And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 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. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore, do not be like them, for your father knows the things you have need of before you ask him. In this manner, therefore, 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 this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither would your Father forgive your trespasses. Let's pray and ask God to bless his word to us. Our Father, we thank you for this portion of your inspired, inerrant, infallible word. We pray that by your spirit, you would bless it to our understanding and apply it to our hearts for your glory. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Prayer is serious business. Prayer is an important part of true religion. But it's also an important part of false religion. There is, as Jesus gives us this prayer, a prologue preceding it, beginning back in verse 5. And it's a warning, and the warning parallels warnings that are given beginning in verse 1 of chapter 6 and again in verse 16 of this chapter. Warnings about hypocrisy. Warnings about false religion, ultimately. And so I want us to at least have in mind these warnings. First, in verse 5, don't be like the hypocrites. They pray to be seen by men. They're not praying to God. They're praying to be seen. They have their reward, we're told, as in each of these cases. Their reward is that people are impressed or not. But no reward in terms of blessing from God. And blessing from God is what prayer is about. So we're told in verse 6, 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. And when you pray, and here's the other kind of hypocrisy, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Now, there is the hypocrisy that was, among other things, and certainly foremost in Jesus' mind and the minds of his hearers at this time, the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. But, and theirs was, in most cases, in many cases certainly, a false religion. They prayed, but it was hypocrisy. And then, in verse 7, Jesus is talking about the heathen, the non-Christians. They also are religious. And they do lots of praying. And they think they're going to be hurt for their many words. But no, that is not the way it works. Verse 8, Therefore do not be like them, for your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. And so we have this prayer that Jesus gives us, and I want to use the prefatory words first in verse 9 to point out something about this prayer. In this manner, therefore pray. Jesus' point is not to give us a prayer to be recited. And that's not any criticism of what we did a few minutes ago. But it does say that we're not to think that just by repeating these words at different times and over and over that that automatically gets answers to prayer for us. It's not that way for us just as it's not that way for the heathen. It is rather in this manner that Jesus is emphasizing. So basically, this prayer that he gives, though we can use it, and do, and I do, use it in the exact words that are here, often times, it is given in a sense as a pattern. You could think of it as an outline prayer or an outline for prayer. That these things that we are taught to pray are teaching us how to pray, what should be in our minds as we pray, not so much the words. Again, it's okay to use the words, but don't just think saying those words is the religion that is true religion and true prayer. So, at the beginning, there is a preface. Our Father in Heaven. That's really short. We oftentimes just kind of rush past it in our minds anyway, and yet there is nothing that is wasted wording in this outline or pattern prayer that Jesus gives us. I like the way one friend said this in teaching at a youth camp many years ago on the Lord's Prayer. He said, when you see these words or when these words come to your mind at the beginning of the prayer, one of the things it should say to you is Stop. Stop with everything else. Stop with other things that are on your mind. These things mark a stop for us because what they bring before our minds and hearts, if we do stop and look at them and think about them, is very important. Our Father in Heaven. Now, Wow! Our Father in heaven. We're going to come back to the idea of Father in a minute. But we're praying to a God who's in heaven. This is not a non-existent God. This is not for people to hear. This is not a God who is a colossal and heavenly vending machine. This is the God who created the universe in all of its detail, in all of its majesty, in everything that is a part of this universe. And so we need to be aware that we are approaching the sovereign creator of the world. That we are approaching the real God. But then, I want us to realize the other part of this preface and make my, basically my second point, which is that prayer is relational. Prayer is serious business, but prayer is relational too. We're not just praying to a God out there. We're praying to our Father. We have a relationship with Him. Our prayer is to be with an awareness of that relationship as His children and Him being our Father. Now this relationship that we have to God this way is a relationship that is not shared by those in any other religion. There's no other way to have God as your Father, but through Jesus Christ. It is through Christ that we begin this prayer, in a sense, as we start with our Father. It is through Jesus Christ that God is our Father, as He is Christ's Father. And so, it is relational in that sense. Going back to verses 6 and 7, we're reminded of the way that it is our Father that we deal with. Your Father who is in the secret place, pray to Him. Your father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And so we are looking at a father for us. Verse 8. I probably said verses 6 and 7, but verses 6 and 8. Verse 8, therefore do not be like them for your father knows. He knows you have needs and what those needs are before you ever ask him. So There is this relationship that's a two-way relationship. God undertakes to be our Father and we regard Him as our Father and our prayers are in that sense relational. But relational in another sense also. In the Greek, if you translate it literally from the Greek, the first two words are father. We just talked about that. Father of us. In English we have our father. We have, and ought to be aware of as we pray, a relationship with other believers. There's not me, my, in this whole thing. I is not in there. This is our Father. It is us. We are to be aware of the Christian church as we pray. Aware of the needs of the Christian church as we pray. aware of the existence of the Christian church, the Christian church's relationship with the Father through the Son as well. So, when we pray this, we're not just praying for ourselves. We're praying for the whole church. You should have an awareness of the other people of Covenant Presbyterian Church when you pray. You should have an awareness of the church around the world as you pray. That's a part of what Jesus is teaching us about how to pray. Pray in a relational sense, a relationship with the Father, a relationship with the whole church, and the narrower church you have in mind, your family as you pray, but not just yourself. And so it is relational. But after this prologue that tells us these things, there are six petitions. Now a petition is simply a request. Six things that we ask God for. And that's especially important to be aware of with the first petition. That first petition is, Hallowed be thy name. And people sometimes think it is an utterance of praise there. Lord, your name is hallowed. No, it's a request. Father, have your name to be hallowed. You see, those things are in God's hands, not ours. And we're to ask God that his name would be hallowed, that his name would be reverenced, that his name would be highly regarded, that his name would be treated as sacred. Now, this is about his name in the wording of it. And scripture often uses or presents the idea of the name of God as being certainly representative of God himself and pointing to God himself, but also having to do with the way God is regarded. Right here, hallowed be thy name. That's what we pray. We're also taught in the third commandment not to take the Lord's name in vain. His name is important. We're not to treat it lightly. And again and again in scripture, we find an emphasis on the name of God. And the idea here is that these things that we're praying for, for his name, we're praying for, for God. That he would be hallowed. That he would be reverenced. Another way of saying it is that he would be glorified. And we say that in the first answer to the first question of the Shorter Catechism. The idea is that God would be glorified. Now I want you to think with me just a moment about what it would be like if God were to give a full answer to this petition. We're requesting it. What we ultimately are requesting is spiritual revival. That's the only way God's name is going to be hallowed in a wide sense, in a broad sense. Otherwise, you know, people just rock along, they maybe take God's name in vain, maybe they don't do that, but if we were to have in our country, in this community, in this church or around the world the name of God being treated as sacred because God is being treated as sacred. then you would have true revival. Revival is when God's Holy Spirit works on the hearts of believers and unbelievers so that their relationship and not just relationship but attitude toward God the Father changes. That's what revival is. I don't know how frequently you as individuals in your mind are aware of praying for revival. But here Jesus teaches us to pray for revival. Hallowed be your name. Think of that the next time you pray using the Lord's Prayer or using it as a pattern. Then, your kingdom come. There is such an emphasis on scripture, Old Testament and New Testament alike, of the kingdom of God. And we are to be not only aware of that, aware that it's is in existence, it has been, but it came in a special way with the coming of Jesus Christ, and yet there is a consummation of that kingdom which is yet to be. So it's a prayer for the final realization of the kingdom of Jesus Christ when he comes again, but it's also a prayer for the growth and advance of that kingdom throughout history and the growth and advance of that kingdom in our lifetimes. And as we pray, it is also, like the first petition, a request for revival. We want to see God's kingdom grow and expand and Satan's kingdom to be overcome and suppressed. And so we pray, thy kingdom come. And we're also taught to pray thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Probably, when you see that and at least think about it, you're reminded of Christ in the garden praying for God's will to be done. Not his will, but the Father's will to be done. And so it is a prayer that really has two different prongs to it. One is that of submissiveness. We're willing to have God's will. just as Jesus was willing to have God's will and he would drink that cup to the dregs, he would endure the crucifixion, a willingness, a submissiveness to God, but also the other prong of that petition is that people would obey God and in that sense do his will. So God's will is done in heaven in two ways, these same two ways. There is the submission to all that God decrees, but also there's a willingness to do all that God commands. And we are to have that approach as we pray. Willing to do His will. Willing to have His will accomplished in our lives. Even the hard things, even the difficult things, that's part of this prayer. Now, I need to point out at this point one of the main features, you can call it a construction feature or a grammatical feature, but one of the main features of this pattern prayer is that there are two sections of the petitions. These first three that we've looked at are petitions that have to do primarily with God, His glory, His kingdom, His will being done. And then the next three petitions are petitions that are more immediately concerned with us when we pray. Give us this day our daily bread. When we pray, forgive us our debts. When we pray, do not lead us into temptation. We're praying for ourselves, not just ourselves individually as we've already seen, but ourselves in terms of the whole church. In terms of our family, our church family, the OPC, the church in America, the church around the world, yes. And that's different. Now all of these things are concerns of God as well. So we don't want to make too hard and fast a separation between these things. but recognize that it begins with petitions that have to do with God himself and then that's followed by petitions that have to do with us. And so we can see this as setting priorities for us. That it's higher priority biblically in a Christian sense, it's higher priority that God be glorified, that His kingdom be advanced, that His will be done. That's a higher priority than stuff that happens in our lives. And yet, too often people, even in Christian churches, focus their prayer on their own needs and things that happen in this life to them. And to those they love, maybe. But the first priority is God. And even these other petitions, these last three petitions, we're praying for God in his glory to be done in and through these. The first of those, the fourth petition of the prayer, is give us this day our daily bread. It teaches us, as everything about prayer does and should teach us, it teaches us dependence on God. We're dependent on God even for the food that we eat daily. Now this is not a prayer. for steak and caviar and all sorts of wonderful things that we love to eat. And I do too, you can tell. But this is not about that. It's about our needs. We need our daily bread. And not only our needs, but our dependence in a daily sense. I mean, we want God to bless us in our lives. We would love for God to bless us with great financial resources so that we don't have to worry about where the next day's meal or today's meal is coming from. And yeah, and while that's okay and God often blesses in that way, you see that throughout the scriptures in Old and New Testament, but our concern is not to be that, but it's to be dependent in a daily fashion. Now if this, this is interesting because it's the first of the three petitions that have to do with us and It's not so directly spiritual as the other two are. Sometimes we think, well, this is giving me a chance to pray for my needs, and it is. And God even tells us, bring those to me, bring them early to me. Because I intend to answer them. I intend for you to be dependent on me. I intend to bless you. And so he teaches us to ask for these things and it's okay. It's okay to ask for our physical needs. But not only those. Because he next tells us to pray forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Now it's a request I guess it's the Luke version that uses trespasses. And depending on where you grew up going to church or grew up going to school, if you said it in your school, sometimes we Presbyterians got outnumbered and they prayed about trespasses and not deaths. That's okay, it's the same thing. It's about asking for God to forgive us our sins. to forgive all our sins. And not just mine, not just yours, but ours once again. And so we have in mind the physical needs of all of us and then that primary spiritual need of all of us of forgiveness of our sins. And so this too points us back to Jesus Christ. As Christians, we realize and the Christian Church teaches that we have forgiveness only through the finished work of Jesus Christ. Jesus died on the cross to pay for those sins of all that would believe in him. Jesus is the one who is our salvation and through him whom we have forgiveness of our sins. And so every time we pray Our minds ought to be, in a two-fold way, reminded of Jesus Christ. One, it is only through Him that God is our Father. And two, it is only through Him that we have the forgiveness of our sins. But also, to be remembering that it is not only our sins that we're concerned with, but the sins of those in our family. This teaches you to pray for your kids. and your spouse as you pray forgive us our debts. It teaches us to pray for those in our church and really for those in the church of Jesus Christ around the world. Do we take our forgiveness for granted too much of the time? And we forget that and forget to be praying about that sometimes because we take it for granted? I didn't stress this as I meant to a moment ago, but in that fourth petition, give us this day our daily breads, we're to be asking not only for our needs for this day, but we're to be praying it daily, our daily bread. Give us that this day. If we're to be praying that daily, we're to be praying all of the rest of this daily. It ought to be a part of our prayer life. It ought to be a part of our prayer life, partly because God answers prayer, and partly because these things are to be our priorities. Are all of these things your priorities? Really? That we would have all of these blessings including the blessings of the world's recognition of God and of Jesus Christ and of the name of God. And then lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. We're taught in Scripture, flee temptation. We're taught in Scripture not to make provision for the lusts of the flesh. And so this is the positive side of it. We pray that God would deliver us from temptation. Too much we seem to seek temptation, certain temptations. Our favorite sins. Opportunity to indulge in our favorite sins. But we're to be praying the other side of it. That we would not be led into temptation, but that we would be delivered from all that evil. Do you really care about living a holy life? That's what this is when you're praying that. That we would live a holy life. That that would be among our chief priorities. All six of these things ought to be among our chief priorities in life. So much so that we recognize that we are dependent on God for them and that He is sovereign and able and willing to provide these things for us to answer our prayers. Many of you have been in this church or a Presbyterian church for all of your lives To some of you, some of this is new, but one of the things that Presbyterians are known for is their belief in God's sovereignty over all things. And people wonder about that and think, well, the Presbyterians and the Calvinists can't be right in believing that because that seems to them to contradict the idea of human responsibility. but I'm sure it's been preached here by Robert and for longer than that but there's no conflict between those things and when I was researching as I did Jonathan Edwards one of the interesting things I discovered was the way he brought those two things together with two words that start with D. So I'll give you these two words and you'll have a key, the letter D, that you can maybe remember those. With regard to human responsibility, the word is duty. God gives us duty, we do that. We're called to that. People think, well maybe Calvinists won't evangelize because they think God's in control of that. But no, we read the responsibility, the duty that God gives us to evangelize. So there's duty. But the response to God's being sovereign is dependence. Dependence on God. So especially dependence on God. We don't depend to accomplish things on our doing of our duty. We do our duty because God says to, but we depend on God to bless those efforts. It's not in our hands. It's not in the farmer's hands when he plows, when he plants, when he does those different parts of agriculture that he does, but he must have dependence on God. We must have dependence on God in everything where we have a duty. It is God that gives the blessing and gives the success, not the performance of duty. But we can't neglect duty either. We're called to that. Six petitions. Is that how you pray? Are those the things? Is that the manner in which you pray as we're called to do at least daily? Is that how you pray? And it's important here to ask you this question and have you ask it of yourselves. Are these your priorities? And beyond that, Is your prayer the kind of Christian prayer Jesus teaches? Or is it more like hypocritical prayers of Pharisees and heathen? Where do your prayers fit with all of that? You're having to ask yourself, you need to ask yourself, am I truly a Christian? Or is my religion hypocritical? Are you truly a Christian? Are you wanting these things to happen for God's glory and then for our blessing, all of us, not just self? Are you wanting that so much that you pray daily for those things and you pray with an awareness of who you pray to and of who you pray through Jesus Christ and also how we pray for one another. Here's Jesus' teaching on prayer. We're only looking at part of it, obviously. There's a lot more in the Gospels about prayer. But this is the place that Jesus gives us a pattern for our praying. I encourage you to pray this way. If you've never prayed this way before, I encourage you to start praying this way. If you've never memorized the Lord's Prayer and you need to get your Bible out to be a guide for this pattern for praying, learn to pray this way. Let's pray.