Our Deepest Prayer

Matthew 6:7-15

Immanuel – 1/7/24

Originally, this sermon was planned for the first Sunday of 2024, January 7th. We have a tradition of beginning every calendar year by focusing on prayer. But that was the week God sent snowstorms and we canceled church. I suppose that means He wanted this sermon preached today, and for all of you to be here to hear it.

Prayer is at the heart of the Christian life. It’s meant to be a part of our every day and our every gathering. We hear it said that there’s power in prayer, but rarely do we really take time to consider that power. God uses our prayers to ignite the flames of the soul, humble the heart, strengthen the bonds between believers, advance His kingdom, and – most importantly – to draw us near to our Heavenly Father in intimacy and worship. Are those not incredibly powerful things?!

So, if we want to know joy in God, if we want to be a people on fire for Christ, if what we build is to be of the kingdom, then we need to be a people of prayer. And though I planned to deliver this sermon over a month ago, I think I can see why God had it delayed.

This past Wednesday the Mission’s Team held a prayer night; of our 95 members and 130 average attenders, 17 people came out to pray. At the end of summer, when we spent a night praying for our children heading back to school, the attendance was about the same. We spend a good amount of time praying during our Sunday Evening Services, but only 30% of you make it a priority.

I believe we desire to be a people of prayer – I’ve heard you say it – but when I look at the evidence, I can’t help but wonder. Though I deeply love the people of this church, there are times when shepherds have to say hard things.

Are there really so few in this church who understand what God will do when His people gather to pray? Have we forgotten? Are our priorities that far out of order? I wonder how many in this flock traded prayer for time in front of a screen.

Though these words are firm, I know how often I fail to come before the Lord in prayer. I know how easy it is to forget, to get distracted, to choose something that feels a little more practical. I know I am not the man of prayer that I want to be.

That said, let us return to the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus teaches His disciples how to pray. Notice in verse 7 how Jesus says, “When you pray.” He just assumes that His disciples will be praying; it’s not even a question.

Purpose

If prayer is so powerful, so important, how then are we supposed to pray?

In the ancient world, among Jews and especially among Gentiles, some high and pious individual wanting to grab the attention of the divines would pray loud and long. They perceived that the gods were generally uninterested in human affairs, only giving their celestial attention reluctantly. So they believed that big, verbose, dramatic prayers would more likely grab their attention. And the longer they prayed, the more likely they were to wear down the gods and their requests would be met. The Jewish Talmud speaks of the most religious men praying for nine hours a day in this manner.

But Jesus says, “Do not be like them.”

Read vs 7-8

Jesus is not prohibiting you from using big words in your prayers. You will not be condemned if your prayers are complex. Your prayers can be long and often – Jesus even teaches that we should pray and pray until we receive (Luke 18:1-8).

But if you think you need to do such things in order for God to hear you, you misunderstand God. Add all the words and gesticulations you like, but God will not hear you any better for them. Jesus’ point is that God does not require big and dramatic prayers, nor is He moved more by them than simple and quiet prayers.

No matter how you pray, if you pray in earnest, God is already listening. He’s already completely aware of your needs. Jesus wants His disciples to understand that God is engaged and involved. He is like a loving and caring father: Indeed, He is our Heavenly Father. More on that in a moment.

Jesus’ statement in verse 8 has caused many to ask the question: “If God already knows what we need, then what’s the point in praying?” I promise, the next section will make the answer crystal clear.

Then, with God rightly understood, Jesus gives a model for prayer that is not big and dramatic; but is simple, concise, clear, and comprehensive. It is, of course, what we call the Lord’s Prayer.

Read vs 9-13

Once again, let me remind you that Jesus delivers the Sermon on the Mount to His disciples. Just a few sentences before He gives His disciples this pattern of prayer, He says, “When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret (vs 6).”

And yet, the Lord’s Prayer begins with the word “our.” You can see the whole prayer is wrapped in plural pronouns. Though the Lord’s Prayer can certainly be used for personal devotion, it is also meant to be prayed in community – the community of the church. So these are indeed sacred words for us.

Though these are sacred words, Jesus does not mean that we need to repeat these words verbatim, as if these are the immutable words of some religious rite (though we are free to use Jesus’ exact words). But truly this is a pattern to be followed, flexible enough for every circumstance of life. In fact, in a very different context Jesus takes the words of this prayer and changes them to meet the needs of His disciples (Luke 11:1-4).

It's like this: When you talk to your father, if he is a good father, there are not specific words you need to say to get his attention. He’s not looking for you to make speeches nor put on shows. He just wants to hear from you. He wants to be near you. He loves you.

Even more so, this is true with our Father who art in heaven.

He is a tender Father who loves His children beyond measure, in spite of their failures, abounding in grace and mercy and delight. Yet He is in heaven; infinite in power, all-seeing, a consuming fire! Our Father - In Heaven forces us to hold in tension His nature: We give Him love and respect, affection and awe.

Hallowed be your name.

To be holy is to be set apart, high and lifted up, worthy of worship and honor. Hallowed means to hold as holy. Hallowed be your name is a prayer that people recognized and acknowledge that God is holy.

If God were to fully answer this prayer, then it would be as the prophet Habakkuk prophesied:

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters covers the sea. -Habakkuk 2:14

Yes, if God fully answered this prayer, then every other element of the Lord’s Prayer would also be fulfilled. And yet, in an amazing way, this prayer is fulfilled even as we pray it. For if in earnest you pray Hallowed be your name, is not the name of your Heavenly Father being hallowed in your heart?

Your kingdom come.

Already we have seen that the kingdom has come in Jesus Christ. So He had announced at the beginning of His ministry (Matthew 4:17). And as I have said, the whole Sermon on the Mount is about what this new kingdom – the kingdom of God – looks like, how it works.

But the nature of this kingdom is that it is a hidden kingdom. It is like leaven folded into a lump of dough or like a dash of salt thrown on your dinner. It is not seen, but it is so obvious when it is present. So it is with God’s kingdom. And when we pray that God’s kingdom would come, we pray that it would come in greater fullness.

Such is the nature of the kingdom of heaven. It’s already here, but it is not yet here in its fullness. It is an already-not yet kingdom.

And the very essence of this kingdom of God is where our Heavenly Father’s will is done. And so we pray:

Your will be done.

Doing the will of God is what it means to be a disciple, it’s what it means to belong to the kingdom of heaven, it’ss what it means to hallow His name. What we pray, we must live. We pray to do God’s will, then we go do God’s will, and in so doing, the prayer finds its partial answer.

Of course, we usually pray this on a far bigger scale than our own lives. Yes, in our lives, but also:

On earth as it is in heaven.

How beautiful this prayer. It is for right now and it is for the consummation of all things. May God’s will be done in me right now, in this circumstance I face, may heaven come to this moment! And may God’s will be done perfectly across this planet as it is in heaven.

But on earth as it is in heaven doesn’t just apply to God’s will being done. It applies to God’s kingdom coming on earth as it is in heaven. It applies to God’s name being hallowed on earth as it is in heaven. May it all come to this moment, to this place, to this heart. And may heaven come to the furthest reaches of this planet: as in heaven, so on earth.

We have now read three petitions.

1. Hallowed be your name.

2. Your kingdom come.

3. Your will be done.

Each of these three have to do with heaven’s realities breaking upon earth. Now we move to the things of earth serving the purposes of heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Certainly, as we have seen in some recent sermons, Jesus is the bread of life. He is our very life and our deepest need for sustenance. None-the-less, we still need food to eat; which is what Christ means here. How good it is that Jesus, and our Heavenly Father, takes seriously our physical needs. Jesus will speak further on this later in chapter 6.

Know that this portion of the prayer is far greater than merely bread. It’s about all our physical needs: food, water, clothing, shelter, health, and so on. No matter how hard we work, or from which store we purchase our provisions, asking God for our daily bread is to acknowledge that it all has come from His hand. Without Him we have nothing. And in the most ultimate sense, nothing that we have has come from our own provision.

And we are not to ask simply because we are hungry, or we don’t have the clothes that we like. We ask God for our daily bread so that we have the strength to do His will, so we can work to advance His kingdom, so we can lift our lives to hallow His name.

It’s as we read in the Proverbs.

Feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the LORD?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God. -Proverbs 30:8-9

We ask God to meet our physical needs so that we can do His will, advance His kingdom, and hallow His name; whether it be bread or housing or clothing or whatever else. All for His glory. All for His namesake!

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

When we pray this prayer we are acknowledging that we are debtors before God. Our sins – pride, selfishness, lusts – these are all offenses against the holiness of God. They violate His will and exist in violation of His kingdom. And for our sins the debt we owe is of such magnitude that we could never hope to repay or escape.

So we must come to God as our Father, who is ready to lavish mercy upon the humble and lowly in heart. As the Apostle John writes:

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. -1 John 1:8-9

Notice, though in answer to this prayer God forgives our debts – removing our sins from us as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12) – it is not simply our debts that are forgiven. It is the debtor that is forgiven. It is not a forgiveness of some mechanical accounting, merely striking out our debts. Our Father looks upon us who have incurred such immeasurable indebtedness, and in love He forgives. He forgives me. He forgives you.

And this forgiving love is necessarily reciprocal. As we have been loved, so are we to love. As we ask to be forgiven, so we are also to forgive. Jesus’ prayer assumes such an attitude of love and forgiveness; though He will go on to remove that assumption in verses 14 and 15.

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

The first thing to be seen is that God does not tempt.

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. -James 1:13-15

God does not tempt, and Jesus is not saying otherwise. Rather, following our petition for forgiveness, this is petition that God would protect us from sinning any further, that He would hold us back from the temptations we are so prone to throw ourselves into.

It’s like praying, “God, keep me far from anything that might cause me to sin!” Just as disciples know we need food and forgiveness, how we know our need to be protected from temptation!

But, if we do come face to face with temptation – no, when we inevitably come face to face with temptation – “God, deliver us from evil! Oh my Father, when my sinful flesh screams for me to indulge, rescue me! Wield the powers of heaven and steal me away from my own destruction!”

So you must see a pattern of three and three. Three petitions where we pray heaven’s realities breaking upon earth. Three petitions where the things of earth may serve the purposes of heaven. Our food, our forgiveness, and our deliverance: that through our lives, what is true in heaven may be true on earth. Oh hallowed be the name of our Father who is in heaven!

Read vs 14-15

Later in our sermon series we will spend much more time focusing on forgiveness, so I will only briefly cover these verses now (though much more could be said).

The act of forgiveness does not merit and does not earn your Father’s forgiveness. No. Rather, our forgiveness is evidence that the grace of God is at work within us. When we forgive, even forgiving our enemies, it proves that we have been touched by heaven’s forgiveness. Therefore, if we fail to forgive, it means that we do not understand the forgiveness of our Heavenly Father.

Thus we return to the statement, as we ask to be forgiven, so we are also to forgive.

We love because He first loved us. -1 John 4:19

Just substitute the word love for the word forgiveness: “We forgive because He first forgave us.” Indeed, Jesus did forgive us long before we were ever born. For there on the cross He poured out His blood for our forgiveness. As He instituted the Lord’s Supper, at the last supper, He said it was so:

And He took a cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” -Matthew 26:27-28

How great was our debt! How great is Christ’s forgiveness! We cannot measure the price paid for our forgiveness! How then can we withhold forgiveness when we – miserable debtors though we are – have been forgiven?

Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name!

Prayer

This is the moment in the sermon where I would close in prayer, but I’m not going to do that today. We’re going to take the next 10 minutes or so and put these things to practice.

- Grab at least 4 other people around and pray together.

- I’m not going to give you any further instructions on how to pray, for we have already received the very best instructions from Christ Himself.