How Not to Pray

Okay, let's see if that works now. That's a little bit better. Is thing okay in the back? Yes. Thumbs up! So, I'm giving this sermon today and the one I will be giving in two weeks because it was requested on the cards I gave you. Someone asked, so I'm going to be doing a two-parter here, and this is part one. And the title is, How Not to Pray. Do you know how not to pray?

Well, there was a pastor who went to visit an older farmer for breakfast. The farmer invited him out. He didn't know him very well, but he went to the man's house on the farm. And the older gentleman had bebbed overalls on, as his typical dress was. And so the pastor asked the old farmer to, how did you give grace for breakfast as it was about to be served? So the older farmer said, yes, pastor, sure, no problem. So let us bow our heads. He bowed his head. He said, Lord, I hate buttermilk. And the minister looked up, pastor looked up at him, like what? Bowed his head. The farmer said, Lord, I hate vegetable shortening. Pastor kind of looked at him. And then he said, Lord, you know I don't care much for raw white flour. And the pastor is about to say something, but then the farmer continues. But Lord, when you mix them all together and bake them, I do love those warm fresh biscuits. So Lord, when things come up that we do not like, when life gets hard, when you, when we don't understand what you're saying to us, help us to just relax and wait until you're done baking. And it will probably turn out better than these biscuits. Amen.

I think we can all kind of relate to that a little bit, as I have been impatient in my prayers before. So I would like to look at first how not to pray. And there's no better person to tell us how not to pray than Jesus Christ himself. But I will challenge you during the next two weeks to look at prayers in the Bible. So I have people say sometimes my prayers just hit the ceiling and come back down, it feels like. Sometimes I don't know what to pray for. Sometimes I don't really feel like I know how or when to pray and what to pray about. Well, you can Google prayers in the Bible. And that Google will send you to over 600 prayers laid out in the Bible. Some of them pretty good prayers. Some of them fantastic prayers. And some of them you wonder, hmm, they may struggle with the same problem I have. Because there are over 450 answered prayers according to Google in the Bible. And the first time prayer is mentioned is in Genesis 4 and verse 26. You don't have to turn there. But it actually tells us in the New Testament that Jesus prayed over 25 times listed in the Bible. Think it's important? Paul mentions prayer 41 times. But as I said, I want to reflect back and look at what Christ teaches us. Yes, teaches us. He taught them, but it is the living Word, has been preserved for us. Because prayer is a must to enter the kingdom of God.

They say, wait a minute, isn't that works? Really? You have to work at praying? If you have to really work at praying, you need to pray for God to give you more trials. Because you generally don't have a problem when praying, when things are not going exactly right. So let's look at this today. If you will, turn with me to Matthew 23. Matthew 23, just one verse here. Matthew 23 and verse 14. Christ is saying here, whoa! To you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.

For you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense. What's a pretense? It's an attempt to make something that is not the case appear true. It means you're fake. You're pretending, pretense. And as a pretense, for a pretense, making long prayers. Therefore, you will receive greater condemnation. What was Christ saying about these Pharisees and scribes and sedges? They're hypocrites. Because in one minute over here, they're trying to take widows' homes by saying, well, no, you need to give more money. Your husband's died, and you need to go live with your children. And you could leave the house to us. That's how they would devour them.

And then you act like, when everybody else sees you, you act like you're this religious, and you make these long prayers. Long, long prayers. And everybody says, oh, that must be a religious man, a religious woman. So what's he saying?

God is saying, be authentic. Don't be a fake in your prayers.

Because he knows. He knows exactly what's going on, what's in your mind. And so we, as Christians today, we may be looked at. We may be called upon to say prayers. At meals, at different occasions. I have. Anytime my relatives get together, I'll let's call on the preacher.

And so I typically say the prayers, but I don't go long and don't walk up to everybody and go, everybody bother us, please. And go into this thing. Why? Because that's not what it says we're to do here. That's what the hypocrites do. They want to be seen. They not only want to be seen, they want to be seen as righteous. Christ is saying, no, stop it. Don't do it this way.

Let's go over to another one. Luke 18, one of my favorite stories from Luke. Luke, as Mike talked about a parable, teaches us. We use it to compare. That's what a parabola in the New Testament Greek means. So let's go down to 18 in verse 9. And Christ also spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and they despised others. Who would that be? Hmm, let's find out. He said, two men went up to temple to pray. One a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. Not really to God, but he kind of wanted to hear his own words. Ever heard anybody like that? He said, God, I thank you that I am not like other men. Extortioners, unjust, adulterers, swine-eating, Sunday-keeping pagans.

I've heard that one before.

I like that my neighbor over here.

Or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week. The Pharisees fasted on Mondays and Thursdays. Tuesday was out. No, it had to be the days that they did it for their reason. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all I possess and the Pharisees were generally the richest people in the area. And the tax collector standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me. I'm a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house, justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be abased, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Christ teaching a very important lesson about praying here.

This tax collector knew he was a sinner. The Pharisee recognized that he was not in his own eyes. What does that teach us?

That all come on their knees before Christ are unworthy to come before Christ except in God, except for Jesus Christ making us worthy by his sacrifice and his blood. Take away our sins. Make us justified right with God.

What powerful statement. The parable. How is this a parable?

It is because we're to learn from it. We're to compare those two men, and we're to see which one am I closer to.

How does God view me? It makes me wonder being, we know the word, dealt with humans for 4,000 years before he became Emmanuel.

He saw this happening. I've always wondered reading this if this was something that he pulled from fact. Because we read the Pharisees and we go, sounds like them. And we look at Matthew the tax collector. Could this have been him?

Or someone like him. You see, Christ ate with the tax collectors, and the Pharisees went, oh, ah, what's wrong with you? Hmm. Makes you think, doesn't it? Let's go. How not to pray to Matthew, since he had something to say about it. Matthew 6 and verse 5. Matthew 6 and verse 5. Christ is saying here on the Sermon on the Mount, one of the greatest sermons, if not the greatest sermon ever given, says, when you pray, not if. He didn't say if you pray, did he? He said, this is to his followers. He just gave the beatitudes. Now he's given, when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites again. My margin of Bible says, pretenders, let's see how they pretended. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly I say to you, they have their reward.

Does it mean their prayers are not going to be answered? We'll go into that, because you want to make sure your prayers aren't hindered. We'll be talking about that the next few weeks, because I think it is important. Because face it, why waste your time in prayer if God's not going to listen to it? Why waste your time in prayer if God is just going to go, is just going to go?

Are you saying that again?

I had the opportunity this week to watch a pastor, which I'm not down. I don't even know who he is. I'd never heard the name, but he opened up the session of Congress in Washington, D.C. with prayer, as I usually do. And I saw him, and he walked up in front of all the men, and he got up here, and he reached in his pocket. And he pulled out his prayer.

And I thought, you fake.

All these beautiful words. Everything was just in line, a perfect syntax. Everything was just like, wow. But I thought, you do this for a living. You get paid to pray. You get paid to pray for people.

You hopefully pray every day, multiple times. And yet, you have the opportunity to stand before legislators, and you have to have a piece of paper. I saw that at a feast once, one of my feasts in Caribbean. Not mine, but I was over it. And I was like, you know, I just was standing in the back of the room making sure everything's okay. And so he gets up there, and then he opens this, and he's a minister. And I thought, what are you doing? God doesn't want that. God doesn't need that. God doesn't want somebody pretending to be righteous.

God wants everything from here. This is what matters to God. Now, the abundance of the what? The what speaks? Now you see? Even greater condemnation because he professed to be. I use a professional ministers, preachers, your professional speakers. And you do something like this. It so reminded me of what Christ is talking about there. Matter of fact, don't even worry if they pull you up and going to persecute you, or even put you down. Don't worry about what you're going to say. Why? Because you have a relationship with God. You talk to your father every day. You don't need to, well, what am I going to say? Well, I got to put my case together like a lawyer. God says, no, don't do it, because I'll give you what to say. I pray that goes for all of us. Goes for every one of us. Let the heart speak when you pray.

So he tells us how not to pray. I use just three cases. There's others in there. So how do we pray? How do we pray? Is it in there? How should we pray? Well, yes, you're in Matthew 6. Let's go down to the next verse. Because first he tells you how not to pray, and then he's going to tell you how to pray. He said, but when you pray, go to your room, and when you... You ever notice something different about this verse? Now, you can send me an email, but I want you to check something out, because I haven't found it yet. This is a unique verse in the entire New Testament. Matter of fact, it's unique in the Old Testament. I cannot find anything like it. Doesn't surprise me as Jesus Christ. It's God in the flesh. You see what's different here? One verse, and eight emphatic, emphatic pronouns. Personal. God makes this. God in the flesh makes this personal. Look at this. I mean, it's amazing. In this one verse, eight you are yours in one verse. But you, making that personal, but you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. Can you get any more personal than that? I mean, I can't find anywhere else where Christ is so emphatic in His Word. He didn't have to pull out a page to write it, to read it. He said it because He knew. Who knew better than Him how we should do it? Because, you see, this was kind of new to Him.

He's 31 years of age. He never had to pray before. He became human. He didn't have to pray. He was right there with God.

And now He's human, and He realizes there's a lot of stuff coming at you here.

I can sympathize with these people. I need to help them. And what does He do? He gives us perhaps the greatest help we could have with one verse. It's about being private. Oh, I know. I've heard all the stories. You have to. You've heard all the sermons. You need to pray an hour a day. You need to say the Bible an hour a day. The Bible doesn't say that. This is a personal thing. So my greatest prayers, like Elijah, came at an inopportune time, surrounded by 450 men, and had a 10-second prayer. And fire came from heaven. God hears. It's a personal thing. This needs to be personal with us. That's why He says, go close the door. Mary and I will pray occasionally together, but most of the time she's got her personal prayer. I've got mine. Because it's about that. It's about that relationship. We need it. And who else needs it? God needs it. So now Christ, at this time, He felt so human. See, He never had to worry about anything before. Before, He didn't have to worry about stubbing His toe, cutting His hand, being insulted, attacked, looked at, mocked. He never had that before. So He says, you need to pray. And you need to pray and make it personal. Don't put a clock in there. Don't put a clock. Oh, well, let's see what else I can say. Let's see. I still have 10 minutes. No, you may have to do that when you first start. Might be something to think about, but no. God wants you here. What's in your mind? What's in your heart? That's what He's trying to tell you. Go in your room, Claude. It's between you and Him. You know, I confess your sins. It's not like, oh, forgive me, Father. You know what I did this week. He already knows. So you don't have to tell Him you have to talk about it. Because He's your Father. And His first job, His very first job is to love you. That's it. It's to love you first.

Let's go on. Let's go on.

But when you pray, not if again, in verse 7, do not use vain repetitions as the heathens do. Have you heard them? Oh, wait a minute. I pray, and I pray for this woman here every day. And I pray for my mother, and I pray for all of you, or most of you. See? Just seeing if you're judging me. It's like, oh. But yeah, I have all these people that I'm an overseer for in Caribbean, and those who are sick, and those like Milton, and those who are like Dora, and these people, and everything coming on in your lives. Vain repetition. So it is repetitious, but He said vain repetition. Just say it to be saying it. Just say it because it sounds good. I heard, I didn't hear, I read, looked up vain repetition just to see what it says. And someone had put out, because before we came into the church, came to any understanding, we occasionally say blessing at dinner. And we were young kids, and so nobody said anything wrong. God is great. God is good. Let us thank Him for this food. You know? That's what we said. That's what I said. I didn't know what else to say. I never read a Bible. But I saw this week where someone said a vain repetition is, God is great. She is good. Let us thank her for our food. Why would you, why would you even think that? It's nowhere in the Bible.

But there are vain repetitions that people just use.

And I won't go in because I'm not condemning any swine-eating, Sunday-keeping pagans. Any other church, because it's about my relationship with God, that's what's most important. And it's about your reputation, your relationship with God, and how you build things. But you've heard them. So if you hear something and you say, hmm, that doesn't sound right, well guess what? It probably isn't. Because your spirit's groaning as Christ's spirit would groan over various things. Spirit teaching you. So let's go on. Verse 7. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Many, many words. Many, many words.

Therefore, do not be like them. Can it be any clearer?

You know what he says? Stop it! Don't be like them. God doesn't like it. For your God knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. God, I kept your commandments. God, I keep the holy days. Oh, I sent that tithe check off, too. Now, let me tell you what I need.

No, that's not what it's about. He didn't need your money. United Church of God didn't need your money.

Nobody called me, so I guess it's okay. Thought I might have got a call from the home office. No, I make a joke about it, but it's God we look to. That's who it is. And I need a Ferrari. No, you don't.

I need a nicer house. No, you don't. If it was a necessity, you'd have it. God, give it to you. He wants to see what you'll do with what He gives you. Right? I can't give you...

Winston.

Neil, you want to give Joseph $100, see what he does with it? How about $5 to start with? Because then you begin to see. Maybe later you can. That's how God is with us. My father used to say, you need to ride a bicycle a long time before you get a car. Because then you can find out what it feels like to be thrown out off your bike. God wants us to do these things. God wants to hear from us, but He doesn't need to hear, Oh God, you know what I did again. He already knows what you did again. Now tell him that you need his help to help you not do it again. And that you're pretty helpless without him, without his guidance. This is what Christ is trying to teach us as we go forward. Now let me go in to go down a couple of verses. Well, one verse. Because in Matthew 6 and verse 9, you have a repetitious prayer. You've heard it. I was taught it. And this is the Lord's Prayer.

And this is good. But is this really if Jesus Christ said what? In this manner, therefore pray. And He gives up seven verses. It takes me less than 10 seconds, about eight seconds to say the prayer. Ten at the most. That's all God needs from us. Ten seconds?

But that's what many people think, isn't it? That's not what Christ is. It's a model prayer. It's the things that help us cover their basis. Because sometimes we're not in... Oh, excuse me. I'm not in condition to pray. Having a bad day. And it's not Mary's fault. It's my fault. And I got to deal with it, so I have to go in and pray. I get on my knees and I'm like...

That grout line in that tile is a little off. That's Mike Hamill's fault. He laid my tile.

All these things come into my mind that are definitely out there. And it's Satan that's giving him my mind while I'm down there trying to talk to God. Ah, so I'm not the only one. Well, I'm glad we have an honest church here. That's why this prayer sermon is so important. Hopefully the next one will be, too. Because we all need help. This is a hospital for spiritually sick.

Annie, she's a nurse. Okay. She's there to help you when you're physically sick. But hopefully it doesn't end there, does it? Why? Because you know God's way. And it's just as important that you help people spiritually. And so we have a hospital for the spiritually sick that you have an appointment every Saturday. Hopefully you'll come. There's some healing in many ways need to be done. And that's what Christ gives us. But let's digress, just like my prayer. In this manner, therefore, pray. And then He gives us seven steps, seven things to do, to say, to enter our minds. And I have used this more than a few times to get me back on track so I could get off my knees. Because many times I've said, I'm not getting up until I get this right. My knees are bony. I'm not bony, but my knees are bony.

So let's go. He said, our Father, our Father, not just His Father, our Father, your Father, my Father. It's a relationship. And you don't walk away.

Just like I left Tennessee, but my mother is still my mother.

And even if and when she dies, she'll still be my mother. God is our Father. He wants that. He loves that title. He wants to hear you say that. Our Father. So He just brought this in. We are the family of God. Our Father in heaven tells you where He's at, but He's not that far.

Hallowed be your name. Holy is your name. Holy, holy, holy. You read in Revelation how many times the angels say it? Nine times. Holy, holy, holy, holy, holy. Except they don't say it like that. Holy. Well, I can't even... I don't even attempt that because they're so much closer to God. If we saw what they saw, we would be able to say it too.

So the first one is, hallowed be your name. Then the second one, your kingdom come, your will be done. Seek first the what? It just said it. Christ just pointed us that way. He didn't like Heavenly Father, great and merciful God. Man, I need a raise.

Can you cut that electric bill down? No. This is... It's about the kingdom. Do we want it? It's at first in our minds. It's pointing that it should be. Your kingdom come. Do we pray that? Do we want it here? Or let's say, well, wait a minute. I got it. Two more years, I have the house paid off, then I'll have extra money, and then I can take that vacation. No. To pray that kingdom come. That... What? Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Number three, your will will be done on earth as it is in heaven so that people are not suffering anymore.

So that we know the kind of world that God has promised. Christ said, I'm going to bring it. I just don't know when. I'm waiting for Dad to give me the keys to the car to come down here and open this thing up, get things settled. But this is what he's in his model. He's telling us we need to think about it and ask for it. Not just about us.

Because I can honestly tell you, I have prayed in the past, and I wasn't praying for the kingdom. Because I just got our house built in Tennessee. And I had a great low interest. And I was like, wow, I want to spend time here. It ain't about the physical. Because everything he's promised us is so much greater than any physical thing we could ever dream here. Wasn't it 1 Corinthians 2? I had not seen nor heard nor entered the heart of man. The things that God has planned for those who what?

Love him. Never ever forget that. And the kingdom is ours. The kingdom is yours right now. Your name is written in the book of life. It's yours. Don't let it slip away. Don't let anyone take your crown, as the scriptures say. So let's go. The fourth one. Can you imagine? Well, let's go back to the third one. Can you imagine? Matter of fact, I'm going to do this before the spring holy days.

Because I think we all need to see God's glory a little clearer. And there are certain scriptures in this that paint it such clear view that if we had that here, we would be saying, what in the world were we thinking? Worried about little things in this world. So let's go. Point four. Give us this day our daily bread. Why? Because God controls everything. He knows how much bread we need. He also knows if we need to be gluten-free. He knows everything. He knows it all. So ask Him. Okay, Father, I do need help today.

But don't pray for bread next week. He wants you to pray for bread today. Today, only today. Because then you'll come back tomorrow to see Dad again. You know, when I lived on the farm in Tennessee, and we lived just one field away from my father's farm, and he never got tired of us walking down.

Families don't call and go, we're thinking about coming over. Is it okay? I mean, maybe you do. I don't. We never did on the farm. We just walked over. And he never go, well, why don't you make it tomorrow? He didn't do that. And if he came to our house, knocked on our door, we're like, hey, great Dad. This is how our Dad up there is. He wants every day. He wants to hear from us every day. What do you need today, Son?

What do you need today, my wonderful daughter? I've been waiting. I've been waiting. I've been waiting. This is what Christ is trying to teach us. Number five, and forgive us our debts. Hmm. Nobody didn't stand there. That's that big as that's coming in here. I said, as, as. As we forgive our debtors. Ooh, there's condition here. Christ is making us sure. And forgive us all things we owe all the debts, all the sins, everything. Forgive it, but He's only going to do it as we forgive our debtors.

People sinned against us. People didn't treat us right. People snubbed us. Hmm. Well, He, you know, this was a great prayer to all of a sudden there's conditions here, isn't it?

He's saying, I won't forgive you because you won't forgive others. That's exactly why. Because God is, by doing that, He's making us like Him and His Son. Very forgiving, very caring. He really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, can I say it enough, really wants to forgive us of everything.

But He knows it's not good for us unless we forgive others. And we all know that in here, don't we? Because we hold hard feelings. We harbor something, look at that. I remember.

I was 19 years old, and this guy borrowed at a feast to get back home. He borrowed 50 bucks, and he said, I'll pay you back when I get home. He never paid me back. It's still there. And he's a lawyer, you know. Sorry, Andre. And I need to get that out of my head.

50 bucks? What was it 50 years ago? 45 years ago. But see, God can't forgive me if I'm not willing to say, let the 50 bucks go.

Where's your 50 bucks? Maybe it's not 50 bucks. Maybe it's five. Maybe it's words that were harshly spoken. And you didn't know what was going on in that person's mind.

Maybe they had a really tough week.

I don't gotta forgive them. Never should have said that. Let's go on. So we covered number five. How about number six?

And do not lead us into temptation. Wow. I've had people ask me about that. Whoa, what do you mean? God's gonna lead us into temptation? No, he needs to sometimes blind us. Blind us from what the temptation is. We need him to kind of put us back in a spiritual mode instead of a physical mode because 99% of your sins are physical.

And Jesus Christ knew it.

So, yes, we need to ask him, keep us out of trouble. Keep my mind over here. Keep my mind outside of that website that wants to pop up on my site.

Do not lead us into temptation. Keep us out. Keep us out of trouble. When we're wanting to go down here, we need spiritually a chain that grabs onto our foot and pulls us back. Some of us need a spiritual chain around our neck to pull us back because we're just so determined to go there. Addictions is what it's called.

Let's go to number seven. The model prayer. But deliver us from the evil one. You know, it's so interesting that some Bibles actually say deliver us from evil. You'll see it. And it's actually quoted many times. They want to leave the one out. Well, it's in there. It's in the original text and it's masculine one. It's talking about Satan. He's out there.

If you haven't figured that out yet, you're not very smart. Because he's out there and he wants to separate you from your love of God. And God says nothing can separate you from the love of God. So that puts it back on us, doesn't it? Satan wants to get in between there. At least not indentation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. But then, the amazing part, well, that is a great, I mean, it's a great outline. It's a great model prayer. It gives us what we need to know and everything and it's like, I got it, God. I got it. And then Jesus Christ in his prayer says, no, you don't. No, you don't. I got to get it one more time.

I got to take that newspaper, smack you upside the head one more time. Let's go to verse 14. That's right. For Chris, this is my last scripture. Oh, no, it's not Chris. Sorry, I was throwing that. No, it's not. I have to look down at the other. Verse 14, for if you forgive men their trespasses, your, what? Heavenly, what? Father will what? Will also forgive you. He had to say it twice. Why do you say something twice? Yes. That's why I was younger. I couldn't shut up. My dad goes, shut up, shut up. I don't want to hear you. How did you tell me? God is saying this to us. He's emphasizing this. It's that important that we forgive others because that may be the closest. When we're able to do that with our enemies, because Christ even said, love your enemy. When we're able to forgive, not only enemies, sometimes it's easier to forgive enemies than it is family members. Right? Oh, don't act like, well, that's your family. Oh, no. No, it's just like he knew what she meant.

But yes, when we're able to do that, we may be closer to God than we will ever be when we're able to forgive. As Christ hanging on that piece of wood, forgive them. They don't know what they are doing. I want to be like Christ, and I need to start here. If you're going to have a great marriage, you better have a short memory.

You want your kids to come around when you're old? You better have a short memory. And there's a lot that plays out here.

Luke 18.1, Scripture says, as Christ says, men always ought to pray. Men always ought to pray. We need to pray. Our high priest did it. Just read John 17. That's his high priest's prayer. That's his last words, really, to God. That's his last real prayer to God before he left this earth.

Mark 1, verse 35, tells us that he went to a solitary place to pray. Maybe you need it. I do sometimes. Yeah, it's like what they say about real estate location, location, location. Sometimes if your prayer has gotten to where it's not very effective, sometimes you need to move. Go somewhere. When I lived in Tennessee, it was a farm. I could go up into our little hills. I could go up down by our creek. I could do that, but I can't hear. Mark 6, verse 46, gives us an example that he went to the mountains to pray.

Kind of a nice place, isn't it? Well, we don't have a lot of mountains other than the trash mountain around here, and I'm not going to go pray up there. You'd know that one's right across over here. The smell's bad, but just the view. But one thing we do have is the ocean, and people spend a lot of money to come down here to see the ocean. They vacation where we live. How about a solitary place like the ocean? Maybe get up early one morning and walk out and see that. You look at that ocean, you realize just how small you are, and you also realize how big God is. Is this what Christ did? He wanted to get away from people. So, brother, I look forward to my next sermon, which is also about prayer. And we're going to talk about the power of prayer, because it's a power that many of us, we haven't begun to release that power. And I hope we all can.