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The Missional Heart of Prayer • Matthew 6:7-10 · HBCWestminster

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Oh, good morning. It's so good to see you again. After two years, my family and I arrived on Thursday afternoon, 11-hour time zone difference, so still recovering from jet lag, and you might hear that I'm also recovering from a cold, so I apologize in advance for my voice.
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And then we had a very emotional part of the service, so now I'm choked up because of thinking about the new church plant. So, Danny, you really know how to set up a guy to preach.
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And then I've got this set in front of me that I have to preach in front of, and I don't have a helmet or any armor, but I did bring a sword.
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My family is deeply thankful for the support of this church and your partnership in our ministry.
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And if you were to visit us in Indonesia, one of the first things you would notice would be the call to prayer.
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Five times a day, megaphones throughout our city blast,
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Allahu Akbar.
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We're claiming that God is great.
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You might see men walking to the mosque wearing a Muslim prayer cap.
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There they offer sholat, a ritual prayer usually lasting about 10 minutes, in which they recite portions of the Quran in Arabic and follow a set of prescribed gestures.
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As you may know, prayer is one of the five.
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And prayer is one of the five pillars of the Islamic religion.
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Elsewhere in Asia, in South Korea, a four-foot-tall human robot, a humanoid robot named Gabi,
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recently joined Buddhist monks in an initiation ceremony in which followers pledged their devotion to the Buddha and his teachings.
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Commenting on this phenomenon, a religious scholar,
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from the University of Virginia, said this.
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In some ways, robots are sitting squarely in the middle of an argument that we've been having about religion for thousands of years.
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Is what matters what we believe about the divine, or is it our actions and practices that matter?
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Sometimes in religion, action is more important than belief.
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How you do it takes precedence over...
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why you do it.
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Is that true?
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If it is the outward practice that matters and not the inner motivation, then why not program a robot to pray?
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In the United States, daily life is certainly not structured around times of prayer, as it is in Indonesia.
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In fact, I would guess that many Americans hardly ever pray,
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In fact, I would guess that many Americans hardly ever pray,
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to this day becoming suffering albums,
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In the last fifteen years, however, there has been an explosion of interest in meditation.
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Meditation phone apps alone have become a multi-billion dollar industry
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And tens of millions of Americans have tried these apps
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As a way to reduce anxiety,
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Detach from negative thoughts
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and enhance self-awareness and performance.
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So from Indonesia to South Korea to the United States,
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there seems to be a lot of variance in how prayer is understood and practiced.
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Therefore, this morning, I would like to take us back to the basics.
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We're going to have another look at the beginning of the Lord's Prayer.
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I'm going to connect it to the topic of missions.
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In fact, my sermon title for this morning is The Missional Heart of Prayer.
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But before we begin, let's pray.
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Father, I do feel intimidated to even consider trying to preach the beginning of the Lord's Prayer.
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And as I believe pastors,
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Pastor Sam would say, you know, this is one of those lullaby passages
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that we seem to be so familiar with
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that our eyes can just skim over the words
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and we don't really grapple with the meaning of it.
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So Father, I pray that you would give me the grace this morning
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to offer new insight into these very familiar verses.
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And I pray that your Holy Spirit would do the work that only he can
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in stirring up our hearts
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or that we might seek first the kingdom.
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We just offer again this service and our attention to you.
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And we do so in Jesus's name.
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Amen.
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I'm convinced that we cannot fully appreciate the Lord's Prayer
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if we don't consider how Jesus introduces it.
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So let's look.
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Let's look at verses 7 and 8 first.
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Jesus says,
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And when you pray,
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do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do,
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for they think that they will be heard for their many words.
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Do not be like them,
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for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
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You need to know in the first century Greco-Roman world
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in which Jesus lived,
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prayer was highly transactional,
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often even mechanical.
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The worshiper would offer sacrifices
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and then pray according to a set pattern.
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Prayers were often worded like legal documents
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that obligated the gods to respond to human requests.
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Sometimes prayers slid into magical incantations,
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prayed over and over,
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and over again to ensure that the precise wording
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was achieved to compel the gods to act.
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There's a Latin phrase that captures this dynamic,
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do ut des,
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which can be translated,
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I give so that you might give.
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Thus here is an example of what a typical first century prayer
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might have sounded like.
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Zeus most high, guardian of the household
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and protector of the city,
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if I have ever honored you with wine and incense at your altar,
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hear me now and grant health to my wife and children
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and preserve my property from harm.
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What is the implicit view of the Greco-Roman gods
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in a prayer like this?
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Or in magical incantations that are repeated over
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and over again? Well, the heaping up of empty phrases, as Jesus says, implies that the gods
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are reluctant to act on behalf of their followers. They need to be coaxed, persuaded,
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impressed, or manipulated before they did something.
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Nothing. Zeus and the other gods had a what's in it for me kind of mentality. That led to a certain
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desperation in a person's prayer. Think of the priests of Baal during Elijah's day who danced
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around Baal's altar and cut themselves and cried out from morning until late afternoon, saying the
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same words repeatedly, trying to rouse the god to act.
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I wonder how many of my Muslim neighbors share this view of prayer.
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Official Islamic theology would suggest that Allah is under no obligation to grant mercy, but
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when Islam is mixed with animism and folk religion, like it so often is in Indonesia,
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I would guess that many people in the mosques believe that if they say enough prayers in
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exactly the same way, they will be able to grant mercy.
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If they say enough prayers in exactly the right way, then Allah will feel compelled to give them what they are asking for.
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During the month of fasting especially, many Muslims will pray for hours and hours throughout the night,
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desperately trying to make their requests heard.
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How many of us within this room this morning also slip into this mindset in prayer?
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How many of us within this room this morning also slip into this mindset in prayer?
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Do you ever think to yourself, if I pray really hard, I mean a lot, maybe with tears and fasting,
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if I cry out day and night asking God to give me something, then it would be unfair for God to ignore that level of devotion.
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Do you ever operate from that mentality?
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Do you ever imagine that there is some mistake?
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Do you ever imagine that there is some mistake?
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Then at last, God will be motivated to grant your request.
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Now this is tricky because in his teaching, Jesus did commend persistence in prayer.
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Think of the parable of the persistent widow, for example, in the Gospel of Luke.
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It can be a very good thing to wrestle with God in prayer for over an extended period of time,
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time. The issue is, what is your view of who God is? Are you thinking that prayer is twisting God's
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arm so that he will act? Are you thinking that prayer is trying to impress a reluctant observer
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who is judging your performance? Are you thinking that prayer is some kind of negotiation where you
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give God something he wants so that you get something that you want from him? Well, in Matthew
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6, 8, Jesus commands us not to bring that way of thinking into God's throne room.
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Rather, Jesus lovingly reminds us that your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
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When we pray to God, we pray to our Father.
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And as our Father, he not only knows what we need, but he is committed to provide what we need. And
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he does so willingly, eagerly, and with delight. In Matthew chapter 7, Jesus reasons with us,
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which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?
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Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are eager to pray,
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know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven
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give good things to those who ask him? Forget not all of the Lord's benefits, right?
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Notice that the text does not say that if a child asks for bread, he will always receive bread.
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No, Jesus never guarantees that.
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That we'll get exactly what we ask for exactly when we want it.
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However, Jesus does promise that if we ask for bread, God will not give us a stone.
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From that, I conclude that when we ask for bread, God will either give us bread or something better.
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We may not always get exactly what we ask for, but we will never
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get something better.
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Sometimes our Heavenly Father knows what we really need, what's best for us in the long run
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and as a part of his eternal plan. And that's not always what we ask for.
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But understand the heart of God behind these verses. God knows how to give good gifts to his
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children. He is wise and
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and he loves us.
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So knowing that should free us to run to him and seek good things from him.
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Therefore, in returning to verse 8, we might ask, okay,
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if God knows what I need before I even ask him, and if he is already motivated to give good gifts
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to me as his child, then what should I pray for?
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I get that I shouldn't pray as people who don't truly know God.
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And I don't need to mindlessly and endlessly repeat formulaic prayers, but
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if I shouldn't pray like that, how should I pray? If those are the questions you are asking,
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congratulations. You are now ready to study the Lord's Prayer. Because before Jesus taught his
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disciples how to pray, he taught them how to pray. And before Jesus taught his disciples how to pray,
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He needed them to understand the proper mindset of prayer.
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We must have an accurate understanding of who God is
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and his relationship with us
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and caring disposition toward us
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before we can pray as we ought.
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The Lord's Prayer does not make sense
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unless it is spoken from a heart that is secure in God's love
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and freed from anxiety about the needs of everyday life.
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Brothers and sisters, no meditation app
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can bring true and lasting peace and security.
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A real serenity and genuine mental health
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can only come from knowing deep in your soul
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that God is your Father.
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So, Jesus,
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Jesus continues instructing his disciples and us.
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Pray then like this.
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Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
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Your kingdom come, your will be done
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on earth as it is in heaven.
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We could spend hours exploring the riches of these two verses,
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but let's examine them phrase by phrase
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in what short time.
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What short time remains.
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First, the prayer begins with an address
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to the one to whom we are praying,
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our Father in heaven.
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Some commentators claim that this phrase stresses
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both the imminence and the transcendence of God.
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He's imminent, or close to us,
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because he is our Father.
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It's a very earthy and intimate way
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to describe the Lord.
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It's a very earthy and intimate way
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to describe God.
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But at the same time, he is God in heaven,
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far above us,
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and reigning over the entire earth that he has created.
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I agree with this interpretation,
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but I think that there is more.
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As I hinted at before,
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I think the primary meaning of God being called our Father
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is that he is committed to us by covenant.
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When we are brought into God's family,
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he assumes a responsibility to watch over us,
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protect us, and meet our needs.
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And then by adding that God is in heaven,
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I think this means that God has all the power
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at his disposal to carry out that covenantal commitment
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that he has made to us.
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So it's not just that we call on a God
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who is both imminent,
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and we call on a God who is not.
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and we call on a God who is close to us,
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and transcendent,
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but one who is both willing and able to take care of us.
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Pause here for just a minute
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to reflect on a very simple,
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but perhaps overlooked reality.
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When we pray to God,
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we pray to a real person.
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When you pray, you're not talking to yourself.
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You're not throwing up wishes into the atmosphere.
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You should not be directing your words
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primarily to other people if you are praying in a group.
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You are talking to a personal, relational being
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who is giving you his full attention.
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Tim Keller once described prayer in this way.
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Prayer is continuing a conversation
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that God has started through his word and his grace,
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which eventually becomes a framework
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for a full encounter with him.
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In other words, prayer is simply talking to God,
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but always as a response to what he has said to us first.
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It's a conversation,
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but it's not a superficial or trivial conversation.
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Rather, it's the most profound conversation of our life.
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And if we persist in it,
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it becomes a conversation.
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It becomes a full encounter with God.
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I am belaboring this point, perhaps,
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but I think it's so important for us to realize
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that in prayer, you are actually communicating with God.
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So easy to lose sight of this.
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Just go through the motions.
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Let me tell you a brief story
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that drives home this point for me.
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That's John Nelson Hyde.
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He was an American missionary to India
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during the late 1800s and early 1900s.
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In some ways, he wasn't very well suited for the ministry
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as he was partially deaf
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and had a hard time learning the local languages.
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He was also plagued by migraine headaches.
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But what he could do was pray.
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John Hyde, nicknamed Praying Hyde,
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was a prayer warrior,
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a mighty intercessor.
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And here is a description of an encounter he had
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with J. Wilbur Chapman,
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who was a well-known pastor and evangelist
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while Chapman was hosting a crusade in England.
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Chapman recounts,
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As we were leaving, I said,
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Mr. Hyde, I want you to pray for me.
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He came to my room,
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turned the key in the door,
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and dropped to his knees
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and waited five minutes
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without a single syllable coming from his lips.
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I could hear my own heart thumping
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and his beating.
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I felt hot tears running down my face.
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I knew I was with God.
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Then with upturned face,
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down which the tears were streaming,
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Hyde said,
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Oh, God!
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And for five minutes at least,
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he was still again.
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And then, when he knew that he was talking with God,
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there came from the depths of his heart
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such petitions for me as I had never heard before.
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I rose from my knees to know
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what real prayer was.
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Do you pray like this?
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Do you set aside
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unhurried time for prayer?
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Pushing aside all distractions
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and waiting in silence if necessary
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until you know that you are talking with God?
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Let's not rush past the first phrase of the Lord's Prayer.
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When you pray,
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address God directly.
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You have been given a chance to pray.
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You have been given direct access
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to the throne of grace.
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And you are speaking to the most important being
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in the universe.
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The prayer continues with
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the first petition,
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Hallowed be your name.
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Even as we have sung this morning,
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throughout Scripture,
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the name of God is associated with his identity,
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what he has revealed about himself.
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It is also strongly tied to the idea
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of God's reputation or fame.
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Jesus instructs us to pray
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that God would cause his name to be hallowed.
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Did you know that the ESV only uses the word hallow
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here in Matthew 6-9
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and in the parallel prayer of Luke 11?
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Only two times in the entire Bible,
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even though the Greek verb
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which this word translates is fairly common.
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I think the ESV chooses to use the word hallowed here
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because of the extraordinary influence
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of the King James Version of the Bible
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and the generations of Christians
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who memorize the Lord's Prayer with this word.
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However, in other verses,
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the same verb is usually translated
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with the English verb sanctify.
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So a more consistent translation
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would be let your name be sanctified.
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What does that mean?
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The idea is not that the name of God
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is somehow profane or common
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and needs to be made holy.
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Rather, the name of God
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is not yet everywhere regarded by people as holy.
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And thus we are to pray
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that God would cause his name
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to be honored throughout the earth.
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Here's a prayer phrase
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that I think captures the meaning
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of this first petition in the Lord's Prayer.
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May human hearts know and revere you
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for who you truly are.
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This is not only guidance for how we ought to pray,
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but it also gives us insight into God's purposes.
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God desires to be known for who he is.
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Not only that,
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he wants us to be in awe of his majesty,
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for our hearts to rejoice
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in his holiness and greatness.
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His worshipful trembling before God
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happens in the human heart.
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That is why a robot can never be programmed
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to pray in a way that pleases God.
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No matter how precise the words that are spoken,
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spoken, no matter how closely a robot might mimic our gestures in prayer, a robot can never
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revere God. I was talking to my brother-in-law, John, recently about the growing use of AI
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in his industry. I imagine that many of you might also be tracking the development of AI.
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You might even be nervous that a robot or a software program might take over your job someday.
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But let me assure you, no robot or AI bot will ever be able to replace your prayers to God.
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Again, an AI bot might be able to craft the most eloquent and theologically precise prayer that
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you've ever heard.
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But the prayer cannot glorify God because it doesn't come from the heart. Only humans can truly
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worship God. The second petition is similar. Your kingdom come. In the Gospels, the term God's
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kingdom doesn't refer to geography per se, the land or territory of God's rule.
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But rather to God's kingly power and authority, his reign. And so this second petition is a prayer
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that God's heavenly power would be demonstrated on earth. We could paraphrase the second petition
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in this way. Father, may your kingly power and authority be increasingly manifest. I learned only
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a few days ago that this would be the last Sunday that
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I would be able to speak to you before you venture forth for this great work. And I cannot think of a
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more effective three-word prayer to lift up for the church plant than this. Your kingdom come.
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Your kingdom come. You see, Gun Barrel Baptist Church will only succeed in its mission
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if God shows up. The church plant needs the power of God to come down from heaven
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to change hearts and to change lives. Nothing else matters if God is not present by his Holy
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Spirit bringing transformation to the world. God is not present by his Holy Spirit bringing
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transformation through his kingly authority. So when you pray for the church plant,
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or when you pray for VBS this week, or when you pray for my family's ministry in Indonesia,
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please pray these words. Your kingdom come, oh Father. May your power be manifest
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in Gun Barrel, Colorado.
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At highland and even to the ends of the earth. The third and final petition we will consider this
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morning is this. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus makes it clear later in the
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Sermon on the Mount that he is not impressed by those who merely say, Lord, Lord, and make a
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confession of faith.
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The will of the Father who is in heaven. God desires obedience. That is why the Great Commission
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at the end of this gospel commands us to make disciples, teaching them to observe all that
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Jesus has commanded us. In heaven, the angels and other heavenly beings obey God perfectly.
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Not only is God the Lord, but he is the Lord. He is the Lord. He is the Lord. He is the Lord. He is the
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Lord. He is the Lord. He is the Lord. He is the Lord. He is the Lord. He is the Lord. He is the Lord.
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Individually, but also corporately. In heaven, there is no rebellion against the will of God.
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Nothing to thwart God's intentions from being completely fulfilled. Therefore, here is how I would
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paraphrase the third petition. May your good design for human society be enacted so that heaven's
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shalom is experienced.
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On earth. So, brothers and sisters, in conclusion, what might we say about the passage as a whole?
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This morning, I want you to grasp especially the transition from verse 8 to verse 9. When you know
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deep in your soul that you have a Father in heaven who cares for you and is committed
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to providing for your needs,
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that frees your heart from anxiety,
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from obsessing over the everyday details of life.
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And when you're freed from staring at what's right in front of you,
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Jesus invites you to lift up your eyes and consider the big picture. God's kingdom is
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expanding throughout the earth. The gospel is reaching every tribe and nation.
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God is doing exciting things to bring honor to his name.
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He is changing lives and transforming communities.
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And he wants us to be involved in crying out for that.
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He wants our hearts to be aligned with his global purposes.
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He wants us to be swept up into something so much larger than ourselves.
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That is his redemption.
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plan for all of human history. And I get it. There are so many distractions that would keep us
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focused on our own lives and our own worries. Believe me, being a missionary does not make me
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immune to this. We can get wrapped up in our own little bubbles and pray only about our own
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little needs. And it's not wrong to pray for those things. If we were to study the second
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half of the Lord's Prayer, we'd see how Jesus instructs us to pray about those things.
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But Jesus would say, seek first the kingdom of God. Have a holy passion for the name of God
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among the nations. I grew up in the state of
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Connecticut, nowhere close to the mountains. So when I am here in Denver, I can't stop looking
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at the Rockies. It never gets old for me to look out to the western horizon and admire
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the grandeur of the mountains. Here is a picture I took early this morning,
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which of course doesn't look all that impressive. But believe me,
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it was glorious. And brothers and sisters, this morning, I believe that God is inviting all of us,
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myself included, to lift up our eyes, to expand our horizons,
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to comprehend the missional heart of prayer. His name and his kingdom need to come first
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in our hearts, in our hearts, in our hearts.
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And in our prayers. As a very practical step of sermon application,
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please do sign up to receive our email updates to hear about what God is doing in Indonesia.
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Better yet, sign up to receive Isaiah DiLorenzo's updates, which are awesome.
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They're better than ours. I love to read about what God is doing in Peru. Learn more about what
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God is doing in the Philippines.
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and prayer program.
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And I'm so excited to be in Indonesia. We must always remember, as we blessed our
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It's such a really light equipped, sparkly prayer room.
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Let's pray for one another.
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Let us pray for one another, let us pray for one another, fly this grace,
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let us pray for one another, let us pray for one another, fly this grace,
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first God's kingdom together. Amen? Amen. Let's pray. Father, we can so often be bound
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by small things, trivial things in our lives that keep our gaze down and at ourselves.
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But I pray, God, that knowing your love and your provision for us would just free us so that we
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might look to the mountains, look to the horizons, God, what you are doing, Lord,
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on the edges of the kingdom, how it's being expanded throughout Westminster to Boulder
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and Gunbarrel to the Philippines to Peru to Indonesia. God, catch us up into something so
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much greater than ourselves, which gives our lives and our prayers true meaning,
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meaning and purpose. Lord, align our hearts so that we desire the things that you desire
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so that we can find true human flourishing, Lord, in your will. We thank you, Lord,
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for this opportunity to study your word, and I pray that it would bless us, that it would benefit
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us. We pray especially, Lord, for those who are leaving this morning,
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out in faith. God, be with them and be with us all. Be our Father in heaven.
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Take care of us for your great name's sake. Amen.