Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you that you hear us. That even now you are inclined towards us. Your ear is listening attentively as your children come to you because you have come to us in grace and mercy. We thank you for that, Father. We pray that your word would now be effectual in our lives. We pray that it would accomplish that which you have for it to accomplish in our lives. We pray that as we look at this topic of prayer, that you would help us to understand it more and then to desire it more and to walk in closer communion with you as we talk to you in our prayer and you hear and answer us for Christ's sake. It's in his name that we pray. Amen. Please be seated, if you will, and turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter six. The Gospel of Matthew, chapter six, will read verse five through 13, and often this passage, of course, is called the Lord's Prayer. And it's not wrong to do that, but it may also be more proper to call it the disciples prayer. Jesus is with his disciples and they ask him, teach us to pray. And the Lord gives him this prayer. It's really a prayer for disciples. It's a prayer for children. It's a prayer for the church. It's a prayer for his people. It's a prayer for his sheep, for his disciples. So it is indeed the Lord's prayer, but also think of it as the disciples prayer. It's your prayer. It's our prayer. Let's hear the word of God, Matthew chapter six, starting in verse five. And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray. Go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father who is in secret. And your father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them. For your father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this. Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name. your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil so far the reading of God's holy word and as I mentioned this morning I thought it might be appropriate to address the topic why pray in light of Some recent events, there was a headline in a paper that basically said your prayers aren't working with somewhat of a mockery of Christians. And where is your God? Where is he in all of these things? Where is he with reference to France, with reference to Mali, with reference to the situation in San Bernardino? And we looked this morning at the question, well, where is your God? Where's your God in all of these things? And we noted several things, but one we noted in particular that where is God is that he's ruling and reigning in heaven and that he's upholding the universe and that Christ has come in space and time and he is risen and ascended and he is waiting patiently as he gathers together his sheep. And as we live in a sin-cursed world, as we live between the tick of Christ's first coming and the tock of His second coming, what is He doing or where is He? He's gathering His church. He's gathering His people. He's extending and showing mercy in abundance so that everyone and everyone everywhere who calls upon Him can be saved. Anyone who calls upon the name of Jesus. And He will come. He will come and execute perfect justice, and He gave us foreshadows of that in the flood, in Sodom and Gomorrah, at the cross, in other places, noting that He will not let sin go unpunished. He will not let any aspect of sin go unpunished. Either our sin was punished at the cross in Jesus Christ, or we will be punished for it when the Savior returns. But our God is actively ruling and reigning. He's actively ruling and reigning in mercy, and He's coming in justice and in power and in might. But the question often then comes up about our prayers. They seem ineffectual, some would say. They seem to not make any difference. And so I thought, we might look at this question tonight, why pray? And ask three questions, really. Why is prayer so difficult? To whom do we pray and why pray? So why is prayer so difficult? To whom do we pray and why pray? But before we get into that, I'm going to buck against my seminary professors who said never to read a long quote from the pulpit. But there's a wonderful quote from Dennis Johnson regarding prayer. And it's actually on his commentary in the Book of Acts. Try to read it in such a way that it doesn't feel like a long block quote, but please give careful attention This is really quite beautifully expressed about prayer and some of our frustrations with it Dr. Johnson writes How would a vivid consciousness of the presence of Jesus affect the prayer life of the church? Prayer is often portrayed as a Christian duty a It is often enjoined upon us in exhortations heavily laced with guilt-inducers, like the holiday phone commercial that scolds wayward adults, call your mother. The definition of prayer as a duty, though not wrong, often leaves the impression that we have an uncomfortable obligation to a distant loved one who is out of touch with our daily lives. At the opposite extreme, our pastors and teachers who try to move us to prayer by portraying Jesus as our buddy or our pal, eager to hear our monologues of self-pity and to come to our assistance. Here, too, there is a grain of truth. Jesus is compassionate, and he does bring help to those who turn to him in faith. But the casual and self-centered embellishment added to that grain puts the truth out of focus. Acts, remember he was writing a commentary on Acts, Acts shows us what prayer is like when praying people recognize the presence of Jesus the Lord. It is joyful and confident, for the one who is Lord and Christ is among us to hear our needs. There is an awe-filled fear when we recognize His terrifying holiness. There is preoccupation not with ourselves or our ailments or our comforts or our conveniences or our hurt feelings, but with the great cause of the King who walks and lives in our midst. We ask to receive from his hand whatever will make us serviceable to him, useful for his saving purposes. We pray not because we must, but because we may. Not out of lust for his gifts, but out of love for the giver. Not to bend his will to ours, but to bend our wills to his. It's a quote. We say in our catechism that prayer is our chief part of gratefulness and thankfulness to the Lord. But I submit to you quite candidly in my own life and in the lives of most Christians that I know, it's actually one of the hardest things to do. It's one of the most neglected things that we do. It's one of the most misunderstood things that we do. It's also one of the most seemingly pointless or frustrating things that we do if we're really candid about it, isn't it? So why is it so difficult to pray? I have written down several things that I've read or come up with or even wrestled with myself. If you have any more to add to this list, I would love to hear them for future reference. But here are some reasons why it is difficult to pray. First, our natural desire to pray comes from creation. Our difficulties and troubles with prayer come from the fall. And in glory, it will be completely natural, peaceful, and joyous. We are created to worship God and to be in communion with Him. The fall in our sin has distorted that communion with God. And rest assured that it won't be like it is now when the King returns. But one reason, quite honestly, why it's difficult to pray is because we're not very good at it. In quotes. compare our prayers to others, or we read the prayers of other saints, or we hear someone pray, we may not think that. I'm not a very good prayer. And so we find it difficult or challenging in one way or another. Another reason why it's difficult to pray is because we've been disappointed by past answers. We've gotten a no when we wanted a yes. We've gotten a yes when we wanted a no. And then the answer that we most often get that we hate Wait. Wait longer. Wait more. And so it's difficult to pray because we're disappointed by the answers that we receive from the Lord. Honestly, it's difficult to pray sometimes because we feel silly. The oddness of praying. We do not see or hear directly or immediately from God as we do when we sit there and talk to our friends across the table or at Starbucks or in the car. And so it seems like we're talking to ourselves. And only crazy people really talk to themselves, right? And so the world will tell you you're crazy. It's not. We feel silly, it's odd, it's It's difficult. It's different from anything else we do. But I submit to you it's a different relationship than any other relationship we have as well. It's also difficult to pray honestly because sometimes we believe it doesn't really matter. Why pray to a sovereign God? Beloved, please don't be more Calvinistic than Calvin. And please don't be more Calvinistic than the Bible. God uses means. God actually uses our prayer in his sovereignty. He has preordained to do something because of and in light of and through our prayer. That's sovereignty. That's remarkable. God uses the means of our prayer to accomplish his purposes for the world. Sometimes people think there is a conflict between believing in the sovereignty of God and the prayers of God. I say they go together. that God in His sovereignty ordains and uses our prayer. And if we think that prayer is useless or pointless or pedantic or silly, may I submit to you that Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, was a prayer, wasn't He? He prayed more than all of us, probably. He prayed more passionately. prayed more fervently, prayed more hopefully, prayed more expectantly, prayed more knowingly than all of us. The second person of the Holy Trinity prayed, didn't he? He prayed when he was in conflict. He prayed when he was in pain. He prayed when he was in need. He prayed in intercession for us. He prayed in praise. If the second person of the Holy Trinity needed to pray, I submit to you, you need to pray. And that it's effectual. The Father answered the Son's prayer. I submit to you also, you are an answer to Jesus' prayer. That Jesus prayed for you. He prayed that all of His sheep would come. He prayed that not one would be lost. He prayed that not only those with him, but everyone who would believe through their word would be united to the Triune God. Beloved, you are an answer to Jesus's prayer. Could the Father have done it without prayer? Sure. But He doesn't. He's ordained to do things through prayer. There is no conflict between the sovereignty of God and the praying of Christians, most notably with Christ our Savior. We also say, or I would say, it's difficult to pray because we're so busy. One theologian said that when we slow down to pray, we find it uncomfortable. We actually prize accomplishment and production. But prayer is nothing but talking to God. It feels useless, as if we were wasting time. Every bone in our body screams, get to work. Don't waste your time praying. Do something. And that's what really the recent criticism was. It was basically, stop praying to God, you Christians. He's not answering your prayers. He's not fixing the problems. So let's get together and do it. Let's have the government fix it. Let's throw more money at a problem. Let's get relief organizations. And see, that's creating a false dichotomy. Either we do something or God does something. As Reformed Christians, both are true. God does something through us. God does some things through our prayer. God does something through our work. God does something through our service. God does something through our worship. God does something through our life, through our love. It's not an either-or proposition. It's not either God does something or you do something. It's we do something. So sometimes every bone in our body screams, get to work, and prayer seems useless. It's also difficult to pray because we believe that we can or are doing okay without God. Thus, praying seems unnecessary. One person says money does everything God does, but quicker. And so when you read the scoffers, well, where is your God? We looked at the tragedies today, didn't we? But Where was your God when six billion people ate this week? Where was your God when billions of people had jobs? Where was your God when billions of people had happiness and joyous moments this week? Wasn't that God's common grace or good grace or sovereignty or providence showering down upon them as well? Those very mouths that curse the Lord, or blaspheme the Lord, or say that He doesn't exist, or wonder where He is, actually received good things from the Lord even this week. And it will be to their everlasting shame when the Lord returns if they don't repent and believe before He comes. The very mouths with which they use to curse the Lord are blessings from the Lord. The gift of speech, the gift of life itself. It's also difficult to pray Because his brother Martin Luther said God likes to hide behind masks So last week we said together the Lord's Prayer Hopefully you didn't do it in a perfunctory manner Hopefully you did it recognizing what a unique opportunity it is for us to pray together as a family and all of you ate this week I imagine the Lord provided for you He answered your prayer, but that may have come through the milkmaid, or the baker, or the grocer, or your job. God was hiding behind layers and layers of masks. Other people that were serving you. God hides behind the milkman, the baker, the dairy farmer, the doctor, the teacher, the friend, the neighbor, the sun, the moon, the seasons. Our Lord is behind it all. Every gift that we have comes from the Father. Not directly. If this week you prayed for something and food and a Twinkie dropped down from heaven. Are they making Twinkies? Well, God can still make a Twinkie, right? If it dropped down from heaven, I want to know about that. But I'm assuming most of you went to your refrigerator. And so was God uninvolved? Well, I just went to the refrigerator. There is no God. He's not involved. He didn't answer my prayer. Where is He? He fed you. He clothed you. Your blood kept coursing through your veins. Your heart kept beating. Your lungs kept filling with air. Many of you had wonderful conversations. Many of you enjoyed recreation. You were all able to come and worship the Lord, to sing the Gloria Patria, to confess the Triune God. But it is difficult to pray, isn't it, for all of these reasons that We don't seem very good at it. We've been disappointed by past answers. We feel silly. We don't think it matters. We feel like we're too busy. And because we don't see God directly involved, because he's hiding behind masks. I submit to you, I've struggled with most of those. I'm sure many of you have. And if you have other ones, please come up to me after the service. I would like to hear about those, to add to that. But rest assured, if you're one of those people who finds it difficult to pray, you aren't the only Christian in history. As a matter of fact, I have yet to meet the Christian who doesn't find it difficult to pray. The second question we want to address is, to whom do we pray? It seems kind of fundamental, but let's get our bearings right. Let's reorient ourselves. Let's recognize that our identity actually comes here. We pray to our Father who is in heaven. Our Father is highlighting a couple relationships, isn't it? First, it's highlighting our relationship to God, the triune God. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And it's a parent-child relationship. It's no longer enemy. It's not a foe. It's not a stranger or an outsider, but a child. We're disciples, we're in a covenant community, we're in the covenant of grace, and God is our Father. And He loves us more than your earthly father possibly could. I hope that you had a good earthly father, but your heavenly father loves you infinitely more than your earthly father possibly could have. Our Father who is in heaven, orchestrating all the events of history for our good, And notice the hour there, too. It's not only that we have a relationship with God, but we have a relationship with one another. It's our father, not just my father, though that's true, but when he gives the prayer, he's giving it to disciples, he's giving it to a church, he's giving it to a community. It's our father. We're brothers and sisters in the Lord, we are united together in the Holy Spirit, we have the same father, we have the same elder brother, Jesus, and we have the same Holy Spirit. Note that this prayer was not given to us by a yogi or a guru or some sage. This prayer was given to us by the eternal Son of God. In answer to a question, how should we pray? Pray this way. Our Father, who art in heaven. Not by someone who is just kind of practicing something. but actually part of the God to whom we pray. God Himself gave us this prayer. It's not the whole world that can pray the Lord's Prayer, right? We don't go out and pray it. Well, sometimes we do. But at public settings, we pray it in church. Our Father. It's with a relationship with this redeemed people, with this redeemed community. It's not for everyone. It's a very special, a very unique, a very personal relationship. Our Father who art in heaven. You see, one theologian said, true prayer is not a technique nor a performance, but it's a relationship, isn't it? Our Father who art in heaven. Prayer begins with God, the Father acting out of His goodness, out of His grace, out of His mercy and out of His love, sending the Son and then sending His Spirit to save and to seal us. So we pray to the Father, in the Son, through the Holy Spirit. It's Trinitarian through and through. Our whole life is hid in the Lord. Our whole life is because of God coming to us. Our prayer is just a response to His grace. That's why we say it's our chief form of gratitude. It's a response to God's grace. Everything that we have is from the Lord. Beloved because Jesus prayed my god my god. Why have you forsaken me? You can come to the father knowing that you will never be forsaken You may feel like it at times and you are free to pray that as we looked at the psalm this morning feeling abandoned by God but ultimately Jesus was the only son of God ever abandoned by the father and Jesus was abandoned by the father so that you can come boldly so that you can come confidently So that you can come freely knowing that you will never be abandoned He's your father and he loves you. He will never leave you or forsake you. He won't leave you as an orphan And notice that we're praying to a very specific God Who better to pray to? Other than the Almighty Everywhere present, all wise, eternal, incomprehensible, invisible, immortal, immutable, just, good, creator, and the overflowing fountain of all good. You're going somewhere with your prayer. You're going to someone. We're praying to the creator of the universe. who out of nothing created everything, can he help you? You betcha. One theologian said, unlike pagan prayers, which sought to influence the gods to have a favorable disposition towards them, Christian prayer begins with confidence in God, who is our Father and who desires to do to us good as his children. So you see, pagan prayers are starting from the premise we need to appease God. Christian prayers are starting with the fact God has been appeased He is your father You have peace with him. You are forgiven. You are righteous. You are adopted. You are beloved come Come my children He loves to hear from us Michael Horton put it this way He said the praying life in the in the praying life. We become aware of his story meaning God's story and If God is sovereign, then He is in control of all the details of my life. If God is loving, then He is going to be shaping the details of my life for my ultimate good. If God is all-wise, then He is not going to do everything I want, because I don't always know what's best for me. If God is patient, then He is going to take the time to do all of these things. And then finally, in the Lord's Prayer, it ends by saying, in the version in Luke, it says, for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen. And I submit to you that that amen isn't the send button. Send. Right? It's not just getting rid of it. We've got to end it somehow. Let's just say amen. Amen is a barbaric a wholehearted. Surely, it is true. Surely, the Lord is good to his people. Surely, the Lord has my best at heart. It's strong. It's powerful. It can be a weak cry. At times, too, I get that. But I want you to get the amazing power of it. Amen. Surely, the Lord will do as He has said. Surely, I have peace with Him. Surely, He is gracious to me. Surely, He is good towards me. Second Corinthians. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all of our afflictions so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. Who do we pray to? God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of all comfort. He's our father. And finally, beloved, why pray? We recognize that it's difficult. We recognize who we're praying to. Well, why pray? First, we pray because we can. What a privilege. What a joy. What an honor. to be welcomed into the throne room of the great King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, to be ushered into the Holy of Holies, to be ushered into His inner sanctum, and to be able, as it were, to sit on the lap of the King. We also pray because God uses means. We talked about this a few moments ago in terms of the daily bread example. Beloved, our prayers matter. Sometimes we actually don't receive things because we didn't ask for them. God is eager to give us things, but as we hear, He wants us to ask for them. He wants us to come. Our prayers matter. Beloved, not only are you specifically an answer to Jesus's prayer, I submit to you, every one of you are an answer to either a mom or dad's prayer, or a grandpa or grandma's prayer, or a husband's or wife's prayer, or a kid's prayer. Somebody prayed for you. that you would come to know the Lord, that He would show mercy upon them, and guess what He did? And He used that prayer. If you're an answer to those of you who grew up in this church, Dale Peer's prayer. Some of you whom he baptized, he has now gotten to see, come to make a profession of faith, or get married. And he stood in this very pulpit and prayed for you. You're an answer to that prayer. You're an answer to somebody's prayer for you. And other people are an answer to your prayer. And God uses our prayers to build His kingdom, to sanctify us, to purify us, to protect us, to chasten us, to discipline us, to love us, to nourish us. It's remarkable. Our prayers matter. They matter significantly. They matter eternally. It's always heartbreaking sometimes when I hear, are seasoned saints. Well, I don't know what I can do but pray. What else? You're going to take us before the throne of God's grace? You're going to take your time to lift up somebody in the congregation to the throne of God's grace? You think, oh, what can I do? That's huge. That's eternal. There are people in this room praying for you every week, beloved. And God is using that. You did not abandon the faith this week because Jesus Christ prayed for you. And you also didn't abandon the faith this week because God uses the prayers of other saints, whether you hear them or see them or not. We also pray because of our necessity and our want. If God were to have to fill out a tax return, which I'm glad he doesn't, but he would declare us all as dependents. We're all dependent upon the Lord for everything, aren't we? So we pray because of our great need. We pray also because of our wants. The Lord cares about us in terms of our needs and our desires, so we can bring any of them to the Lord. We may not answer them all the way we want, but we can go to him, knowing that he is favorably inclined towards us. So we pray because of our want and our need. We also pray because God delights in hearing from His children. Again, some of you may not have had the best fathers, sadly. But some of you did, and hopefully your fathers, at least a couple times in their life, just couldn't wait to see you. Couldn't wait to see you coming home from school or running up, and they gave you a big hug, and they sat you down on a lap. Tell me about your day. What's going on? How are you? Or when you got hurt, they picked you up and took you on their knee. Or when something went really well, they rejoiced with you. How much more your Heavenly Father? How much more He delights to hear from you in your hurts, in your anguish, like the psalmist today? Why are you so far away? Where are you in my pain? Where are you in the world? Where are you in this? He can handle it. Come to Him. And then your thankfulness and your gratitude. And in your praise and in your confession, He's your Heavenly Father. He delights to hear from you. Why pray? Because it's delightful to Him. We also pray because we don't just want to receive the gifts from God, but we want to communicate with God the Giver. In other words, God isn't the giant vending machine where you put in the prayer, I want a Zagnut, put in the right amount of prayer, pull the thing, and out comes the Zagnut, right? I don't develop a relationship with the vending machine. That'd be weird. But every good gift that we receive comes from the Lord. We're developing a relationship with the Father. We're communicating with the Giver. He loves to give us good gifts, but more than delighting in the gifts, He wants us to delight in Him. The One behind the gifts. The One behind all the masks. The One behind all the noise. We also pray, beloved, because prayer changes us. Dennis Johnson said, learning to pray does not offer us a less busy life, but it offers us a less busy heart. In the busyness of life, in the busyness of the world, taking a few extra minutes and talking to the Lord doesn't necessarily take away the circumstances of our life. But it can calm us down to recognize, you know what? God's got this. God's got me. And He will see me through. He hasn't promised me that He'll take these things away, but He has promised that He will see me through. Even if that means my death and He takes me home to glory, He will see me through. We also pray because God commands it. We could have put this first one, must pray. We must pray. But you see how the other things help make it seem so much like a command or a chore or a demand, but an opportunity and a privilege and a thrill and a delight. And again, here we say, I struggle just as much as you with this, so there are many times when it feels the exact opposite. It feels like a burden and a hassle and insignificant and meaningless at times. But we want to remind ourselves about the reality of what it is, right? We also pray because we recognize that everything we have comes from the Father, in the Son, through the Holy Spirit. Everything. That's how God created the world. So every material thing that you have comes from the Father, in the Son, through the Holy Spirit. And every spiritual blessing that you have comes the same way, from the Father, in the Son, through the Holy Spirit. Everything. Everything. That sounds extreme, Pastor. Everything. I submit to you, you can't tell me one good thing that you've received that ultimately doesn't come from the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. We pray also because we're grateful children of kings. And then, as one theologian said, before we offer any prayer, our loving, gracious, merciful Heavenly Father knows exactly what we need. We pray not to inform God the Father on matters of which He is ignorant, but to worship Him. In other words, your prayer doesn't come to the Lord. You know what? I didn't know that you really needed that. He knows that you needed it before you even asked. And He's ready to give it to you. And He's saying, come. Ask. Come. I love you. Could I show you my love any more than sending my own son to die for you? Could I show you my love and my graciousness towards you any more than that, than Him enduring the wrath for you and me giving you the Holy Spirit? Come. Come. To misquote Finding Nemo, just keep praying. I know it's difficult. I know it's hard. I know it's challenging. I know it sounds odd. I know the world is scoffing big time, but the Lord actually uses our prayers to bring about His purposes for the world, for His church, for you. Prayer changes you. Prayer draws you ever closer to your Father. Prayer is our chief form of gratitude. John Calvin said, Christians pray to alert themselves to seek Him. to exercise their faith by meditating upon His promises, unburdening their cares by lifting them up into their Father's bosom, and finally to testify that from Him alone, all good for themselves and for others is hoped for and asked. And then at the end of our prayers, we say, Amen. Not hitting a send button, so be it. So, in conclusion, I just want to read Galatians 4, 6. It says, And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. What a privilege to call the God of the universe our Father. And it's because we are sons. Not in order to be sons, Galatians is saying, but because you are sons, because you are daughters, because you are children, God has sent His own Holy Spirit in the spirit of His Son, who is the same spirit, into your hearts. And so the fact that you can even call God Father and believe it and know it is true is because of God's mercy and kindness towards you, because of His regenerating and saving work. When you cry out, Abba, Father, that is evidence of the fruit of the new life in you. Beloved, let's pray. And let's actually pray together. Standing, if you will, we'll sing together the Lord's Prayer, which is found in the Black Notebooks, number eight. Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.