Matthew 6:5-8      How NOT To Pray

Rev. David Holwick   L                                Lord's Prayer, #1

First Baptist Church

Ledgewood, New Jersey

April 7, 2013

Matthew 6:5-8


HOW NOT TO PRAY



  I. People love to pray.

      A. Survey in Newsweek a while back.

          1) 87% of people believe that God answers prayers.

          2) 54% pray on a daily basis.

          3) 75% ask for strength to overcome personal weaknesses.

          4) 51% think that God doesn't answers prayers to win sporting

                events - but I guess that means 49% do.

                                                                   #27034


      B. We can pray for anything.

          1) We pray for our health and that of our loved ones.

          2) We also pray to find a parking space, or lost keys.   #35542


      C. We often don't do it right.

          1) Even the disciples had difficulties with prayer, which is

                why they asked Jesus to set them straight.

              a) His response was to teach them the Lord's Prayer,

                    which will be the theme of my new series.

              b) But before he teaches them a model for prayer, he

                    warms them about abusing prayer.

          2) Wherever religion is held in high esteem, someone will

                figure out how to twist it for their own purposes.

              a) It was true in Israel, and it is true in America.

              b) Is it true in your own life?


II. Selfish prayer.

      A. Jesus is against religion that draws attention to self.      6:5

          1) Jesus is describing standard situations for prayer.

              a) Synagogues are where the average Jew worshipped, and

                    standing for prayer is the normal way to do it.

              b) Street corner prayer reflects another normal practice.

                  1> Jews prayed three times a day, like Daniel did.

                  2> A trumpet blows and people pray where they are.

                      A> Much like the time of prayer in Moslem countries.

                      B> The minarets loudly announce the call to pray

                            and people drop where they are.

          2) The issue is the object of the prayer.

              a) Hypocrites just want to draw attention to themselves,

                    not God.

              b) This is possible in any religious endeavor.

              c) Dynamic, eloquent prayers can earn praise from other

                    people.

                  1> It can give you a reputation for being a very

                        spiritual person.

                  2> Keep in mind, a very spiritual person may give

                        very eloquent and dynamic prayers in public.

                      A> This doesn't mean they are hypocrites.

                      B> It is what is happening in their heart that

                            makes the difference.

          3) When you pray, what is your motive?

              a) Are you trying to impress someone?

              b) Jesus says you might be successful at doing this --

                    but it will be the only outcome of your prayer.

          4) An example of unpretentious prayer.


          Zev Chafets is a secular Jew who writes for the New York Times.

          In researching an article on prayer, he spent Easter Sunday

             at a Pentecostal church in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.

          It is a small town of 663 souls and the church wasn't even in

             the town, but a few minutes outside it.


          The chapel looked like a Holiday Inn meeting room.

          The music was not modern Christian praise music but the same

             old-time music that Elvis sang as a boy at the East Tupelo

                First Assembly of God.

          As the choir rehearsed, Zev sat in a pew taking notes and soon

             he was surrounded by young people.

          In a very natural way, they began to testify to him.


          "I prayed to Jesus when my grandmother broke her leg," a little

             girl said.  "Now she can get by herself to the bathroom."


          "Amen," the kids said.


          "I prayed over my sister and cured her asthma," a teenage

             girl said.

          She wasn't bragging.

             She just wanted him to know.


          "A boy named Wayne was burned in a fire," another boy said.

          "The whole church prayed for him, and now he's getting around

             without a walker."


          There are some 300,000 churches in America, and Zev could have

             picked any one to attend on Easter morning, but he liked

                being in this one.

          Especially the kids.

          They didn't need prayer techniques, sophisticated suburban

             Jewish prayers offered to Whom It May Concern.

          They prayed to a God with whom they were on a first-name basis.

          They believed their prayers gave them power, which they used

             on behalf of their asthmatic sisters and infirm grandparents

                and a kid they knew with burns on his body.


          Sitting in church on Easter morning, Zev realized that he was

             probably never going to become a praying man.

          But if, by some miracle, he ever did, he wrote that he hopes

             his prayers will be like the prayers of the kids he met at

                the Love Church in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.

                                                                   #36013


      B. Public prayer is not the issue here.

          1) Many Christians would be glad if it was.

              a) We hate doing anything out loud - prayer, testimonies,

                    reading announcements.

              b) We are perfectly content to let someone else do it.

              c) You'll notice that for our communion prayer, when we

                    open it up to anyone, it tends to be the same bold

                       people.

          2) There is a place for public prayer.

              a) There are many examples in the Bible, and Jesus did

                    it himself on several occasions.

              b) Just beware of manipulation.

                  1> Table grace in movies and on TV - everyone has

                        their eyes open and they're just speaking

                           "higher thoughts" to each other, not to God.

                  2> Even National Day of Prayer events can fall into

                        this trap.

                      A> The prayers become just another way of

                            communicating a human agenda (often political).


      C. Our prayers must be to a transcendent God.                   6:6

          1) Jesus says pray in secret, no gimmicks.  Just you and God.

              a) Jesus prayed in public, but even more in private.

                  1> He often went to solitary places.

              b) How much do you pray when there's no audience?

          2) Hubert van Zeller wrote:


               "A lot of the trouble about prayer would disappear

                   if we only realized that we go to pray not because

                      we love prayer, but because we love God."

               The more we pray, the more God-conscious we become.

                                                                    #3484


III. Magical prayer.

      A. Jesus is also against prayer that seeks selfish ends.        6:7

          1) Prayer as a means to manipulate God and get stuff.

          2) Magical praying influences many Christians.

              a) Maybe you think that a prayer in a cathedral is more

                    effective than a prayer in a parking lot.

              b) Or a 10-minute prayer is twice as good as a 5-minute one.

                  1> Nehemiah's "quickie" prayer.            Nehemiah 2:4

                  2> Jesus' short prayers from the cross.

              c) Or a prayer done by a thousand people has to work

                    better than a prayer by one person.


      B. It is easy for prayer to become routine.

          1) (From David Heller's book on letters kids write to God)


             Dear God,


             I think of you in my prayers.

             Along with my mom and my dad, my sister Paula,

                my grandma, my two grandpas, my aunt Jenie,

                   my aunt Gloria, my uncle Sid, my uncle Jack

                      and my cousins Billy and Sherie.

             I spend at least three minutes on you every night!

                                     Love,

                                     Terry, age 8

                                                                   #2139

          2) St. Jude prayers.   (saint prayers)

              a) Nowhere in Bible do people pray to people.

              b) To the Father, in Jesus' name, through the Spirit.

          3) Lord's Prayer itself?

              a) Meant to be a model, not a recitation.


      C. Don't get into a prayer rut.

          1) Experiment with different techniques.

              a) Read devotionals by spiritual giants.

              b) Study the Psalms.

              c) Keep a journal of spiritual thoughts.

          2) Change scenery, do something special.

              a) Prayer vigil in church.

              b) Go off by yourself.

              c) Sometimes we need to plan time alone with God.


IV. God wants to answer our prayers.

      A. Five reasons we don't pray, according to Richard Halverson:

          1) Unbelief.

              a) We don't think it really works.

              b) It's just something you have to endure in church.

          2) Indifference.

              a) We don't pray until a problem is huge.

          3) Priorities.

              a) Other things are more important to us.

          4) It is hard work.

              a) Unless you can accomplish your daily prayer in 20

                    seconds, you will find real prayer is work.

              b) You have to focus your thoughts and forget the

                    distractions.  It is not easy.

          5) We are focused on this world.

              a) We limit our goals to what we expect here and now.

              b) The things of God do not mean much to us.          #3838

          6) Guilt.

              a) Why a sixth reason?  This one was submitted by a member

                    at our early service.

              b) Sometimes we realize our lives are not honoring God

                    and we feel too guilty to pray to him, so we dont.


      B. God is more willing to answer than we are to ask.            6:8

          1) Jesus consistently portrays God as being eager to answer

                our prayers.

              a) There is a lot of mystery in this.

              b) If he is so eager, and he is all-powerful, why can't

                    he answer us instantaneously?

              c) We are asking a sovereign Lord to change his eternal

                    plans for our puny needs.

          2) God is willing to answer, but we must know God's will.

              a) This promise is only for those who please God.

              b) Jesus emphasizes our relationship ("Father") with God.

              c) Do you have this relationship?


      During his first pastorate, Dr. Reuben Torrey had a woman who

         attended his church often but was not a member.

      When Torrey asked her about this fact she replied that she was not

         a member simply become she did not believe the Bible.

      Torrey said, "Why don't you believe the Bible?"

      She responded, "Because I have tried its promises and found them

         untrue."

      Torrey asked her to give one promise which she had found to be

         untrue.


      She said, "The promise that says that whatever things you desire

         when you pray, believe that you shall receive them and you

            shall have them.

      Once I prayed for something very earnestly, but I did not receive

         it.

      Isn't it true that his promise failed?"


      Torrey said, "No, not at all."


      "But doesn't it say that you shall receive whatever you ask for

         if you believe it?"


      Torrey agreed that it said something like that.

      But he said, "You first have to ask yourself if you are one of the

         'we's.'"

      She looked puzzled, so he asked again, "Are you one of the people

         to whom the promise is made?"


      "Isn't it made to every professing Christian?"

      Torrey said, "Certainly not!  God defines very clearly in his Word

         the ones to whom his promises to answer prayer are made."

      She said, "It does?"


      When she asked to see the verse, he took her to 1 John 3:22:


         We have confidence before God and receive from him anything

            we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.


      Torrey said, "The prayers that God answers are made by those

         believers in Jesus Christ who keep his commands and do those

            things that please him.

      Torrey said, "They are the 'we's.'  Do you keep his commandments?"


      The woman admitted that she did not.

      Eventually she came back to God and became one of the most active

         and useful members of his congregation.

                                                                    #3839



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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:


# 2139  Dear God, What Religion Were the Dinosaurs? by David Heller, from

           his book, Dear God, What Religion Were The Dinosaurs?  Quoted

           in Redbook magazine, November 1998, page 52.


# 3484 A Day To Pray, Lonni Collins Pratt, Discipleship Journal #91,

           Jan/Feb 1996, page 27.


# 3838, Why Should God Visit Us... When We're Not Interested? by

           Richard C. Halverson, Christianity Today magazine, March 11,

           1990, page 50.


# 3839  Isn't It True That His Promise Failed? by James Montgomery Boice,

           The Sermon on the Mount (commentary), page 189.


#27034  Is God Listening? by Rev. Victor Yap, from his sermon The

           Churchs One Foundation, July 7, 1985, Kerux Sermon #17794.


#35542  Americans Pray -- A Lot, by Jennifer Harper, The Washington Times

           newspaper, December 5, 2008.


#36013  Testifying To Natural Prayer, by Zev Chafets, The New York Times,

           September 16, 2009, page MM-42.


These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be

downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html

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