SERIES: Living through the Lord’s Prayer-- “The Three Ways of Prayer”

Matthew 6:6-8

1. our mission statement reads – we exist to make disciples of Jesus Christ who love God and love others. Make disciples comes from the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20. Love God and love others comes from the Great Commandment in Matthew 22:37-39.
2. make disciples involves at least 2 steps. 1st that of accepting Christ into your life as your Savior & Lord. 2nd that of learning what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.
3. the 1st step, what I call saying “yes” to Jesus as your Savior, is about evangelism, witness, conversion. Our life of faith & following Christ begins here.
4. this year I’m praying that God would use us as a church to bring 10 people to say “yes” to Jesus as their Savior & Lord. I want you to pray along with me. I’m talking about children, youth & adults. I know of 1 high school student who said “yes” to Jesus at DYC. If you know of others, any one, please let me know.
5. prayer for God to use us to bring at least 10 people to himself this year….

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1. prayer is a common religious practice. TIME magazine recently featured an article on the Dali Lama. They showed a picture of him praying prostrate on the floor of his home in northern India as his day started.

2. some people turn to prayer when they have nothing else to hold onto. Frederick Buechner writes in his most recent memoir – The Eyes of the Heart – about his younger brother Jamie dying of cancer. He never went to church except once in a while to hear me (preach), and he didn’t want a funeral, he told me, but when I suggested maybe cocktails and dinner for some of his old friends in the fall when everybody got back to the city, he said that sounded like a good idea. But he did ask me if I would write a prayer for him that he could use, and David (Buechner’s son-in-law) said that he had it there on the table beside him (when he died).

the prayer – Dear Lord, bring me through darkness into light. Bring me through pain into peace. Bring me through death into life. Be with me wherever I go, and with everyone I love. In Christ’s name I ask it. Amen.

3. Jesus prayed. And Jesus painstakingly taught his followers the importance of prayer and how to pray.

4. I’ve been trying to get into the Lord’s Prayer for 2 weeks & haven’t succeeded. I keep getting pulled in by his introductory comments in 6:5-8 – the 3 ways of prayer. The hypocrite, the pagan, the Christ-follower (last week).

The hypocrite (5)
1. the hypocrites in view here are the Pharisees. The keepers of the Law. They had lost sight of God & people in their zeal to dot every i & cross every t.

2. they prayed for the applause of an audience. Standing in the synagogue, standing on street corners. They prayed to be seen by others. Public religiosity.

3. their motive was impressing people NOT connecting with God. They used prayer as a means to amaze others, as a means to meet their selfish, inward need for significance.

4. their prayers were aimed horizontally rather than vertically.

5. do we ever pray this way? To be seen by (others). To impress others with our words, our heart, our knowledge, our compassion, our passion?

6. Jesus calls for God-centered prayer.

The pagan (7-8)
1. the pagan Christ has in mind would be non-Jewish people in Palestine who prayed to a pantheon of Roman & Greek gods.

2. do not keep on babbling…for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Babble is used only here in the entire New Testament. It refers to a mechanical manner of praying. The ritualistic repetition of prayer formulas used to gain God’s attention & to guarantee the success of the prayer.

3. prayer as the uttering of magical code words over & over again. Praying with the mouth but not the mind. Babble.

4. prayer that concentrates on words rather than upon God. The magic, the power, the effectiveness, the persuasion is found in the words themselves.

5. if I can just string together the right combination of rants & raves THEN God will be obligated to me. And I will get what I want. The gods are scattered before me to do my will. And I hold the right formula to unlock their powers.

6. do we ever pray like that? Let’s not fool ourselves. Do we ever fall into the trap of believing that if we just pray the right combination of words, reference the right verses, pray the right number of in Jesus’ name. If we just mention the blood of Christ. If we just name it & claim it. If we just stand on the right biblical promise. Do we ever search more for a God-be-impressed string of words in our prayers THAN we search for God?
7. the hypocrite aims for fortifying his self-esteem through trying to impress others in prayer AND misses God. The pagan aims to utter the correct words the exact number of times in prayer AND misses God. We can do the same if we’re not careful.

8. now to the 3rd way of prayer. The Christ way of prayer.

The Christ way of prayer (6:6&9)
1. but when you pray, go into your room, close the door. We pray by exclusion. Finding a quiet, private place to pray where we will not be disturbed.

2. and pray to your Father, who is unseen. We pray with awareness. Who is the God we pray to? He’s our Father. We come to him as his children.

3. then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. We pray with confidence. We delight our Father when we pray to him. We can be certain that he hears & welcomes our prayers.

4. now to drop down to 6:9, Our Father. This is the kind of God we pray to. He is personal. God is just as personal as we are. In fact, ever more so. Our personality derives from his personality.

5. we have to be careful that we don’t depersonalize God. He’s far more than just a – higher being, the absolute, the all in all, the ground of all being, the force behind the universe, the infinite one & so on.

6. no, the God we pray to is our Father. We approach him like children. We don’t try to impress him. We don’t try to manipulate him. We approach him in humble need & adoration.

memos to the almighty by billy sprague
1. 1 year after high school graduation…back surgery

2. spring 1979…lullaby

3. february 1980…severe bronchitis

4. next year…fall in love

5. fall 1983…should pain

6. spring 1987…breast cancer

7. saturday november 18, 1989…RosaLynn killed

8. july 1992, barcelona, spain…healing

9. saturday october 22, 1994…wedding

10. prayer is a bullentin board where I post memos to the Almighty…


Music i listened to while sermonizing – david crowder band; arvo part; bruce springsteen; joni mitchell; neil young; van morrison; u2

Books i read & studied while sermonizing – matthew 1-13, ancient Christian commentary; matthew by eugene boring; studies in the sermon on the mount by d. martyn lloyd-jones; the sermon on the mount by john stott; preaching the cross by mark dever; the road by cormac mccarthy;