How Not to Pray: Do's and Don'ts of Prayer - Matthew 6:5-8

Our our passage today is Matthew 6 verses 5 through 8.

Matthew 6:5–8

It says, 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. Now, in case you have never

noticed or if you're new here, we always, we always work

through our corporate prayers together.

They're using that ACTS acronym that we just went through

adoration, confession, Thanksgiving and supplication.

And we do that not, not because it's the only way to pray, but

we do it because there is purpose behind our prayers.

And, and although this isn't necessarily the only right way

to pray, there is a wrong way to pray.

Last week, last week, Eric preached through the beginning

of Matthew 6, which is still part of the Sermon on the Mount,

right, Right in the middle of it.

It goes through these three chapters.

And he walked us last week through the first verse of the

chapter that says, excuse me, 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 lays out this that that

warning there. And then he goes into four more

specific areas over the next 18 verses where where our hypocrisy

as Christians can often be on full display.

Last week it was in giving to the needy.

In a few weeks it'll be regarding forgiving others and

then fasting. And today's messages is one of

those in that there is hypocrisy in our prayer life when we do it

in a a publicity stunt kind of way to garner attention from

other people or when we do it insincerely.

And this isn't a new or or unique concept here that's

finally laid out to us by Jesus. This is consistent with with

many other places in Scripture as well, in both the New

Testament and the Old Testament where Jesus tells us not to be

fake in the way that we approach our spiritual life.

His desire is that we would receive our reward from the

Father. And then here's kind of an

example in in James 4 verse 8, it says it says come close to

James 4:8

God and God will come close to you.

Let me read this version. This is the ESV.

Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.

Cleanse your hands, you sinners and purify your hearts.

You double minded. In another version, it says

where you're you're because your loyalty is divided between God

and the world. I bet that that some of us are

here today wanting to know how to do just that, how to stop

feeling pulled into the world, yet at the same time yearning to

to know more about Jesus Christ. I don't want you to feel divided

and more importantly, Jesus doesn't want you to be divided.

And our So our main point here today, boy, that's really small.

Oh no, it's not that one. No, sorry.

Our main point is God wants to encourage us to have genuine

private prayer to align our hearts with his, rather than

obligatory performative prayer to impress mankind.

So Jesus points this out in our message, reminding us that it is

the attitude of the heart that matters to him, not the the

empty, purposeless jumping through hoops to please the

world. And and he he, he points this

out so that we can experience that dynamic that we just saw in

that James passage so that we can come close to God and God

will come close to us. So today we're going to look at

some some do's and don'ts that that Jesus tells us regarding

our prayer life. And the, the first point here is

don't pray like a hypocrite. In Matthew 65, this is our first

verse of our passage. It says in when you pray, you

must not be like the hypocrites. And in that passage that's

talking about the Pharisees, 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. Now let me just start off and

explain that that this is not telling us that we can't do

public prayer right? Right after this passage, Jesus

demonstrates a public a public prayer that we call the Lord's

Prayer. We're going to study that here

in in a couple of weeks. And then in both Matthew 14 and

in Matthew 15, Jesus play prays publicly before feeding the

multitudes. And the issue at hand here is

not that they were standing to pray in the synagogues or on the

street corners. There's nothing wrong with with

praying in those locations or anything else.

That's not what the issue is. It's the next phrase that

explains the issue. And that was that they may be

seen by others. See, it was their motivation

that was suspect here. These hypocrites were were

pretending to be genuine, pretending to ask God for

blessing while praying in a way to receive blessing, whether

that be public praise or attention from other people.

If you remember last week, Eric explained that the Greek word

for hypocrite there meant an actor in a play.

So you can imagine he's he's telling us not to not to be

playing a role, not not to be a, a character acting like this is

what we're doing, but to be genuine.

So these were these were were prayers done specifically for

the purpose of of eliciting acclimation and approval from

people watching. Now, how many of the of us could

this be true about? Some of us might love to pray in

front of other people because we can show off our impressive

theological vocabulary, right? Like if you mentioned

anthropomorphism or ecclesiologically in your, in

your sermon, maybe the pastor is going to, you know, tag you to

be heading up some other ministry position.

Meg's laughing right now because she overheard Eric and I talking

about the hypostatic union one time and she joked that we were

talking about the transcontinental railroad.

But so, so some of us might, you know, we might kind of approach

our, our public prayer life that way.

And others of you might be sitting there comfortably

saying, oh, good, he's not talking about me.

I hate to pray in front of other people.

Well, if that's the case, you know, the, the reason why is

because some of us might be nervous or embarrassed about

praying in front of people because we are worried that that

we won't sound impressive to other people.

And if that's you, if you don't like praying in front of other

people, just understand that's pretty normal.

But let me, let me just be a little bit direct here and say

that it would be a whole lot easier for you to do if your

heart was truly yearning to be heard by the God of the

universe. And, and if we weren't worrying

about other people listening, right?

That's the point of this, right? It's an audience of 1 that we

have when we pray and if we come to it with that, it's, it's not

something that we need to be nervous about or, or proud

about. Jesus knows why the the proud

hypocrites do this and he points out that the the reason that

they choose to do this is also the reason that they should

avoid it. In the second-half of our of our

verse here in verse 5, it says truly, I say to you that they

have received their reward. It could say they have already

received their reward. In another version, it says

that's all the reward they will ever receive.

See when you when you pray this way to get attention and

applause from people, you'll get it briefly, but that's all

you'll get. It's a it's a terribly short

lived investment. Now next month we're going to

get to Matthew 6, verse 19 that says do not lay up for

Matthew 6:19

yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and

where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves

treasures in heaven. That treasure is our is our

motivation. It's either temporary earthly

reward that we seek, or it's an eternal heavenly reward.

And the point that Jesus is making is that we are to be ever

vigilant at keeping our eyes heavenward rather than focus on

the things of the world. And don't misunderstand what

this treasure is. That's that I I mentioned in

that passage. It's not, it's not like a

tangible treasure. It's not jewels, it's not crowns

or, or, you know, old coins or anything like that.

It's closeness with him. That's that's the treasure.

In fact, in in John 17, I didn't include this slide here because

it's the whole passage and I but but if you're taking notes or

whatever, write down John 17 and take a look at this later on.

But in fact, so in that John 17, we see what's called the high

priestly prayer, where Jesus summarizes his relationship with

the Father as well as the relationship that the that he

desires with us or or better that he wants us to desire with

him. And in it, he expresses this

important concept that we are to be in the world, not of the

world. And, and that's a similar idea

to what we hear Paul say when he's talking about death in 2nd

Corinthians 5, about being absent from the body and present

with the Lord. So this example of this high

priestly prayer, this is an example of intercessory prayer,

a prayer that's that's done on the on the behalf of someone

else. Jesus is praying that his

followers would experience this, the same love in them that the

Father demonstrated to the Son at the beginning of the prayer.

Jesus says that He accomplished the work the Father gave him to

do, meaning that Jesus aligned His will with that of the

Father. He is not a hypocrite in his

prayer, He is. He's focused on the will of the

Father. And although he he gives us this

prayer in His word for our benefit, it's not offered to

please us, but to please His Father in heaven.

That's where his focus is. And Paul spoke about this

dynamic in Galatians 110 and said, for, for am I now seeking

the approval of man or of God, or am I trying to please man?

If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of

Christ. And Paul was writing that

because the the church had begun to lose focus and was troubled

because they were concerning themselves with manipulating the

message for the sake of of pleasing people rather than God.

But when we do the things that we do specifically in our prayer

life and are driven by human praise, we are simply misaligned

with our priorities. But besides it being wrong, it,

it also just doesn't work. See, the approval of man is

short lived. It's a, it's a terrible

investment strategy. Parents, you can probably

relate. When my kids were, were younger

and they, they were starting to be able to help with things

around the house. I, you know, get their help with

something and I might give them a, a dollar or two or whatever

it is to, to do something. And, and undoubtedly once they

got that in their hands, they were like, oh man, I have money.

I can go, I can go spend this on something, you know, and

certainly they want to go and buy a doughnut or something.

And I would try to teach them, Hey, we want to we want to

invest in something that's going to last longer than than 45

seconds. We want to we want to invest in

in long term benefit from this. The approval of man is similar

guys that glory it fades right when people are are are

applauding you, the applause dies out.

People are less impressed with the things that you've that

you've done. But that's our reality when our

focus is on the here and now, on our own, our own interests by

our self, our selfish interests. Jesus wants and in fact he

demands our hearts to be in line with his will.

In Philippians 3 verses 13 and 14, it says, but one thing I do,

Philippians 3:13

forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies

ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward

call of God in Christ Jesus. So Paul is talking about looking

straight ahead, right? Focused on Jesus, not the things

that that we've we've known before our experiences before

and when we seek to align our hearts and our wills with God,

we experience something significantly different.

We can have victory in Jesus like we just sang about here

just a just a few minutes ago in first John chapter 5 verses four

1 John 5 · chapter mention

and five says for everyone who has been born of God overcomes

the world and this is the victory that has overcome the

world. Our faith.

Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who

believes that Jesus is the son of God.

See, it's our faith in Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness

of our sins, where we achieve victory and whichever side of

that decision that you are currently on or, or perhaps

you're, you're wondering, does God hear everyone's prayers?

Or maybe you're, you're saying to yourself, why doesn't God

answer prayers on my time in the way that, in the way that I want

him to answer it? On Psalm 139, it says, Oh Lord,

you have searched me and known me.

You know, when I sit down and when I rise up, you discern my

thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my

lying down and are acquainted with all my ways even before a

word is on my tongue. Behold, O Lord, you know it all

together. See, God is omniscient.

He that means that he knows everything.

So yes, he can hear all prayers, but the real issue is if he is

listening to them or how God intends to answer them.

Few weeks back we we learned that that God ignores the

prayers of those who are unrepentant.

Proverbs 28 nine says if anyone turns a deaf ear to my

instruction, even their prayers are detestable.

And in Isaiah 115 it says when you spread out your hands, I

will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many

prayers, I will not listen. The only prayer guys listen up,

the only prayer that we are guaranteed to have God answer is

a prayer of repentance. And there are dozens of passages

in scripture that explain that God is faithful to forgive when

we ask. Since we have been justified by

faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And not to belittle the other things in your life that you

pray about, but your your need to pray for forgiveness is the

most important prayer that you will ever OfferUp.

OK but what about your other prayers right?

Why are they not being answered? Well, in James 4 verse 3 it says

James 4:3

you ask and do not receive because you asked wrongly.

Just spend it on your passions. In that word wrongly in the in

the Greek it means with wrong motives.

So you ask with wrong motives. I just told you about Jesus high

priestly prayer in John 17 and how it was an example of how to

approach prayer right with with with the right heart.

But we also have another example to look at of what Jesus says

not to do here in Luke 18 verses 10 through 14, it says two men

Luke 18:10–14

went up to the temple to pray. 1A Pharisee and the other a tax

collector. Now when we see those phrases in

in scripture like that for tax collector, you, you could talk

about a Sinner, right? Somebody who's society sees as

a, as an obvious Sinner. The Pharisee, you could see is

somebody that society sees as as kind of the holiest people

around the the the most honored around.

And so 1A Pharisee and the other a tax collector, the Pharisee

standing by himself prayed thus. God, I thank you that I'm 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 standing

far off would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his

breath, 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.

So the proud Pharisee, he got a response to his prayer.

Now we might not know what it looked like exactly, but

whatever it was, it humbled him. Meanwhile, the humble man this

the the sinful tax collector also received an answer says

that he was exalted because of his humility and and his genuine

request to be forgiven. So we have discussed what not to

do with our prayer life. What should we do then?

Well, our second point here is do be intentional about prayer

time. And here's what the next verse,

verse 6 in Matthew 6 says. 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.

Now a big part of this is is intentionality.

It's a genuine demonstration that this is important to us.

A friend of mine likes to remind me often, if you don't put it on

your calendar, it ain't happening.

And, and, and she knows that I'm easily distracted and, and, and

so if I don't write it down, I will forget about it.

And prayer can kind of be like that too, right?

We, we need to sort of put it on the calendar every day.

We need to make our prayer life a priority.

In Deuteronomy 6, we see something called the Shema

prayer. Maybe you're familiar with that.

The Shema prayer was was a prayer that that the Jewish

faithful would pray every day that the prayer that that

encapsulates what Jesus says in Mark 12 was the most important

commandment. And, and that, and it, and it

says that being in communion with the heart of God should be

done when we wake up and when we go to bed, meaning that it

should be the first thing we do and the last thing we do and all

day throughout. Now, now we don't want to be

legalistic. I'm not saying that it, it's not

sinful if we fall asleep watching the office, but it

means that that God should clearly be our daily priority.

He should, he should be, he should be such a priority that

we think of him immediately when we got up and we dedicate our,

our, our heart and our day and our, our prayer to him and that

and that he's so important to us that at the end of the day we go

to bed also thinking about him and he fills in all these gaps

throughout the the day for prayer.

It's about setting aside a time and a place where God gets all

of our attention. Now a passage here says to go

away to your room and pray to your father who is in secret.

And although public prayer has value, prayer completely away

from public view allows a person or or a group to focus more

exclusively on God and it so it says go away to to your room.

The word used here in the Greek it's tamayon means a store room

or a secret vault, right? It's like a a protected place

where your valuables or your your necessities would be kept.

And that makes sense when we get at the heart of what we see in

this passage. The the intentional prioritized

time and and relationship speaking with the King of Kings

is immensely valuable and worth protecting and worth setting

apart. Jesus demonstrates this

throughout his ministry. We see many examples of him

taking time to be alone with the Father in prayer.

In Luke 612 it says in in these days he went out to the mountain

to pray and all night he continued in prayer to God after

John the Baptist was was beheaded.

In Matthew 14, we see that Jesus went away to a solitary place.

In Mark 14, at the Garden of Gethsemane, hours before Jesus

is arrested and crucified, he he goes away to this quiet garden.

And then scripture says that he even, even once he got there, he

went away from his disciples to be alone with God in prayer.

But intentional private prayer like this isn't something that

we do only when we're facing those biggest of obstacles in

life. Luke 516 says about Jesus, but

he would withdraw to desolate places and pray in another

version that says that that he would, it says he would often

slip away to pray. So this is a this is something

that that Jesus did all the time.

He, he demonstrated, he exemplified it to, to his

disciples. And he didn't just do this to

honor God, but also because it exemplified the unity of the

Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the intimacy that

the, that the son has with the Father.

On our Sunday school class, we've been going through

Ephesians 6 talking about the armor of God.

And in that, in verse 18, Paul reminds us to be praying at all

times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication.

See, prayer is a part of our spiritual armor and we're, we're

told to put that on every day. And the, the thing about it

putting it on like armor is that we wear it like clothes, right?

It's it, it encapsulates us. It we're intimately close with

this. So that inner room that we're

talking about, that inner room or the secure room, it doesn't

need to be a limited use kind of a place either.

That would be legalistic. That's something that the

Pharisees would probably have done after this is they'd have

probably changed building codes to make it so that, you know,

you have to have a sort of a secure vault in the middle of

your house or, or, or something like that.

But, but really what we're talking about is it's a, it's a

place or a situation of prayerful focus that we should

be intentional about, about building in our lives.

For Susanna Wesley, the mother of John and Charles Wesley, she

used to, she used to sit in her chair while her kids were were

studying and doing different things around the house.

She used to sit in her chair and pull her apron up over her head.

And that was so that she wouldn't be distracted by the

things that her children were doing around her.

She was diligent about her focus on her, her time in prayer.

For me, my old prayer room was, was my car for a 35 minute drive

to work and, and you know, and, and home where it was, it was

just me and, and, and Jesus and I would pray that entire drive.

And I, I, I remember one day when I was driving down the

highway and I had to swerve because I almost hit this great

big giant buck deer. And as I was praying and I did

this, I just turned and I said, man, did you see that deer to

Jesus sitting next to me? And, and it, it dawned on me at

that moment. And it was, it was such a moment

of joy and comfort because I realized how close Jesus was to

me. It was something amazing to, to,

to suddenly sort of remind myself of, of the ability that I

have to go directly to the King of kings to drive to work with

him every day to talk to him, to pour my heart out to him.

Now, naturally, many of us might wonder why you don't hear from

God, right? Or, or, or what would that even

look like? Well, it's, it's worth pointing

out that the intentionality of, of praying, of speaking to God

is also appropriately, appropriately applied to hearing

from God as well. And, and we do that through

reading and studying his, his word.

In Isaiah 820, Isaiah told the people of of Judah that they had

a responsibility to consult God's instruction and the

testimony of warning that is, they were to read the written

word of God that was already delivered to them.

See with in this situation, with judgement on the horizon, the

people were were growing impatient and wanting to know

what lay ahead. But the but but the prophet

Isaiah reminds them that God has spoken to them through his word.

They just weren't in line with God.

Scripture is is fully sufficient to give us the answers that we

meet that we need and that that doesn't mean that we'll get the

kind of answers that we want, though.

See, when we understand that that we need to get our hearts

in line with his, we demonstrate, we demonstrate that

in our prayer life by having the right motives, by coming to our

problems with the perspective of Jesus.

But God tells us how to shift our perspectives, how to align

with him in, in his in his word. See, sometimes when we ask that

question, why is God not answering me?

Sometimes the the reality is we we ask it with, you know, an

inch of dust on our Bibles, right?

That's where the answers are. Charles Spurgeon once said a

Bible that's falling apart usually belongs to someone who

isn't falling apart. So we need to be diligent about

making our study of him a priority as well.

I don't say that so to to guilt anybody.

We all go through that that period.

But but we have to be reminded sometimes that's where God gave

us those answers that we're seeking.

The ones that we need are in Scripture.

The ones that we want. I'm not.

So we need to be diligent about making that a priority.

But you know, our our excuse maybe sometimes is, is I don't

understand what I'm reading though, right?

But guys, that's that's why we study it.

Many of us can attest that the the the more that we read

Scripture, the more we glean from it.

It continues to connect with us even when we are already

familiar with it. Sometimes you can have a passage

that you've read, you know, many, many times and you read it

again in the context of your of your study and it enlightens you

even more to the heart of of God.

I believe our small kids can learn from reading scripture and

hearing the the preached word. I don't think that we need to

simplify it, but sometimes, you know, when our, our children are

small, sometimes we, we might teach them a, a simplified

version of Scripture or to walk with them through a recited poem

like prayer. And there's nothing wrong with

that, guys. There's nothing, nothing wrong

with doing that. But as we grow and as we mature

in Christ, we want that study of Scripture and we want our prayer

life to be more robust and, and organic, to be less canned or

less forced, right. But for both our kids and for

ourselves. So what does that look like to

be more organic in our prayer life?

Well, that's that's our our next point here, which is to be

genuine in your requests, verses 7 and 8 say.

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 even ask him.

The reality is sometimes our prayer life can be approached

kind of like a, a, a checklist. I, I got to start my day off

with, with prayer. I, I do this, I, I say kind of

the same things I always say, but at least I can say that I

did it right. We kind of approach it that that

way. I bet you've done it often.

I know I have and I and I know that my heart wasn't in it.

And of course, so does God. You can imagine you've probably

seen this many times, you know, a movie star getting up on stage

and thanking God and the Academy for, you know, an award.

But you know more about this person through tabloids or

whatever. You know that they, they, they

live a, a life of sin publicly. Or sometimes we might see, you

know, a football player who kneels in the end zone after a

touchdown and and and and demonstrates a a brief prayer.

But he maybe is more well known for his off the field hypocrisy,

right? Often times our our prayers that

are offered up are just empty words with with no heart for

Jesus. It's just more of a a ritual

than anything. Parents, if, if you have kids in

in kids church and if you went through their lesson notes, they

got sent with your sent home with your kids a couple of weeks

ago, you'd have read from first Kings 18 about the people of

Israel, how they chanted and they and they sang and they

danced and they carried about all day long trying to get a

response from the false God Baal.

And nothing happened, right. And as nothing happened, the

passage says that the prophet Elijah mocked them for this.

And The thing is, is our phony in genuine word filled prayers

can be similarly treated by God because our prayer isn't just an

empty habit. It's not a custom and it's and

it's not just supposed to be an empty routine either.

This isn't done robotically or in a superstitious way.

If any of you guys are college football people, you know that

the Notre Dame football team has a sign in their tunnel before

they go out on the field that they all reach up and touch,

right, that says play like a champion today.

And they do that. And if you don't do it, you're

going to get sent back in there to do it.

Touching that thing doesn't do anything for doesn't make them

play like a champion, right? It's just they just do it for

the sake of doing it. Our prayer isn't done just for

the sake of doing it. We we are a completely helpless

and hopeless people and we need God to intervene in our lives.

We pray because God is our only hope.

See, when you understand our our depravity and our hopelessness

without God, you understand the heart cry that our prayers

should be. If you imagine you're on a on a,

on a raft or, or something and you're drifting, you know, off

in out to sea and one lonely boat comes sailing past a few

100 yards away and you have got to get their attention or you

are going to drift out into the open ocean and, and, and

certainly die. Right.

Think about that. Would your cry for help in that

situation be disconnected? Would it, would you be easily

distracted in that kind of a moment from crying for help, or

would it be a, a guttural, passionate scream from the

depths of your soul for help? That's what our our, our prayer

is. We know that this is the way to

approach it because in Psalm 34, verse 17, it says when the

Psalms 34:17

righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of

all of their troubles. If you're reading in your Bible,

it, it might say the Lord hears good people when they cry out to

him. Let me just say, come back next

week and listen to Eric as he as he talks about how we can never

be good enough on on our own. But in this context, righteous,

the righteous or or good people means those whose whose contrite

humble hearts are aligned with him like that tax collector that

we just saw up here a minute ago, that who was who was humble

and, and, and didn't think that he was owed anything.

The humble heart recognizes that it is hopeless and desperately

in need of saving. A proud heart sees no need to

ask for help. In Psalm 18, verse 6, David

Psalms 18:6

writes, in my distress, I called upon the Lord to my God.

I cried for help from his temple.

He heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.

But in Lamentations, Jeremiah writes it even more succinctly.

He says, Arise, cry out in the night.

At the beginning of the night, watches pour out your heart like

water before the presence of the Lord.

Lift your hands to Him for the lives of your children who faint

for hunger at the head of every street.

See, when we understand what's at stake, we know that our

prayer life is is no trivial matter.

When we finally understand that our eternity is either with God

in his presence or without God, forbidden from his presence,

forbidden from any comfort, from any peace, from any rest, only

then can we approach our our our prayer life genuinely and with

appropriate desperation. And if you remember our

assurance of of pardon that we read earlier this morning, it

said, since we have been justified by faith, we have

peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

See then when we understand what's at stake, and then we

understand this assurance of pardon, then we can continue to

be genuine in our prayer when we pray with boldness, because in

Hebrews 416, it says, let us then with confidence draw near

to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace

to help in time of need. See, it's that assurance of

pardon that that gives us peace. It's what allows us to go to God

and ask. We have no right to ask for to

ask for something that he does not owe us.

Now that boldness shouldn't be. Don't misunderstand that for

audacity. And when we certainly aren't

demanding, no, we, we pray for big things that are in line with

his heart. Our, our bold prayers must never

be for things that are contrary to the heart of God.

But we can pray for healing and for understanding and for

success. We can we can pray for strength

and for wisdom. We can pray for victory.

Years ago, I I I was feeling a call to ministry.

And, and I thought that I had it mapped out where I, where, where

I wanted to do this and, and I really, really wanted to do

this. And I thought that my heart was

in line with God because I was willing to go.

And I prayed about this passionately all the time.

And I, I, I would talk to God about the heartache that I had

about what I felt like was God ignoring my prayers that I felt

were righteous because I, I, I thought that I was going into

this area of ministry, I thought was a, a righteous thing to ask.

And so I thought that God was ignoring my prayers.

But, but the more that I, the more that I did that in, the

more that I read scripture, I, I came to understand that it was

actually me ignoring his. No, right.

He was answering my prayer. His answer had been there for me

all along in Scripture. He was telling me to be serious

about my faith, don't be a hypocrite.

Stop playing the part in my in my whole Christian life, but

specifically in my prayer life. I I I came to a place of

understanding that I needed to align my heart with Gods when I

came to him and it had this big ask and beautifully,

wonderfully, he told me no. Now much of Jesus ministry and

his his life, the things that he talked about with people often

that we see recorded is about the hypocrisy of Christians.

Jesus cares about the way that we pray because he cares about

the reason and our reason and our approach to our prayer life.

At the at the beginning of this I, I said that the main idea

here was that God wants to encourage us to have genuine

private prayer to align our hearts with his rather than

obligatory performative prayer to impress mankind.

Right to, to avoid being hypocrites.

Guys, we're all hypocrites, especially me, but thank God for

the gospel of, of, of Jesus Christ that offers us

forgiveness when I don't live up to that standard.

Thank God for that grace. I don't deserve forgiveness.

But when I'm reminded of his death on the cross because of

the things that I did, it makes me want all the more to, to know

him better, to, to come close to God so that he'll come closer to

me like we saw in that passage earlier.

As we go about our, our lives today and we and we go to God in

prayer, let's, let's all do our, our diligence to try to make

this a priority, right? Let's not check the box of of

prayer anymore, but let's come to our prayer life understanding

the the hopelessness that we have without God and seeing him

as our only chance. And we are privileged to have

the ear of the King. We can actually reach out and we

can talk with, with God Almighty.

And when we approach our prayer life with that, I think our, our

hearts will be humbled when we understand where we are and

where God is and what our relationship with him can be.

You guys pray with me, Lord. I think often, Lord, about how

different places in my life. I've checked the box and you

certainly know that Lord, and you've been aware of it every

time that that has happened. And Lord, I'm thankful that you

have put people in my my life that you've given me your word

to read, to be redirected back to a place, Lord, where you are

our our number one, where you take the priority over the other

things that are so easy for us as as people to, to, to slide up

that list of priorities to that top spot.

Thank you for your grace, Lord, and forgiving us when we when we

do that and when we, when we repent of it.

And, and that your, that your word, that the relationship that

we have with you in in prayer and then the the, the answers

that we find in Scripture. Thank you that those do such an

amazing job of changing of us in creating a new creature.

Lord, it is it is wonderful how you put all of this together for

your glory and for our good and we are really truly are thankful

for that. Lord, I hope that this that this

message has honored you and I hope that the changes that that

come about in US and the decisions that we make to

prioritize you first and foremost in our prayer life,

Lord would honor you and glorify you and say this in Jesus name,

Amen.