Sermon on the Mount Series - Matthew 6:5-15

And I tell you what, I'm so glad that I know who Jesus is. And let me just say, it's good to be home. Traveling for as much as I do in the spring and summer. Oftentimes on Wednesday nights, I find myself in a strange city in an unfamiliar church or convention center or campground. And it's always good even though I enjoy that. And there's still the same spirit that goes happens there. there and there's the same preaching and same word. It's always good to come back home to APC. I love being here. You may be seated. I did get to hear brother Brian Kinsey last week and he said that the second most popular phrase in all of Pentecost is you may be seated. Number one was you are dismissed. But if you know brother Kinsey and he he would readily admit that there's a lot of mileage between you may be seated and you are dismissed. And I'm not foretelling anything for tonight and we're going to get out here on time. But uh we are looking forward to again continuing in this sermon of the mount series. appreciate the opportunity to be able to teach tonight. We're going to focus again on Matthew chapter 6 and verses 5-1 15. Now, as we return to the series, let me give you just a little bit of the overarching theme here in chapter 6 or at least the first part here. Here in the first 18 verses or the very h first half of this chapter, we're given a lot of instruction. Specifically, we're given instruction on how to give. We're given instruction on how to pray and how to fast. And we've been through some of that this week, haven't we? And in these three subjects that he's Jesus is talking about here, there is a distinct attraction or distinct attention given to this verb seen. Uh you'll hear it in some phrases basically to be seen of them that they may be seen. Thy father which seeth in secret. And the specific attention is given here as we read this verse is because Jesus is going to bring us our our attention or our focus in the attitude in which we do these things. Why do I give? What is my purpose in prayer? Uh what is my attitude when I fast? So, as we focus on these verses 5-15, these 11 verses, we're going to delve deeper into the subject of prayer. Matthew 6:15 or 65, excuse me, 65 says this, "And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to stand in the synagogues and in the corners of the street, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. Now Jesus is starting off here saying this is what not to do. Right? And if you're a parent, especially one of a small child, you should pretty much recognize this approach, right? If I'm teaching a child to to maybe cook their first meal, what's the first thing I say? Don't touch the stove. It's hot. Don't touch the hot pan. Don't stick your finger in the boiling water. The result of that experience, the result of that teaching should not be injury. But Jesus is instructing us to have the right perspective here. I should not be as the hypocrites praying out of religiosity or praying simply to check off a box or to be seen by the audience around me. or to show myself somehow holy as I pray. Now, this is both reassuring one that says I'm not a hypocrite, but also disappointing because Tim, not once have you turned around and told me how good I pray. Not once has he given me, you know, a pat on the back because I was eloquently speaking while I was worshiping and praying. But why do I like that? That's how our flesh operates. We we like to be uh given affirmation. We But in this purpose of prayer is not what we're supposed to be doing. We all like the pats on our back. Um, if you're good at singing, if you're a good musician, if you're good at speaking, if you're good at a sport, we like to hear that we're good, right? But as far as prayer is concerned, I'm praying not for my glory, but I'm praying for his glory. It's not for what I perceive as being distinguished by the audience surrounding me. It's not. It's about being focused on my relationship and what I want that relationship to be with him. We pray to an audience of one to him alone. Not for everyone to hear us, not for everyone to see us, but for our relationship with him. Jesus illustrates this in Luke 18 when he describes the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector or the publican that he mentions in here in Luke. He says, "One of each of them approached the temple to pray. How convenient was it for the Pharisee that he was joined there by the publican, by the tax collector as he's praying. I thank God that I am not like other men, especially this publican. And yet he goes on to brag about his giving and about his his fasting. And the publican or tax collector, he sits there and he cannot even lift his head. He can't lift his eyes to heaven. And he just simply says, "Mercy on me, a sinner. I am I need your mercy, Lord." And scripture says that man went home justified. The reward for the Pharisee was not in heaven. It was not in the future. It was in that moment. It was in that arrogance. It was in that that was his reward. That moment in time. Going on to chap uh verse six. But thou now he's going to change and tell us when thou prayest enter thy closet. When thou hast shut the door, pray that to their f to the excuse me, pray to thy father in secret. and thy father which seeth in secret shall reward you openly. Now, is Jesus the rabbi here somehow making a statement or creating some other covenant law that that is against public prayer or corporate prayer? Of course not. No, we don't. We know that that's not the case. We often see Jesus pray in public and privately. Uh we see the disciples do the same uh praying publicly. uh we see instructions on having prayer meetings. In fact, the upper room experience happened because of a corporate prayer meeting. Um and here at ABC we follow that and we follow in line with what how the early church operated. What Jesus is drawing our attention to is the need for a personal relationship or personal prayer life. Now, how many will admit it? I know I will. I pray differently here than sometimes when I pray say in my car. If I'm praying for someone here that has a specific need or if I know that need, I may pray a specific, you know, words or phrases or language that speak maybe to that need, right? Or if I'm praying for someone who's seeking salvation, I may use some other different type of language or instruction while I am praying for them. Um, there's nothing wrong with that. We can do that because we can exhort one another through prayer in corporate prayer or as we're praying for others needs and we can encourage one another and we can uplift one another to do that. But when it's just me and God, it's like, "All right, Lord, let's go." It's a more comfortable place almost to say, you know, when I'm speak when I'm doing that with it, there should be a comfortableness when I go to him in prayer. He should know my voice. He should know your voice. I or or we should know his voice. Why? because we have been spending time with him, spending time alone with him. When I'm with good friends or when I even enter church tonight and see someone I know, I don't reintroduce myself to them. I don't tell them, "Hey, I'm Chris Buy. My wife's Tina. We have three children, three grandchildren, one on the way." People know that because I know them. We've spent time together. Have we spent enough time with him that he needs no introduction? That's the question that we need to ask when we're considering the discipline of daily prayer. Matthew chapter 6 going on to verses seven and 8. But when you pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard, for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them, for your father knoweth what things you have need of before ye ask him. In the simplest of terms, this verse seven is saying, pray with sincerity. Now, I often understand and it happens to me sometimes we get up, we get caught up in common phrases, common words that we use in prayer. Um, we could use hallelujah or Lord I worship you or Lord I lift you up, we glorify you. There's nothing wrong with the repetition of those phrases un when we use them in sincere communication with him. What we want to avoid is something coming out of my mouth that's not in sync with my heart. I can say all kinds of things and be eloquent and and have a fantastic sounding prayer, but if it misses my heart, it's of no good. For example, I may say, "Hallelujah," but my mind's going, "Did I leave the iron on this morning when I left?" Or I may be going, "I glorify you, God." And my mind's going, "What are we going to eat after church? Again, Jesus is speaking to the attitude we have, especially in a world where we have all kinds of distractions that would make that would take our minds away from that true purpose, that true purpose of prayer. So, don't be like those who simply pray eloquent phrases or repetitious words just for the reason of being heard by those around them or or even simply to extending a prayer's length. And then we come to this interesting phrase at the end of verse eight. For your father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask him. Now when I was younger and I read this in the past to be honest as a younger man and the efficient mindedness in me was like but God's telling us to get to the point. He said, ' Quit with all this jabbering and babbling words and and get to what you really want to talk about because I already know what you're going to ask me. Now, I'm not endorsing that or saying that you should endorse that kind of thinking, but what an amazing promise. My father knows what I have need of. He knows what I'm going through. He knows the exact situation and your exact circumstance. Before you put one knee down, he understands what you're facing. So that might bring about the question, if he knows what I need, then why the necessity to pray or ask? Well, for one, prayer is our primary way of communicating with him. It's our primary wearab of talking to him. Certainly, he communicates in other ways. He nudges us with his spirit. We experience the gifts of the spirit here in our services where he talks to us. However, one- on-one prayer is essential in the development of that relationship. Second, praying for our needs, as we'll kind of learn a little bit here later, is not the sole purpose for praying. We pray to worship. We pray in adoration. We pray in meditation on his word. You've heard of praying like the Psalms or praying Bible or praying scripture. We pray in thanksgiving. We pray in supplication. So, there's many ways that we pray. We have focused prayer. While we may not espouse to his particular theology, John Calvin offered these thoughts about why believers pray. Believers do not pray with the view of informing God about things unknown to him or of exciting him to do his duty. On the contrary, they pray in order to arouse themselves to seek him. That they may exercise their faith in meditating on his promises. That they may declare that from him alone they hope and expect both for themselves and for others all good things. It's a great quote. And church, we can stand on that promise. We can stand knowing he can handle it. In fact, we're declaring he can handle it when we pray. Um, I can bring my needs before him. I can bring your needs before him because I'm going to pray expectantly that those things are going to come to pass. In fact, I'm not praying because he doesn't know. I'm praying because he does. I'm exercising that faith because I have confidence that he understands what I'm going through. So verses 9 through 15 uh pretty much encapsulate what we come to have come to know as the Lord's prayer. Um in the in the parallel passage in Luke uh 11 we see that Jesus is what Jesus is going to say here is a response to his disciples request. Lord, teach us to pray. I'm glad I wasn't the only one that needed to learn to pray. We see this passage here as a blueprint or a model that Jesus is giving us. Now, there's nothing wrong with memorizing scripture. Amen, Amber. We have a entire ministry dedicated for our children and for our young people to learn scripture. It's there is a value to hiding God's word in our hearts and still and being able to recite it, to be able to recall a passage, to be able to search for a passage, you know, because we remember a character or or a person in the in the word. That's that's very very good. We can re in fact we can recite this Lord's prayer in probably less than 60 seconds right however Jesus's intention is not to say in this manner say these words it's basically it's saying I don't want you to recite this over and over but I'm going to give you a pattern and I'm going to give you a model of how that's going to work. Who remembers a church bulletin? Okay, so that you know a leaflet or folded piece of paper. It had the church schedule in it. It had the uh announcements for the coming week. You know, we got the we got them on Sunday, right? Uh it might even have uh some standard or ongoing prayer requests, right, in in the bulletin. And so when sometimes when service leaders would get up for a prayer request time uh like brother Andrew did this uh evening they might say and pray for all those who are sick in the bulletin. And we know if you got a case of in the bulletin then prayer and God are your only hope. But some denominations, some denominations use these bulletins or leaflets and they print the prayer on them that might be able might be uh recited in that particular service. It could be the Lord's prayer. It could be a psalm or any number of prayers that they do. Um, but I don't believe the intention was here in Matthew when Jesus said after this manner to mindlessly repeat or to recite. In fact, if we're doing that and we're just saying the words without thinking about their meaning, without thinking about the purpose of, you know, why are we saying this? We're actually doing what we're not supposed to be doing in verse seven. Okay. So this model or pol or pattern is what we can follow not necessarily just to remember or recite. Verse six or excuse me verse nine. After this manner therefore pray ye our father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name or if you want to pronounce it hallowed you can. Again right out of the gate there is the establishment of a relationship. I can address God as my father or as it says here corporately our father. If he's my father, I'm his child. I'm his son. I'm his daughter. This speaks to an intimate relationship. Some might say, "Well, I can't call him father because uh my father wasn't a positive in my life and I have a difficulty calling him father." And I'm I'm truly sorry if that's the case. But we need to learn that there is a good father and there is someone who wants to show you what a real father is like, what a real father can be and what it looks like. So Jesus says when you come to this place of prayer come this way father not my earthly father my father in heaven and that springs into some other ways of thinking thank you that I'm your child thank you that I'm your son thank you that I'm your daughter thank you that I get to call you my father and then he continues hallowed be thy name now I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you probably didn't Use that word this week. Hallowed or hallowed. Honey, the company's coming over this week. Let's get out the hall dishes. No, we didn't. We don't use that. It's old English obviously that we use here, but it literally means basically to set apart, to be holy. We sung about that, to be holy tonight. When we are told to pray, "Let your name be holy. Let it be holy in my life. Let it be holy in my family's life. Let it be holy in my church. Let it be holy in our nation." And in spite of what the world does in using the Lord's name in vain and a repetition repetitious curse, we are saying,"Lord, let your name be special, set apart, holy in my life, in my heart. May your name be holy." And we see, I'm not referencing them tonight, but we see where God is jealous of his name and where he does things and justifies things for his name's sake. So, we know he he counts that as important as a priority. Verse 10 says, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven." And this is just a wonderful statement of submission here. But I really don't think we realize the power that is in this simple phrase here in verse 10. Jesus takes the idea of the glory of his kingdom and combines it with his will. The statement cons you know basically says when we pray it is say I want your kingdom established in my life. and around me as your will be done. While I'm on earth, while we are here, I'm thinking about what your kingdom looks like in my life, in my family. So, in our prayer time, we can start to think about all the things that also need to come under the will of God. Um, this could take a long time. I'll be transparent. My life needs to come under the will. My heart needs to come under the will. My mind, my family, uh my temptations, my hurts, habits, and hang-ups, Jeff, need to come under the will of God. I want to see the kingdom of God and the will of God established in my life so I'm not ruled by those other kingdoms, by the little K kingdoms. Okay? I need to give these things to him so that his rulership reigns in my life and so that I'm not uh you know letting go or staying out of his will or you know breaking my fellowship with God and I can simply hand these things over to you. You know this situation is out of control. This circumstance is beyond my resolution. Lord let your will be done. And that kingdom of God that comes with the throne, comes with authority. We're acknowledging when I pray this that I am submitting myself to his authority and to his will. How much more meaningful is this when we realize that it's not just a line in a prayer, but the sincere desire for him to rule over all of our life. That we are inviting his lordship, his kingship into our areas that we need him most. Verse 11 says, "Give us this day our daily bread." And we know, of course, bread here is a symbol. We, of course, we need food to eat. We're ending a fast, right? So, we we need to talk about bread, but bread means here more than just a morsel of food. Okay? Um, daily bread is what I need to help me today. What I need to carry on today. And I'll admit to you, the last couple days I've had to pray this prayer. Lord, give me the mental strength, the emotional strength to get through this situation I'm going through. It might be that you would pray, "Lord, give me the wisdom today that I know I'm going to have to make a decision about. Lord, give me the patience I need today with this coworker. Uh, give me the peace when I'm anxious about this situation today." And it might be a way out of temptation that we ask him, Lord, to help me with. Give me, give me that. So just give me today what I need to stay on the right right track. And notice the wording, give us this day. Uh when we bring our petitions to him, when we're when we're bringing our needs to him, he wants us to come daily. It's not just for an hour service on Sunday. It's not just for an Easter service or Christmas time. He wants us to depend on him daily. I mean this is mirroring again back to when Israel was in the wilderness and we remember that they were God was supplying mana to him or to Israel and they would go out and they would gather it daily and if they gathered more than they needed that day it would spoil right so again he's the lesson there is that he wants us to depend on him. There should be a daily dependence on him. Verse 12 says that it forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. The word debt here is rightly translated as we understand it in the New Testament. It describes that sin as a debt that we cannot or never could pay. And this is not necessarily an instruction that we have in regards to forgiveness for salvation or as or unto salvation. But he's talking to his disciples and he's saying believers should think about this. We need to for you know be forgiven of our debts. And this is the point in the blueprint of prayer where I may stop and contemplate perhaps times or instances where my actions or my word words may have grieved God. Maybe even giving the Lord an opportunity to maybe convict me and remind me or you know of something maybe I have overlooked. Um, and notice forgiveness, the forgiveness that I ask for is joined with my act of forgiveness. If I consistently prayed this daily, Lord, forgive me our debts as I forgive my the debt, our debtors. Two things are going to happen or I should say one of two things are going to happen. one, I'm gonna stop praying the prayer because I I I I don't believe in myself to be able to fulfill it or I will never hold anything against anybody or I will have no grudges. I will have no hurt. I will have because if I am forgiven, I am forgiving. I want to talk about that a little bit more lately uh more because Jesus thinks this is important. and he's going to circle back around to it here in a minute. But in the propensity of our in the society that we live in, it is so destined and at ease that we get hurt or offended um and that we need to come to him daily so to say, forgive me as I forgive them. Jesus will later use a parable of the unforgiving debtor in Matthew 18, instilling in us the need to forgive others as Christ forgives us. And that's so important because we know we you you've know you know the story of the man who was forgiven the large debt and released from prison, right? And then he goes out and tries to find someone who owes him money, takes him by the throat and doesn't forgive him of a small debt. And God, you know, uses that parable to describe, you know, what that is looking like from this particular verse. Verse 13. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Now, this is not saying that God is somehow the author or leading us into temptation or tempting situations. We know he's not the author of sin, right? This is where I'm simply saying I'm human and I live in a world that surrounds me with things that try to tempt me, that want to pull it, the wantings of my flesh. And we're simply asking God to give me the strength for us in order for us to go in the opposite direction of that temptation. Lead me, Lord, in the right direction away from those things that might cause me to break fellowship with you. Help me to avoid putting myself in situations where I might be tempted or where there's a possibility of of failure. That phrase, but uh but deliver us from evil, the the Greek language here speaks to a personal evil. Uh which is why you might see in your translation or or version that says but deliver us from the evil one. Um and regardless of that we are asking God to deliver us out of the grasp and power of the enemy. Deliver us from his schemes. Deliver us from his temptations. Deliver us from his plans. And as you might pray this, you might expand upon it. Father, deliver my friend from evil. Father, deliver my lost loved one from evil. Father, provide deliverance from my brothers or my sister's anxiety or fear. Now, again, in some some of these translations, you may not even see this phrase, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. I know it's in the King James. I know the New King James leaves it out. uh this phrase is just simply to uh be included in later copies or later text or later of things of Matthew's text. Uh I don't think it's improbable that Matthew could have recorded this at some point or another. Um we see this phrasing in other parts of the Bible. For thine is the kingdom, the glory, the power forever. We see those words and that phrasing elsewhere in the Bible. So, but we're getting way past my biblical arch archaeology and expertise. Um, but I do like how it closes the loop here in this prayer. We started by recognizing who God was. Our father. We wanted to set apart his name. And this phrase here ends in worship. For thy kingdom, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. So, plus it makes for a good song ending. Some of you will get that. Um, and finally in Matthew uh 6:14 and 15, Jesus again circles back. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses. Again, Jesus returns here to reiterate and then even maybe even be more specific about forgiveness. And if we take these two verses to heart, and I've already mentioned this before, if we are forgiven, then we are forgiving. If we are forgiving, then we must be forgiven. This is a test of authenticity. Um if you really look at it the way you know it's look at it closely. If I am forgiven then the result will be my willingness to extend mercy to others. Now I'm not saying that's easy. I'm not saying it's uh you know struggle that you know doesn't exist in our flesh really to see this play out. But my willingness to or my quickness to give grace to my fellow man should mirror God's love and God's mercy to myself. If I'm saved, if I'm repentant, if I've been forgiven, if my sins have been washed or and I renewed myself through these prayers, through my daily concentration, through my Bible reading, through my relationship with Christ on a daily basis, then I will extend that mercy as well and I will extend it. My dad uses a example in the many that he used in many of the messages they taught and I think he even used it once at 13th and Graway but it simply goes like this. He's a someone coming up to pastor and said, "Pastor, I I remember it like it was yesterday." February 8th, 1981, Brother Reaver took my parking spot. It was a Sunday and that grieved me. It hurt me. But thank God I've I've forgiven him. I've forgiven him. I would argue that you lost me at I remember it like it was yesterday. Aren't you glad that we have a savior who looks down on us and says, "Yes, I will forgive. I will redeem. I will extend mercy. But please do it too. Right? Stand with me this this evening. James says it this way in verse or chapter 2 verse 13. For he shall have judgment without mercy that hath shown no mercy. Now we could stop there. have an altar call and say, "God, let me be merciful. Pray. I want to be merciful. I want to I want to escape judgment." But I love the last phrase. I almost want to say but, but it says, "And mercy rejoicth against judgment." When I'm forgiving people, I'm freeing my not only myself, but I'm rejoicing against the judgment that I had against them. When God extends mercy, the angels rejoice against the sin or the judgment or anything that we had held or the debts that we had to, you know, that we could not repay. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad mercy and grace exist for us? Amen. Could we take just a moment and pray? God, help me. I want to learn how to pray. I want to pray your word. I want to pray God this model. I want to pray this blueprint. But I want also God to touch my heart. I want you to touch God every part of me, my spirit, enabling me, God to be a better son and a better daughter for the father that you are to us. We appreciate you Lord. We thank you Jesus. We praise you in Jesus' name. In Jesus name. Hallelujah.