Righteous Rewards: Prayer

You know, last week Pastor Jonathan recommended a couple of

books to you for the start of the new year,

books that might be helpful for you in your spiritual journey.

And so I have, actually I have three. This morning

I get a bonus one. The first one is Replicate

and it's by Robbie Galady. This book teaches you how

to replicate yourself as a disciple of Christ. So a

big part of making disciples is teaching those who are

Christians to replicate Jesus, right, Paul says, He says, imitate

me as I imitate Christ.

Right.

That's the idea that we're making more disciples. We're multiplying

disciples for Jesus for his glory. So that's one. And

then two is this ESV Scripture Journal. If you're looking

for a tool to help you in your Bible study,

this is nothing fancy. This is scripture. And there's words

on one side and lines on the other side. And

these have transformed my study habits because it allows me

to mark it up, circle, write questions, really dig into

the text that you might not want to do in

your normal Bible. Make all the highlights and pin marks

and things like that. So This helps you really divide

scripture and I recommend it. This one is actually acts,

So if you're interested in using this for your sermon notes,

you could order this and they come individually on their own,

so they're only like four to five maybe six dollars

a piece, and you could get it and take notes

in it during our time and Acts on Sunday mornings.

And then the last one I actually forgot at home.

But it's called A Praying Life by Paul Miller. It's

a book that teaches you and Jonathan his pastor Jonathan

recommends it to help you and push you in your

prayer life, which is the topic for our message this morning.

So if you'll turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter

six Matthew chapter six this morning, we're in part two

of our series called Righteous Rewards, and our topic is prayer.

Last week, Pastor Jonathan talked about giving to the needy

in the first few verses of chapter six, encouraged us

to give to the poor, asking us how much we

give and how we give because Jesus expects us as

Christians to be giving to the poor and the needy.

Note how this is different from giving to the church right,

we should be giving to the church to support God's ministry,

but also giving to the poor and needy because that

shows compassion.

Right.

Our love for God overflows into these actions as believers.

And so he said, we should give to the needy

because of our love for God and not for the

praise of men. And so this morning our topic is

prayer along the same lines.

Should be praying because.

Of our love for God and not for the praise

of men. So I want to ask you a question,

and it's something you might have experience with on social media.

I want you to think about in your mind.

Do you have anyone, any friend on social media who

maybe posts everything they do?

Right.

They post about what they eat for dinner every night,

they post about what they're doing every moment of their vacation.

They post about driving down the road and there's traffic, right,

even like mundane things they post about right all the time.

And so some of us might post some right. I'm

not talking about us who you know post here and

post there things that we want family your friends to see.

I'm talking about the people who post all the time

everything in their life.

Do you wonder why they do it? Right?

I think it's in our minds, like why do you

need to post everything about your day?

Right? Just give me the highlights.

But I wonder if it's the attention that they seek.

From others, right.

And I wonder that because sometimes I have to check

my even my own heart and why I post, right,

And so I think the comments and the likes and

the views, they they idolize those, or they check out,

like how much attention are people giving me?

Right?

So maybe they will post something and they will count

the likes and comments and views, like, go back after

five minutes and say, you know, how much is are

people seeing it? Go back another ten minutes, go back

an hour and check like, all right, is this getting

engagement or is it not?

Right?

And so if it is, there's excitement, they're like, wow,

people saw it. And if there's not, there's disappointment. And

maybe there's this desire. Okay, what else can I post

to get more views and more likes and more comments. Right,

maybe we think I'm going to post this and see

how many people notice it. There's a thrill of engaging

those people. Right, But how can this phenomenon connect to

our prayer life or our spiritual life and our passage

for today, Jesus talks about our reason for praying? What

are our motives for praying or not praying? What are

our motives for praying in public versus praying in private?

What motivations push us to pray? That's the question Jesus

wants you to ask yourself in this passage, where is

your heart in prayer? Will you stand now? And let's

read Matthew six. We're gonna read verse one and then

skip to five and read five through fifteen. Verse one

is really Jesus's main argument, and then he gives examples.

So verse one, beware of practicing your righteousness before other

people in order to be seen by them, for then

you will have no reward from your father who is

in heaven.

Verse five.

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. 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 sees in secret,

will reward you. 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. 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 also have 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. Let us pray, Father, God,

we come to you this morning to read your word,

and Father, we ask that you would be here with us. Lord,

help us to get rid of any distractions that might

be on our minds. Father, any worries that might be

on our heart, and help us to focus in on

your word that convicts us, that cuts deep to our heart. So, Father,

I pray now as we read your word, that your

holy spirit would give us the ability to understand Father,

that we would see wonderful things out of your word.

We praise you, and we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen,

you may be seated. Verse one is the introduction of

this section, and Jesus gives three examples that we ought

to be doing as Christians. Jesus's main overarching point is

there in verse one, he says, beware of practicing your

righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them,

for then you will have no reward from your father,

who is in heaven. So Jesus expects that we as

Christians ought to be doing certain things that demonstrate our righteousness,

and he gives three examples. Those three are giving to

the poor, praying, and fasting. And we see that because

Jesus says, when you pray, or when you give, or

when you fast right, it's not if the moment comes

that you decide to it is when right. So we,

as believers in Christ, we should be demonstrating our faith,

demonstrating in this passages righteousness right, demonstrating our righteousness by

our actions right.

And so we're not.

Doing those things to make ourselves right with Jesus, but

we are doing those things to demonstrate our faith or

our nature that's born again. Right, And he says, if

you do them for this reason, he will reward you.

Right, he will reward you.

But he tells us first how not to pray, right,

and how not to pray. He says, we should not

pray to be seen. We should not pray to be seen,

he says in verse five. 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, listen,

that they may be seen by others. We see here

like identify.

Jesus says.

Their desire, their motive in their prayer, especially public prayer,

is to be noticed or revered or honored by others

by their lofty language, or their lengthy prayers, or their

spiritual knowledge. He says, when you pray, you must not

be like the hypocrites. He says, when you are praying,

don't be like them, because they love to stand and

that they may be seen.

Right, it's their motive that they may be seen.

Maybe these hypocrites have this like false sense of piety,

this false sense of righteousness that they say they they

do what they think is expected of them, not because

God desires it, right. They think it's valuable just to

pray and get credit for it. They might think, I'm

gonna pray now because I think that's what people want

me to do, right, not because they have a love

and devotion for the Father that they want to be

with him and their minds. The reward is the recognition

they get from others. It's the praise of men. Like

we see in the end of verse five, it says, truly,

I say to you, they have received their reward.

So they were praying not.

To devote themselves to the Father or to the Lord

to show their love for him, but in orders that

others might see them and their reputation would be built

up in the eyes of men. The praise of men

is their reward, and I think Jesus is saying here

it's their only reward. The praise of men is the

lowest reward that could be offered them, and they settle

for that. It's not an eternal reward. Jesus says, that's

what the hypocrites do. He says, don't be like the hypocrites. Instead,

he teaches us how to pray. He says we should

pray in secret. Look at verse six. 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 sees in secret, will reward you. You might say, okay,

so public prayer is wrong. Jesus saying go into your closet,

go into a private room and pray in secret. I

don't think that's what he's saying here, because we see

Jesus praying publicly, right, Jesus is recorded in scripture praying

in public. I think it goes back to the motive.

When you pray in secret where no one is watching,

there's no one to perform for when you take away

all the eyes of men and you go into a

private place to pray, your motives are revealed. It's just

you and the Father. And maybe that's a good test.

Right.

If we find ourselves praying more in public than we

do in our private times, maybe we should ask ourselves

why am I praying in public? I think maybe a

lack of prayer in private shows a lack of intimacy

with the Lord, right, and so we go back to

analyze or evaluate our motives. Prayer shouldn't be about what

others see because prayer is a demonstration of the love

that we have for the Father. God knows our hearts

and our motives. Hebrews four thirteen says nothing in all

creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and

laid bare before the eyes of Him, to whom we

must give account. So we could maybe deceive people and

make them think that we're super spiritual, and we could

pray with big words, or we could tell them I'm

praying for you, But God knows our hearts and our motives, right,

and so one day that will all be revealed to

us that God knows our hearts all along. There's no

tricking God. He knows why we pray. So what motivates

us to pray? The recognition of men or the devotion

to our Father who loves us. And notice the difference

in reward. It's not the praise of men anymore. It's

the reward from the Father, a heavenly reward, an eternal reward,

a righteous reward. Jesus gives us an example of someone

who prays publicly to be seen by others. And there

might be some of you in this room who's that's

where you are, right In my mind, I have the extroverts,

the ones who like to be loud and the center

of attention. You know who you are, right, And maybe

that's the type. I think I'm considered one of those, right,

I'm extroverted. We might strugg with wanting people to see

us in the crowd or see us in the group,

and we might try or have the temptation to perform

for those people. Right. We might want the public praise

or the public recognition. There's that temptation that says, I'm

gonna make myself look this way on the outside, so

people think this way about me, right, But I'm not

gonna leave you introverts out.

I think there's also.

This, maybe this fear of praying in front of people

because how they might judge us, those of you who

tend not to pray. When there's a group, you might think, oh, man,

I don't have the good words to say I'm around

the pastor what is he going to think? Is my

prayer going to be long enough? When they pray on stage,

they always use these big theological words and I don't

have those in my vocabulary. Is not what you're looking

for the acceptance or praise of men. It's the same way, right,

it's either the and it all comes down to the

fear of man.

Right, We're we're we're.

One person is like hoping to receive that praise and

the other is afraid of receiving like condemnation or judgment.

Right.

But really, when it comes down to it, we're all

afraid of what people are thinking, or we're concerned with

people what people are thinking, more than what our heavenly

father is thinking or what he's receiving. Right, you might

identify with this. There was a comedian, a Christian comedian

not too long ago, he presented this. It was he

gave this joke and he says, why is it when

people are gathered together, Maybe it's at meal time, maybe

it's at family gatherings, Why does like the most spiritual

person have to pray?

Right?

You laugh a little bit because you know you were there,

right when it comes time to pray pastor right, or

you're like, will you lead a Sunday school class? You

better pray today?

Right?

So why is it that the most spiritual has to

pray when all the other believers are there and their

prayer is going to be heard just as well, just

as honorable to the Father as anybody else's. Is it

not the fear of man that holds.

Us back.

If we leave it to the professionals? Professionals? Right? Oh,

we all have a line to the Lord through Jesus,

and we ought to exercise it because we're spending time

with him, because we're communicating with our father in heaven.

Or what about this?

Someone tells us something going on in their life, maybe

on Sunday, you know, somebody is sick in their family,

or they're struggling at work, and we say, I'll pray

for you, and sometimes we mean it for sure, I

will say maybe we always want to mean it right,

and sometimes we accidentally forget.

To pray for them, right.

We say, yeah, I'll pray for you, I'll keep you

in mind, and then we go to lunch, and then

we get home and we just forget to pray for them, right.

I think that's an honest mistake. But is there ever

a time when we're with somebody and they ask for

prayer or they mention a prayer need when we say

I'll pray for you, and we really say that to

make them satisfied in the moment, to appease them instead

of like, I hope it goes well. Right, we Christians

want to say, I'll pray for you, and it's sort

of like the oh good, they understand me.

Right.

Maybe that habitual i'll pray for you, I'll pray for you,

I'll pray for you. If it happens over and over

and over. Is it really and in a genuine heart

that wants to pray for that need or is it

just a pleasantry that we want to tell our brothers

and sisters so they feel like we're super spiritual or

a prayer warrior. Right, you fully intend on praying for them,

but don't make it a priority. Do we not make

ourselves hypocrites when we say we will pray for them

and we don't repeatedly? I think that's what Jesus is

talking about, right, this desire to please or make someone

satisfied in the moment, yet we don't do it.

Where is our heart and prayer? Next?

Jesus tells Us in verses seven and eight how not

to pray. He says we should not pray with empty phrases.

He says in verse six, sorry in verse seven, 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. Do not be like them,

for your father knows what you need before you ask

him these this empty phrases, and the ESV is also

translated do not keep on babbling. I think that's the NIV.

The King James says, do not use vain repetitions. Right,

So this idea is many many words that keep going

so that God would hear.

Right.

The hypocrites think that they will be heard for their

many words. They don't trust God to give them what

they need, but they keep babbling to him as if

a constant hounding of God is.

What will get their prayer answered.

Or they might say, you just have to keep on

praying and keep having faith and God will give it

to you. Right, Just have enough faith and just keep

praying and God will grant it. Verse eight says, don't

be like them. Why. His answer is because your father

in Heaven knows what you need. God's not answering our

prayers because we're badgering him, or because we think we

need this thing. He's answering our prayers because he knows

what we need. He knows what's best for us, and

He will give that to us. The religious hypocrites think

that they will receive it because of their faithfulness, or

their repetition or their continual prayers. But they seek their

own will, their own desires, instead of drawing near to

God in submission and humility to him. The hypocrites their

motive is to get what they want with enough faith

in asking. James says it well. He says, you ask

and you do not receive because you ask wrongly to

spend it on your passions. Another translation says because you

ask with wrong motives. It's the heart. Jesus says, it's

the heart is where your motive is found. It's not

that you pray, it's your reason for praying.

Right.

How many of you could find yourself saying the same

things when you pray each time?

Right?

I've heard people pray at times in my life, and

I've heard them pray multiple times over a period of time,

and I hear the same phrases. And that doesn't mean

that it's wrong, right. I mean I typically say, in

Jesus's name, I pray Amen at the end, right, which

I think is helpful. But do we lose the sense

of what these words mean the impact of what these

words mean if we use them time and time and

time and time again. Right, I think it's good to

go back and say, why am I saying this? Are

we praying in Jesus' name because it separates our prayer

from any other name, because Jesus name is above all names.

Then if that's the reason, of course we should do it.

Right.

But I'm thinking of the times when you say words

that you think you should say, or that people think

you should say, but maybe we don't mean it anymore.

They just become words. What does it reveal about your

heart that the same words are said each time? Is

it because that's how people pray? Or is it because

that's what you mean when you are in an intimate

communion time with your Lord? Is it just to get

a customary prayer out of the way so we can

go on about our day? Right? God doesn't just want

to hear what you ought to say. He wants to

hear from your heart, and he wants your heart. Where

is your heart in prayer?

At this time?

I'm gonna ask Jake to come up. I have a

little illustration for you, so up here, I hope you

can see these, especially back there on that side. So

this jar right here says devotion to God, and this

one says to be seen by others. Okay, And so

I have two jugs back here of clear liquid, all right,

and so these represent righteous acts or acts that we

do for the Lord.

Right.

And so then these represent our motives.

Right.

So I'm gonna have Jake pour some water into into

this jar. Go ahead, Jake, And so this represents anyone

who is is doing things out of devotion for God, praying, fasting,

giving to the poor, whatever have you. Right, That's what

That's what Jesus says in his scripture. And then I'm

gonna have Jake pour some of this liquid in the

to be seen by others jar.

Right.

So we have two identical things. We could say they're

both prayers, they're both giving, but we see there's different

motives here right to the outside to the one looking on,

they're identical. There's nothing, there's nothing different about it, right,

because that's what the hypocrite wants. The hypocrite says, I'm

doing this because it's probably a good thing to do, right.

And so but I want to challenge Jake. Can you

take a drink of this. It's all right, okay, can

you take a drink of this? Oh? That wasn't so good,

was it? Are these the same? Which one is worse?

All right? All right?

Thank you Jake. So as you can see, Jake's a

good sport. As you can see, on the outside, they

look identical. We're praying, we're fasting, we're giving. What's different

is the heart, what it's.

Made of, what's the motive?

Right, And so we can fool everyone who looks at

us and watches what we do, but we can't fool

God because our actions will be laid bare one day.

Next we see how to pray Verses nine through thirteen.

Jesus gives us a model for how we should pray.

You probably know it as the Lord's Prayer, and we

can say the prayer as it is, but it also

serves as a template for how we should pray. The

prayer is divided up into six petitions. Three of them

focus on God and three of them focus on man.

And Jesus gives us this prayer to teach us how

to pray. And so first we should pray in submission

to God. Verses nine through ten, says our father in

heaven hollowed. Be your name, your kingdom come, Your will

be done on earth as it is in heaven. See,

it's all focused on submission to God. You are, you

are hallowed, or you are glorified. May your name be praised. Right,

May your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth

as it is in heaven. We have those three petitions there,

so we put God above ourselves in prayer. We want

his name, or we want him to be praised or

honored above all else. This places our hearts in a

in a right place before God, in a submissive place

before God. We submit to him his authority and his

sovereignty in prayer. Jesus prayed like this in submission to

the Father just before his death. In Luke twenty two

forty two. It says, Father, if you are willing, remove

this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours

be done. Do you see that Jesus made his request

known to the Father, but he says this, that's.

Not your will.

I want your will to be done right, see that heart,

That motive in prayer is submission to the Father. Jesus

wanted the Father to spare him from death on the cross.

But ultimately he would submit to the Father's will. So

we see we pray in submission to God, and lastly

we pray in reliance to God. Verses eleven through thirteen

have these they're man centered, but it focuses on how

we are reliant upon God to give us things and

to bless us.

Verse eleven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us

our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors, and lead

us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. We

see those requests from the Lord that say, my entire existence,

my sustenance is reliant upon You for food and sustenance

and daily life, for forgiveness and salvation, and for protecting

us from evil. Right, those are our motives. Is in

reliance upon God to provide all we need. Right enter

into the intimate time of prayer with our Father. It's

not the praise of men that we seek. It's for

a sweet communion and dependence on our heavenly Father. In prayer,

we submit to God and we rely on him. Does

your prayer life reflect that one day a damning charge

is gonna come upon those who just look the part

ones whose hearts are not changed, and it will be

I never knew you. But they might argue back to God.

But I prayed for people, I gave to the poor,

I fasted for you, I was part of the choir,

I served in children's ministry. Jesus would ask did you

do those things because you wanted to honor me? Or

because you wanted people to think you were spiritual? I

think for Christian and unbeliever alike, we have to ask

ourselves those questions. Who are we living for? Are we

living for the God, for the praise of men? Or

for God's honor and his glory? When we pray? Are

we praying in private? Because that's where only the Father sees.

And we desire to draw near to him every day,

to submit to him and show our reliance upon him, saying, Lord,

I have nothing and I need you. When was the

last time you drew near to the Lord in prayer

and didn't ask him for a single thing? You just

approached him in praise and thankfulness because of who he is.

This morning, in our acts prayer acronym, we focused on adoration.

We should adore the Lord, and maybe that's all we

do in prayer one day because he is our creator.

He is a wonderful counselor he is Almighty God, the

Prince of Peace, the King of kings, and the Lord

of lords. And so we praise his name forever because

of who he is and what he's done for us,

not because we want things for our lives, just out

of praise, because we have life and breath only through Jesus.

What's your motive in prayer? Is it to love the

Lord or is it the praise of man? Our answer

to this question tells us where our hearts are. And

I'll tell you, working for the praise of Man is hard.

You have to keep up appearances, you have to look

your best all the time, and people are harsh. But

the Lord is good and he is merciful, and he

is gracious that when you fail, you run to him

and you ask for forgiveness, and he forgives every time.

Tanna and the band are gonna come up and play soon,

and I want you to use this time to consider

how the Lord might be working in you and in

your heart this morning. If you would like to pray,

you're welcome to come up here at this altar, at

this stage and pray on your own if you would

like to pray with me or our elders. We will

be down here for you. I want you to not

miss what the Lord is doing in your heart. Pray

to him and seek him because of who he is,

and not for the praise of men. Father God, we

praise you this morning because you are good. We thank

you for your love for us and Jesus. And it's

because of Jesus that we can draw near to you

in prayer. Father, I pray that right now you would

reveal our motives, reveal our hearts and why we do

righteous deeds? Why do we give, why do we pray?

Why do we fast? Lord, help us know where our

hearts lie before you, so that we can praise you

and glorify you. And one day we will face you

face to face, and you will know us because we've

drawn near to you in intimacy and prayer. We praise

you in Jesus' name.

Amen, Jesus Pain

To