Matthew 6:5-13

“How Should We Pray?”

We continue this morning with our series of sermons about “Prayer”. And today we seek to answer the question: “How Should We Pray?” And thankfully, in our Scripture passage for today, we find Jesus responding to this very question.

Now, for many of us prayer is a difficult challenge. Perhaps, some of us can identify with Whoopi Goldberg’s character in the movie “Sister Act”. Fleeing from those who are trying to apprehend her, she pretends to be a nun. And while she joins the other nuns around the dinner table, much to her surprise, she is asked to say the meal-time blessing. Let’s listen to her prayer. (Video clip of movie)

I don’t know if that looks like your prayer life, but some of us may not be too far from where Whoopi was in learning how to pray. So we’re going to try to address this challenge today by asking, “How Should We Pray?”

As we said, the disciples asked Jesus this same question. In Luke’s recording of this event, we are told that they were watching Jesus pray. After seeing the priority that prayer had in Jesus’ life and how it shaped everything that he did, the disciples asked him, “Lord, teach us to pray like you do.” When they looked at Jesus’ prayer life, they realized that something was missing in their prayer life. So in Matthew 6 and in Luke 11, Jesus teaches them the Lord’s Prayer.

Now, in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus gives some “basic pointers for prayer” before he gets into the Lord’s Prayer. In verse 5, Jesus says, “Whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.”

In other words, “be sincere” when you pray. Don’t be like the hypocrites who make a big show of their prayers so everyone can be impressed. Because if you are praying to impress people, you are using God … and you have already received your reward. What God cares about in our prayer life, is not how we pray in front of others. It is how we pray when no one is looking. God cares about our motives when we pray. So, “Be sincere when you pray.”

Next Jesus says, “Whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” In other words, “find a quiet place”. Find a place where you can get away from the distractions of life. You know, when we read the Gospels, we find that Jesus often went to a quiet place to pray. In our lives, we have so much busyness and distraction. We need to find those quiet moments to get away with God.

Thirdly, Jesus says, “When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words.” In other words, “pray conversationally.” So often, our prayers are a matter of repeating words we memorized as children. Even the Lord’s Prayer becomes that to some … just words that we say … having the form of prayer, but not the substance. But prayer is about conversation with God.

I love the story about a man who was taught to pray by pulling up a chair across from him. He then would visualize Jesus sitting there and then he would talk to him, just like he would talk to someone sitting right across from him. I think this is what Jesus would like for us to understand, that prayer is conversation.

Finally, in Luke 18, Jesus teaches us to “pray with humility.” You remember the story that Jesus tells about two people who went to the Temple to pray. One was a religious man, who raises his eyes toward heaven, saying, “Oh God, thank you that I am so righteous … so much more righteous than all of these other people ,especially that guy over here.” The guy over there was a tax-collector. There was no question that he was a sinner. When he prayed, he didn’t look up to the heavens. Instead, he bowed his head and he beat his breast, saying, “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

Jesus then asked, “Which of those two people do you think God heard when they prayed?” It was the one who prayed humbly. And that is what God asks of us.

And then, after giving these basic pointers for prayer, Jesus goes on to teach a pattern for prayer. The Lord’s Prayer was meant to be “a pattern for prayer”. It was not meant to be the only prayer we pray. It was to be used as an outline or a model for prayer. We were meant to look at each phrase and let them order our prayer life.

So, let’s see what treasures there are here for us in the Lord’s Prayer. It begins with, “Our Fathe.” Now, Jesus spoke Aramaic, so the word that Jesus used here was, “Abba.” It means “Dad” or probably closer to “Daddy.” It signified “intimacy” … a close relationship.

With my daughter now, and when my boys were much younger, we always looked forward to the time when we would tuck them into bed at night. For us, that has always been a time of saying prayers together and telling one another how much we love each other. With my daughter, it is has become a matter of trying to outdo each other with expressions of love. Each night, she will say, “I love you infinity and beyond … forever and ever!” To which I will say, “I love you even more.” But you know, the love that we have with our children is just a shadow of how much God loves us. And that’s what Jesus was pointing to when he said, “Father”. When we pray, we’re talking the One who loves us beyond anything that we can imagine.

Roberta Bondie, in her book A Place To Pray, talks about this phrase, and she says, what stood out to her wasn’t the word, “Father”, so much as it was the “Our Father.” She said, “I was praying that one day, and I had a keen insight that pierced my soul. One of my colleagues named Vickie had hurt me. She had said things to me that had wounded me. She had hurt my pride and angered me. I had held resentment towards Vickie for a long time. But on this particular day, while I was praying, as I started out ‘Our Father,” I had to pause for a moment. And it was as though God spoke to me saying, ‘Don’t you hear what you just said, ‘Our Father’ … not just ‘My Father’, but ‘Our Father.’ Who is ‘Our Father’? ‘Our’ is also Vickie’s Father.

Suddenly, I began to pray that prayer all over again. And I said, ‘O God, my Father and the Father of Vickie.’ And she said, “The moment I said that, I realized that she was one of God’s children and one my sisters, and I couldn’t hate her any more.”

This never became more real to me than when I was sitting in a room full of prison inmates behind prison walls at a Kairos Weekend. And at one point, we all took hands and prayed the Lord’s Prayer together. Suddenly it hit me. All these guys here, even the one’s on death row, are part of the “Our” too. They’re part of God’s beloved children. And God grieves over how they went off and did terrible things. But still, they are part of the “Our” too.

“Our Father” is the God who “so loved this world that He sent his only Son, who died on a cross for us.” And as the Apostle Paul says, “In Christ, there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of us are one in Christ Jesus.”

“Our Father … Who art in Heaven.” Where does God live? God lives everywhere, doesn’t he? He lives all around us. So, “Heaven” could signify “the cosmos”. It could be referring to the majesty and splendor of God ruling over the cosmos. But I think this has more to do with our ultimate destination. You see, every one of us will one day die and cease our journey on this earth. But do you know who stands on the other side of that door? It’s the One we pray to everyday when we say, “Our Father, who art in heaven.” God is where we will one day be. Therefore, we don’t have to fear death, because God is already there. God rules over heaven and earth.

“Our Father, who art in heaven …hallowed be Thy name.” Now, at this point in the prayer, we are invited to “praise God”. “Hallowed be Thy name” is an invitation to praise God’s name and to hallow God’s name. The scriptures say that, “God inhabits and dwells within the praises of his people.” Our God is a God who longs to be worshipped and praised for all that He has done for us.

Now, after we have hallowed God’s name … declaring it holy, revering, and standing in awe of God … we move into “the petitioning” part of the prayer. Only at this point are we are ready to ask things of God. But listen to what we ask for first, “Thy Kingdom come…” You know, if we really understood what we’re asking when we pray this … it would frighten us.

Frederick Buechner captured this well in a book where he says: “It takes guts to pray this part of the prayer. We can pray it in the unthinking and perfunctory way we usually do, only by disregarding what we are saying. Because, if we understood what we were saying, that we are pleading with God to bring His Kingdom here on earth, it would frighten us. If we understood the implications of that, it would frighten us.

What would stand in our culture if God’s Kingdom actually came? If God actually fulfilled this prayer tomorrow in your life, what would change? What would stand and what would fall? Who would be welcomed into God’s Kingdom and who would be thrown the hell out literally? To speak those words is to invite the Tiger out of the cage … to unleash a power that makes atomic power look like a warm breeze.”

“Thy Kingdom Come…” what would change if that really happened? When we pray this, as Buechner said, we’re inviting God’s Kingdom to come into our lives and we’re submitting our lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. What would change if that really took place?

And that’s the next part of the prayer: Thy Kingdom come … Thy Will be Done, on earth as it is in Heaven.” Last week, we said that one of the primary reasons for prayer is to help us “submit our will to God’s will.” And we find this here in the Lord’s Prayer. Before we ask for anything for ourselves, we ask, “Let Your will be my will, O God.” And Jesus understands that the reason why we have to pray this, is because God’s will is not normally “done on earth as it is in heaven”.

In her book, Roberta Bondie tells a story about a woman named Sarah, who she was visiting in the hospital. She had been brutally raped. And as Roberta visits with this woman, the woman asked her, “What did I do that was so awful, that God had to punish me in this way?”

Roberta replied, “O Sarah, this is not a punishment from God. You did not do anything to merit this or deserve this. God did not send this to you. And this was not God’s will.”

Do you hear that? I have friends, and I’m sure that you do to, who believe so strongly in the sovereignty of God that they believe that everything that happens, happens for a reason … that God somehow orders everything that happens and plans it. But I can’t buy that. There are many things that happen, not because it is God’s will or because God ordered it or planned it, but because people have chosen to do evil things. And God doesn’t will that. God wants for every person to say to him, “Thy will be done in my life, and on earth as it is in heaven.” “God, please make your will be done on earth as it is in heaven ... and start with me.”

Finally, after we have submitted our will to God’s will, then we are we ready to ask for things for ourselves in prayer. But listen to what we ask for: “Give us this day our daily bread.”

Now, when most of us pray, we have a long list of things we want to pray for. In a couple of weeks we’re going to be talking about the things we ask of God. And many of the requests that we bring before God are well and good. But notice here, that we’re asking for our “Daily Bread.” We’re not asking for all the things we wish for or all the things we want. We’re talking here about the things that we need.

Jesus tells us that God already knows what we need, but God appreciates it when we ask and when we invite God to help. And I don’t know about you, but I have never been without “daily bread”. Not once, have I ever had to wonder if I was going to have enough to eat. Sometimes in a land of plenty, we take our daily bread forgranted.

And notice how this is phrased, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Who is the “us” Jesus is talking about here? I think it’s talking about all those people out there who do worry about their daily bread. This is a prayer calls us to join together and share what we have with other people, as we ask God to meet our needs.

I want you to notice this, too. We’re only asking for our “daily bread”. What most of us would like is for God to give us a 20 year supply of bread, so we never have to worry about it again, right? We find security in knowing that we have, not only enough for today, but everything we need for the future, as well. I like how Bishop William Willimon says that, what we’re praying for here is, “Just enough. God give me just enough, and no more.”

This part of the prayer is taken directly from the Book of Exodus. You remember when the Israelites fled from slavery in Egypt, Moses led them into the wilderness. And they began to complain, because they weren’t getting enough food. They said, “We’d rather go back and be slaves, than stay out here wondering if we’re going to have enough to eat every day.”

So, what God did do? God made “manna” … crystals that could be formed into flour that could be made into bread. And God said, “I’m going to give you enough of this manna on the ground each day for one day.” And He told them, “Don’t collect any more than you need for one day to eat, because if you do, it will rot.”

But the people didn’t listen to God. They said, “You know, if we collect 3 or 4 days worth, we’d feel more secure.” And so, they collected 3 or 4 days worth of manna and it was eaten by maggots after the first day. And God said, “You didn’t listen to me, did you? I want you to learn to trust in me every day for your needs.” Hence, “Give us this day our daily bread.”

You see, Jesus is reminding us not to place our security in the things of this world, because true security is not found in the things of this world. I have buried a lot of people who never got to enjoy their IRA Retirement Funds. When we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” we’re talking to the One who gives us real security in life and we are pledging our trust in God to meet our daily needs.

“And forgive us our trespasses.” Richard Foster says that this part of the prayer is what he calls “the examin prayer.” That is the Latin word for “examination.” This is the time when we are asked to stop and search inside. We do what the Twelve Step Program says, “We do a fearless moral inventory of ourselves to see what stands and what falls before God.” And at this point in the prayer, if we’re really looking inside ourselves, we see that there are those things that please God and those things that don’t. And we invite God to come in and “Forgive us our trespasses.”

And then, in the same breath, we say, “As we forgive those who have trespassed against us.” We need to hear these words. What we are praying here is, “God, to the same degree that I’m willing to forgive other people, please forgive me.” That’s a frightening thought, isn’t it?

My hunch is that there is not one of us here in this room who can’t think of someone that gets under our skin. Someone who has hurt us, wounded us, or that we could hold a grudge against. Right now, there are some of us here, for whom God’s Spirit is piercing our soul, because this is an area that we are struggling with. We’re unwilling to forgive and let go of our resentment. And this morning, God is saying to us, “Listen, I am dying to forgive you. I’ve been waiting to unleash my grace upon you … to wash you clean and set you free from that bitterness. But you won’t let me! Because you won’t forgive.” Jesus is telling us here … don’t ask God to do for you what you are unwilling to do for someone else.

We come then, to the final line in this prayer. “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” And some people have trouble with that line: “Lead us not into temptation.” What are really asking for here? Does God lead us into temptation, so we’re praying for God not to do that? The Book of James says that God never tempts anyone. Yet, the scriptures say that, “the Spirit of God led Jesus into the wilderness where he was tempted.” So, how do we reconcile this?

I had a stack of books on the Lord’s Prayer that I was looking through as I researched for this sermon. And every one of those books that I searched through for an answer verified what I have come to believe as the truth. And that is that our problem is not that God leads us into temptation, but rather we lead ourselves into temptation.

The truth is, we know what’s wrong and what’s right. But, here’s what we do. As Jesus said in John 3, “This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, yet people loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” The truth about our Human Condition is that we love the darkness … we are lured by the temptations of this world and daily we fall into the temptations of evil. Some of us even enjoy it. But as in one of Julie Miller’s songs, she says, “Don’t let the devil ride … cause he’s gonna want to drive.” What we’re praying for here, is for God to take over the reigns of our life and lead us in the other direction.

“Lead us not into temptation, but rather, deliver us from evil.” The actual translation here is, “Deliver us from the Evil one.” I don’t know what you believe about Satan, but I think Karl Barth, who was one of the great theologians of this century, had it right. He said, “There is a devil. There is a power that is stronger than you are, that is out to destroy you … to undermine your faith and to take away the joy of walking with Christ.”

I have seen this in my own life. At those moments when things are going great in my life. At those times when I begin to feel that God is moving in a mighty way, something will happen or someone will say or do something that just takes the wind out of my sails … leaving me discouraged. Isn’t that the way it happens? At the moment when you begin to run the race best for Christ, “something” or rather, “Someone” comes along and trips you up.

But here’s the beauty of this prayer. It says that God is more powerful than that “Someone”. God is more powerful than Satan. God is more powerful than Evil. And when we enlist God’s help to “deliver me from the Evil one,” God can and will do it.

The prayer then ends with a beautiful “doxology” that actually comes from David’s words in I Chronicles 29:11. “For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.”

God is the King of kings, the Lord of lords over the entire cosmos. God is the power that makes everything exist. The Apostle Paul says that, “In Him, we live and move, and have our being.” “Thine is the kingdom, the power … and finally the glory.” God is the splendor and the glory, the majesty, all beauty. The highest things that you can think of, they all belong to God … they come from God, and are reflections of God.

“Forever and ever. Amen.”

Today, as we close, I want to invite you to hear these words of the Lord’s Prayer again. And as it is sung, I want to invite you to remember the things that we’ve talked about today. And let’s make this “our prayer”, for this is how we should pray.