Amen. Turn in your copy of God’s word to Romans six. We’ve got a few verses from chapter six and then a few from chapter seven. I’m sorry, Matthew chapter six. I’m sorry. Romans is next. Matthew chapter six, beginning at verse five. So in addition to Exodus 17, we want to think of what Jesus says about prayer. And so Matthew six, beginning at verse five, and when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others.
Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut your door and pray to your father who is in secret. and your father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them for your father knows what you need before you ask him.
Pray then like this, our father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For if you forgive others, their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses.
And then one chapter over verse seven, Chapter seven, verse seven says, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who ask receives and the one who seeks finds and the one who knocks, it will be opened. Or which of you, if his son asked him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asked for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him?
And now Romans chapter eight, verses 26 and 27. Romans 8, 26 says, likewise, the spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the spirit because the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
Amen. God’s word. Tonight, we start a look through the Lord’s prayer. The larger catechism, Westminster, goes through the Lord’s Prayer. The shorter catechism goes through the Lord’s Prayer. And the Heidelberg does as well. And so if you’re interested, you can take a peek at what the Westminster, larger, and shorter say. It’s a tad different, a different emphasis perhaps.
And I hope as we think on prayer the next several weeks, we’ll go through each petition, it will encourage you in your prayers Um, I always, always, always feel terrible about sermons on prayer. Um, because I’m supposed to stand up here and say true biblical things about prayer and act like I’m good at it. Uh, so y’all are in good company. Some of you probably better prayers than others. And it’s, it’s really hard thing to, to be a good praying person.
So hopefully this will challenge and encourage us. One shameful plug, well, there’s no shame in it, is Wednesday evening prayer. For a little over a year now, we’ve had about 22, 23 people every Wednesday night at seven next door in the chapel. And it’s a sweet time to be together and pray together. So I would encourage you, if you haven’t made it out to that, You could probably make time and it would benefit all of us, including yourself.
So there’s my shameful plug for Wednesday prayer. Well, let’s think about prayer in general and then what the catechism tells us. I have a thought, and my thought is this, probably next to our mythical views of heaven and our mythical views of angels, we probably have some really bad views on prayer. Now I’m saying we, I’m speaking of our wider culture. I think prayer is a rather confused topic. What is prayer? Why do we pray? How do we pray? And what does prayer do? And probably what does prayer do is perhaps the most dangerous thing.
I think people are under the impression that if they get in a real pinch and if they pray hard enough, God might change his mind. Or he might put you higher up in the triage list. We act as if God is unable to take care of all the needs of the universe. He’d cease to be God if that was true. But we act as if maybe our prayers will move us up in the queue. We’ll get a higher number and perhaps he’ll get to us as if he’s as bad off as the ER or the DMV. I have this thought and perhaps it’s true. I don’t know.
I haven’t done scientific research or gone to the front door of Walmart to do a poll or anything like that, but I’m guessing prayer is something. uh, like angels in heaven that has a good bit of confusion, but I think worse than maybe bad views about prayer and what does it do? What does God do when we pray? The saddest view is that prayer has become at a, at a maximum and optional thing for believers. It’s almost like the, the, the fire, uh, glass that you see in a hallway, in a building and case of fire break glass. Well, in case of emergency, pray. But what I think we should understand is prayer is most basically our relationship with God, where we commune with, we talk with our God who loves us and who has saved us.
And he’s loved us and saved us in order that we might have union and communion with him. And so to not talk with him and not commune with him, not fellowship with him in prayer, is like any human relationship. If you don’t work at it and nurture it, uh, there will be something missing. I think sadly we treat God like a vending machine or Santa Claus.
Uh, when we need something, we give them the wishlist and hopefully outcomes the result, but we want to have a higher thought our relationship with God through our union with him in Jesus Christ, our hearts, ought to want, our hearts ought to want to be with God. And so we ought to seek communion with him, but also from him, the portion that he has promised.
One of the most interesting things I think about the prayer of Daniel, when the Israelites are in exile in Babylon, is his prayer to God is like, okay, God, this is getting old. 70 years, it’s getting a little tiring being out of the promised land. you know, being, being over here in Babylon, um, he appeals to what God already said he would do. He appeals to this God of the scriptures, but he appeals to the God of scriptures that he would do something he had already promised to do. And that would be after 70 years after, uh, the land had lied and fallow and took it Sabbath rest in a sense. then Israel could return. And so we want to be those who communion with God, but also seek from him the portion that he has promised to give to us.
And so we got three questions. Um, we won’t look at the Lord’s prayer word for word. We’ll do that week by week as we look through whatever the catechism is going to explain, but there’s three questions tonight. They are why, how, and what? Why, how, and what? So we want to think about those because those are the three questions and the three answers. But we also want to think about, I don’t know, just some big helpful words that might help us think through prayer.
So why do Christians need to pray? How does God want Christians to pray? And then what do Christians need to pray for? Those are sort of the basic questions. Why do Christians need to pray? Now go back to my cynicism a few moments ago where I figured people along with their view of angels in heaven have a pretty bad view of prayer. Why do Christians need to prayer? What would be a good bad answer? Because we need stuff. My kid’s sick, you know, can’t pay the light bill, something like that. Okay. We won’t, we won’t say, no, that’s not a reason to pray.
But more fundamentally, bigger picture, more overarching ultimate answer, why do Christians need to pray? Well, the catechism, because it goes through guilt and grace and gratitude, is going to put prayer as a duty under the category of thankfulness. Because God has saved us from our guilt, By His grace, we ought to live a life of gratitude, which includes a routine, a regimen, a duty, a life of prayer. Because prayer is the most important part of the thankfulness God requires of us, and because God, by His Holy Spirit, will give us grace, or God will give us His grace and Holy Spirit, to those who continually, with heartfelt longing, ask God for these gifts and thank Him for them. The shorter catechism says prayer is the offering up unto God, the desires of our heart for things agreeable to his will with thanksgiving and in the name of the Lord Jesus. So you see a little bit of a similarity, but why do Christians need to pray? Because we’re thankful and also because it is the way God gives grace to his people. We talk from time to time, about the means of grace, the means whereby God communicates his grace to his church. And they are word and sacraments and prayer. And so if we skip the word, we aren’t around for the sacraments and we aren’t praying.
And I’m meaning here corporately. Yes, of course, God blesses you as individuals and as individuals when you pray. But sacraments is a corporate thing. And in worship, prayer is a corporate thing, but also preaching is a corporate thing.
And so you detach yourself from the church. You detach yourself from the church. You detach yourself from the means of grace. And maybe this is the terrible way to put it, but if you detach yourself from those things, God does not have a way to work through you, but he does.
But how does God ordinarily work? He works through the means of grace. And so prayer is a big part of our thankfulness that God requires of us. And he promises to give us his grace and spirit if we continually, and if we with heartfelt longing, ask God for these gifts.
And so that leads me to say, if the church is meeting, and here we are Sunday night, preaching to the choir, as it were, if the church is meeting Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday evening for preaching and for prayer and for sacraments, if those are the primary way God communicates to us, wouldn’t it follow that we should be there?
None of us appears to have skipped a meal, right, especially yours truly. None of us appears to have missed our meds Uh, there are things in life we men come hell or high water. We’re going to get that hamburger. We’re going to take those pills. We’re going to get to this event or that event, but somehow the means of grace can be optional. And. Okay, it’s optional, but you miss out. So we ought to think very hard, very strong about these things.
Why do Christians need to pray? It’s the main way God hangs out with us. If you wanna put it in modern day terms, it is the main way we have fellowship with him, communion with him. All right, second question. How does God want us to pray so that he will listen? We must pray from the heart. We must pray to the one true God. And it must be the one true God who has been revealed in the word. And then we ask him for everything he’s commanded to ask of him. And so as we get to know God and our heart bonds with him, through the truth, the better we know God, the better we know the Bible, the better we can pray. Our prayers will be less man-centered, less human-centered, less felt need-centered. But we pray from the heart to that one true God.
And a question, does your heart want to pray? It’s one thing for your brain to want to pray. I know I need to pray. It should be on my to-do list. I’m going to mark down some time to pray, but does your heart want to take that time? That’s really the question, isn’t it?
Do we know God more and more, better and better? And as we read the Bible, do we think, I want to pray that back to the Lord. I want to pray that attribute back to him in praise. I want to pray this petition back to him because he’s promised. but we are commanded to ask for everything that he has commanded in the word. So how do we pray? Well, we pray the Bible. We pray the Bible back to God about him. We pray the Bible back to God about the things he’s promised to give.
That’s the Daniel principle, isn’t it? God, you said you would get us back to the promised land out of Babylon. And so here we are, it’s been 70 years. All right, come on, God, keep your word. Or Lord, you promised to keep me whole, to give me peace, to give me shalom.
And so here I am in a time of anxiety, a time of hardship. So we pray from the heart. Think about the tax collector and the public. And remember, the tax collector walked right up to the altar and said, Oh, God, you’re so lucky to have me. I’m really eloquent at prayer. And I’m so bold as to walk right up here to the altar. And, you know, here I go, let everybody hear and see me. But somewhere back as far off, perhaps at the back door of the temple, there’s the tax collector. And he beats his chest. And very few words as God have mercy on me, a sinner. And so the question really comes.
Do we approach God in humility with our heart or do we approach him in eloquence with words? Now, some heartfelt prayer will be eloquent. You know the Bible, you know God, your heartfelt prayers will be eloquent. But I imagine the Lord would rather your fumblings and your tears. or even your size and your groans than pretentious eloquence. But we pray from the heart to God, asking for everything commanded.
The second thing is we understand our need and our misery. He’s creator, we’re creature. He is God, we are sinner. And so we humble ourselves in a sense because we know what he is and we know what we are and we know that great gap. between ourselves and him. God be merciful to me. The third thing is we pray, or we rest on this unshakable foundation. Even though we do not deserve it, God will surely listen because Christ our Lord has promised us in his word.
You know, I think the, I don’t know, maybe the goofy views of prayer that are out there is maybe God is too busy. Maybe he’s got a backed up queue, a backed up line waiting. And, and, you know, we, we, we hear people say sometimes, Oh, Oh, only if God could have shown up that car wreck, wouldn’t that happen? You know, that’s a really bad view of God. Uh, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s just, it’s just not good. Um, I mean, we apply the same thing.
If only God had been there, Jesus wouldn’t have died on the cross. But we know from the preaching of Peter and from the rest of the scripture, it was the definite plan and foreknowledge of God that Jesus be mistreated by his own people and unjustly sentenced by the Romans and that he would go to the cross as the Passover lamb and he would die in our place. God was indeed there. In fact, he was cursing and wreaking havoc and pouring out his wrath on his own son. But we must rest in the unshakable foundation, even though we don’t deserve it. God will listen to our prayers. I know most of us probably think to ourselves when we feel the urge to pray Why bother why bother God he I?
Mean what’s he gonna do for me? I’m paying back for all the good. He gives me I pay him back with evil for all the Kindness as he’s done. I repay him with grumbling. And so we might perhaps find ourselves in a downcast mode Oh, he’s not gonna listen to me. Why would he?
But it’s an unshakable foundation. God will hear our prayers. And why is that so? Because of Jesus. That’s our sure assurance. That’s why we pray in Jesus name. He promises to hear our prayers through Jesus, our great high priest. And then finally, what is God commanded? Everything we need spiritually, everything we need physically. I know we say he doesn’t care for big toes. He does. But remember, the proportion of our prayers really, I suppose, ought to be on spiritual things. God cares about big toes, indeed, and he will heal big toes.
But where is our heart for neighbors who don’t know Christ or the generations that come after us or the missionaries who are on the field fighting off darkness or the concerns of the nation, the concerns of the world, the persecuted church? Generally, church prayer times are referred to as the organ recital. Not that one, but it’s Aunt Maud’s spleen and, you know, Uncle Billy’s back tooth and whatever. It’s the organ recital.
And yes, we should pray for those physical needs that we have. But there ought to be a pretty good dose of spiritual needs in our prayers. We pray for the faith. of others, that it will be unshakable. We pray for the health and wellbeing of others. But remember our health and wellbeing and our daily bread and our provision is to the end that we can serve God in this world and serve neighbors. So why get better from a broken leg? So we can serve God and serve neighbor. One serves the other, not the other way round.
And so those things will pop up in the Lord’s prayer. All right, here’s another way to look at these. You know, you bump through these three questions that explain I went through and picked out a handful of big words. Our prayers should be thankful prayers. Our prayers should be heartfelt prayers. Our prayers should be God-directed. They should be scripture-based. They should be humble. They should be confident, as in God will hear me and God will answer me. They are blood-bought prayers. We don’t approach God except through mediation. We can’t approach God and except through the shedding of blood. And then our prayers are providing prayers, not, not wishlist prayers, but providing prayers.
Those are eight or 10 words that I found helpful looking through this explanation. Well, what about praying? Okay. We got our Wednesday night prayer. And, um, I think it’s the best part of church in a sense. It’s the nuclear reactor. It’s small, but it’s strong. And to see people come together, pray together and grow in their praying is a pretty wonderful thing.
And we have lengthy prayers all the way to probably, I’m sure, very silent prayers and both go up to the Lord. And I think our church is growing as a result of that strong Wednesday evening prayer. But we also pray during church on the morning service. We have a prayer of adoration and invocation. We pray to confess our sins. Pastoral prayer, we pray before and after the sermon that God would light up our souls to receive the word. We pray on Sunday nights. I’m sure some of you all pray with and for each other also, but what about our own private and personal prayer? Yes, in worship. Yes, when the church gathers to pray, but it’s also a duty of believers.
Think to have a time to pray, a system to pray. a habit of prayer. We have maybe fixed times or other times where we’re just riding along. We see an ambulance and we pray for those who may be hurt or some sire groan hits us and some things were called and we pray. And so I think there ought to be a both a time for prayer, but also just a habit to pray as we go and spontaneously encourage you to pray with and for other people. If you’re with someone and they’re sharing some difficulty, stop and pray for them. I guarantee you will bless them mightily. But we should be a praying people.
What about postures and places? I know the Bible, Jesus says, go in your closet. You know, are you supposed to have a closet at home? I think he means go in private. They didn’t have master bedroom closets like we do that you could probably not only pray in, but hold church in. They’re so big, but we should have a private place where we pray. We should have a regular posture and place of prayer. It’s helpful, I think, to have that in our system and in our routine. One last thing, one last encouragement is this. The Puritans were really good on piety and prayer, devotion to the Lord, and one of the Puritan concepts that’s always stuck with me is this.
When God wants to get to work, in his vineyard, he sets those people praying. When God wants to do a mighty work or to bring revival, he will get his people praying. And so I’ve been encouraged with our Wednesday evening prayer, but I think it would be indicative of the work that God intends to do among us if there was a growth in prayer, a fervency in prayer, a devotion to prayer. Perhaps we prayed so much that our arms were tired But there is so much at stake in this world and in the next.
And we are encouraged to take hold of God. We are encouraged to latch on to him and his promises, to him and his provision and goodness. And I think we’d be very surprised to see what God will do if we get to praying. And so may that be of encouragement to you. Let’s do pray and ask for his help.
Lord, you say that our hearts should be melted to desire communion with you, and so work in each of us now a desire for greater things, to want fellowship with you, but also want to see your kingdom advance in this world and hasten that the Savior may come. And so help us and bless us in this endeavor, we pray in Christ’s name, amen.