Sunday School - Prayer

Prayer as Humble Communion with God

Integral to the Christian walk in life. So Lord, humble us, give us direction by means of your Holy Spirit, and give us enlightenment to your word, and we ask it in Jesus' name, amen. All right, let's go to Matthew 6.

This morning I'm gonna be preaching on the topic of prayer, so I thought I'd do a double hitter and do what Jesus says about prayer, and then we're gonna focus on what Paul says about prayer later today.

The Hypocrites, the Heart, and the Reward of Secret Prayer

So if we can go to the Lord's Prayer, and we're gonna start in verse five, and we're gonna just dissect this verse by verse, have a conversation about what the word of God is saying here, and it says in verse five, and this is the Lord Jesus Christ speaking, this is still the famous Sermon on the Mount, 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.

Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. Let's stop there for a second. What is a hypocrite? What's a hypocrite? Yeah, that's a common way of understanding a hypocrite. There's a Greek word, it originates from hypocritas, and hypocritas was literally like someone wearing a mask.

It brings the connotation of a theater, right? And so when you're in a theater and you have those different masks, you may be seeing those old ancient Greek depictions of a mask, like one smiling, one with sorrow and distress, and that's kind of the picture of a hypocrite is someone who is shifting mask and appearances, and really it's all about the exterior, isn't it?

All about the exterior. Someone else had their hand up? Yeah, yeah, it's someone who's making a showy display that may not comport with reality, right? And so when Jesus says, don't pray like the hypocrites, what do you think he's referring to?

Pharisees, right. Yeah, and particularly, right,.

We pretty much have a good idea that Christ is specifically singing out the Pharisees in this case. So he's saying, you Pharisees, you pray out in the open, in the market, and you pray in such a way that you're trying to draw attention to yourself to show others what?

What do you think the Pharisees were trying to show off? Their what? Their godliness, or at least their exterior form of godliness, their religiosity, their zealousness, right? Now, it's a little different back then where back in the first century, the clergy class, as we'll call them for the sake of today's discussion, or the Pharisaical class, were well-respected within the city.

Matter of fact, if you read, Josephus was a first century historian who was Jewish, but who was writing for the Romans, and he would talk about how the Pharisees were a pretty well-regarded class in the first century.

And of course, every group has its controversies, but for the most part, the Pharisees were pretty well-respected as an authority of the Torah, of the law, of the teaching of the Bible, and they had a lot of authority in regard to temple worship, even, and the regulation therein.

And so the Pharisees had quite an amount of political, spiritual, economic power. And so when Jesus says, don't pray like the hypocrites, he's singling out the Pharisees, of course, and the Pharisees would go out in public squares to kind of rally and show off their prayers, their self-importance, all these things, right, of what it meant to be a Pharisee and to be a religious student of the Torah.

And Jesus is warning us not to follow their example. The Pharisees were more or less rabbis, many of them, of course, and they were to set the example for what worship and prayer and all these things looked like.

But Jesus is here saying, don't follow their example. Don't follow the hypocritas, the ones who shift and wear different masks, but instead, he gives us a new law, a new way to understand prayer. Again, we're in Matthew chapter six this morning, looking at the Lord's Prayer.

And it says in that same verse, verse five, it says, 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.

So what's the motive there behind the prayer of the Pharisees? What's the motive? Because when we talk about prayer, I want you to know that prayer, the motive behind prayer is so important. And it's at the heart of what Jesus is getting at here in this discussion about prayer.

So what do you think sets the Pharisees apart? What were they praying? Yeah, to be show-offs, to be demonstrating their level of holiness. And it's not really a genuine holiness, is it? It's an exterior holiness, which is really no holiness at all.

Jesus says of the Pharisees that they are like whitewashed tombs. You ever heard of that phrase in the Bible? Whitewashed tombs, what do you think that means? Yeah, outside it's beautiful, it's granite, it's got all this beauty on the exterior, but inside is what?

Dead man's bones, right? And so it shows that the exterior is not exactly the most important part of our worship or of our prayer life. I mean, we can pray up a storm and have all these incantations and say all these wonderful big words.

I know sometimes when we pray, right, even when we pray in the afternoon, it can be sometimes intimidating. Like we hear someone pray, and like, man, that's a pretty good prayer. And I don't think anyone in this room prays with the intention of being like a Pharisee.

I think we've got a pretty good church here. But we always have to guard ourselves from not comparing our prayers or ourselves with other people's prayers, right? Because you know what God sees that we, no one in this room can see?

It's the heart. It's the heart, right? And so for instance, like my kids, every day when we do our lesson, we all take time to pray. And sometimes the prayers are not very eloquent, but you can really tell when a child prays from the heart, right?

I think you guys were at our home group a couple weeks ago, and you heard Noah pray. And he's, I mean, he's just so funny when he prays. But he prays with such confidence, I love it. He prays like he knows he's being heard.

And that's how we need to pray. It may not be the most eloquent. It may not be the most high and lofty prayer, most theologically sound. We may not sound like a Puritan when we pray, but for goodness sake, if our heart is aligned with God's, and if we're doing it from a place of holistic approach to scripture, I think God honors that.

And so we wanna avoid being like the Pharisees who are praying in the street corners. Does this mean that we shouldn't pray outside the church? Does that mean that we shouldn't pray maybe at a restaurant or in a public square?

Would it be wrong for us to pray? I've heard of some Christians or in some movements say that we shouldn't pray publicly because of this text of scripture. You think that's a right way of dividing the truth, the word of truth?

Why do you think that would be an inaccurate application of this text?

Yeah, that's right. That's right.

That's exactly right. Yeah. So that's what he would sound like if he was charismatic. But the reality is like what pastor just said is exactly right. It's really, again, it's the heart and God sees the heart and that's what Jesus is condemning.

Jesus was able to see the hearts of men as well, says it in scripture. That he knew what was in the hearts of men. And so Jesus here is condemning that show-offy, self-righteous spirit of the Pharisees when they prayed.

And then it goes on to say, truly I say to you, they have received the reward. What reward do you think they've received? What is the reward? The praise of man, okay, Gretchen? That's right. Now Jesus isn't using the term reward in a positive sense.

He's saying, you know, essentially they're getting what they want. It's like a Romans 1 issue, right? Where God hands over a people to their desires and they get it fully and without limit, but it's to their destruction.

And that's exactly what Jesus is saying here in regard to the Pharisees. It's almost like Romans 1 all over again. The Pharisees are getting their reward. That's the extent of the reward they're getting.

They will be recognized. They will be seen by others, but that's about it. Their prayers will not be honoring the Yahweh. Their prayers may not be heard. Their prayers may not be answered, but they've received the reward, the showy display of righteousness and the smug feeling that comes alongside it.

Because there's a smugness when it comes to some religious people, isn't there? Right? And there can often be a spirit of self-righteousness of being, oh, well, you know. One of the prayers that Jesus brings out in the scriptures is he brings, he compares and contrasts the prayer of a Pharisee and the prayer of a poor beggar.

And he says, the Pharisee says, thank God I'm not like those people, right? Where the beggar prays, God, forgive me, I'm a sinner. And Jesus goes on to say that the prayer that God accepts is the latter.

It's the prayer of the humble sinner who is acknowledging his fault before a holy God, not the self-righteous Pharisee who's like, oh, thank goodness I'm not like any of these people, right? Who sets himself apart and above others.

And that's where we have to be careful of our own prayer life that we're not setting ourselves apart and above other people. Of course, you want us to be set apart from sinners, but not in a sense of we're better than you, we're above you.

Instead, even when we're in the midst of sinners, our heart should be to pray with them, not at them. Now, that's an important distinction. Pray with people, not at people. What do you think is the difference there?

You're praying with, not at.

So, yeah, yeah.

You know, praying at someone's almost like a form of judgment. You know, it's like, you know, it's again, it's that pharisaical prayer. Thank God I'm not like you, and you need to do X, Y, and Z, and God, you know, have mercy on your soul, something to that degree, you know?

But when you're praying with someone, you're empathizing with them to a degree, and you're saying, God, my heart breaks for this person. Lord, Lord, please intercede in this person's life. Big difference in the heart in which we approach these aspects of prayer, isn't it?

That's right. Amen, love it. It's a great way of putting it. Any other thoughts or questions? That's right, that's right. Yeah, we gotta remember who the recipient is. It's the Lord.

I'm reminded, you know, the Pharisees probably started in the end of this world. Yeah. That was the genesis of it, and it was a good thing. It was to bring people back to the home, and remind them, this is the way to worship God.

This is why we're living in exile. This is the God of love, and this is how we're following. It's a corruptible time. It's really God's grace that keeps you. That's right. From the initial start, like the church starts, everyone's so excited.

Yeah. And then you look, and just a generation later, it's really hard. You wanna start out as a good thing. You've had history before. Mm-hmm. To bring people back to the word of God. And then you can hear this stuff.

That's right.

That's why Jesus says, everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. So there was probably a time when the pharisees were pretty humble, and trying to humbly bring people to the word, and then they began to exalt themselves, and then they were humbled by their destruction.

Secret Prayer, Public Prayer, and the Heart of the Sermon on the Mount

In our text in Matthew chapter six, let's look at verse six. And he says, but when you pray, go into your room, shut the door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Now again, I mentioned how there are some groups who say that public prayer is inappropriate because of such texts like verse five and six. But when Jesus says, go into your room and shut the door, what is Jesus getting at?

What's the heart here that Jesus is trying to reveal that he wants to see in his people? What is he getting at? Sincerity, humility. Remember, he's contrasting. You have the public prayer of the self-righteous pharisees, where everyone's seeing, and everyone is observing, and yet he's saying to his disciples, go in secret, go in private, and pray.

And so he's comparing, contrasting two different mindsets, two different hearts, two different approaches to prayer, two different approaches to God, right? And the approach that he's getting at is a humble approach to the Father in prayer, right?

Where no one else will hear, no one will ever know. You'll get no standing ovation for how awesome your prayer was. You'll get no recognition for it other than the recognition of your Father who is in heaven.

And so he's comparing, contrasting the idea of recognition here, okay? Man recognizes the pharisees' prayers because they're all in people's face in public, but the prayer of the disciple ought to be one where truly God is the audience.

Are we, what was the question? Yeah, I think so. Right, I don't think there's. Well, in private, the scripture doesn't say whether it should be verbal or not verbal. You know, we would just be guessing at that point.

But I think that overall, the scripture don't contradict themselves. There's no contradiction in scripture. And so it says that we ought to pray. You know, part of regulative principle worship is that we pray publicly amongst the saints.

Part of what the scripture says is to pray without ceasing. And so these are all things, these are all commands that can coexist with what Jesus is saying. Matter of fact, because what Jesus is doing, he's going beyond it.

And if you notice the Sermon of the Mount, it's not the first time he goes beyond what is written in the Old Covenant, in the Old Testament. So for instance, he says, you have heard, thou shalt not commit adultery.

I say unto you, if you look at lust, you've committed adultery in your heart. And he keeps bringing it back to the heart. He says, you've heard it say, thou shalt not murder, but I say to you, you hate your brother, you're a murderer.

He keeps bringing it back to the heart because he understands that the heart of the matter is the matter of the heart. And so when Christ is talking about prayer, he's bringing it to the matter of the heart.

He's saying, this is the heart that I want you to have when you're praying. And so whether it's quietly, out loud, publicly, in your private room, wherever you go, you bring this heart, you bring this spirit when you approach the Holy God.

Does that make sense?

No, no, yeah.

Yeah, and I think there's a sweetness to praying out loud, to praying when you're having those sweet moments of prayer that it is verbal. I think there's a great blessing to it. There's something about those words echoing from your mouth.

We know that if you just do it in your heart, God is gonna hear you, of course, it's not in question. But almost, you know, there's times in which I pray, I can only speak for myself, there's times when I pray where my prayer becomes a message to myself, in a sense, where I'm hearing it, and I'm like, and I need to hear that, I need to hear that come out of my mouth, you know?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's not a hard, fast rule,.

There's nothing in Scripture that says you must pray that way, but I think it's a good exercise.

Charles, yeah, right, that's right, that's right. Any thoughts or questions on that? That's right. You know, let's actually go there for a quick second, and it's in Luke 18, Luke chapter 18,.

And I think it starts in verse nine. Yeah. Luke 18, nine says, and he also said this parable to some who trusted in themselves, that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. Now, that's the big difference here, right?

That's what Jesus is comparing and contrasting in the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6. He says in verse 10, and two men went out into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, sitting by himself, prayed thus.

God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. But the tax collector, sitting far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. Wow, what an important distinction and model that we have there.

And so, again, that's what Jesus is really condemning. That's the heart of what Jesus is trying to get at here with regard to his message about prayer. Do not have such a heart in which you exalt yourself and not the Creator.

And so, with that in mind, go back to Matthew 6. Matthew, yeah. I think they would be, yeah. Yeah, I think so. You know, it's hard when, I think I preached this a couple weeks ago. If you have a higher view of yourself than you ought, it's gonna be very clear in your relationships.

It's gonna be really clear in the way that you approach things like prayer, worship. And so, there should always be a humility in which, remember who we're praying to. We're gonna get to that in a moment.

But we just, we always have to keep in mind who we're praying to, why we're praying. And it's such a sacred obligation that we have in prayer. And it's such a sweet thing. And when you truly recognize the Father of the celestial lights, you'll understand there's no room for boasting in your own flesh.

There's no room for you to have any of the glory in your worship and your prayer. Even in your Bible studies and things like that, it's all about Jesus. And so, back in Matthew 6, again, we see, back in verse six, he says, when you pray, go to your room, shut the door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

What is the reward for those who pray in secret? What is the reward? Intimacy, amen, that's part of it, for sure. What else do you think could be a reward? Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, if anything, that's where I'd rest my hat.

You know, answered prayer, how many of you have ever had a prayer answered before? All right, I mean, we should all raise your hand. We've all had answered prayers. Isn't that sweet? Isn't that amazing?

I mean, there's nothing in the world like answered prayer, but there is one thing that's even better. Just the fact that we get to commune with the creator God, he himself is enough, right? Whether he answers our prayer or not, whether he gives us the petition of our heart, that's irrelevant.

Just the fact that we get to commune with the living God and speak to him and be heard by him, we take that for granted. We truly take it for granted. I mean, it's even more taken for granted than a child who is born in today's world where all they know is cell phones and touchscreen technology, and they take it for granted.

I mean, you know, if an ancient person saw what we had in our hands, they would be blown away, and they'd probably run screaming witchcraft or something, because it really is magical, the technology that we have today.

And today's kids, they just take it for granted. They have no idea what it took to get here. In the same way, oftentimes Christians take prayer for granted, and we have no idea what it means and what it took for us to get here so that our prayers can be heard, and it took no less than God sending forth his son in the fullness of time to bear our sins, die for us so that he can open it in his flesh better in a new way for us to have fellowship with the Father.

I mean, that is just incredible. And that's what's at stake in prayer, is understanding our fellowship, our communion, our standing before a holy and a righteous God through Jesus Christ. That is the reward.

It's God. God is the reward. He himself is the reward. Verse seven says, and when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.

Boy, does that, you know, we Christians can do a lot of that too. And I want to instill in us this morning, and then when I preach, because I'm preaching on prayer as well, is this hope and this anticipation that in prayer, that in prayer, we're not simply there to utter words, to make ourselves look better or big or spiritual or holy, but rather prayer is a recognition of God and who he is in his righteousness and holiness.

So it's really a time for us to remember and to remind ourselves of the holiness and the righteousness and just the grandeur of God in prayer. And I hope that that comes across. And I think that's what Jesus is trying to get at.

He's not saying that many words are bad, right? There are times in which we can pray and even in our prayer circles here at our church, and we can pray many words and they'd be good. And those are good things.

We're not saying that prayer should be short. Jesus is not saying that prayer should only be in private. He's not saying prayer should only be short. He's just setting a model for us as to essentially what not to do and the heart of what we ought to do.

Does that make sense? Any thoughts or questions so far? Okay. Another thing is that oftentimes, even as Christians, when we don't feel it, we don't feel the presence of God or we don't feel like praying.

Sometimes, in order to substitute the feeling of God, we insert many words so that we have the appearance as if we feel God. Does that make sense? Have you ever experienced that? I mean, I've been there, right?

So, and in a sense, we become like the pagans, we become like the Gentiles, we're just battling. We're thinking that our words are gonna bring us closer to God. What brings us close to God in prayer? What's that which brings us near?

Faith. Faith in what? I wanna say this. Faith in the blood. Faith in the blood of Jesus. That's what brings us near. Remember that a sacrifice was made for you to have fellowship with the triune God. There was a sacrifice that was made.

There was a shedding of blood that was made, and that blood, that precious blood of Jesus, and all that flow that comes from his side and from his brow, that is what brings us near. And so our words are not what's gonna bring us near.

It's faith in the blood. And when we have that underpinning in our prayer, and that's why we pray as Christians in whose name? In the name of Jesus. Now, let me remind you, when we pray in the name of Jesus, that's not a special incantation.

We're not pagans. This is not some special ritual where if we say the right word in the right way, we'll get the ear of God. That's a very pagan concept, as a matter of fact. And we see that in the LDS Church, Mormon Latter-day Saints, for instance, where in their temple rituals, they are taught signs and sigmas and handshakes that you have to learn exactly right, because when you die, and they say, when you come across the veil of heaven, you have to give God the Father this very particular handshake, and you gotta say a very particular set of words, and if you don't say those words, if you don't do the handshake, then you'll be left on the other side of the veil.

Okay? Very pagan, very demonic teaching. But lest we fall into the same trap, we have to recognize the truth that what Jesus is getting at here is, again, it's the heart. It's the heart. That, and faith in the blood of Jesus, that's what brings us near.

That's what brings us near. Not our special words, or saying a special incantation, or we don't wanna treat this phrase in the name of Jesus that way either, lest we void the power of Christ's name. And so when we pray in the name of Jesus, we're not just using that as a phrase to, oh, I gotta make sure that's in there.

It should be in there, obviously. But that's not like a, you know, it's not a special code. It's not a charm, right? We're talking about the means by which we can be heard by the Father, and it's in and through Jesus.

Does that make sense? Any thoughts or questions on that? That's right. You know, and part of it too is that, you know, let's be honest, we're all human. We all have a fallen flesh. And there are times where we just don't wanna pray, right?

There are times when we may even be here on Sunday. I don't know, should I stay for prayer service? I don't really, I'm not really in the praying mood. I got enough prayer from the pastor in the morning.

I think I'm set, I think I'm good. And this is not to make anyone feel bad. People can come and not come for various reasons to the prayer service. But one of the things that may often happen, and I'll speak for myself, like, man, I'm just not feeling it.

What do we do when we're just not feeling it? What should we do? What's that? Pray, I like it, right? I love it. That's right. You know, you kind of alluded to James 4. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you, right?

And one of the reasons why the Puritans were just so famous for prayer and were just so good at it is because they prayed even when they didn't want to. Right? And it's usually, and I think the Puritans found this out.

I forget which Puritans said something to this degree, but I'm paraphrasing. But it was said that, when I feel like I need not to pray is when I pray the most often. And so when that emotion stirs up in our soul, I'm just not feeling it, I don't want to pray, I've got this going, I've got that going, that's when we most need to run to prayer.

Right? And it's a spiritual discipline. You know, I think Pastor Conley gave a great message last week when he talked about essentially, you know, having a taste for certain things and how we have to develop these tastes.

We have to develop these spiritual disciplines in our life. And prayer is one of those spiritual disciplines that we have to develop, that we have to get a taste for. And, you know, for me, you know, my problem with prayer is I'm often chasing the dragon.

Chasing the dragon is a phrase used in addiction circles for chasing a high that they once had that was just so amazing. Now they just have to chase it. And every time a person uses illicit drugs, one of the effects of it is that the same amount of drugs no longer will produce the same amount of effect.

And so you always have to amp it up in order to get that high, to chase that dragon. And in a spiritual way, in my earlier days as a Christian, especially when I was around, you know, 18, 19 years old, and I had these friends who all we did was like talk about Jesus until, you know, two in the morning.

We'd go to diners and we'd talk about Jesus and we'd preach to the waitresses and we'd just have these dynamic prayers. Like, I miss that. I miss that. And I'm always kind of like chasing, like, God, I just wanna have that prayer where I feel so connected to you like I did in those earlier days.

And sometimes it's almost elusive. Like, I just wanna be there again. I just wanna have those experiences. And maybe you have a similar life experience or struggle. And so, but even when we're chasing, I think that's a noble thing.

I think we ought to chase and pursue this discipline of prayer. I think it's worth chasing. I think it's worth going after. But we need to be careful, and I'm speaking to myself here, in that, in our pursuit of this dynamic, powerful prayer that doesn't become our idol, that doesn't become the reason.

You know, we pray, we worship, we do what the Lord commands, not out of a sense of feeling, but out of a sense of obedience and duty, right? And so we do it, we do these things whether we feel it or not, right?

It's just like in a marriage, okay? Most marriages, 50, 51 of marriages in America fall in divorce. And the reason they do often is irreconcilable differences, which is just a fancy way of saying, I no longer feel the same way.

You don't make me feel the way you used to make me feel. That magic of early marriage is gone, and now you've got the monotony of life and responsibilities and duties. Now, there's two things you can do in marriage.

You can divorce and say, well, this is not what I signed up for. I don't feel it anymore. Therefore, that's justification for me to dissolve the relationship. Or you persevere. You love even when the person is being unlovable.

You love and you persevere, you push through even when you don't feel it, right? Because love is more than just an emotion. Prayer is more than just an emotion. Love is an action. It's a sense of duty, responsibility.

And so, you know, as a father, I have a sense of responsibility for my children, for my wife, for my household. And that's a huge motivating factor for me, right? I'm responsible for them. God has given you much in Jesus Christ.

And one of our duties, one of our responsibilities as Christians is we approach God in prayer, that we stay in touch, we stay in communion, we stay in fellowship with our Father. Does that make sense?

The Lord's Prayer: Hallowing God's Name, Kingdom, and Will

All right, let's move it into Matthew 6. It says in verse eight, do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. Here we begin to see the heart of the Father.

And the Father that we approach in prayer, He's not a cold, you know, meticulous Father. He's a Father who's caring, who's gentle, who's loving. And very importantly, in the context of what Jesus is saying, He knows your need.

He knows your need. He's the sovereign God. He knows exactly what you're going through. So He's not a God that you have to go and kind of explain yourself, though I think there should be some aspect in your prayer where you, of course, are sharing your heart.

But when you share your heart, it's not like He's unaware. It's not like He doesn't know. He knows perfectly what you're going through. He knows perfectly what you need. But we approach Him. We approach this Father in secret.

He'll give us a reward, and He knows what it is that we need. In verse nine, Jesus begins the famous prayer, the Our Father prayer, the Lord's prayer. And He says, pray then like this. So now He went and said, this is how you ought not to pray.

This is now how you ought to pray. And He says, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Now He begins very importantly. This is a very important text here. He says, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

What does it mean, hallowed? What does that word mean? So we get the word Halloween. What does that word mean? Hallowed. Holy, sacred, sanctified, set apart. That's what the word hallow means. When Jesus says, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, literally meaning let your name be sanctified.

Let your name be holy, okay? So Jesus asks us to begin our prayers with a focus on the holiness of God. Isn't that incredible? That we're focusing on God's holiness. We're focusing on His person. We're focusing on His grandeur, His greatness.

Our Father who is in heaven, He's exalted. So we know where He is. He's in heaven above. He says, hallowed be your name. Your name be holy. Your name be made great. So the focus, you know, one of the problems that I'm gonna preach on this morning is that the problem with most modern prayers is that most modern prayers go something like this.

God, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, and me. Where God wants to hear, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, let your name be sanctified. Big difference, right? We treat God more like God the genie and less like God the Father.

And so again, we should not fall into the trap of treating prayer as a means to get what we want out of the relationship. If you only spoke to your spouse to get what you want out of that conversation, then that's not a healthy and dynamic relationship.

Likewise, if we only pray and approach the Father when it's to receive and to get, that's not also a healthy relationship. And so again, He starts with the holiness of God, the exaltation of God. God is the centerpiece, God is the beginning, He's the Alpha and the Omega of this prayer.

And He says in verse 10, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So the first two stanzas of this prayer is for God, the exalted one, the one who's in heaven, that His name be made sacred, His name be hallowed, His name be sanctified.

And then for His kingdom to come, for His will to be done. Again, most prayers, if you listen to the average American pray, again, it's God, build up my kingdom. God, make my will be done. God, may it be on earth as it is in heaven for me to get my way, right?

And it's sometimes some charismatics, I think sometimes pray like that too, it sounds like. I've been in the prayer circles where charismatics are binding and loosing in heaven and trying to twist God's arm to get their way.

And I don't think that's a healthy form of prayer either. Again, I think a prayer that God honors is a prayer that's centered focus on God, not oneself. So your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

What do you think that phrase means? Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What do you think that phrase means? Someone exegete that text. What do you think it's the meaning and the purpose here?

Gretchen? Yeah, that's right. Think of the implications of what that means when we say God, your will be done. No one here knows God's perfect will for our lives. We don't know the beginning to the end.

We don't know what the outcome will be. We don't know if God's will for us is to be, for God to be glorified in martyrdom, which was the case for many early Christians. We don't know if God's will for us is to be destitute and wandering.