story. When he got there, His speech was over after that
first word. He began with that relationship. Father, the comfortable title. The comfortable
title. It's ours to use. Relationship. Secondly, the confident trust. The confident trust we should
have in prayer and should urge us to pray. Turn with me over
to the little epistle of John. 1st John, chapter 5. 1st John, chapter 5. The confident
trust. 1st John, chapter 5. And I'll
read verses 14 and 15. And this is the confidence that
we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will,
He heareth us. And if we know that He hear us,
whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we
desired of Him. Now don't miss those four words
in verse 14. according to His will. If we ask anything according
to His will. A lot of people tell it like
God has given us a blank check. I've heard a lot of preachers
talk like this. God's given us a blank check.
Just ask what you will. He's got to honor it because
you will it. Whether He wills it or not. Well,
that would make you God, not him. What kind of father would never
say no to his child? Not a very good one. Because of sin, because of our
proneness to stray, can I say that God's no's are far more
valuable to us than His yes's? Many of us could look back at
experiences in life and say, thank God He said no to that
foolish notion I had. I didn't like it at the time.
I wanted Him to say yes. But our Father in His wisdom
gives us what we need, not always what we want. And He'll say no. And this is
our confidence in Him. We trust Him for who He is, our
Father. Not ourselves, but Him. And in His wisdom, He executes
His perfect will for us and in us, though it be contrary to
our carnal flesh and thinking and desire. We can trust Him
to do right and never do wrong. When we ask Him for something
wrong, we can trust Him not to give in to us. Isn't that good? That's love that knows when to
say no and says it. When Abraham interceded for Sodom. Here's a beautiful picture of
all this we're talking about. And those of you not familiar
with that, you need to go back and read it. Genesis 18. And the Lord had agreed with
Abraham, if there's 50 righteous found within that city, I'll
not destroy it. But the Lord said, if I find
50, Abraham, not talking about you picking out 50 that you think
are righteous, but if I find 50, I'll not destroy it. Agreed. Then Abraham said to
the Lord, well, it would be a shame to come up just a few short of
the 50. What about 45? Lord said, all
right, I'll not, I'll not destroy it for 45. And then he came to 40 and then
30 and then 20 and then 10. And the Lord said, I'll not destroy
it for 10 righteous. Well, Abraham had made a lot
of progress in this matter of prayer. He's the one who started with
the 50, not the Lord. But he started at 50 and he's
made a lot of progress. He's down to 10. And this progress had not changed
the Lord. He changes not. But it's progress in that it
changed Abraham. And prayer is progress in that
it will change you. Abraham said, I'll not go any
further. If it's not ten righteous down
there, then the place ought to be destroyed. You see, Abraham's
confidence was in God that he'd do right. And John says, this
is the confidence that we have. If we ask anything, if it's right,
if it's according to His will, He'll hear us and He'll do it. And by the way, this is not contrary
to Christ's words in John 14, where he said, if you ask anything
in my name, I will do it. A lot of people confused about
that. That does not just mean when you get on praying, you
say in Jesus name, I pray. Amen. No, that's not what it's
talking about. If you ask anything in my name,
what does it mean? Well, you remember he said, I'm
not in this world to do mine own will, but the will of Him
who sent me. Everything I ask is according
to His will. So when we ask in His name, we're
asking with His motive, not my will, but thine be done. So you put the two together.
When we ask anything according to His will, Or when we ask anything
in His name, it's the same. It's the same. So we have this
confidence in Him. We need not bother to ask Him
to do wrong. He won't. And we certainly need
not hesitate to ask Him to do right. He will. You say, well,
won't He do right whether we ask Him or not? Yes, but prayer
is an ordained means to change us, not Him. To bring our hearts
into accordance with His will. Not only the comfortable title,
Our Father, and the confident trust, this is the confidence
we have in Him. But thirdly and finally, for
a few moments, there's the challenging task. Talking about it, preaching
about it, reading about it is one thing. But the challenging task to pray. If our Lord spent nights, entire
nights in prayer, and he did, don't you think there's some
value to it? Don't you think it's worth some
discipline in our lives to find time to pray? To have a personal,
private place and time to pray? As busy as we all are, as valuable as our time is, as busy as our schedule is, would it really be a waste of
time to pray? With all we need to accomplish
in a given day, our diligence and rising up early
and planning it all out And diving in is not nearly so valuable
as God's blessing and guidance. His providence arranging things. He can take the curves out of
the road. He can even smooth out the potholes
in the road. His shortcuts save time and money. Mine usually cost time and money. Romans 11.33. Memorize this verse. Oh, memorize this verse and quote
it daily. Oh, the depth of the riches,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are
his judgments. and His ways past finding out. God has ways you'd never dream
of. And you couldn't bring it to
pass if you did. But He's God. And this God we're talking about
is our Father. Our Father. I knew a young man years ago.
The Lord had saved him. He was very zealous and he wanted
so much to travel with a certain evangelist for the summer when he was out of school. But
he had a job and he had bought a car and he was locked into
some car payments and he wanted to go so badly. And he was praying. He was asking others to pray.
Ask me to pray. And if the Lord wanted him to
go to make a way, he didn't believe there was a way. I guess I didn't
really believe it either. Very unexpectedly, one day another
car ran a stop sign and totaled his car. The insurance paid off his car,
put a little money in his pocket for the summer. And he went and
followed God. And he's now been pastoring for,
I guess, 30 years or more. See, God does things like that.
He said, I never have known him do anything like that for me.
I promise you he's done it. You're just too ignorant to see
it, recognize it. You say, but I don't know exactly
how to pray about my situation. My situation's a little different.
No, it's not different. It's not different. There's been
a million people right where you're at. I don't know exactly how to pray
about my... Paul said you didn't. Romans 8, 26. For we know not
what we should pray for as we ought. But see, that's not a
real problem. Just pour your heart out to God
in your way. The Spirit Himself maketh intercession
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. He'll carry the message
home. Did any of you ever play that
silly game, gossip? Somebody leans over and whispers
something into the person's ear beside them. And then they keep
whispering it all the way around the room. And when it gets around
to the last one, that last one tells it out loud what they think
it was that the first one told. And usually it's totally different.
See? Something totally different.
Well, let me tell you something about prayer. Just go ahead and
mumble and fumble and flop. Trying to talk to the Father?
You can't mess it up too much. This verse I just quoted, you
said, the Holy Ghost will straighten it out on the way to the throne. He'll bear to the Father what
it is your heart aches over. Some of you watched that silly
little game show, Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? How many
of you watched that? Come on, don't lie to me. Yeah,
I thought you did. And when they fail to answer
the questions, part of the deal is they have to look into the
camera and say, I am not smarter than a fifth grader. We need to look in the mirror
every morning and say, I am not smarter than my Heavenly Father. I think he better be in the driver's
seat today, not me, and talk to him about it. You see, if he cared and couldn't,
we'd have a problem. If he could and wouldn't, we'd
have a problem. But thank God our Father cares
and can and will do. for our good and His glory. And because He don't answer today,
He didn't forget. If He don't answer tomorrow,
He didn't forget. Next year, ten years, twenty
years, He didn't forget. Prayer is valuable. Let me give you a blessed example
of that from Scripture and I'll be through. In the Gospel of
Luke chapter 1, a certain priest named Zacharias, he's an old man with no children. And his wife Elizabeth was very
old, well stricken in years, the Bible said. And he was in
the temple executing, doing the priestly job one day. And the angel of the Lord appeared
to him. And he said, fear not, Zacharias,
for thy prayer is heard. Thy wife, Elizabeth, shall bear
thee a son. And that was John the Baptist.
But here's what I want to tell you. He's an old man. His wife's an old woman. No doubt, he didn't pray for
a son that day. He probably didn't pray for a
son last week or last year. He's an old man. She's an old
woman. He may not have prayed for a son in 10 years or 20 years. Come a point in life when he
said, it's out of the question. Don't have to pray that anymore.
It ain't going to happen. But the angel of the Lord said, the
Lord hath heard thy prayer. I'm convinced he prayed it a
long time ago. Thy prayer is heard. In God's
time, he don't forget. One very distinguished lady prayed
like this, and I'll give you this for my final words. She prayed like she was writing
a card. For all you do, thank you. If there's anything I can do,
please guide me into it. And don't let me miss it. That's enough, wasn't it? That's
enough. Oh, that God would help us in
the matter of prayer. Let's stand together.