Avoiding Hypocrisy in Prayer

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Hello, welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist.
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This is a daily conversation about scripture, culture, and media from a Reformed perspective.
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Get your Bible and coffee ready and prepare to engage today's topic.
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Here's your host, Pastor Keith Foskey.
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Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist.
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My name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist.
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Today we're going to continue something that we started on last week's program.
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If you'll remember, last week we began to discuss the subject of prayer.
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I had been asked by a person who recently joined our church about the discipline of prayer and about some things that could be used to increase their own personal understanding of how to pray and to become more strengthened and better equipped for the discipline of prayer.
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So today we're going to continue that conversation.
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Last week we looked at the first part of what is called the model prayer.
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Now oftentimes this is referred to as the Lord's Prayer, and we all know that that begins Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done.
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Most of us are familiar with that prayer and most of us call that the Lord's Prayer.
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But in all actuality, we would be better to call that the model prayer or the disciple's prayer, because that's not a prayer that Jesus himself would have prayed.
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That's a prayer that Jesus taught us to pray.
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And that prayer shows up two times in the Gospels.
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One time it shows up in Luke chapter 11 when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray.
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But it shows up in another place in the Gospel of Matthew.
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It shows up in a sermon.
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Jesus is preaching what's commonly referred to as the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 5, 6, and 7.
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And in Matthew chapter 6, Jesus gives us the longer version of the model prayer.
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In Luke's Gospel it is a little shorter, but in Matthew's Gospel we have the prayer that most of us are familiar with.
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The only part that is not there, depending on the translation, is the ending part.
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For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
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Most of us are familiar with that doxology that happens at the end of the prayer, but it is not included in most modern translations, even though some manuscripts do have it.
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So I believe it is found in the King James Bible, but it's not in the ESV.
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Most of us, then, are most familiar with the King James rendering of the model prayer.
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But what I want to look at today is more the subject of the attitude in which we go to prayer.
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If you remember last week, we talked about who we are speaking to.
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Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
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Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.
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We said we're talking to God.
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We're talking to our Creator.
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But we're also talking to our Father, who is in heaven.
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And so there is a sense in which we're talking to one who is magnificent and glorious and almighty, and another sense in which we're talking to one who has condescended to relate to us through the person of Jesus Christ, who has adopted us into his family.
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And because he has adopted us into his family, we are now able to call him Abba, Father.
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And so that was our subject last time.
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We talked about who it is we are speaking to and how important that is.
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But as we go today into Matthew 6, I want to point out another part of this prayer, another part of the attitude of prayer that is really important.
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If you open your Bibles to Matthew 6, you'll notice that right before we are given the model prayer, which is in verses 9 to 13, we are given Jesus's prelude to prayer as he decides to tell his, in his prayer, his disciples the way they should not pray.
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And that's really what today is about, is about ways that we shouldn't pray.
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And we see this in verse 5.
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Jesus said, And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others.
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Truly I say to you, they have received their reward.
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But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who is in secret will reward you.
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That is an important section that we must never overlook, because it begins with Jesus saying, when you pray, you must not pray like the hypocrites.
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Well, what is a hypocrite? That word is used a lot, and people are often accused of being hypocrites.
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In fact, I know many people who say, I don't go to church because it's full of hypocrites.
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And unfortunately, it is true that there are people in the church who are hypocrites.
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But there are hypocrites everywhere.
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In fact, anywhere there is a standard for behavior, there are people who pretend to uphold that standard when they actually don't.
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We see hypocrites in politics.
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We see hypocrites in the media.
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We see hypocrites in a lot of places.
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So it's not that hypocrisy is something that is foreign and only found in the church, but hypocrisy is throughout the world because people are sinners.
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What makes it bad is when it is found in the church, because the church should be a place where we don't have to be hypocrites.
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You see, a hypocrite is an actor.
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That's what the word hypocrite means.
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It comes from the word that means someone who does what they do because they're being watched.
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It was the word for someone who was on the stage and someone who was doing something because they were under the scrutiny of others.
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And so that is what hypocrisy is.
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Hypocrisy is doing what you do only because others are watching.
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And that's what Jesus says in verse 5.
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When you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others.
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Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
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Well, what is their reward? Their reward is that other people are watching them.
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When they go outside and pray and they pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to try to get people's attention, what they're doing is they're seeking out the approval and the recognition and the respect of other men.
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And when they receive that approval and respect, they are getting the reward that they want.
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They're receiving the reward that they desire.
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And so Jesus said, don't be like them.
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Don't pray simply because you're being watched.
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And this is important for us, especially when we think about what motivates us to pray.
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Do we pray when we are alone? Do we pray when it's just us and God? Or do we only pray when there are people who are around to see us pray or to pray with us? Are we praying on our own? Are we motivated to pray by ourselves or are we only motivated to pray when there are other people who are encouraging us to pray? Now, for a moment, I want to say this.
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I know how easy it is to start the day and forget to pray and to go through the early morning hours and do one thing or another or another because you wake up and it's busy and the time has flown by.
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And lo and behold, you've come to recognize that you've gone several hours and you have not prayed.
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I know what that's like.
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I know what it feels like to be there.
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And so that is something to consider.
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When we think about personal prayer, sometimes it's nice when we go to church because at church we know we're going to pray and we know we're going to pray together.
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So I'm not saying and Jesus is not saying that corporate times of prayer are bad, but what he is saying is that we should have our personal times of prayer that we are disciplining ourselves to do and that we should not only pray when there are other people around to watch or to participate with us.
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And ultimately, he says, when you pray, go into your room, shut the door and pray to your father who's in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you.
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Now, without getting into what the rewards are and what this means regarding how we understand the concept of heavenly reward, ultimately, the reward itself is in first and foremost, the act of prayer.
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When we do seek to take the time to make prayer to God a vital part of our day and an initial part of our day, oftentimes the reward is in the fellowship itself, the fellowship that we have with God.
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And he mentions here a closet, going to your room, some translations translate that as closet or inner room.
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Basically, he's saying he's comparing that to the Pharisees who would go out and they would pray publicly so that they would be seen.
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And he's saying, no, don't don't go pray just to be seen, but go and pray privately.
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And getting back to what I said just a minute ago, I know how easy it is to sometimes forget to pray because, you know, I have several children and I get up in the morning and I'm changing a diaper or I'm fixing a breakfast or I'm preparing to to go about my day.
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And oftentimes I have things come up and I say, oh, I haven't prayed.
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So it is important, I think, to establish a routine for prayer.
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Now, I'm not advocating what the Muslims advocate, and that is that you have five times a day that you bow down toward Mecca and have your ritual prayers.
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But I do think that there are ways that we can encourage ourselves to be reminded to take those times of private prayer, because if it's private, no one else is going to hold you accountable.
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You're going to have to hold yourself accountable.
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And if it's private and you're not doing it in a group, like I do have morning prayers with my children.
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My wife is wonderful with our homeschool.
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So every morning we do have what we call Bible and breakfast, and the kids know Bible and breakfast, Bible and breakfast.
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We know what time it happens.
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And some mornings I can't do it because some mornings I have to go visit a hospital or maybe go teach a class.
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And some mornings I miss, but I try very hard to be at home for Bible and breakfast.
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And when I'm home for Bible and breakfast, I know I'm going to get that time with the kids.
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I'm going to get that time with my wife and that time of structured prayer and reading the Bible.
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But do I have my own personal prayer time? And this is what I was going to say.
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If you don't have that, then one of the disciplines that you can do is set yourself an alarm with your smartphone or whatever other PDA that you may carry or device that you may carry, something that would remind you to pray.
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Now, some people, as soon as their eyes pop open in the morning, they are thinking about the subject of prayer.
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They're thinking about going before God.
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But if you need that help, my encouragement to you would be to have something that reminds you, hey, before I leave in the morning, I'm going to have this alarm set, and this alarm is going to remind me to take a few minutes and spend some time in fellowship with God.
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Another thing, I like to pray when I'm driving.
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Now, I don't close my eyes.
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I hope that's pretty obvious when I'm driving.
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But if I'm by myself in the car, I think about the times when I've had some of the best conversations I've ever had with my wife.
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It's been when we go for a ride.
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When I was a kid, my dad and I loved to go for rides together, and we would just talk about our life and talk about everything that was happening in our life.
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So oftentimes, I think about when I'm in my car, I'm going for a ride with God.
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I'm going to talk to God as I'm driving, and I wonder sometimes if somebody sitting next to me in the car might look over and see me at the stoplight talking to no one and wonder if maybe I'm a little out of my mind.
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I guess today, with the advent of Bluetooth, they may think I'm on a cell phone call or something, but I do speak out loud to the Lord while I'm in my car, and I think that's another way to have private prayer.
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And so that's really the encouragement for you today.
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If you don't have a time of private prayer with the Lord, if the only time that you're praying is when you're with other people—around the table at dinner, at the church with the other saints in fellowship—all of those are good.
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I'm not saying don't pray around dinner.
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I'm not saying don't pray with the saints.
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Those are all necessary and good things, but they shouldn't be our only times of prayer.
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They shouldn't, in fact, be our most precious times of prayer.
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Our most precious times of prayer—and I think this can be backed up from this text—is when Jesus says, when we go to the Lord privately, and it's us and the Lord, and there's no hypocrisy in it, because we know the Lord can see everything.
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There should be no deception in it, because we know the Lord can know everything.
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He does know everything.
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And so there is just an opportunity to be real with God in a private—in the closet, in the car, in the bedroom, wherever you go to pray, and being dedicated to the Lord in prayer.
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So my encouragement to you today, based upon Matthew 6, verses 5 and 6, would be to seek to ensure that when you're praying, that you're not praying just as a show to others.
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Seek to ensure that when you're praying, that you're not praying simply because other people are around, but that you are taking private times of prayer where you're going before the Lord, just you and God.
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You're pouring out your heart to him.
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You're talking to him.
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You are sharing your heart with him, and you are calling out to him for whatever your needs may be, and praising him for who he is as your Father who is in heaven.
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So that is my encouragement to you today on the subject of prayer.
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I'll probably do at least one or two more of these lessons on prayer.
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I really enjoy speaking about this, and I hope that you have enjoyed hearing it.
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Thank you for listening today to Coffee with a Calvinist.
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My name is Keith Foskey, and I have been your Calvinist.
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May God bless you.
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Thank you for listening to today's episode of Coffee with a Calvinist.
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If you enjoyed the program, please take a moment to subscribe and provide us feedback.
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We love to receive your comments and questions and may even engage with them in a future episode.
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As you go about your day, remember this, Jesus Christ came to save sinners.
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All who come to him in repentance and faith will find him to be a perfect Savior.
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He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through him.
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May God be with you.