Sermon Tone Analysis

*Sermon Series: Worship96*

Part 7: “Experiencing God in Worship”

 (Psalm 96; Matthew 6:5-15)

A Sermon on Prayer

 

We have come to the end of our sermon series focusing on the theme of worship.

The one topic we have not discussed and is not specifically mentioned in Psalm 96, but is everywhere else in the Bible identified as a part of worship, is prayer.

So today we come to the topic of prayer.

Prayer is that rare opportunity in worship to engage God in a dialogue where we literally speak to him and listen to what he says.

To find out more about prayer we will study Matthew 6:5-16 this morning.

Who can deny the value of prayer?

Robert Law once said that, “Prayer is a mighty instrument, not for getting man’s will done in Heaven, but for getting God’s will done on earth.”

Very few people would ever deny the value of prayer and if they did, it would not be because they do not pray.

Statistics show that whatever people believe about prayer, they still pray.

In fact statistically there are more prayers in America than there are employees of companies, people who choose to stay physically fit and exercise, or even people who engage in sex.

Around 78% of people say they regularly pray, at least once a week.[1]

Someone once said of it, “/A day hemmed in prayer is less likely to come unraveled.”/

And Americans in spite of all our secularization seem to believe that and so we still pray.

If you don’t believe that America still practice some kind of prayer, just consider the fact that there are well over 2000 titles of books currently being printed with the word prayer in their title.

Even in our sex-crazed culture, there are more than three times as many books on prayer then on sex.

*Matthew 6:5-15*

 

We turn our attention now to Matthew chapter 6.  Jesus is in the midst of his sermon.

We will join him there this morning.

We will join him like a program already in progress.

We will travel back in time to ancient Palestine into the region called Galilee and go with Jesus up that mountain where he was preaching that famous sermon.

We won’t listen to the whole sermon, but we will only listen to the part that deals specifically with prayer.

Let’s listen in to what Jesus is saying in the Sermon on the Mount about prayer.

"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.

“This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’

For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins."

(Matthew 6:5-15 NIV)

 

This is a glorious gift from God—a word from God on how we should pray.

A word from God how we can experience his reality in our lives today.

So many times we come to the subject of prayer, and we are left with our mouths open and our minds empty.

We feel that we have more questions than we have answers, even in scripture.

We say to ourselves /what/ should I say when I pray?

How should I pray?

When should I pray, in the morning, in the evening, before meals, at church, in the car?

When, and then also, where should I pray?

More often we wonder how come our prayers seem unanswered, and then at other times we thank God for unanswered prayers.

While not all of our questions will be answered this morning, some of them will be, because we will listen into the words of Jesus himself, the one who sat in the Father’s presence for time and eternity, the one who knows all the thoughts of our God and is himself a member of an elite heavenly club, called the Trinity.

*I.

There is a Right Way and a /Wrong/ Way to Pray*

 

Before Jesus begins to explain to us how we should pray, he begins by talking about how we should NOT.

Don’t pray standing in synagogues to be *seen*!

Don’t pray on street corners to be *heard*!

Don’t pray so others will be *impressed*!

Don’t pray babbling like pagans!

Don’t pray harboring evil against your brother!

Don’t pray with unforgiveness!  Don’t pray unaware of your enemy!

Don’t pray to what is seen but him who is unseen!

The issue here for Jesus is *hypocrisy*.

Hypocrisy is ancient Greek word used in the theater where an actor would wear a mask pretending to be something or someone they were not.

There are always to kinds of hypocrites.

There are those who know they are pretending and those who unfortunately do not know.

There is a kind of obvious fraud.

A person who stands on street corners looking for attention to be given.

However, everything we know about the Pharisees of Jesus’ day tells us that many of them were not only deeply religious but very sincere.

This is a startling discovery.

Some people are guilty of being hypocrites (or perhaps a nicer word is pretender) in their prayers unknowingly, even sincerely believing that what they are doing is appropriate.

I can think of various examples of sincere worship or prayer that is in truth only pretense.

Pick up a book sometime of the religions of the world, especially a picture book.

Look at the huge temples erected to various gods of the ancient Mayans or other civilizations of Central and South American.

Read about the thousands of humans sacrifices that were done by those religions to pay homage to the quote, “Sun God.”

Many people throughout history worshipped the “sun” as God.

They prayed to it and sacrificed to it.

Little did they know that all their most sincere were placed in completely the wrong thing.

The sun is a large ball of gas in the middle of our solar system which does nothing but put off gravity and energy.

It does not rule the universe.

It cannot answer our prayers.

It can do nothing for us, no matter how many sacrifices we make to it.

These sun-worshippers are an example of hypocrites.

Hypocrites because their worship is a fake, but they just don’t know it.

What if there was someone hear today who was worshipping even praying, but in fact there pray was a fake and they did not know it?

I want you notice something in this passage about prayer.

I want to make sure you don’t miss Jesus’ point.

Some people thinking that the point of Jesus’ teaching was about public prayer.

Some have even called for a ban on public prayer within Christian circles.

Some have thought that Jesus believes prayer is only private.

Such a conclusion is erroneous.

Jesus himself publically prays, sometime all night long.

One of the longest sections in the Gospel of John is an extended prayer of Jesus.

The OT Psalms are filled with examples of public prayers.

The command of God to Solomon in 2 Chronicles 7:14 is for God’s people to pray to him.

The situation was the dedication of the temple and the idea was that they would do so as they together celebrating and worshipping God.

Separation of Church and State

 

I think one of the great travesties of misinterpretation is people today do not pray publically.

Jesus was not condemning public prayer.

In fact, one of the greatest contemporary scholars of our time, Raymond Brown, once said that if Jesus were to speak the Sermon the Mount to America and Europe today, he would tell them to stand on street corners and in public places and pray.

The secularization of our culture is partly due to the privatization of religious expression.

As Baptists we believe that religious experience is personally; it is between us and God; but we do not believe that prayer is only private.

As Baptists we believe in the separation of church and state, in fact we helped the Founding Fathers of our nation craft the constitution to prevent the public sphere of life from encroaching upon our religions practices.