Since I did not grow up going to church, the term “prayer meeting” was not a part of my vocabulary. Now I had heard of prayer before, but the idea intimidated me. I was pretty sure I knew what a meeting was, but generally, I was opposed to them. But when I was seventeen years old and a brand new Christian, I saw an announcement in the bulletin for a prayer meeting at the little country church that I was attending, and I felt like God wanted me to go to it!

I will never forget my first prayer meeting! It felt a little strange going to church on a Wednesday night, and as I reluctantly entered the sanctuary, I asked myself, “What am I getting myself into?” I was rather relieved to see only five or six people there. They were all sitting in the front pew discussing prayer requests while one man was recording them in a notebook.

I just sat there and listened as they talked about their concerns for health, family, community, and country. After a while, they asked me if I had any prayer requests. The question caught me off guard a bit and I struggled to come up with a good prayer request. Everyone in my family was healthy; my grades (at that time) were decent; and I already had a girlfriend. I wasn’t sure what else to pray for, so I said, “You could pray that my football team wins our game on Friday night.” Their somewhat perplexed and slightly irritated faces told me that this prayer request was unacceptable, but no one said anything.

After this, they all knelt down at the altar and began praying out loud one at a time. The man on the far end started and they went right down the line, praying between five and ten minutes apiece. I was next to last in line and was getting more nervous with every prayer. When it was finally my turn, I was frozen with fear. I didn’t know what to say. Thankfully, the person at the end of the line realized the situation, and he finished the prayer meeting.

My first prayer meeting taught me that I didn’t really know how to pray. Have you ever felt like that? Have you ever wanted to pray, but you just weren’t sure what to say or how to do it? Do you want to know how to pray or pray better?

Well, when the prayer meeting was over, the group encouraged me and thanked me for coming. Even though I felt ashamed that I didn’t know how to pray out loud, I began to attend the prayer meeting regularly. At one point, I asked one of the men how he learned how to pray so well. He opened up his Bible to Matthew 6 and showed me what Jesus taught his disciples about prayer. He told me that the Lord’s Prayer isn’t just a prayer to recite; rather, it is a model for how we should pray all the time. He said, “When you understand the Lord’s Prayer, then you will know how to pray well.”

This morning, I would like to do for you what that man did for me. I want to show you what Jesus taught his disciples about prayer. In verses 5-8, he shows us the wrong way to pray and in verses 9-15 he shows us the right way to pray. As we heed Jesus’ warnings and follow his model for prayer, I hope that it will increase your knowledge of prayer, improve your practice of prayer, and boost your confidence in prayer. Let’s see what Jesus teaches us about prayer!

The Wrong Ways to Pray (5-8)

Hypocritical Prayer (5-6)

Jesus warns his disciples not to pray like the hypocrites, who loved to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. Neither the posture nor the place of prayer was the problem. Throughout the Bible there are many examples of people praying while standing up, sitting, kneeling, or laying prostrate on the ground. Likewise, there are examples of people praying in the temple, the synagogue, on the streets, and in the countryside. The problem is their motivation for prayer: “to be seen by men.” They position themselves where they can be most noticed. When Jesus says that they have received their reward, he means that if their goal was to get the praise of men, they have received it.

On the contrary, Jesus tells his disciples to go into their room, close the door, and pray to the Father. Then, the Father, who is unseen, will see what is done in secret, and reward them accordingly. Jesus is not forbidding all public prayer; he prayed publically throughout his own ministry and corporate prayer was a high priority in the early church. But the person who prays more in public than in private is more interested in human approval than divine approval.

As with most of the topics Jesus covers in the Sermon on the Mount, he moves beyond outward behavior and gets to the heart of the issue. Here, the real issue is not whether we pray in public or private or whether we pray standing up, sitting down, or kneeling at an altar; the issue is our motivation for prayer. And if the motivation of your prayer is to impress other people, it is hypocritical and you will not be rewarded by God.

Offering public prayer requests can be a way of seeking human praise or approval. If the same person has a prayer request every week or they go overboard in explaining the request, they may be attempting to say, “Hey! Look at me! See how spiritual minded I am!” Another way that people try to impress others in prayer is by using big words or flowery language. I know some people, who when they speak, they use normal modern English, but when they pray, they use some heightened seventeenth century Shakespearian English, as if God only hears prayers that sound like the King James Bible. We would all do well to check our motivation for prayer!

Pagan Prayer (7-8)

Jesus also warns his disciples not to pray like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many babbling words. His point is that his disciples should avoid meaningless, repetitive prayers that are offered under the misconception that they will be answered on the basis of their length. In the ancient world, the pagan gods allegedly thrived on incantation and repetition. But again, he is getting to the real heart of the issue: trying to manipulate God. The real God, to whom Christians pray, does not need information about our needs; he already knows them.

If we think, “If I just use the right words or if I repeat my prayer enough times, God will give me what I want,” we are sadly mistaken and we are guilty of praying like unbelievers. God cannot and will not be manipulated in prayer. He is our heavenly Father, and he wants us to simply come before him in confidence and trust.

Jesus is not condemning long prayers, liturgical form prayers, or spontaneous prayers; for he himself did all of these things. Some people accuse liturgical form as being pagan while others accuse spontaneous prayers as being pagan. The reality is that either one of these can be pagan if they become thoughtless babble!

The Right Way to Pray (9-13)

Once Jesus shows his disciples some wrong ways to pray, he then focuses on teaching them the right way to pray. Notice how he introduces what now call “The Lord’s Prayer.” He says this then is “how” you should pray. If he just wanted his disciples recite the prayer, he would have said this then is “what” you should pray. Jesus presents this short prayer as a model or pattern for all prayers. Therefore, let us consider the five components of this model prayer.

First, the invocation “Our Father in heaven, hallowed by your name” recognizes and praises God for whom he is. “Our Father” refers to his personhood and authority and his fatherly care and concern for his children. “In heaven” refers to his transcendence and sovereignty. “Hallowed” literally means “holy” or “set apart.” It simply refers to God’s holiness.

So, the first thing that we should do when we pray is to reflect upon and praise God for his character. It doesn’t have to be limited to just the aspects of his character mentioned here, but our prayers can also include praise for his creation and creativity, his justice and mercy, his protection and faithfulness, and the list could go on and on. If we really gave God the praise that he deserves, our prayers may go on for quite a while!

Second, “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” is a petition asking God to finish the work he started. Jesus inaugurated God’s kingdom on earth when he was here in human flesh, but the kingdom has not been consummated yet. This request is asking for the all the future events that are recorded in the Book of Revelation to take place: Christ’s return, the overturning of the present evil order, and the restoration of earth to its heavenly state.

Don’t you long for a place where evil doesn’t exist? Don’t you want to live in a place where there is no more disease, destruction, or death? Well, how often do you pray “thy kingdom come?”

Third, after focusing on the future kingdom, Jesus tells his disciples to pray for their daily needs on earth to be met. “Give us this day our daily bread” acknowledges God as the provider of every physical need, as the Israelites learned when God provided daily manna for forty years. They were always one day away from starvation, and yet they always had enough for that day.

This is the part of the Lord’s Prayer in which we are most familiar—asking God for things. God wants us to ask him because he wants us rely on him instead of ourselves. If we humbly lay our needs and desires before him, we will have plenty to pray about.

Fourth, asking for forgiveness and forgiving others should be a regular part of our prayer life. Jesus uses the words “debts” and “debtors” because all sins place us in debt to God. The point is made in verses 14-15 that someone who refuses to forgive others neither understands nor has received Christ’s forgiveness.

Again, if we think about all the sinful deeds we do, the sinful words we say, and the sinful attitudes we harbor in our hearts, we will have plenty to pray about. Likewise, if we think about all of the people who sin against us, it ought to drive us to prayer so that we might forgive.

Fifth, if the preceding request for forgiveness is curative spiritual medicine, “and leads us not into temptation but deliver us from evil” is preventive medicine. Satan and his demonic minions are constantly trying to tempt people to commit acts of sin and evil, so Jesus tells his disciples to constantly pray for deliverance from the evil one.

If we stop and think about all of the ways that we are tempted to sin, we realize our deep need for deliverance. This reality ought to drive us to prayer all of the time!

Finally, although the doxology “for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen” is found in a few ancient manuscripts of the Lord’s Prayer, the overwhelming majority do not contain it. It was probably not a part of the original prayer that Jesus gave, and that is why it is not included in the text.

So, why do we include the doxology when we say the Lord’s Prayer together in church? There are two primary reasons: first, it is theologically true and profound; the kingdom, the power, and the glory do indeed belong to God forever, and it is good to remember this. Second, the doxology was added for liturgical purposes very early in the church’s history. It is an appropriate way to end the prayer, especially when recited together corporately. It is rather ironic that most Protestant churches include it for tradition’s sake, while most Roman Catholic churches do not include it.

Well, now that you know the wrong way to pray and the right way to pray, I hope you will pray! I hope that you will not just recite the Lord’s Prayer on Sunday mornings; but use it as a model for your prayer life every day! And as I mentioned at the beginning of this sermon, I hope that it will increase your knowledge of prayer, improve your practice of prayer, and boost your confidence in prayer!