Jeff Durbin on The Lord's Prayer Part I

Understand how the Bible uses that word and those phrases, really the kingdom of God and kingdom of heaven are synonymous to one another. Jewish sensitivities forced Matthew to use kingdom of heaven in place of God just because of the sensitivity they had even to writing God's name, which is interesting because in a moment here you're gonna see Jesus be so brazen as to call God Father and that is really an epic moment for the people of God to see God in the flesh, Jesus the second person of the Trinity referring to God the Father as our Father, such an intimate thing.

And so Matthew chapter 6 we finished now the big portion. We are going to go back and do a sermon or two on some more parts there just to get a better grip of what's happening there in the context of the whole story.

But we just finished the big section where Jesus after sitting on the mount speaking to the people unpacks and explains the law of God and really refutes their misinterpretation and misapplication of the law of God.

And now we're into some pretty intimate stuff. I mean we talked about a moment ago the providence question God's providence being the stuff of life the real nuts and bolts of life. And this is one of those things in the teaching of Jesus.

It's the real nuts and bolts of our experience with God our relationship with God to God. Matthew chapter 6. I'm gonna read the passage and then we're gonna get into it and unpack it today. The Lord's Prayer.

I want to tell you how excited I am today to do this. It is humbling. Matthew chapter 6 starting in verse 7. Do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do for they think that they'll be heard for their many words.

Do not be like them. For your father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this our Father in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For if you forgive others their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

But if you do not forgive others their trespasses neither will your father forgive your trespasses. As far as the reading of God's Word. Let's pray together father when I ask that you'd bless today Lord as we listen to the words and teaching of your son.

Help us father in heaven to understand what it means to talk to you. Help us Lord to understand Lord your explanation of how we are to have this relationship of conversation with you father. Help us Lord to see the glory Lord the majesty of being able to call you father to talk to you to converse with you to be your sons and daughters.

Let us understand that God I can't communicate it Lord in myself and my own words Lord I can't do what has to be done in this message for you to convict us God by your spirit to challenge us to go deeper with you Lord.

I pray that you would use Lord me a jar of clay an unworthy servant Lord and myself to Lord. Explain what it means to pray Lord Jesus. Thank you that you told us in your name we pray amen. So this is big think I want you to consider for a moment there are lots of books on prayer.

There's a there's a group of Christians in history that we really like a lot. We are really theologically speaking we are modern-day Puritans. Okay so our theology is very much consistent with the Puritans the Puritan way of thought.

We think that that's consistent with the early church. We think that's consistent with the New Testament. But the group of people that I'm talking about that really nailed and wrote books on prayer. And you can get the valley of vision this this amazing epic book of prayer by the Puritans.

They they knew how to pray and they wrote down their prayers and they were a praying kind of people. And if you go to any bookstore today into the Christian section after you wade through all of the false doctrine and false teachers and all of the charlatans and con artists.

How do you get through those books. You may find some good books on prayer. Prayer is actually a very profitable business in Christian bookstores learning how to pray pray like this. Here's seven days to better prayer 15 days to better prayer.

It's profitable to teach people how to pray. And oftentimes you can look at people giants of the faith in the past that wrote on prayer. And you can gather a lot of really amazing encouraging transformative teaching on prayer.

Good stuff from sinful people redeemed by God forgiven that no God that have dug into his word and said this is how we pray. And you can get a great benefit from it. You can even have your pastors tell you how you know how they answer to the question how do I pray.

And you may get some good answers some biblical answers. But the beautiful thing about what we're doing right now is you're not just hearing from a Christian how to pray. You're not just hearing from fallible human being who has come into a relationship with God after being.

He's come into history and he's talked to us. He's let us know about himself. And he's told us that we are his sons and daughters. We have been bought out of darkness into light out of slavery into freedom.

And this God hasn't left us in the dark. He's actually revealed himself. It's a revelation of God. There's no uncertainty here. There is rock solid certainty about prayer. About conversing with God communion communing with God.

We know what's important to God right now because of Jesus in prayer. What are God's priorities in prayer. What does he expect to hear from us when we talk to him. What's it like to talk to God and have a relationship with them.

And this is really I think powerful. The disciples that followed Jesus they got to see his life. They got to see his miracles. They got to see him touch people and give blind people eyes that could see again.

They saw him touch people's ears and he can let people hear once again. They saw him before miracles. And sick people coming in droves to Jesus got healed of their diseases. They got to see all these amazing things with Jesus.

They got to see him walk on water live righteously explain the law of God in its perfection. They got to see love incarnate walking sinful people to redeem them. And they got to see what. What is love like.

What is God actually like in the world. What is the perfect image of God. What were we supposed to be like. They got to see all that. But a really compelling thing that was different from Jesus in his ministry and his disciples is that they didn't pray like Jesus as much as they could see Jesus and try to follow him and try to be like him and all these different ways.

And how he loved people and how he tried how he took care of people. They might have followed him in that way but they certainly didn't follow Jesus in how Jesus talked to the father and how Jesus prayed and the intimacy that Jesus had with the father.

And this is one of those compelling things about Jesus that gets me it convicts me it challenges me it works me over. I told you last week that the thing that really highlights Jesus for me as a follower of Christ is his how much he absolutely utterly despised hypocrisy.

And I told you that if you were a person who was a hypocrite if you were a fake if you were the kind of person I like to wear a mask if you were the kind of person I like to put on the God face when you come to church then you wouldn't have been very comfortable around Jesus for very long because Jesus always went for the jugular he always went for the heart he always knew what you weren't willing to give and he always knew what was behind your motivations.

And it's just really kind of it's kind of creepy in some way that like it says in the text that Jesus knowing their thoughts answered them and so like they're thinking something and he knew what they were thinking and he would respond to what was going on between their ears.

Right. It's a little bit creepy. It might have been kind of weird for the disciples to know that every moment they're standing next to that in him and they're talking to him but he is right there in their heads.

Right. It's kind of weird. I wish I had the gift with some of you trust me. Okay. I don't I have to work on. Well I don't know what's real what's what's actually going on. But the powerful thing about Jesus that the disciples just had to it had to be something that was mind-blowing to them and frustrating to them.

Jesus would go away and he would leave people to go have time of intimacy with the father to talk to the father. Jesus would get up when it was still dark outside to pray. He probably did it all the time like every day.

It was his practice. He got up before the Sun was up to go and spend time with God in the time of Jesus trial where he's now going to Jerusalem and he's going to be crucified. He told them that he was he knew what was ahead of him.

He's going to pray in the garden of Gethsemane and he's crying out to the fine that in a space of a few hours the father is going to pour out upon him you and do to me. And Jesus still seeks the father.

And he's praying and he's petitioning and he's seeking the father as our substitute our representative. And he's grieving knowing the pain that is right ahead of him. And he still seeks the father. There wasn't a point there where he didn't trust him and long to hear from him and to know him.

And in this moment where the disciples are around Jesus they're there with them in this moment they can't even stay up to pray. They weren't even going to the cross. It was the one that they loved that was going to the cross.

And all they can do is think about their sleep. They're exhausted. They're tired. And certainly Jesus was too. But Jesus longs for the father. He longs for intimacy. He longs for that relationship as a human being.

He is there grieving over what's to come. And that's just that's a that's the thing about Jesus that gets me. The hypocrisy thing gets me because that's what you would intend and anticipate God to be like in the world.

He would hate hypocrisy. He would hate the fakeness. And he would call it down. And Jesus does. He just did that. He says don't be like the Pharisees the hypocrites the hoopoe crites the pretenders the actors the ones who are wearing a costume don't be like them when they pray.

They pray that so that people see them pray in the synagogues and on the street corners. That's that's what they do. They pray so people praise them for being so spiritual. When they give they give to get the trumpets blowing and so that everyone knows how spiritual they really are.

Don't be like them. Don't even let your right hand know what your left hand is doing he says. And when you pray go into the closet. And when you fast don't fast so that others see you're fasting. He says when you fast make yourself look good.

Don't make a thing out of it. This is the chapter of in translation by the way. Okay you don't try to let people know to highlight yourself and make yourself look spiritually. Since we're gonna be hungry for God.

Then be hungry for God. And that's what it's about. And Jesus says don't be a hypocrite don't be a pretender. He calls it down. And then this is the this is the powerful moment. This is where Jesus now God in the flesh tells us what it's like when he prays when God the Son who submitted himself to the obedience even to death he tells you what it's like when he prays.

That's astonishing. God is not just telling us about himself and about ourselves and about salvation in the world. He's telling us how to talk to him what our priorities are supposed to be like when we actually pray to God.

And this is really a big moment if you think about it. This isn't a self-help book written by a sinner on how to pray. This is not the Puritans tips to best prayer. This is Jesus telling you this is how you pray.

And he starts off and he does something interesting. It tells you what not to be like when you pray. It's interesting that he starts that way. Because really it's how we all pray. And it's how the cults pray and how religions that are really separate from God and hypocrisy really just incarnate.

It's how they pray. And so look what he says here he says in verse 7. And when you pray do not keep up empty phrases as the Gentiles do. For they think that they'll be heard for their many words. Do not be like them.

For your father knows what you need before you ask him. That's powerful. Now I'm going to just point out as we get into this and we start to unpack it and say well what does that mean. Something I want to highlight before we go any farther notice two things.

One the Gentiles and your father. So if you're taking notes this is big. Okay at least in my mind as I prayed and reflected and thought about teaching you this as a church and try to really dig into my own life and see where I fail.

And I do fail in prayer. I can. I know he's here miles. And your father. That's huge. It's not just giving you a case example that you should pay attention to. Like some sort of technical. Okay you don't pray technically like this.

You pray technically like that. He says Gentiles do it this way. But your father wants you to pray like this. And what's big about that right now right before us is there's a distinction for Jesus between unbelievers which is what Gentiles were at the time Jesus ministry first was to the Jew.

To the Jew first then to the Greek. It was about three and a half years after Jesus death burial resurrection and ascension that the gospel then went to the Gentiles. Which I think fits into Daniel 70 weeks prophecy perfectly.

By the way it's pretty awesome. However the gospel goes to the Gentiles later there were Gentiles there in Jesus ministry. But in this context when Jesus says this sermon of them out listen. Gentiles are pagans.

Gentiles are children of wrath. Gentiles are unbelievers. Gentiles don't know God. Gentiles are far off. Gentiles are aliens to the promises of God. And so Jesus is saying okay ready children of God. Gentile unbelievers pagans don't know God.

The unrighteous the righteous the unrighteous children of God children of the devil. It's that stark of a difference. And Jesus says don't be like the Gentiles. Those who don't even know God don't pray like them.

They heap up these empty phrases don't babble like them. He says your father your father you children of God who belong to God. You get to call him father. He knows what you need before you even ask for it.

So don't be like the unbelievers who don't even know God. They don't know him. That's why they talk to him in the way that they do. That's why it's hypocrisy. That's why it's fake prayers. That's why it's manipulation of God.

Because they don't even know him. And so of course their prayers are babbling and stammering and repetitious. Because they don't even know God as father. There's no intimacy there. There's no relationship there.

It's all technical. It's all just words and empty phrases. Your father knows what you need. So don't talk to him like that. Don't bring down God so low as to think you can trick him with the empty phrases and the pretend prayers and the meaningless babble.

Your father already knows what you need. So don't manipulate him. Don't try and distort your relationship with God. Okay so interesting point here to make watch Ephesians chapter 2. What does it say. Ephesians 2 is big.

Right. And by the way it's all about Gentiles and Jews being brought together into one body. Right. Ephesians chapter 2 what's it say. That God has broken down and done away with that wall of commandments that separated Jew from Gentile.

And he's he made them what he's made them one. There is neither male nor female Jew nor Greek slave nor free. You're all one in Christ Jesus. Right. So he says this in Ephesians 2. He says you were by nature children of God of wrath.

You were by nature children of wrath. He says you were dead in your sins and trespasses by nature children of wrath. So you have unbelievers described in a way that would really injure the psyche and the heartbeat of the modern-day preachers that want to say nice fluffy encouraging things.

Like all of us are children of God. There's something you need to grab hold of because it's vitally important for you to get if you don't know Jesus. And if you are a believer it's vitally important for you to get so you can make Jesus known.

And that is this. Not everybody is a child of God. People are children of God via adoption made by God. We're all children of God. Yes we're all image bearers of God all creatures of God. But we are not all children of God.

Being a child of God is not a right. It's a privilege. It's a gift. And if you call God father if you actually say that our Father in heaven and it's true and actually it's true it's connects and it's real if you say that that was a gift of God.

He took you as an alien a stranger an orphan as someone who was not him who didn't know him. And he took you by his love and he brought you into his family into his house. And he says father. He says you call me heavenly father our Father in heaven.

You're not like a Gentile unbeliever pagan doesn't know God. You're gathered together into God's family and bestowed with all the riches and grace and love lifted up out of the mud and the dirt and you are saved and called son.

That's huge by the way people get tripped up today especially in our PC culture and the tension between roles in our culture which is hitting a peak. Goodness sakes people get tripped up when the Bible uses things like as for men and women sons of God.

A woman says well I want to be called a daughter of God because female right. And like it. Why is it had to highlight the male. It's just it's it's a patriarchal system. You and your patriarchy it's all about the man.

It's all about the man and the male and the stuff. And it's like you are obsessed with genitalia. It is nothing to do with your genitals has everything to do with position in this culture and in God's system the firstborn son was the heir.

That son got everything so that the son could now distribute it down to the rest of the family. The son was the heir. The son was the one that was the next up the son. It was a big deal to be a son. And so watch when the Bible says you have been called sons of God and it's speaking about male and female together son of God.

Know this. That's the title. You want ladies not because of gender but because you are an heir. It's a it's God saying you're in my son now and he's the ultimate heir. And now I call you a son of God sons of God.

That means that you're all heirs. Well you're the you're the highest lifted up one. Right. Either. You're the one that's got the the premier status. That's that's what you are. Romans chapter 9. Go there real fast.

Romans 925. Just to show this distinction now again. And what God has done in calling and allowing us to call him father. I want you to see it. I want you to memorize this text because it's big. And Romans chapter 9 you know the passage.

Calvinists love this passage. By the way if you're here for the first time we are that so we love this passage. Romans chapter 9 talks about God's sovereignty and God mercying whom he wills and hardening whom he wills.

But in the context of God giving mercy to whom he wills and hardening who he wills. Watch this is big. God's a sovereign right. None of us deserve the salvation he's given. The Potter has the right over the same lump sinful humanity to make vessels of honorable use and vessels of dishonorable use.

Right. So all of humanity is that one lump of clay. What's the whole lump. Deserve to be cast out. Right. And it says that God mercies whom he wills hardens whom he wills. So by his grace he chooses to give mercy to the undeserving.

He chooses to actually love Jacob. Right. He could have hated both Jacob and his brother. But he says Jacob I have loved Esau I have hated. So he chooses to give love to the undeserving. And in this text and the whole God giving mercy to whom he wills by his grace.

25 through 26. Read this. Well starting 24 even us whom he has called God does the calling there. See he has called it wasn't us. He has called not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles as indeed he says in Hosea.

Watch here it is those who were not my people. I will call my people. And her who was not beloved I will call beloved. And in the very place where it was said to them you are not my people. There they will be called sons of the living God.

That's the whole thing. Right. That's that's the substance. Like look at this room right. Now look around. Point it out. Look at the white people. Look at the brown people. Look at the Asian people. Look at the black people.

We need more by the way color you understand. Stop reaching out to people who you were just comfortable with. I'm gonna say that just outright. The gospel is about bringing the gospel into all of the earth all the tribes nations people of every language that that is church to be so diverse and different colored because we recognize what God has done in bringing sons and daughters together out of all the nations.

Right. But look at it. Look out. Look how different it is. Look at room right now. It's huge. This is you. How many you guys have Jewish parents. Or you're from Jewish literal Jewish descent. Right. This room is full of a bunch of pagans redeemed by Jesus.

Most of our parents were all pagan parents. You go down and take a path through our genealogy. What is it pagan ancestry. And what did God do. He took people who were not his beloved and he called them loved.

He took people who were not his people and he called them sons of God. That's what's happening here. And you call God father now. So he says watch this. You don't be like Gentiles who don't know God. Pagans children of wrath not children of God.

You guys actually call God father. And so this is how you talk to the father. It's a big deal. Another text you guys want to go to later is first John 3 1. Just mark it down of the privilege and the glory.

Listen of the love that God has shown us in that he calls us sons of God children of God. Next Jesus says what he says. Don't be like the Gentiles. They heap up empty phrases. What does it mean to heap up.

Quote empty phrases. The Greek word there is Bata Ligail. Bata Ligail. It means to stammer to babble. To use many words to repeat the same words. So you get the idea God saying God is talking to saying.

Stop babbling when you talk to God. Do you know anybody like that. Do you know anybody who's like a vortex. You start talking to him and you get sucked in and they just babble and babble and stammer and but no one in here is like that.

Okay. Okay but you know it's all about. And it's just meaningless empty phrases. It's ongoing. And you wonder how much of this communication is like real communication between you and me. Like you really care what I have to say.

You ever talk to me like that that can't stop talking about themselves for long enough to hear about you. Right. You ever talk to somebody that you realize that while they're talking they could be talking to the wall or anybody else because he just you're just a post.

Right. Just there they're babbling. So Jesus says don't babble. Don't stammer. Don't continue to repeat the same thing over and over and over in a pause. What's the very first thing that comes to a reformed Calvinist mind.

When you see Jesus saying this the first thing you think about is the Rosary doesn't. Right. The first thing a good Calvinist does when they read Jesus here is they go papists. What. What kind of Calvinist preacher would I be if I didn't talk about Rome for a second here.

Right. I have to. It's required. It's like part of the club I have to have to do that. Okay it's it's actually accurate to do so. But I want to go beyond just that. And I want to do what we don't often do.

And that's look at ourselves when Jesus says don't babble. So first when Jesus says don't heap up empty phrases don't babble don't stammer don't keep repeating the same thing. The first thing we should point out is what would it look like today now.

Jesus obviously wasn't talking about Roman Catholicism then it didn't even exist yet and Rome hadn't fallen into apostasy yet. But the principle is intact. And the principle is true when we go to the abortion mill usually Wednesdays and Saturdays.

And we we've done this for years now. When you go to the abortion mill and you guys can attest to this if you've gone when the Roman Catholics show up they're really a mission field for us. But when the Roman Catholics do show up they don't generally call out to the girls that are going in and call it to the men that are going in.

They don't generally try to talk to them and interact with them. They show up particularly during 40 days for life. And they they get in a line and they walk around the abortion clinic back and forth back and forth back and forth over and over and over and they're saying something.

What are they saying. They're praying the rosary. And I if you didn't have the rosary memorized before now if you go to the abortion mill you will have it memorized in the first 15 minutes. All they do is they go back and forth and they repeat the rosary outside the abortion clinic.

Hail Mary. This hurts to say but I'm gonna read it. Hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. Jesus holy Mary mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.

Amen. Now this is not only completely idolatrous and wicked it is not only a complete subversion of the truth in Scripture where the Bible says there is one God and one mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus.

It is not only completely wicked. It is precisely the kind of thing that Jesus was talking about when he says you do not pray like the Gentile unbelievers those pagans. And in Roman Catholicism if you sin in a particular way you can have a priest basically tell you you pray the rosary this many times.

And through those prayers you get absolution. You get forgiveness because you have now worked through by laboring and praying this prayer to another mediator other than Jesus. It is Babel. It is empty phrases.

It is repetitious prayer. It is not only a violation of everything the scripture stands for when it comes to Jesus as our mediator it is exactly the kind of prayer Jesus is talking about. However the next point I'd like to point out to all of us to me is when Jesus says you don't use empty phrases.

You don't stammer. You don't babble. When you talk to your father I want to talk about the bottom of that which is hypocrisy. He's talking about hypocrisy. He's talking about pretending. And now he tells us how to pray and he says don't do it like the unbelievers the Gentiles who were just repeating themselves because it's pretending.

It's pretending to have a conversation with God. And the bottom line is we all fall into that at some point in our relationship with God we pray out of mere duty. This is what I must do. And so let me throw some words out so that I can say that I've prayed before I went to bed or I prayed when I woke up or I prayed over this person I prayed because it's my duty.

It's hypocrisy. Jesus is talking about hypocrisy. He's talking about pretending. He's talking about acting. And when he tells us to pray to our father in this way in contrast to that way it's because the bottom line is when you just repeat yourself over and over and over in these meaningless prayers it is fun.

You don't need to say it out loud and think about how much you pray first. That failure. The Bible says to pray without ceasing. That means that there is a non-stop open communication we have. We have the holy moly package in with our cell phone to God right.

Like it is like non-stop communication it never ends. That call is always open. We are running up data and minutes constantly talking to God pray without ceasing. And so the first failure is what a we do not pray like God calls us to.

Like you know Muslims will often say well we do our prayers you know this many times a day. And we have this time of day where we turn and we face Mecca no matter where we're at. And we do our prayers.

We pray this many times a day. That's how much we pray. Christians should scoff at that because we pray constantly at least recalled to so first. How much do you pray. Do you pray without ceasing. Do you pray and actually rejoice over the access you have to your father all the time to go before his throne with confident and bold access to actually talk to your father and he listens.

Have you thought about not how much you pray. But how do you pray. How much. How much of our prayers are just awesome when they're in front of other people. We talked about this last week our prayers are awesome when they're in Bible studies or at church or with a friend all of a sudden we have lots to say to God.

How strange is that for our father to like know our lives and our walk and our conversation with him. And when we're with other people all of a sudden we have so much to say to him that is so grandiose and and and so erudite and so beautiful.

How do we pray. Is it genuine or is it empty phrases. Think about that. How does that get us like what has to connect in your mind in your heart and mine for us to see that we are the same guilty party that Jesus addresses there in Matthew 6.

When he says don't be like the Gentiles who heap up these empty phrases we our first reaction is to go papist. Our first reaction is to go Gentile. It's never to look at the text and say oh oh that's me.

That's me who has repetitious prayers. That's me who just says words to get it done out of here. It is duty rather than intimacy as a child. I mean think about it. What what kind of relationship would you have with your wife or with your husband or the friend.

If you knew that every time they talked to you it was out of mere duty to talk to you. Would you have any ability to have intimacy with a person who when they talked to you it was merely a work a task something they were doing cold as a shell.

It wasn't even real. There was no real concern there was no real desire to know that person to talk to that person. If you knew that a person was talking to you merely out of duty and they didn't really like you how would that relationship work.

And how often are our prayers as Christians just that empty phrases. And so what is this teaching us. Jesus is saying when you talk to your father be real. Don't be a hypocrite don't be like the people who don't really know him.

Talk to God as your father. That's the relationship you have with them. That's the intimacy that you can draw on with God. You're a child. He's your father. He knows what you need. So come after him. That's a powerful thing.

Always it has to first be me that gets taken to task. And so when I've thought and prayed over the Lord's prayer I've thought about how much I don't pray the way I ought to. I thought about how much I don't treat God as a father.

I thought about how much I do pray at times out of duty because my flesh gets gets too strong my spirit too weak and it just becomes dutiful. Just pray because well you have to pray. And Jesus in his life of prayer demonstrates to us how we're supposed to be intimate with our Father in heaven.

And the one thing that every father every mother every child should do when they come to this prayer is repent. We have to repent over how much we pray or don't pray. We have to repent over how we pray.

I want to say this. I don't think that God does anything in history ever. I don't think God does anything in history ever with his people that is meaningful at all without first them meeting him in prayer.

I don't believe it. And I think I'm gonna say this. I think as much as God has done in our church to change the world literally to change the world in our little huddle in our little community as much as God has done.

I think that we are only seeing maybe 5 of what God would do if we merely asked him. I don't think that we are a praying church like we ought to be. I don't think that I'm a praying pastor like I ought to be.

Why do I say that. Because I see Jesus and his life and ministry. And I want to say this. We are not like that. And Jesus is not merely condemning his people. He's reminding us this is your status. This is who the father is.

So come to him. Know this. We're gonna address this quickly. Jesus says your father knows before you ask him. So watch this. He's I'm gonna read you again. And when you pray do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do.

For they think that they will be heard in other words what they won't they think they'll be heard. For there are many words do not be like them. That's a command. Don't do that. For here's why don't be like them.

Don't do it. Because for here's why you don't do it. This is why you don't pray like them. Your father. That's your relationship to him. That's who he is to you. He's your father. For your father knows what you need before you ask him.

So don't bother with the meaningless phrases. Because your father already knows what it is that you need. So you go. Okay. So what in the world my praying for. So that should cease all conversation. Right.

If you already know what I need no reason to talk to you. And yet Jesus still still says talk to your father. Why. Because God. And this doesn't make any sense from a human perspective longs for you to talk to him.