Host leads a sermon on Matthew 6:7–15, condemning vain repetitions and long quiet times while advocating for frequent, brief prayers suitable for busy mothers. Analyzing the Lord's Prayer, he divides petitions into God's honor—hallowing His name, kingdom, and will—and human needs like daily bread and forgiveness, mirroring the Ten Commandments. He asserts prayer changes the pray-er rather than God's mind, rejecting Arminian manipulation in favor of a Calvinist view where believers are sanctified tools for God's unchanging plan and evangelism. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H, sat-12l-sm, script v26.04.01, and large-v3-turbo
Time
Text
Motives Behind Prayer00:10:39
Leave us a five star review on your favorite podcast platform.
I get it.
It's annoying.
Everybody asks, but I'm going to tell you why.
When you give us a positive review, what that does is it triggers the algorithm so that our podcast shows up on more people's news feeds.
You and I both know that this ministry is willing to talk about things that most ministries aren't.
We need this content for the glory of God to reach more people's ears.
You're doing a great job.
We've got several hundred reviews so far, but we'd like to reach a thousand reviews by the end of this year.
The year of our Lord 2024.
If you haven't left a review yet, take a moment and help us achieve our goal.
Amen.
Please join me in standing for the reading of God's Word.
This morning we continue our series through the Gospel according to Matthew.
Our particular text is Matthew chapter 6, verses 7 through 15.
Again, that's Matthew chapter 6, verses 7 through 15.
I'll read our text for us in its entirety when I finish reading the text.
I'm going to say, This is the word of the Lord, at which point I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying, Thanks be to God.
One final time, our text again is the gospel according to Matthew chapter 6, verses 7 through 15.
The Bible says this But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
But not ye, therefore, like unto them, for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him.
After this manner, therefore, pray you, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.
Amen.
For if ye forgive men their trespasses, Your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
This is the word of the Lord.
All right, please be seated.
We'll go ahead and dive right in.
The first thing that we want to address is verses 7 and 8 of our text, where before Jesus gives us a particular instruction and more than merely instruction, but also a case study and example.
Of how to pray, he first condemns the heathen, or some translations say the hypocrite, predominantly who he has in mind are the religious Jewish rulers of that day.
He condemns them for the ways that they pray.
And chiefly what he has in mind is their aim or their purpose or their motive in prayer.
That when the heathen prays, and again, who Jesus has in mind, it's not necessarily the pagan who is.
Irreligious, who has no concept or custom or practice of religion to be mentioned whatsoever, but ironically, the party that Jesus chiefly has in mind are those who were deemed and considered by the culture of the day as being the most religious, and those particularly who were leaders of religion.
It is they that Jesus refers to as the hypocrite, and particularly in this translation, namely the King James, Jesus.
Regards them as the heathen.
And the primary problem when it came to their prayers is their motive and their goal in prayer.
Their goal in prayer was not to honor their Father in heaven.
Their goal in prayer was not to petition and make requests humbly of their Father in heaven, but rather their goal was to utilize prayer as a cheap opportunity to impress men.
When they prayed, the language was addressed to God, but the purpose and mode of the prayers was to be seen in a more honorable light, not by God.
But merely by men.
It was to pray lofty prayers in public spaces to be heard by men rather than by God.
And Jesus tells them that you have received your reward, your temporal and merely earthly reward in full.
In other words, you should expect no future, final, eternal reward from God because you did not pray for God.
You did not pray in your hearts, in a true sense, toward God.
You prayed merely to be seen.
By men.
So Jesus tells us not to be like them, not to be like the hypocrite, not to be like the heathen, not to be like the religious rulers of his day, but rather to pray from true motives, for true and righteous purposes, that God would be the audience of our prayer, that God would be the source, the only source to which we appeal for help, that our confession would be to God,
our petitions would be to God.
Our honor, praise, and thanksgiving would be to God, and that in that sense, our prayers, many of our prayers, would be private.
There is a place for public prayer, we do it each Lord's Day, but that the bulk of our prayers in our personal Christian lives would be private, praying to an audience of one, to God, and not to be seen by men, and also that our prayers, in a certain sense, would be brief.
And they would be short.
That even in this, with the brevity of our prayers, what we're doing is acknowledging the omniscience of God and more than merely his omniscience that God knows all things.
He knows every need that we have before we even make it known.
We're not only acknowledging the omniscience of God, but we are in a sense acknowledging the omnibenevolence of God.
Not merely that he's all knowing, but that he is all good, that he's merciful, that he is kind.
That we don't have to somehow win him over to our cause.
But if we have union with Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, by grace through faith, then all the blessings that God has that rightly belong and are bestowed upon his son Jesus, they trickle down from the head to the body.
Christ is the head of the church, and the church is his body.
In the same way that Aaron was anointed by oil as a priest, a high priest, and the head of the people of Israel.
The oil would trickle down off of the head and eventually begin to saturate and soak the whole body.
So, too, it is with us that God has anointed his son Jesus and bestowed upon him every spiritual blessing.
And those who have union with him by the Spirit and through faith become the proper recipients of all of those blessings.
Put another way, by Jesus himself, he is the vine and we are the branches.
So long as we are connected and have union with him, All of God's goodwill is directed toward us.
If you are in Christ, you are the object of God's goodwill.
Goodwill on earth, goodwill toward men, goodwill toward Israel, that is true Israel, not according to the flesh, but according to the promise.
Those who have union and are rooted in Christ, who is the root.
He's the root of David, the root of Jesse.
If you are in Christ, you have God's benevolence.
So when we pray, our prayers should have genuine, right motives, not to be praised by men.
But rather to be accepted and pleasing and praised in a proper sense by God, offering praise to God, but also knowing that if we do what is right by grace, that we too will receive commendation and praise from God.
I mean, that's what we're all looking for at the end of the day is that we would stand before God on that final day in eternity and receive from Him praise.
Well done, good and faithful servant, is a commendation, it is praise from God.
I'm reminded of the Lord of the Rings.
I believe it was the Two Towers, where I think it's Aragorn who says that the praise of the praiseworthy is the highest or chief award.
More than gold, more than silver, more than anything else that we could accommodate or that we could gather, the greatest reward is to receive praise from the praiseworthy.
It's one thing to be praised by the praiseworthy.
The peanut gallery.
It's another to be praised, even by someone that you admire and think highly of, perhaps your spouse.
But even when we receive praise from our spouse, we know that our spouse, as much as we love them, as highly as we think of them, we know that our spouse is still fallible.
But to receive praise from the one who is infallible, from the one who is truly praiseworthy, is the highest reward.
To be praised by God Himself.
So, what is right prayer?
Well, from the first two verses of our text, namely verses 7 and verses 8, we see that right prayer, proper prayer that's pleasing to God, is the opposite of what Christ is condemning in the religious rulers of his day, the hypocrites and the heathen.
And what is he condemning?
He's condemning praying from false motives, namely the fear of man rather than the fear of God.
And he's also condemning toward that end praying to be praised by men and praying, therefore, in lofty ways.
The Widow's Persistent Faith00:15:05
Long prayers.
So, prayers that have right motives, prayers that are private, prayers that are secret, prayers that are offered exclusively to an audience of one, to God in heaven, and not to be praised or seen by men, are prayers that are pleasing to God.
And likewise, prayers that are not only private and secret, but also prayers that are brief, are also pleasing to God.
Because when we pray brief prayers, there's a sense in which we're acknowledging who God truly is.
One, that he's omniscient, that he knows everything before we even ask, but two, that he's omnibenevolent, that he is all good, that we, by virtue of union with Christ, are the recipients and the proper object of his love, of his goodwill, of his kindness, and that we don't have to talk him into being kind to us, but that we can come boldly before his throne of grace,
recognizing that he is ready and eager to be kind to his people for Christ's sake.
And in that regard, trusting that he is good, that his heart is already geared up toward us with goodness, we can pray short prayers.
To put it simply, there's another text where Jesus is giving a parable to serve as an example of how we should go to God in prayer.
And he describes a widow who is seeking justice.
And in this particular parable, The judge that she is appealing to is a wicked judge.
He's not a just judge.
But the widow is incessant in her appeals to the judge.
She goes to this wicked judge again and again and again.
And the judge ultimately responds by saying, Although I am a wicked judge and I have no desire to do justice on the earth, this widow is starting to annoy me, getting on my last nerve.
And so I'm going to give her the justice that she's asking for simply so that she will leave me alone.
And then Jesus makes this argument from the lesser to the greater.
He says, How much more your Father in heaven, who is just and who also loves you and desires to do good and justice towards those who are his children by virtue of their union with Christ.
But notice here's the point the widow is brief but repetitive.
In other words, if I was to say, How should we pray?
Using that parable, and then again, the first two verses of our text today.
How should we pray?
Well, in a nutshell, our prayers should be private for the most part.
Again, there's a place for public prayer, but our daily prayer life for the most part should be private.
It should also be frequent.
The widow goes to the judge not once, but I believe it's 10 times in the course of a day in this particular parable.
So, frequent prayers, but then also coupling that with our text that we have here and what we saw.
Last week, when we skipped ahead, we looked at Matthew chapter 6, verses 16 and 17, and I believe 18 as well.
That our words should be few in prayer because God is already geared in kindness towards us, and He's omniscient and already knows our needs before we even make them known.
So our prayers should be repetitive, frequent, but brief.
And our prayers should be private to be seen and heard by God rather than be seen and heard by men.
So, three components of proper Christian prayer private prayers.
Short prayers, but frequent prayers.
Private prayers, short prayers, but frequent prayers.
I remember hearing from pastors and missionaries, different older Christians when I was younger, and there was a sense of truth in what they were saying.
I don't use this example to disparage them.
There's worse advice that you could get than people telling you you should spend time in prayer, right?
I mean, out of all the bad advice that there might be out in the world, older Christians telling a young man to spend lots of time in prayer is probably not going to ruin your life.
That's probably not the worst example of bad advice that you could get.
So I don't want to use this example to disparage believers who gave this advice.
But I remember some of the advice that would be given is it was all about your quiet time.
And I think that in a general sense, that was a good bent, a good instinct.
Because some of the implications of a quiet time, one characteristic would be that it's private, secret, right?
That's quiet time.
It's just you and the Lord alone.
It's not the worst thing in the world.
That's a biblical principle.
It's everything that I've been espousing thus far.
But in addition to that, it seemed as though the impetus was on long quiet times, that it was deemed as more sanctified, more.
More admirable if a person had a three hour quiet time in the morning.
And the earlier you woke up, for whatever reason, that would be impressive.
If you had your quiet time at night, God was less pleased.
There's just something about 4 a.m. that just really lays hold of the heart of God, which I was never persuaded of that and still am not.
I'm a dad now with five young children, so I start the day.
Pretty early, but I don't think God's particularly impressed by that.
But that was kind of the general sentiment: have a quiet time, right?
So it's private.
You're alone with God.
That's a good sentiment.
But in that, the quiet time would be marked by reading scripture, which is good, and then also usually prayer.
But there was kind of a propensity or an urgency that the prayer needed to be really long.
You needed to be praying, you know.
In prayer for an hour.
And it wasn't until I was older and had learned more from the scripture that I realized that there is something to be said, of course, when the Apostle Paul, underneath the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in Holy Scripture, says, pray without ceasing.
So incessant prayers is that's praying long.
There's something there.
But I think that these incessant prayers, in many ways, are more characterized.
Can be more accurately described as the incessant appeals of the poor widow who's not sitting in front of the judge's house necessarily for five hours straight.
But the impression of that parable that Jesus tells us, especially when cross referenced and coupled with Matthew chapter 6, verses 16 and 17, it seems as though it says, Let your words be few when you pray.
It seems as though.
Incessant prayers, unceasing prayers, prayer that is proper and pleasing to the Lord is not necessarily an hour or two hour or three hour uninterrupted prayer session that begins at 4 a.m., but more likened to quick, short prayers that happen again and again and again throughout the day.
And so that became more and more of how I learned to pray as I got older.
That in many ways, I probably pray as much as I ever did, but the prayers are broken up.
They're short prayers where I'm going before my Heavenly Father multiple times throughout the day.
Sometimes on a particular day, given the particular petition, what it is that I'm asking for, and how much urgency there is, and how much need there is, I might go to the Lord 20, 30 times in prayer.
There's been moments where, again, as a father, where all the kids are sick.
And the Bible tells me to be anxious for nothing but with prayer and supplication to make my request known to God.
And I'm failing in that particular moment.
I am giving way to worry and anxiety.
And so I find myself, as often as I'm anxious, that's the same frequency that I go to the Lord in prayer.
But each time it's a short prayer, it's maybe a minute and a half.
But I find myself praying for a minute and a half 20 times in a day.
And for the most part, it's the same prayer.
There's nothing novel, there's nothing new, there's nothing lofty, it's not long or verbose.
It's not necessarily on a mountaintop in front of people.
It might be in front of my wife or with the kids, but I'm praying again and again for the most part, privately, secretly, but also with brevity, short, simple, but with a high degree of frequency, going before the judge of all the earth, who is a just and good judge, and appealing to his mercy and not his justice, which that's another pointer.
When we go to the Lord in prayer, when I'm asking for healing for my kids, I don't go to the Lord and say, God, you owe me the healing of my children because you are a just judge.
I'm asking you for justice.
My children, they deserve healing on the basis of your justice.
That's a bad prayer.
If anything, that's putting the Lord to the test.
If I'm appealing for justice from God for my children, I might as well just be asking God to send my kids to hell.
Probably not the best strategy in prayer.
And for the record, for the Presbyterian in the room who's thinking, oh, I hate that.
That's his Baptist.
Inclinations coming out.
No, it's the same thing for me.
If I ask God for justice towards me, it's hell for me too, even after baptism and a profession of faith.
That's justice for all people.
All people.
Salvation is mercy.
And it is fair to say that in the gospel, this is a mercy that doesn't come at the expense of justice.
It's not at odds with justice because the penalty for our sin was justly paid by Jesus Christ.
The cross, Calvary, is the place where both mercy and justice meet.
Without contradicting one another.
Yes and amen a thousand times.
But you get my point.
I'm praying privately.
I'm praying shortly, concisely.
I'm praying frequently.
And I'm appealing to God's mercy predominantly rather than his justice.
These are some of the elements or characteristics of prayer.
And we can glean all this from the parable of the widow who goes before the judge.
But we can also glean all this from verses seven and eight of our text.
By simply assuming the opposite of what Jesus is condemning as bad prayer.
So he's condemning bad prayer.
So to try to pursue good and proper prayer, we want to do the opposite.
Well, what's one characteristic of bad prayer in verse 7 and 8 of our text today?
Praying to be seen by men.
So prayer should be secret.
What's another characteristic of bad prayer that we saw last week when we skipped ahead and looked at verses 16 and 17 of Matthew chapter 6?
Well, long and lofty prayers, wordy prayers.
Okay, so prayer that's good and proper should be private, secret, should also be brief, concise, acknowledging that God is omniscient and omnibenevolent.
And then, lastly, looking over and cross referencing the example that I already gave the parable of the widow who goes before the judge.
Prayer should also be incessant in the sense that not necessarily it's an uninterrupted prayer session from 4 a.m. to 7 a.m. without one moment of pause.
But no, it's incessant, like the widow, meaning that it's frequent.
It's going before God again and again and again.
Good prayer, proper prayer, New Testament Christian prayer, if we were to say it that way, would be many short prayers.
Private prayers.
Say that again.
Christian prayer is many short private prayers.
And this is really important.
It's the reason why we haven't even gotten to the Lord's Prayer yet.
But the reason I wanted to take some time on this is because I think there's a lot of wrong ideas about prayer within the Christian church today that it needs to be long, it needs to be very serious, it needs to be Lofty and verbose, and that three hour unerupted quiet time.
So, I think there's a lot of misnomers, a lot of misunderstandings about prayer that need to be righted, needed to be corrected.
But also, you know that I tend to try to have very practical application.
Well, here's one, there are many, but here's just one very practical application about these New Testament, very biblical characteristics of good and proper pleasing prayer.
Here's one application that I think is incredibly hopeful.
The application would be for mothers.
If you're a young mother, and all of a sudden, you know, you remember when you were, you know, getting your degree in biblical studies, you know, and you were 19 and 20, and you and your college roommates would wake up early and spend an hour in prayer, and it would be out loud and uninterrupted, and now you're a mom, and that.
Pretty much never happens.
Well, the good news is that biblically speaking, it doesn't have to happen.
And you could maybe even argue that it's not supposed to happen.
Because you know what you can do as a mom?
Short Prayers Throughout Day00:02:55
You know what kind of prayers you can do?
Lots of short prayers throughout the day.
And isn't it encouraging that that's literally exactly what the Bible tells us to do?
That Jesus literally tells you to pray in a way that is perfectly conducive.
To being a mom with a bunch of young children who will not let you have an hour of uninterrupted prayer.
What a great mercy.
What a great kindness from the Lord.
Jesus has mom appropriate prayer in mind.
Turns out that the mom who only gets to pray for 90 seconds, every 30 minutes or hour and a half, in spurts sporadically throughout the day, in between nursing, And discipline and crafts and cleaning and fits, that it turns out that that actually perfectly parallels Matthew chapter 6 far more than the lofty, long,
uninterrupted prayer times that many of us were convinced were more pleasing to God.
I think that that's encouraging.
Okay, so now that we have a better idea of prayer, how not to pray, and how we should pray, now let's get into the contents of prayer.
So, prayers should be frequent, for the most part, private, and they should also be brief.
Okay, but in that vein of lots of, you know, many short private prayers, okay, that's great, but what should they be about?
Okay, so it's a short prayer, it's a prayer I'm offering frequently and for the most part privately, but still I need to know what I pray.
What do I pray?
So now getting into the contents.
That's kind of the method that we just covered the method of prayer, the strategy of prayer.
Well, now what is the content of Christian prayer?
Jesus provides for us an example, a case study, and I would argue that this is a summary.
So it's not that we have to pray these exact words, although they're exact words that Jesus gives us, so it wouldn't be a bad idea.
I think praying the Lord's Prayer, verb Verbatim is a great way to pray.
But each of these things, these tenets of the Lord's Prayer, I think serve as headlines, as a summary of the different components that make up the overall content of Christian prayer.
And that's what we want to look at now.
Let me read the Lord's Prayer one more time just so that it's fresh in our minds.
Knowing God's Holy Word00:04:23
Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.
Amen.
You'll notice I went with the King James this week because how could you not with the Lord's Prayer?
I just, to read the Lord's Prayer in any other version of the Bible just feels like.
Loss, at least at some degree.
That's not to say that the other versions are terrible or bad.
A lot of times I use the ESV.
I think that's fine.
But the King James is fantastic in this regard.
Even the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, on its chapter that talks about the doctrine of the Word of God, it seeks to make arguments for validating how we know the Word of God is in fact the Word of God.
And the ultimate way of knowing that the Word of God is in fact God's infallible Word.
Is that the Spirit bears witness within us.
And that's what the 1689 eventually culminates to in that particular chapter.
It says, but at the end of the day, we know that we know that we know that this is the Word of God because the Spirit who inspired the writing of the Word of God also illuminates within our own spirits the reading of the Word of God.
The same Spirit who inspired the writing illuminates the reading and bears witness within us that this is, in fact, the Word of God.
So that's the ultimate reason that the 1689 offers.
But it also offers some other practical reasons before that.
And one of the practical reasons that the confession provides for knowing that this is the Word of God is it actually says the majesty of the language.
Now, you have to keep in mind that the 1689, at the time of the writing of that confession, when it's talking about the Word of God, it's not talking about the message version.
And it's not talking about the ESV either, or that, you know, whatever, NASB or what, you know.
Your choice, you know.
The NIV.
No, it's talking about the King Jimmy.
It's talking about the King James.
So, when it says one of the ways that we know that the Word of God is, in fact, the Word of God, it doesn't say the only way we know is the majesty of the language, because if that were the case, then maybe you could try to convince someone that some Shakespearean plays are the Word of God, because Shakespeare used majestic language as well around that same period of time.
So, it's not the only reason that the 1689 and the Westminster cite for knowing that the Bible is, in fact, God's holy Word.
The chief reason, again, is the Spirit of God who inspired the writing also illuminates within our hearts the understanding and the proper reading of the Scripture.
So that's, at the end of the day, the biggest reason why we know the Word is the Word.
We know the Word of God is, in fact, the Word of God because the Spirit of God tells us so.
But there are also practical characteristics, and one of those is the majesty of the language.
And there's a point to be made there.
I don't think that we should be so hard lined as to say, and therefore any other translation of the Bible is sinful or wrong and cannot be used.
I'm not, you know, if you've been to this church even once before, then you're probably aware of this.
I'm not a King James onlyist.
But I do like the King James.
And I do think that there is not so much a theological argument to be made, but a practical argument to be made to simply say that the Word of God.
Should be written with a majestic style.
And I think that the 1600s and that time period within the Anglo British English tradition of Christianity and Christendom, there and that style of writing is kind of the high watermark so far.
Practical Arguments for KJV00:05:28
Eventually, one day, if we have a generation of Christians that aren't as dumb as we are, Myself included.
If we have like Titans again, like Calvin and like Luther, then I think that they could use the original manuscripts and text and write in majestic language a translation that might even be better than the King James.
For anyone who thinks I'm going to attempt that, don't.
Feel free not to, because you'll spend your entire life and the final product will be something radically inferior.
To the King James Version of the Bible that we already have.
We are not the generation for this task.
We're not.
Because we are the lesser sons of former sires.
And that's sad.
You've heard me say that again and again, but it needs to be said.
It needs to be.
We need to understand that.
We are currently the lesser sons of former sires.
Not because that's how it always is meant to be.
I'm post millennial, so I believe long term.
That the church is going to progress.
And I believe that doctrine and theology will not be diluted in the long run, but further sharpened.
I think that things will get better, that the church will get better, its doctrine will get better, its theological minds will increase and improve.
But just like the stock market, for lack of a better example, it's not just a perfect line, you know, steadily up.
It's an overall up trajectory, but it depends what year we're in.
You know, there's a lot of guys who are near retirement, and if you're near retirement, there's a really good argument to be made.
If you're in your last two to five years before retirement, the stock market might not be your best bet.
If you're 30 years old, then the stock market might be a good bet because in 30 years, no guarantee, but in 30 years, there's a strong likelihood that with that much time, the trajectory will be up.
But in two years' time, right?
I mean, if you were looking to retire in 2012, and it's 2007 and 8, and you're like, I'm going to stay in the SP 500 for the next five years and we'll be good.
That one didn't work out well, right?
Because we had the housing market crash and all those kinds of things.
So, all that being said, long run, the trajectory, I'm post millennial, I'm hopeful, got some positive thinking going, but rooted in scripture, not just vibes.
I think that eventually.
We're going to have better theologians than Calvin, even better perhaps than Augustine or Athanasius.
But we don't have them right now.
We don't.
Well, that's a big claim.
Like, what authority do you have?
Because the best, most brilliant theological minds that we have right now, all they're doing is spending their time eroding and trying to destroy Calvin.
That's all they're doing.
We like Calvin and his soteriology, Doctrine of Salvation, and everything else about him was mean.
Why?
Because it's post 1945, and that's just how we think.
So, yeah, we don't need somebody to rewrite a new King James version of the Bible.
Not right now.
We don't have the minds for it, we don't have the hearts for it, and really, if nothing else, we don't have the stomachs for it.
Because good theology requires good minds, good hearts, and I would argue, Iron stomachs.
Pansies are not good theologians.
They're just not.
And right now we have some sharp minds, but even the sharp minds that we have within the theological realm have sharp minds but really weak stomachs.
And so they're not up for the task.
But there is something to be said for that task, and until somebody's ready, then the high water mark that we currently have is the Reformation.
It's guys like Tyndale, it's guys like Luther, it's guys like Calvin, it's guys like Zwingli.
And one of their works, not just the theological works and the books that they produced and the confessions that were written, but also one of their works is that version of the Bible, the King Jimmy.
And the confessions, when saying, How do we know it's the Word of God?
Well, at the end of the day, the number one reason we know is because the same spirit who inspired its writing also illuminates its reading and bears witness within us.
That this is in fact God's infallible word.
But lesser reasons, still reasons nonetheless, but lesser reasons, practical reasons, the majesty of the language.
I mean, even in the great Republic of Texas, with a high school football team, if they're going to take a knee and pray the Lord's Prayer before the game, they're not going to be using the NIV.
Asking for Daily Provision00:15:21
It's going to be the King James.
Right?
That Texas football team, even they know that when we say the Lord's Prayer, We say it the way King Jimmy would have said it because that's the thing to do.
It's the right thing to do.
There's an argument to be made, so that's why we're using the King James today.
If you're preaching on the Lord's Prayer, you don't have to be a King James onlyist, but you do have to be a King James onlyist when you come to Matthew chapter 6, verses 7 through 15.
So here we are.
All right.
Three parts of the Lord's Prayer.
Obviously, different theologians have made different arguments.
I think this is a generalization.
It's simple, but I think it's helpful, and it's generally true.
Matthew Henry says this three different parts of the Lord's Prayer one being the preface, two being the petitions.
That's the request, the things that we're asking for.
And then, lastly, thirdly, the conclusion.
So, the preface how do we enter into the Lord's presence when we go to Him in prayer?
What should our introduction of prayer be?
The introduction of our prayer is essentially it's us entering into the throne room, it's us coming before God, it's us coming into His presence.
And one of the things that we see elsewhere in the scripture is that we enter into His presence with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.
So, we don't Immediately enter into the courtroom of God, the throne room of God, with our petitions, especially our temporal and earthly petitions, which are not sinful, they're not wrong.
Give us this day our daily bread is an earthly petition.
It's temporal, it's physical.
It's not deeply spiritual, although there are spiritual implications, but it is predominantly a practical need.
One component of prayer is asking God to meet our practical daily needs.
And God delights for us to come and make those petitions.
God doesn't spurn us.
He doesn't lose respect for us.
He doesn't keep us at arm's length when we go to Him, even frequently and regularly throughout the day, incessantly, again and again and again, asking for practical things.
It's okay to go to the Lord and ask Him for provision and protection.
It's okay to go to the Lord again and again and ask Him, Would you continue to provide for us so that we can make the mortgage, so that we can purchase groceries, so that we can do these things, so that we can feed our children?
These are good prayers.
Your Heavenly Father knows that you need them.
Not one sparrow falls to the ground without Him seeing you are of much more value than sparrows.
He feeds the sparrows, He clothes the lilies of the field, He knows you have these needs.
And he delights in obliging these requests.
But they're not the first thing that we say to the Lord in prayer.
So it's a part of our prayer, it's a component of prayer.
Practical requests, petitions that are physical.
That's part of prayer.
Also, petitions, requests that are spiritual.
That's also a part of prayer.
So it's not the physical at the expense of the spiritual.
It's not saying, Lord, I pray that you would help me to feed my children, and I do not pray whatsoever for their salvation.
Nobody's advocating for that.
But what is being advocated for in the scripture by Jesus himself, no less, is both.
Both.
Pray for the salvation of your children.
Pray that your marriage would exemplify the eternal marriage that exists between Jesus Christ and his bride, the church.
Pray that you would be further sanctified, even in the midst of suffering and difficulty.
Pray that God would use you to be faithful and engaging in the work of an evangelist that many might hear the gospel and come to saving faith in Jesus Christ.
And pray for cash.
It's okay.
It's okay.
It really is.
The love of money is the root of not all evil.
That's not what the text technically says.
It's the root of all kinds of evil.
Money is not the root of all evil.
The love of money, and even the love of money, is not the root of all evil, but the root of all different kinds of evil.
So there are various expressions and types of sin that can all find their root in greed.
Greed, not money in and of itself, but greed, the love of money, idolatry of money over and against love and affection for God, that is a sin.
And it's a particular sin that, like Augustine would say, of pride.
Augustine said that pride is the pregnant womb that gives birth to all other kinds of sin.
Likewise, love of money, not money in and of itself, but greed, is also a sin.
A kind of sin that is a birthplace, an origin place, a pregnant womb that gives birth not to all evil, but it can be the fountainhead that ultimately trickles down into multiple different streams of different kinds of evil.
That's what the verse is saying.
So don't love money more than God.
But you can also pray for cash without loving money more than God.
I regularly am praying, Lord, would you help me?
First and foremost, to spiritually protect and provide for my family.
But secondarily, would you also help me to physically protect and provide my family for my family?
And in the realm of provision, would you help me to provide for my family physically, practically, in such a way that, like the proverbs say, like you told me in your words, a good man or a wise man leaves an inheritance not only for his children, but his children's children.
Would you help me, Lord?
Would you empower me and give me the grace, give me the diligence and the vigilance to be able to leave not only for my children but for my grandchildren, first and foremost, a spiritual inheritance, a gospel inheritance, catechesis, sanctification, discipleship, that I would be able to leave that for my grandchildren and cash?
I would like my grandchildren to be spiritually mature and have some money.
And maybe a property or two, so that maybe for once the enemies of God wouldn't be the ones who own everything.
Is that such a bad idea?
Wouldn't it be nice if the righteous were the employers?
If the righteous owned the media companies?
If the righteous were doctors in the medical sphere?
If the righteous were Christian princes and politicians in the realm of politics?
Wouldn't it be nice?
If the righteous, if the Christians didn't just have our little holdouts, our little burrows of our churches, while the wicked own everything else, I want my grandchildren to have a spiritual inheritance first, but not replacing that, but in addition to that, to also have a physical inheritance.
And that physical inheritance, one aspect would be monetary.
And I hope they have that, not merely for their comfort and ease, because money does provide comfort and ease.
This is a Bible verse that sometimes you're like, is that really a verse in Scripture?
It seems so vain.
But there's literally in the book of Ecclesiastes, there is a verse, and I'm not exegeting or interpreting.
I quote, and money is the answer to everything.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Like it's literally a verse in the Bible.
And the author, of course, the human author, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is not saying that money is the answer to the problem of sin.
He's not saying that money is the savior in an eternal spiritual sense.
But what he is saying is that in general, in the practical, physical realm, this temporal life, things are a lot easier if you have money.
You know that there are plenty of people who die all around the world from disease and plague and sickness that is preventable.
And if they had more money, they'd still be alive.
You know that happens, right?
Money doesn't just afford vacations.
Money increases lifespans.
Money allows it.
You don't want to drink all the seed oils?
Good.
That's great.
But you know what?
Seed oils are cheap.
And good, healthy food happens to be expensive.
Are there immoral, corrupt reasons behind that?
I think so.
But it still doesn't change the practical reality that for the time being, Even if good, healthy food doesn't have to be expensive, currently it is.
Money helps.
So, making practical petitions for practical things is absolutely not only permissible.
Here's the deal Jesus isn't just saying, This is how you could pray, He's saying, This is how you should pray.
Again, headlines like a summary.
So, it doesn't always have to be verbatim reciting the Lord's Prayer.
Every time you pray.
But this is the direction of how we should pray.
These are the components that should make up our prayers multiple times throughout the day.
And it's not just saying it's permissible.
Christ is not merely saying it's God will allow you, when you pray, to make petitions for practical things.
No, he's actually saying that when you pray, you must make petitions for practical things.
Because here's the deal.
To do otherwise, because Jesus knows it's an assumed, it's not a question, it's a law of nature, it's a fact.
It is assumed that you and I, as physical, finite creatures, we require physical resources in order to live.
You must eat, you must sleep, you must drink.
So to not make your physical request, ultimately what it does is it's not saying, oh, I'm just not a vain.
Shallow, worldly person.
I'm very spiritual.
No, no, no.
Because the very spiritual person still eats.
So, to not make the physical petitions for physical things is to do this it's assuming that you need those things, assuming that you will work to therefore acquire those things, and also assuming that those things don't come from God, that they can be acquired apart from Him, that you actually don't need to pray to God.
For physical resources, because you've got that covered yourself.
No, no, no.
We ask God with all our spiritual petitions for spiritual things because He's the only one who can answer those prayers.
He's the only one who can provide sanctification and protection from being led into temptation and keeping us from sin and salvation and forgiveness of sins.
He's the only one who can provide those things.
And guess what?
He's also the only one who can provide food and water and shelter and clothes.
It's all Him.
It's all Him.
He is the source.
The exclusive source of all of our needs, both spiritual and physical.
And so when we pray, we go to the Lord and we make petitions for spiritual needs and for physical needs.
But all the way back to my first point here the first words of the Lord's Prayer are not petitions for physical needs, like, Give us this day our daily bread, or even petitions for our own spiritual needs, lead us not into temptation.
But deliver us from the evil one, or forgive us our trespasses, our debts, our sins, as we seek to forget those who have sinned against us.
Now, the first way that we enter into God's court in prayer is with praise and thanksgiving.
However, to be fair, in the technical sense, it is still a petition, but it's not a petition for us.
It's not a petition for meeting our physical needs, nor is it a petition for meeting our spiritual needs.
It is a petition for God.
For God to perform for himself something that is ultimately for him.
And what is that?
Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
It's a petition, a request, but the first request is that God would hallow his own name.
To hallow something is to make it holy, to make it revered.
And so the first thing that we do in prayer is we enter with praise and thanksgiving.
But even this praise and thanksgiving can be presented to God in the form of a petition, a request, but it's a request that God would garner for Himself the optimal amount of reverence and praise possible.
So the first thing that we do, dear God, make yourself awesome.
You are awesome.
Make it known, make it more known, more awesome.
In the true sense of the word awesome, not just the way that some.
1990s Southern California surfer would have used the term righteous, gnarly, but no, awesome in the sense that it is, it inspires awe.
God, make your name inspire awe, wonder, reverence, praise, glory.
Lord, would you make yourself, who is already awesome, would you make your name?
Notice that the petition is not, God, would you make yourself holy?
Behold, I am the Lord, I changeth not.
So that you, the sons of Jacob, are not consumed.
I'm the same yesterday, today, and forevermore.
Teaching Kids to Pray Right00:07:45
God, ontologically speaking of his perfections, his attributes, as it were, he's always the same.
God can't become any more holy than he already is.
So we're not praying for God to become something.
We're praying not, hallowed be you, hallowed be your character, hallowed be your nature, make your nature, make yourself more holy.
We're not praying that.
Hallowed be thy name.
Make the knowledge of the glory of God cover the whole earth as the waters cover the sea.
We're talking about not God ontologically and who he is.
We're talking about God in terms of the optic and how he is known.
Hallowed be thy name.
Let the name of God be hallowed, be made more reverent, more awesome, more holy, more wondrous in the hearts and minds of men all over the earth.
God, would you reveal yourself, demonstrate yourself, prove yourself to be glorious?
Not that you would become another degree of glory than you already are and always will be and always were, but that you would make the knowledge of your name, yourself, that glory, would you make your glory not greater, but would you make your glory more known?
The knowledge of your glory greater in all the earth.
That's how we enter.
So the first is the preface.
Henry says, O Father who art in heaven, before we come to our business, There must be a solemn address to him with whom our business lies.
Our Father, even that.
We could just say, Oh God, or Oh righteous judge, but we're commanded by Christ.
Again, all this is a command.
It's not just what's permissible or what is allowable in the mind of God when it comes to prayer, but this is what Jesus is saying we must do.
Jesus is saying, When you pray, address God as your Father.
Even as we teach, my wife and I, our children to pray.
We teach them to pray our Father.
Our Father.
We do not teach our children, even our young children, who have not been baptized yet, much to the dismay of the Presbyterian.
I get it.
I understand.
But you will be at least somewhat consoled by what I'm about to say next.
Although my youngest children are not baptized yet, I do not teach them to pray, Mom and Dad's Father, who art in heaven.
Hallowed be thy name.
I also do not teach them to pray.
O great enemy who art in heaven, of which I am a child of your wrath.
Now, that would be in the theological, technical sense true, assuming, here's a caveat, assuming that my younger children are not regenerate.
And I don't know.
I don't have election goggles.
I don't have regeneration goggles.
So, my youngest children, because here's the deal I think it's rare.
I don't think we should make it a normative principle.
But there are cases when.
Children are regenerated by God's grace, not by anything that they did, but by God's grace, very young.
John the Baptist leaped in his mother's womb.
So, John the Baptist, from the womb, that dude was a Christian.
Also, very masculine.
His diet was very masculine.
Although, today, you got to give caveats because now, you know, the liberal theologians would be that's right, you want to be a masculine Christian, you will eat the bugs, locusts.
And I'd be like, nah, nah, nah, that one was unique.
That's just John.
We will eat the steak.
But, anyways, but the point is, he was regenerated in his mother's womb.
So, it's possible that baby Mabel over there, strapped on mama's chest right now, she could be regenerate.
If I'm betting, I would say probably not.
But I believe all my children are elect.
You guys have heard me make that argument in the past, and I always get grief for it from Baptist, which makes no sense.
I don't get it.
I'm not saying that all my children are beginning.
You know, in utero, 100%, you know, regenerate.
I'm not saying that, but I am saying that I believe that when two Christian parents who fear the Lord and love Him, God gives them children, the assumption, we recognize there are exceptions.
Of course, there are exceptions.
I'm not saying God owes it to us, it's not presumption.
But I'm saying, in terms of assumption, what direction should we lean?
It's not a guarantee, but what direction should we lean?
Should we assume that if God is giving us children and we're Christian parents, should we assume that God is giving us children who are elect?
Meaning, not necessarily regenerate, but that it's a matter of simply when rather than if.
That they will be saved.
That they will be saved.
Because God doesn't sever the means of grace from the ends of grace.
If the end is the salvation of his elect, well, one of the chief means of bringing about that salvation is Christian parenting.
Look at the statistics.
I mean, we can look at Islamic nations.
And we can say, you know what?
Most of the kids here, they're going to grow up, and guess what?
They're going to be Muslims.
Well, wait a second.
You're not, the Spirit blows where He wills.
John chapter, yeah, uh huh.
And as it turns out, historically and statistically, it seems as though the Spirit who blows where He wills has historically willed to blow towards the salvation of children born in Christian homes.
And we should just acknowledge that.
We should acknowledge that.
So when we teach our kids how to pray, it's not a statement of saying, I know for a fact, definitively, that you are regenerate right now, two year old.
I know it.
Because chances are, looking at the evidence and some of the fruit, especially if you're doing your family worship right after dinner time with that two year old, then you probably, if anything, you're thinking, ah, we're pretty sure the two year old's not regenerate.
Pretty sure.
No guarantee, but pretty sure.
And yet, even with the unregenerate two year old, right after dinner, who has disobeyed like 47 times in the last 30 minutes with dinner, when it comes to the prayer portion of our family worship and we're instructing that two year old how to pray, we're still going to say, repeat after me, Our Father.
Our Father.
And this is good and this is right.
So, Before we come to business, we must be a solemn address to him with whom our business lies, our Father, intimating that we must pray not only alone and for ourselves, but with and for others.
So there is prayer, the bulk of it will be private, but there is a place for public prayer, which is why we say our Father and not merely my Father.
Now, even privately, you can still say our Father, because even when you're privately praying to the Lord, it's still acknowledging that salvation, the spirit of adoption, does not just bring you into your own private honeymoon with the Lord.
Addressing God as Father00:04:21
When you're adopted into the family of God by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, you gain God as your father, and you also gain a tremendous number of brothers and sisters.
It's not just you.
When you're brought into the body of Christ, you don't merely gain, you gain nothing less than God as a father, but you definitely gain something more than God as your father.
You also gain siblings, for better and for worse.
You gain siblings, you gain a lot of them.
Some are great, some are terrible, absolutely terrible, and yet they're still brothers and sisters in Christ.
Our Father, it's not just for ourselves but for others, for we are members one of another and are called into fellowship with each other.
We are here also taught to whom to pray to God only, not to saints and angels, for they are not to have the high honors.
That we give in prayer, nor can they give favors we expect.
We are taught how to address ourselves to God and what title to give him.
That which speaks of him rather beneficent than magnificent.
That's key.
For we are to come boldly to the throne of grace.
What Matthew Henry is saying there is that on the one hand, the first petition, so the first two words, our Father, right after that, that's the address, and then the first petition is that God would hallow his name.
Hallowing his name, making his name more reverent, more wondrous, more glorious, more holy.
And yet, the two words that precede that first petition that God would further hallow his name is the address, and it's our Father, which is in some sense more of a descriptor, a more accurate descriptor that highlights his beneficence rather than him being magnificent.
He is magnificent, and we pray that he would make his magnificence more known by hallowing his name.
In the minds and hearts of men all over the earth.
But the way we address him, that even precedes the first petition that God would make himself known as more magnificent, the way we address him is not as magnificent, but as benevolent.
It's an intimate address rather than a formal one.
Our Father, both are in mind.
Our Father, He is benevolent.
He belongs to us, I and my beloveds, and He is mine.
He is our Father.
It is intimate, it's benevolent, and now, quickly shifting gears, also make your name known as more reverent and more holy in all the earth.
So that's the address, the preface.
The petitions, using Matthew Henry again, these are six.
The first three relating to God and his honor, making petitions on behalf of God.
Hallow thy name, that's one of them.
That's a petition, but on behalf of God, for God to do something for God, for his own sake.
The first three relating to God and His honor, the last three to our own concerns, both temporal and spiritual, physical and spiritual, as I've already espoused.
As in the Ten Commandments, it's following, Jesus is following in prayer the same pattern as in the law, the Ten Commandments.
So, as in the Ten Commandments, the first four of the Ten Commandments teach us our duty toward God, and the last six of the Ten Commandments, our duty toward our fellow man, our neighbor.
The method of this prayer teaches us to seek first.
By making our first three petitions about God, it teaches us to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then to hope that all these other things, the next three petitions, spiritual and physical needs for ourselves, that after first seeking his kingdom and his righteousness, that all these other things might be added unto us.
And the petitions follow from there.
First three petitions about God Hallow thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done.
Changing Hearts Through Praise00:08:09
Then, A prayer for us, petitions for us.
Meet my physical needs.
Give us this day our daily bread.
Also, our spiritual needs.
Forgive me of my sins as I seek to forgive others who have sinned against me.
And then, lastly, also help me not to acquire and rack up more sins by leading me not into temptation, but delivering me from evil.
Or some translations say, the evil one.
Okay, lastly, we'll be done.
I'll make it quick.
The conclusion using Matthew and Henry one final time For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
A form of plea, again that's request or petition, a form of plea to enforce the foregoing petitions.
It is our duty to plead with God in prayer, to fill our mouth with arguments, not to move God, but to affect ourselves.
The point of prayer, this is the last point of the sermon, is not to move God, but the reason we pray is that we might be moved.
In prayer, we are not seeking to change the mind of God.
God is not a man that he should change his mind.
The scripture literally says that.
People will use the example of Abraham, you know, going up on the mountainside, praying that God would spare Sodom and that he talks him down, you know, if there's 100 righteous or 50 righteous and gets all the way down to 10 righteous.
And God says, Yes, for the sake of 10 righteous, I would spare the city.
And people will be like, There you have it.
That's Abraham is talking to God, aka prayer.
That's what prayer is talking to God.
And he's changing God's mind.
God said he'd destroy the city.
When Abraham got done talking with God, what did God do?
He destroyed the city.
Zero mind being changed.
God did not change his mind, but God did, in prayer, change Abraham.
God did change Abraham.
He changed his heart, he changed Abraham's mind, he taught him powerful truths about how God is willing.
To spare even the wicked for the sake of his elect, for the righteous?
The larger picture that Abraham would be, from him would come a seed, and that through that seed we would have the salt of the earth, and that God would be slow in his anger, and forbearing, and kind, and patient, and long suffering, that he would not uproot the weeds and tares in such a way that it would be premature and damage the wheat?
The very heart and nature of God and his gospel plan is revealed to Abraham through prayer.
So, Abraham is changing.
Abraham is growing.
Abraham's being sanctified, but God changeth not.
God does not change.
It is our duty to plead with God in prayer, to fill our mouth with arguments, not to change God or to move him, but to affect ourselves, to encourage the faith, to excite our fervency, and to evidence both.
It is also a form of praise and thanksgiving.
This final.
Part of the Lord's Prayer, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.
Wait, I'm sorry.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
It's also a form of praise and thanksgiving.
It's like the bookends, if you will.
The best pleading with God is praising of Him.
I'll say that again.
The best pleading with God is praising of Him.
It is the way to obtain further mercy as it qualifies us by grace to receive it.
So the prayer begins and ends, the Lord's Prayer, with bookends, if you will.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as a petition.
And then, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, as a statement.
Both are forms of praise and yet at the same time, petitions of sorts, asking God to accomplish all his will on earth as it is in heaven, a request, but also an acknowledgement and a statement, giving deference to God, acknowledging God, praising God, honoring God.
And all of this.
Is not to change him, but to change us.
Prayer is not a think tank session between you and the God of the universe where you inform him of your brilliant strategies and ideas for how and why and what methods he might utilize in order to carry out his glory and his good here on earth.
That's not what prayer is.
You are not God's informant.
That's precisely why your prayers should be not few, many prayers, but short.
Not few prayers, but short prayers.
Why?
What is the Gospel of Matthew?
If we just went on a couple verses, what is explicitly said?
Your prayers should be short because there's nothing that you know that God doesn't already know Himself.
Your prayers are short because God doesn't need you counseling Him.
Who has ever been a counselor to God Almighty?
That's the text in Job that's cited.
You are not God's advisors.
You are not God's counselors.
He has no need of your counsel.
He has no need of your advice.
He knows all things and He has already determined all that He will do before the foundations of the world were ever even laid.
So then why pray?
That's what the Arminian would always say.
Well, why pray?
If God's already determined the elect and who He's going to save, why evangelize?
Or if God already has determined His will and what He's going to do, then why pray?
Whereas, essentially, what they're implying is that their only purpose in prayer is to change God's mind, to somehow manipulate the mind of God in order to get stuff.
That God might actually be persuaded to leave his plan and join them in theirs because they might be smarter.
That's essentially what the Arminian is implying when he says the Calvinist has no point in praying because he doesn't believe that the mind of God can be changed.
That's silly.
Or the Calvinist has no point in doing the work of an evangelist and sharing the gospel because, you know, God has already determined who the elect are and who he's going to save.
Yeah, but God works through means.
The reason we do the work of an evangelist, number one, because God commands us and we want to be obedient.
Number two, not because he needs our help, but because it's our privilege to be used by God in bringing in the elect to salvation.
And then why do we pray?
Not to change the mind of God, but through prayer.
Our minds and our hearts might be changed.
That through prayer, it would be used as one of his instruments to sanctify us.
Not that God would be changed into our image and our plans, but that through prayer, as God's instrument, he might sanctify and change us more and more into the image of his son.
That's why we pray.
So let's pray now.
Father, thank you for your word.
Bless it to your people.
Let us be a church that is known for prayer, marked by prayer.
That our prayers would be many.
That they would be short, and that they would be prayers that ultimately seek to honor you and not to bring glory and attention to ourselves.