REVIEW
FLIP CHART: SOM’S KEY VERSE, GOAL, MOTTO
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness ….” (Mt. 6:33a).
The law sends us to Christ for justification; Christ sends us back to the law for sanctification.
FLIP CHART: Show new “Perfect Righteousness” chart explaining steps to coming to Christ (As a worm, mourning, meek, spiritual hunger/thirst with the result of legal righteousness). Explain: moral righteousness, immediate moral change at conversion, gradual change through life’s challenges and speeding up moral change via CCRC (Concentration, Choice, Reflection and Confession/Thanksgiving). Key verse, “By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb. 10:14).
FLIP CHART: John Stott’s outline of SOM.
INTRODUCTION
And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matthew 6:5-8)
INTRODUCTION:
Proverbs 15:8 states, “The prayer of the upright pleases Him” and Colossians 4:2 says, “Devote yourselves to prayer.”
James Montgomery Boice, former pastor of “Tenth St. Presbyterian” in Philadelphia emphasized that prayer is one of the unique privileges of the Christian.
OUTLINE FOR TODAY:
1. Review Lessons Learned in 6:1-4, Almsgiving
2. Using Prayer for Spiritual Show
3. Vain Repetition vs. Persistence
4. God Hears Prayer Offered in the Secret Place
TABLE ACTIVITY / FLIP CHART: At your table read quickly Mt. 6:5-13 and list on the paper provided both explicit and implicit references to each of the four attributes. Have each table list references to one of the four omnis and list it on the Flip Chart.
EXTRA POINTS ON PRAYER
I. REVIEWING LESSONS LEARNED IN 6:1-4
*** Much of 6:1-4 is similar to the content of 6:5-8. Therefore it might be good to review what we talked about there over a period of five weeks.
*** The overlying principles for Spiritual Disciplines are referred to three times in Mt. 6:1-18 in the section dealing with almsgiving, prayer and fasting.
READING: Have someone read Matthew 6:1-4
QUESTION: Can anyone remember some of the principles discussed relating to spiritual disciplines in Matthew 6:1-4?
CALLING GOD “OUR DEAR HEAVENLY FATHER”
1. Jesus has taught us what a personal relationship with God looks like. He is our Dear Heavenly Father.
2. Understanding and relating to God as our Abba, our Dear Father accents intimacy, His presence, His love!!!!
THE ROLE OF SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES IN BELIEVER’S LIFE
1. Although when we come to Christ, his righteousness is imputed to us, we still need to “train ourselves” and “make every effort” to experience spiritual formation and character change in our lives.
2. Just as athletes have a training regimen, so our Father has given us “Spiritual Disciplines” for our spiritual training. Practiced these “Spiritual Disciplines” guide us in being conformed to the image of Christ.
3. Rigorously practicing the “Spiritual Disciplines” is not legalism if we do so with the right motives.
DOING “SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES” / “ACTS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS” CORRECTLY
1. We must never practice a spiritual discipline in order to attract earthly attention and applause.
2. Every “Act of Righteousness” should be performed for our Father, our “Audience of One” with a desire for the “Applause of Heaven.”
REWARDS …. FOR PRACTICING SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES?
1. Our Heavenly Father pays attention to everything we do with an earnest desire to reward us.
2. A Christian hedonist is not wrong for seeking joy and happiness but he must never be satisfied with low-level joy, happiness in trinkets.
3. The greatest reward of practicing “Spiritual Disciplines” is the joy and happiness we experience in developing an intimate relationship with our Dear Heavenly Father.
HOW TO AVOID BEING A HYPOCRITE
1. Any spiritual discipline that is done for the praise of men and not for the pure honor of God is meaningless. Honoring God with our lips while our hearts are far from us is the Biblical illustration of a hypocrite.
2. Practicing secrecy when using the spiritual disciplines is a way to help protect us from hypocrisy.
3. If we are congratulating ourselves (left hand / right hand) in our practice of the spiritual disciplines, it is obvious that the practice is not second nature to us.
*** We will look at a few things that we did not focus on when we talked about almsgiving.
II. USING PRAYER FOR SPIRITUAL SHOW
And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men (Matthew 6:5).
Standing to pray was the usual posture of prayer for the Jews. Note the Pharisee and the Tax Collector …. both were standing.
The word for street in vs 2, related to almsgiving, was rhume, a narrow street. The word for “street” in verse 5 is plateia which means a major street and thus Jesus is saying that they love to stand at major intersections, e.g. Baseline and Rural, not some minor intersection.
Wherever a devout Jew was at the hour of prayer, he was to stop, face the temple and pray. Of course it would be opportune to plan to be at a major intersection … more traffic, more attention!!
Jesus is condemning this desire to be seen praying in public. These people “loved to pray” but it is not prayer that they loved … they loved public attention and acclaim. Behind their piety lurked their pride.
In Mark 12:40 Jesus said of the Pharisees, “For a show they make lengthy prayers.” The hypocrites Jesus refers to in these verses made the sacred vehicle of prayer a means of bringing glory to themselves.
How terrible to think that the spiritual disciplines God engenders us to use in order to develop an intimate relationship with him might be used instead for self-glory.
“Nothing is so sacred that Satan will not invade it. In fact, the more sacred something is, the more he desires to profane it. Surely few things please him more than to come between believers and their Lord in the sacred intimacy of prayer. Sin will follow us into the very presence of God; and no sin is more powerful or destructive than pride.” (MacArthur, 364).
Years ago a minister from New England described an ornate and elaborate prayer offered in a fashionable Boston church as “the most eloquent prayer ever offered to a Boston audience.” (Boice, 160.)
QUESTION: Is the following statement too extreme?
“I believe that not one prayer in a hundred that fill our churches on a Sunday morning is actually made to Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. They are made to men or to the praying one himself, and that includes the prayers of preachers as well as those of the members of the congregation” (James Montgomery Boice).
III. VAIN REPETITION VERSES PERSISTENCE IN PRAYER
And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matthew 6:7-8)
The word babbling comes from battologeo and means to stammer; to repeat the same thing, over and over. To use many idle words, to babble. Some suppose the word derived from Battus, a king of Cyrene, who is said to have stuttered; other from Battus, an author of tedious and wordy poems. …. It refers to idle, thoughtless chatter, mimicking the sounds of meaningless chatter.
Many Buddhists spin wheels containing written prayers, believing that each turn of the wheel sends that prayer to their god. Roman Catholics light prayer candles in the belief that their requests will continue to ascend repetitiously to God as long as the candle is lit. Rosaries are used to count off repeated prayers of Hail Mary and Our Father, the rosary itself coming to Catholicism from Buddhism by way of the Spanish Muslims during the Middle Ages. Certain charismatic groups in our own day repeat the same words or phrases and over again until the speaking degenerates to unintelligible confusion (MacArthur quoting Broadus, 369).
Is Jesus forbidding persistence in prayer or vain repetition?
Jesus did not forbid the repetition of genuine requests: This is certainly not the same as the persistent widow who came day after day with the same prayer request: Grant me justice against my adversary”. . . . “Now shall not God bring about justice for his elect, who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them?” Lk. 18:3, 7).
Paul entreated the Lord three times to remove the thorn in his flesh (II Cor. 12:7-8); Jesus prayed several times in the Garden of Gethsemane to have the cup (of suffering) pass from him (Mt. 26:39-44).
ILL: Read the illustration from Prayer by Phil Yancey, page 310-311 about Mrs. Back, pie and prayer.
Our Saviour encourages persistence like Mrs. Back and discouraged babbling, prayer wheels, prayer candles.
Some questions to ask ourselves when evaluating our public prayers:
1) Do I pray frequently or more fervently when I am alone with god that when I am in public?
2) Is my public praying an overflow of my private prayer?
3) What do I think of when I am praying in public? Am I looking for “just the right phrase?” Am I thinking of the worshipers more than of God? Am I a spectator to my own performance? (Hughes, 150)
IV. GOD HEARS PRAYERS OFFERED IN THE SECRET PLACE
But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you (Matthew 6:6)
The Jerusalem Bible reads, “Pray to your Father who is in the secret place.” John Stott says that the Greek word for room here is tameion, the store room where treasures are kept.
God is in that secret place and that secret place is a storeroom of treasures. How different from the worshippers of Baal. Elijah challenged Baal’s followers by saying, “Shout louder! Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in though, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” (I Kings. 18:27).
ILL: Isobel Kuhn, China Inland Mission missionary while a student at Moody Bible Institute found a broom closet as a good place for undisturbed prayer.
Note the passage does not say, “Then your Sovereign Lord, your Master, your Judge who sees but your Loving Heavenly Father who sees and knows what you are saying in secret but your Loving Heavenly Father.
There is no such thing as a “private act of kindness” or a “private, hidden, silent request.” Our Father sees all, hears all and knows all.
READING: Dr. Reuben A. Torrey, the great Bible teacher and evangelist, used to say correctly that “We should never utter one syllable of prayer, either in public or in private until we are definitely conscious that we have come into the presence of God and are actually praying to him.”
Dr. Torrey wrote, “I can remember when that thought transformed my prayer life. I was brought up to pray, I was taught to pray so early in the life that I have not the slightest recollection of who taught me to pray … nevertheless, prayer was largely a mere matter of form. There was little real thought of God, and no real approach to God. And even after I was converted, yes, even after I had entered the ministry, prayer was largely a matter of form. But the day came when I realized what real prayer meant and realized that prayer was having an audience with God, actually coming into the presence of God and asking and getting things from him. And the realization of that fact transformed by prayer life. Before that prayer had been a mere duty and sometimes a very irksome duty, but from that time on prayer has been not merely a duty but a privilege, one of the most highly esteemed privileges of life. Before that the thought that I had was, ‘How much time must I spend in prayer?’ The thought that now posses me is, ‘How much time may I spend in prayer without neglecting the other privileges and duties of my life?” (Boice, 160)
SO WHAT???
1. The key principles for performing the spiritual disciplines are so important: calling God Father, focusing on an audience of one, avoiding show, enjoying God’s presence and fellowship as the key reward that our Lord repeats them three times in Mt. 6:1-18.
2. When we practice any spiritual discipline with a goal of gaining personal praise from others, we have ruined the purpose and value of that act of righteousness.
3. Although Jesus forbids the babbling of meaningless words he does encourage persistence in asking for valid requests.
4. God hears prayers offered in the secret place, especially if those prayers are offered in faith with a keen awareness that we are speaking to our Father, the Creator of the world.