The Lord's Prayer (part 1) // Church Weekend at Home

We are going to be looking today at Matthew chapter 6, so we've

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

got a good stash of Bibles over here.

We've got some sermon question sheets as well you can use.

So basically if you want to turn up Matthew 6, Danny's going to

read the first bit of it to us. And again, during the session,

we've got that outside space. If you need some fresh air at

all or a bit of quiet, you can just head out that way through

those doors there and you can still probably hear us what's

happening on in the main room. But we're going to be looking at

Matthew chapter 6 verses 5 to 8 initially.

Matthew 6:5–8

So quite a short bit. Danny's going to read that for

us. Put your hand if you want a

Bible. Put your hand if you want a

sheet for for following along questions as well.

Right, It's so Matthew chapter 6 starting at verse 5.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they

love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street

corners to be seen by others. Truly, I tell you, they have

received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your

room, close the door and pray to your Father who is unseen.

Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward

you. And when you pray, do not keep

on babbling like pagans, but they think that they will be

heard because of their many words.

Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need

before you ask Him. Thank.

You, Danny. So we're going to look at this

first subtle section before we get into the Lord's Prayer

itself proper. But yeah, I guess we just began

with that quote. I guess that definition of

prayer from CS Lewis, if we get the slides up, that thing, he

says true prayer is the real me speaking to the real God.

And again, Jesus reveals who God is to us.

And because of that, actually Jesus is the best teacher on

prayer we could ever wish for because we said, what's the best

things about prayer? There's lots of things we can

say, but there's plenty of things that are hard for us

about prayer. It's said if you want to humble

any Christian, ask them about their prayer life.

You might be feeling pretty good about a lot of things, but

going, how's the prayer life? How how often are you praying?

How regular are you praying? Most of us will feel, yeah,

probably not as much as I should do.

And we struggle to pray. We don't know what to say.

We struggle to concentrate long enough.

We maybe find prayer boring. If we're honest, God seems very

far away. And occasionally, if you're

feeling brave, you might read a book on prayer, maybe learn

about some great hero of the faith who prayed.

But often when you read about someone else's great prayer

life, you end up being a bit crushed, actually going, well,

that's not me and I don't think I'll ever be me.

So we don't quite know where to go.

Sometimes we want to learn how to pray.

But Matthew 6, we're going to see today very, very familiar

words. Jesus is the greatest prayer

coach we could ever wish for. As the Son of God, he knows

exactly what God is like. He knows exactly what we should

be praying for. But as the Son of Man, he

understands that we find it hard.

He understands that we struggle with temptation and doubt.

He's been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet without sin.

So where other prayer experts can often make us feel

inadequate, Jesus never does. I want to just begin by sort of

like just paraphrasing the word Jesus says in Matthew 11, verse

Matthew 11:28

28, where he just says, come to me all you hear, weary and

burdened. Come to me all you who struggle

with prayer. Come to me all you who are

tempted to give up on prayer, and I will give you rest.

Learn from me for I'm gentle and humble in heart and you will

find rest for your souls. So want us to really just

preface everything that we're going to look at in Matthew 6,

remembering who it is is speaking.

He is good, He is gentle, He is humble with us and that is

amazing news. So we're going to be spending

this weekend looking at Matthew Chapter 6.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

A little bit of it today and then the rest of it tomorrow.

I guess the context of Matthew 6, it's always important to get

an understanding of that. This is the Sermon on the Mount

often referred to. It's Jesus vision for life in

the Kingdom of heaven. He deals with lots of questions

in Matthews 5, Matthew chapters 5 to 7.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

So what will follow to Jesus look like in this world?

What does it mean for us to live for Jesus?

What will we love? What will we hate?

What will we fight for, what we fight against?

And in Matthew 6, he kind of zeroes in on three key areas in

the Kingdom of heaven, giving to the needy, fasting and prayer.

And he introduces each one of those with a warning.

This is Matthew 6 verse 1. He says be careful not to

Matthew 6:1

practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by

them. If you do, you'll have no reward

from your Father in heaven. It's according to Jesus.

It's possible to do lots of what seems spiritual things, but to

do them for the wrong reasons. And it's a challenge.

We're gathered together publicly thinking about praying together.

He's got some quite challenging things of of how not to pray

that he begins his teaching on prayer with.

So Danny, read out for us Matthew 6 verses 5 to 8.

Matthew 6:5–8

What I'd love you to do is just in groups.

Maybe it could be just 2345. Just turn to the people near

you. Look again at Matthew 65 to 8

where Jesus is teaching us how not to pray and then just go

through those questions. What sort of praying does he

warn the disciples against? Why does he say those sorts of

prayers are not real prayer? Why are we tempted to pray this

way? Maybe you don't think you are,

but why? Why is this a warning we need to

hear? And what encouragement did Jesus

give his disciples about the God we pray to hear?

So this is how not to pray. What are the challenges?

But also what are the encouragement Jesus gives?

OK, yeah, so it's just, it's a set of warnings that are

preparing the ground, clearing the ground really for how we

pray. So again, there's warnings and

promises. So don't pray to impress other

people. Don't be like a hypocrite, Jesus

says. But the promise alongside that

is that you are seen by God. So again, my my line of work,

sometimes, you know, I've got to pray in public.

It's got to be impressive. You know, it's got to be

whatever. And actually so many times like

I've felt that in my own heart. Am I praying to impress other

people? Once I was at a summer school of

theology years ago because I'm really rock'n'roll my life.

And, and it was I was asked to give thanks for the food and

just suddenly my voice changed. I tried to do like an overview

of the Old and New Testaments. I was talking to every member of

the Trinity, but probably thanking the Father for dying on

the cross. And I don't know what.

And, and I just, I, I said when I got to Anne and I was

deflated. I think the food was cold and,

and it was just that that I wasn't praying to my father at

all. I was praying to impress other

people. And I dare to think I'm probably

not the only Christian who's fallen into that trap.

So, but the promise is that you're seen by God.

You don't have to impress him because he's your father.

And the challenge is we can't see the God we pray to, but

Jesus says he can see us. He sees us and he sees us as his

children. It's not just like a secret

police officers on under surveillance.

He sees what you're doing so we can catch you out.

You know, he's your father who delights in you.

The God who sees us is our Father who loves us, says Jesus.

So we don't have to impress him. Yeah, that's actually the second

one. We don't pray to impress God.

That's the pagans. They do that.

They go you we need to do all this stuff so that God the gods

will give us what we want. And again, how often we might

think if I can just pray long enough, hard enough, God will

give me what I want. If I can just use the right

language, God will give me what I want.

But verse 7 he says when you pray, don't keep on batting like

pagans. If they think they'll be heard

for their many words. Don't be like them for your

father knows what you need before you ask him.

And that's amazing because because God knows what you need.

But then verse 9, this then is how you should pray.

We kind of go and verse verse, it could be just like, therefore

we don't have to pray at all. You can say, well, father knows

what I need, so I don't need to pray at all.

But actually, because your father knows what you need, then

you can come to him and you can talk to him knowing that his

purposes for you are good that he he sees you at your worst.

He sees you the things that you're ashamed of.

He sees that, and yet he still invites you to come to him in

prayer through faith in his Son Jesus, with him as our heavenly

Father. So there's amazing promises here

that actually we are known by God and that is good news.

As Shao Jian said at the beginning, that is good news.

That sounds frightening. But because he's compassionate,

because he's gracious, He knows us.

Therefore we can just say, right, Lord, you don't need to

explain the situation. Just help.

Please just help. Help my heart, Help this other

person's heart and intervene. Please let your Kingdom come in

this situation. So Jesus begins with these

warnings how not to pray. And then we're going to look at

the first half of the Lord's Prayer this morning and then the

second-half tomorrow morning we're back at Ave. primary

school. So Jesus starts with saying how

not to pray. But then from verse 9, normally

he goes on to teach us how to pray and Jack is going to come

and read Jesus model prayer to us.

Jack. So verse 9 This then is how you

should pray. Our Father in heaven, hallowed

be your name, your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it

is in heaven. Give us today 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 the evil

one. For if you forgive other people

when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also

forgive you. But if you do not forgive others

their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

It's actually when you listen to this model prayer, one thing

that always strikes me is just how short it is.

You always say don't keep on babbling like pagans.

And actually this prayer I think you can probably read out in

about 15 seconds. Maybe I have a memory of COVID

era. You're meant to wash your hands.

Was a happy birthday to you. Maybe was that once or twice,

maybe twice. And the Lord's Prayer, some,

some Christians come up with a great idea, which I, I find just

weird. Didn't do it.

But apparently you could, you could also time yourself by

saying the Lord's Prayer by washing hands for 30 seconds.

There's no, I think it was twice again.

Anyway, that's not in my notes. But yeah, but it's short.

That's a big thing. And actually there is something

liberating about that. That's not to say that all our

prayers have to be just these words.

And it's not to say that all our prayers should be 15 seconds and

no longer, but it is amazing that Jesus, when he wants to

teach us how to pray, he doesn't give us a massive big long

prayer. He gives us this prayer which is

short and simple, and yet it has so much to teach us about the

attitudes we should have when we pray and about who it is we're

praying to. So again, the big starting point

is that we are praying to our Father in heaven.

We are praying to God who is our Father and that makes all the

difference when we pray. I don't know about you when I

when I was when I was a child back into the playground.

You somebody argue your mates like whose dad was best like my

dad's bigger than your dad. My dad could beat your dad up.

If you annoy me, I'm going to get my dad on you.

You some of us did that, but actually what we are learning

when Jesus invites to pray is actually our dad really is the

greatest. Our Father really is stronger

than anything standing against us.

He really is able to protect us when perhaps no one else can.

He really does help us as we cry out to Him.

And the foundational truth for Jesus teaching on prayer is that

God is your Father and you are his child.

Again, this is a definition that I just have come back to the

last 10 years or so because I just love the simplicity of it.

Prayer so simply as a child asking their Father for help,

that's just fundamental. That's like at its simplest,

that's what we do we pray Father, I need your help.

It's as simple as that Prayer begins and ends with the

fatherhood of God and the theme of this weekend is is praying

together. And so want to see that actually

that that that the Lord's Prayer so reminds us that actually we

never pray alone. It's our Father in heaven and we

need to see that because actually remember the context,

Jesus saying Jesus is telling his disciples, go into your

room, verse 6, close the door, be alone with God.

You might think he's going to say just going to say, well then

my father or just father. Luke 11.

He just starts with father, but here he says our Father, even

when we're on our own, we're not on our own.

Our Father reminds us we are always praying with Jesus and

we're always praying alongside other believers.

We're always praying with Jesus. Actually remember Jesus is

saying this our Father, He's saying that's my father is now

your father. Disciples, remember he said that

to Mary Magdalene when he rose from the dead.

He says I'm going back to my God and your God, my father and your

father saying now God is your father.

Therefore talk to him like your Father.

Jesus relationship with God becomes our relationship with

God when we trust in him. Jesus intimacy with the Father

becomes our intimacy with the Father.

When we pray, our Father remembering we are praying with

Jesus, but we're also, we're praying with other believers.

Remember we're on our own in our room.

Jesus says, but we are always part of God's great community of

believers, brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers in Christ.

And that's in a local church setting and that's the universal

church across the world. Our Father reminds us that God

isn't just my Father, He is the father of everyone who trusts in

him. That I don't follow Jesus on my

own. I'm part of the community of

God's people and therefore I don't pray to God on my own.

I pray as part of God's family of believers.

So that's kind of remembering that prayer is about praying

with Jesus and praying alongside other believers.

But we come into the body of the, of the Lord's Prayer itself

and it's kind of in a game of two halves.

People say there are about 6 requests here and you can sort

of split them in two in a sense. The first set of requests you're

going to look at today, we're praying for God's glory.

The second set of requests we are depending on God's grace.

So we'll look at that second bit a bit more tomorrow morning at

Ave. School.

But I think the order of those halves is significant.

Actually, if I was praying, I would go straight to give us

today Our Daily Bread. I basically all that I, I need

help, Lord, and I've just said prayer as a child asking your

Father help. That's not wrong, but it's

interesting. When Jesus teaches how to pray,

he starts with God. He wants us to not just make the

whole world revolve around us. He wants to go actually pray

this way. Jesus says, and remember that

you're not the center of the universe.

God is. And that's actually really good

news. It's good news because he's

still your Father and he loves you, but he's got other purposes

in life than just maybe what you can see right now.

And in the first half, the Lord's Prayer, we see that

prayer is how we get involved with God's saving purposes for

us and for our world. This is how we get involved with

what God is doing in the world. We're children asking our Father

for help, but our Father saying, you've not got a part to play in

the family business. You've got a part to play in

what I want to do in this world, across this world, through the

lives of people you know and people you don't even know.

And prayer is a massive part of how you play a part in God's

family business of rescuing people and bringing them into

his family. How we pray and the things we

pray for in Jesus name play a huge part in God's saving

purposes. And I always think that's just

an amazing statement that God would involve people like us in

what he's doing. So the first half of the Lord's

Prayer is about praying for God's glory, seeking God's

glory, living for God's glory in this world.

That begins with that opening phrase, Hallowed be your name.

Jesus encouraged us to include praise right at the beginning of

our prayers. Prayer is about praising your

Father in heaven. Again, hallowed be your name.

It's a weird phrase, sounds very alien to our to our ears.

To hallow something or someone is busy, to honour it, to set it

apart, to say this is special, holy.

And Jesus invites us to begin by praying to our Father and

heaven, saying your name is holy.

And we're not making God's name holy.

God's name is holy anyway, but we are recognizing that his name

is holy. And we're responding to that.

Basically, when when Jesus opens his prayer this way, he's

saying, ask your Father to show you who he is.

Ask your father to show just how different he is to us, how much

better, how more good, how more loving and compassionate he is

to what you imagine him to be. He is gloriously different to us

and that is really good news. So again, your name in the Bible

is very much your character. So it's who someone is, what

makes them tick. And God has many names in

scripture. He is names like father, king,

creator, refuge, rock, fortress, lover, sustainer, Redeemer,

judge. But again, hallowed be your

name, remembering who it is speaking here it is Jesus.

And it's through Jesus that we get to see God's character

perfectly. And when we see God's love for

us in Jesus, Jesus invites us. Hallow that hallow the name of

God. Say, Lord, thank you for who you

are. Thank you that you're different

to us. Thank you that you're more

forgiving than I think you are, that you're more just than I

think you are, that your purposes are me are better than

I think they are. Again, just think of like the

core values of our church from 20 years ago.

We want to be God centred, actually hallowed be your name

is about that. It's saying God, this is about

you. It's about your glory, not about

us. But amazingly, when we realize

it's about your glory and not about us, we get blessed by

discovering how we're meant to live with the God who made us

and the God who loves us. So that's why as a church, we

pray together, that's why we hear God's word together.

That's why we sing God's praises together, because we want to

hallow God's name, because that's what we're made for.

That's what we've been rescued to do.

Just a generation of Christians a long time ago, the 17th

century in the Westminster Confession, they began a whole

set of question and answers about what life should be all

about for a Christian. And the opening question was,

what is the chief end of man? But no, but this is it.

Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

And hallowed be your name actually is an invitation to

glorify God. But it's by glorifying God we

enjoy him, realizing who God is and how good he is, that we

delight in knowing him. And that's important because of

the second request Jesus teaches us.

He says pray this your Kingdom come prayer is about partnering

with your Father in heaven. Again, we we've seen this

already, but we each have a vital part to play in declaring

the goodness of God in this world.

More than that in the building of God's Kingdom here on earth.

And that's an amazing statement that Jesus invites his ordinary

weak, foolish disciples to play a part in building God's

Kingdom. And he does that right up to the

present day. So the Kingdom of heaven and

Matthew's gospel, if you flick back a couple of pages, we just

see this is about God beginning to establish his Kingdom on

earth. So Matthew chapter one, verse

21, we hear that this Jesus has come to save his people from

their sins. Matthew chapter 3, Jesus is

Matthew 3 · chapter mention

baptized and empowered for his mission by God the Father and

God the Holy Spirit. He's coming to build God's

Kingdom. Matthew chapter 4 Jesus fights

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

his first recorded battle against the devil, and Jesus

wins. Jesus bringing the Kingdom of

heaven, Matthew 4 verse 17. From that time on, Jesus began

Matthew 4:17

to preach, repent, for the Kingdom of heaven has come near.

Jesus is God's king, He's come to build God's Kingdom.

But then in the middle part of Matthew 4, something amazing

happens. Jesus calls 4 ordinary fishermen

to follow him, Peter, Andrew, James and John.

And he says your job is to call others to follow me.

I'm going to make you fishers of people.

Jesus really early on, he's God's king.

He's the one who's going to win the battle for God.

But he straightaway involves ordinary followers in that task.

And in this prayer that Jesus taught his first disciples and

has taught all of his disciples throughout history ever since,

he says we have a part to play. We get to partner with our

Father in heaven by praying. Lord, would your Kingdom come?

That's a big part of how we build God's Kingdom by praying

so much. Christians have got that wrong.

We said it's about what we do. We just is all on us to build

God's Kingdom. It's not just on us to build

God's Kingdom. God's going to do it, but he

invites us to play a part and a big part saying your Kingdom

come, please let me show who you are through my actions, through

the way you're changing me. Again, we don't always get an

opportunity to speak for Jesus in this world, but we pray this

prayer, your Kingdom come in my life, and then through it to

others. We're saying, Lord, would you

just change me into somebody belongs to your Kingdom?

And then would others see who you are through that?

This is a prayer to say that we would work at our jobs as

working for Jesus. We would do our studies as

working for Jesus. We would help our friends as

working for Jesus. We would raise our kids as

working for Jesus. We'd spend our money as working

for Jesus. Your Kingdom come reminds us of

the mission Jesus has given us and to ask God to bless that

mission so other people will know Jesus as their king.

And your Kingdom come can be a bit of painful prayer to pray

sometimes it reminds us that God's Kingdom isn't here.

We see that on the news around us.

We see it in our own lives. God's Kingdom hasn't yet come.

But we do not despair because Jesus says, pray this prayer.

Your Kingdom come, remind yourself God's Kingdom is

coming. It will not always be like this

in this world. It will not be like this in our

hearts. God's Kingdom is coming.

And he invites us to pray that that would happen.

But actually then the last request we're going to look at

today kind of follows on nice that your Kingdom come.

The challenge with that prayer is again, it could just be all

about what we are doing. We want God to put things right

and we get really frantic. He wants to do that.

But actually Jesus also says your will be done.

Trust God's purposes and timing in everything.

Your Kingdom come as a prayer for God to put things right.

Your will be done is a prayer about submitting to our Father

in heaven. We said earlier on what some of

the hardest things about prayer. Some of the hard things are we

just don't seem to get the answers we'd like that God

doesn't seem to intervene the way we want him to and that can

be painful. Sometimes I think about my older

brother actually, if I was writing this time think it's

well over 30 years now. I've been praying for him to

come to faith in Jesus and at the minute there's no change and

it's easy to give up sometimes. But you go actually hallowed.

Be your name God, you're good, Your Kingdom come break into my

brother's life. Your will be done.

Keep me trusting in you as I don't see it happening just yet.

Your will be done is not a prayer of defeat or giving up,

but it's a prayer of trust in God's saving purposes even when

we don't understand them. And of course this is the

prayer. I just always loved that Jesus

when he tells us to pray this way.

It's not a prayer. He doesn't know all about you.

Think about the Garden of Gethsemane the night before the

cross. He goes.

Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me yet.

Not what I will, but what you will when we say your will be

done. We're following in the footsteps

of Jesus and He's able to help us trust Him and submit to our

Father. Because our Father is good and

he is loving and his ways are best.

So this is how Jesus begins his master class in prayer.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your Kingdom come,

your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Prayer is how we get involved with God's saving purposes for

us and for our world.