The Lord's Prayer pt. 1

Introduction: Read Matthew chapter 6:1-4

Who do you think the hypocrites are that Jesus refers to? The Pharisees.

For what purpose were the Pharisees giving to the needy? To bring attention to themselves. They wanted everyone to be sure they knew how godly they (the Pharisees) were.

For whom are we to do good works? To whom are they to bring attention to? Ourselves or God? God! Read Matthew 5:14-16

I. Prayer

What is prayer? A conversation with God.

What is the purpose of prayer? Why do you pray?

II. How we should/should not pray

A) How are we NOT to pray? Read Matthew 6:5, 7-8

To bring attention to ourselves

a) in the way we pray – How did the hypocrites, i.e. Pharisees, pray? Read Luke 18:9-14

b) Babbling prayers/lengthy repetitious prayers like the pagans (people who worshipped other gods.) They would use fancy words and religious sayings over and over again for long periods of time. Purpose was to impress their gods and the people around them with how religious they were. ex. I Kings 18: Contest between the priests of Baal and the prophet Elijah to determine who was the true god of Israel. Each would pray to their god to send fire from heaven to burn up the sacrifice. The god that answered would be the god of Israel. The priests prayed to their god Baal. For six hours, they prayed “Baal, answer us!” They cried out fancy religious sayings. They danced, screamed, and even cut themselves. After six hours of this, Elijah said, “It’s my turn.” He built an altar to God and prayed a one sentence prayer: “Answer me, O LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.” Immediately fire came down from heaven. Read Ecclesiastes 5:2. Pharisees also guilty of this type of praying. Read Mark 12:38-40. Jesus was not condemning long prayers. There were times when Jesus prayed all night. He condemned the person’s motive for praying long prayers.

B) How are we to pray? Read Matthew 6:6

Alone in a secret place. Why? No distractions. Your complete focus is on God. You can share with God your most intimate words. Your place of prayer should be somewhere where it is just you and God. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a closet. Jesus’ favorite place to pray was a mountain. Matthew 14:22-23; Mark 1:35; Mark 6:46; Luke 5:16