What Jesus Thinks About Prayer #2

The way out of your mediocrity and prayer is not found in saying, I've got to get up earlier. I've got to pray longer. No.

No. You start, you purify your motives, and you say, I'm going to set my heart on seeking God in private, conscious of Jesus' promise that the Father will bless me. Welcome to the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Hello again, I'm Bill Wright, and we're continuing our series, What Jesus Thinks About Prayer. Last time, Don took us to Matthew chapter 6 to show us our Lord's instruction on how to come to the Father in prayer, and it has to do with a proper motive. We learned we must purify our motives.

How do you do that? Don will answer that question today, so let's join him right now in the Truth Pulpit. When you go to prayer, your thoughts should be thoroughly engaged with the fact that I'm entering into something that God has promised to bless, and I'm praying to one who is absolutely sovereign over all, and he exercises his sovereignty on my behalf to bless me and to bless his church.

That changes everything. We just have to go back to this, it seems to me. We have to just go back to this again and again and remind ourselves, because as we walk in this world that we see, we forget, and so we come back to the precious word of God. We come back to the precious words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we see the wisdom of God fully on display by commending his revelation to us in writing, where we can go back to it again and again as opposed to having to rely on subjective thoughts and impulses and dreams and visions that aren't the way that God communicates with us anyway. He communicates through his word.

This is what he wants us to think. This is the standard that we come back to again and again, and so by way of general observation, just for you to see that the Lord Jesus Christ, speaking to his disciples, motivates you to pray, not by setting down rules that are external and superficial, but by pointing you to the character of the God of the Bible and promising you what you couldn't know except by revelation that God will bless and reward you for your faithfulness in a little thing, seemingly little thing, of getting away someplace solitary and pouring your heart out before God. Little thing in the eyes of the world, in the eyes of God, faithful thing. Faithful thing that he says, I want to bless that. That is what should drive us to pray. So you can see, as you think about these things, to have a mechanical approach to a prayer insert week after week starts to be pretty unsatisfactory for a pastor to approach the way he communicates about prayer to his flock. So we want to improve ourselves in prayer. We want to pray in the way that the Lord has taught us to pray.

Two main points for today. How can we do that? How do you move from where you're at in prayer? How do you move from where you're at to where the Lord would have you to be? And I trust that for many of you, if not most of you, as we're talking about these things, there's something welling up in your heart that says, you know, I want that. I want to pray that way. I want that.

I realize I'm not there, but I want that. Well, look, the reason the Lord taught that was so that you could. It's convicting, yes, but he convicts us in order to change us, to sanctify us, to bless us, to take us from one perhaps lower level of glory to a higher level of glory in the way that we live our lives, in the way that we pray. This is designed to bless us, as Jesus teaches us. And so how do you go from where you're at to where the Lord would take you in prayer? First of all, write this down, first point, is that you purify your motives in prayer. Purify your motives in prayer.

We see this in the first two verses, and basically we'll do two sub-points here. Purify your motives in prayer, that's the main point. First sub-point, do not pray to please men. You have to purify your approach to prayer by understanding that you cannot pray in order to please men. Look at verse 5, Jesus says, When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that, here's why they pray, here's the purpose of all of their praying, so that they may be seen by men.

Truly, I say to you, they have their reward in full. The Greek term for hypocrite originally referred to a stage actor who hid his identity behind a mask and performed for his audience. Jesus uses that word to refer to the Pharisees and their practice of praying.

They looked godly on the outside. People walked by on the street corners, oh, there's a rabbi so-and-so, he's praying again, wow. And look at the length of the tassels on his garment, isn't he holy?

He is a good praying man. Jesus uses that as an illustration. He says that they love to just stand and pray in the synagogues so that they can be seen by men. The Pharisees chose public settings to pray so that men would notice their devotion, and Jesus condemns it out of hand. They didn't care about actually praying. They didn't care about actual true communication to God from the depths of their heart. They wanted to put on a show so that men would say, Oh, you're a prayer. They used what should be a holy act of devotion before God in order to get the applause of men. That is sickening. That is nauseating to think about that. Imagine, if you would, imagine a man who made a big show of giving public displays of affection to his wife, but in private beat her.

When men are around, he looks like the model husband. Behind closed doors, his claws come out. We would universally condemn that kind of hypocrisy.

Say, what are you doing? Why don't you do the reverse? Why don't you have the reality at home and then kind of hide it in public so that the reality behind closed doors is what's really important to you? We would be appalled at that kind of hypocrisy. And rightly so. What I want you to understand, beloved, is that men and women, young people who primarily aim their approach to religion at gaining a public reputation of godliness without the private reality, they're more reprehensible than the hypocritical husband that I was describing.

Jesus condemns this. He says they have their reward in full. Listen to me. When you go through, and I'm talking to you now.

I'm not talking in a general. I mean this you to be second person singular to everyone sitting in this room right now. When you go through the motions of religious devotion, of church attendance, being in your Bible study, or whatever. You are just going through the motions with an eye toward being noticed by men without a corresponding, without a heart reality that says, I want to glorify God. I want to be faithful in this little thing. When you go through the motions like that and men notice, you have your reward. Jesus says when men notice, they praise you. He says you've gotten what you were after. There's no more to come. There's no reward for God on that kind of life. There's no providential blessing that's going to flow from that kind of hypocritical approach to Christian living. He says recognize it now.

That's as good as it's going to get. When they turn their attention to something else five minutes later, it's over. You've really wasted your time to approach your Christian life that way, beloved. Look, I know this is very convicting. To the extent that it convicts you and it convicts me, that's a good thing.

We need to be convicted on this. Because particularly when you are in a large church like Grace Community Church, and there's just thousands of people here on a Sunday morning, there's a particular ease of being able to live on the fringes, of going through the motions. Oh yes, I attend Grace Community Church. You know that, right? I attend Grace Community Church where John MacArthur is the pastor. I attend there, you know that? Yeah, I get it.

I get it. Okay, you attend Grace Community Church, or at least you used to 30 years ago. What are we doing? What are we doing?

Why are you here? That's what Jesus' words are prompting you to examine. You wouldn't be one of those hypocrites, would you?

Putting on a show, a spiritual show, so that others will think you're a godly so-and-so, when actually in your private life you're indifferent to Christ. You can't find your Bible because you haven't seen it for three weeks. But I'm here on Sunday! Come on. You need to come back to fundamental principles. Don't be deceived.

God is not mocked. And when you are just going through the motions, He sees that. And your motions are not storing up any reward for you in heaven. Why would you want to live that way?

What is it that would make you think that there is any value in that? Isn't it irksome to you to have to go through motions to please other people when your heart's not in it? Wouldn't it be better? Wouldn't it be better to go back and meditate on the character of God and think of His goodness and His grace and His power and kindle the affections of your heart so that you're pursuing these things out of a heartfelt love and devotion to Him?

Wouldn't that be better than continuing in the hypocrisy that's going nowhere anyway? Jesus seemed to think so. Understand this. Even in the midst of the severe conviction that some of you may be feeling right now, understand this. Come back to the gospel. Come back to the grace of God. Come back to the reality that Jesus Christ came into this world to seek and to save that which was lost. He came to be the Savior of the world.

He came to save us from our sins. And that if there's conviction, then the time is right for you to pour out your heart in confession to Him and trust Him for His promise to forgive. If we confess our sins, He's faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. A heartfelt confession and repentance can wipe the slate clean so that you can move forward and say, okay, it's going to be different now. You know, can we ever plumb the unsearchable depths of the grace of God, the depths of what Christ accomplished for us on Calvary, that we would be such hypocrites for so long and then in a moment of conviction, come to Christ and say, Lord, I'm so sorry. My heart is broken because Your word has convicted me of this and I confess it, and I want to repent and change and have the promise of God that when we come to Him that way, He takes our sins away as far as the east is from the west from us.

I love Him, don't you? I love Christ. And when you love Christ from the depths of your heart, you pray differently, that's the point. And so we're not worried about what men think about us. We need to purify our motives in prayer.

And so if it's not to please men, what is it then, second sub-point? You pray to please God. You pray to please God, look at verse 6. You pray differently when the right motives animate you, verse 6, but you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. This contrasts with the hypocrite. He's saying, here's what my disciples do. Here's what the one that belongs to me does. You know what he does? He gets someplace where men can't see him.

And there's a certain genius, there's a certain divine genius about that. If you consciously seek out privacy and solitude when you pray, you mortify your pride because if men can't see you, they can't praise you for it, and therefore you can't be seeking their applause when you pray that way. And you seek out that closet, whatever it is, closet in a meadow, for all I care, someplace where you're alone.

For you young moms, I know that's kind of a hard place to find. Here in this verse, nine times, nine times, Jesus uses the singular, the second person singular, you. He's bringing a focus onto what your personal heart conviction would be. And as you seek privacy in prayer, you're showing that you are seeking the approval of your Father, not the approval of men. And when you pray privately, look at the promise at the end of verse six.

Your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. When you go to private prayer with all of the things that we're talking about fresh in your mind, animating your mind, you should go with a sense of anticipation. Wow, wow, I'm going to enter into, in a particular way, I'm going to enter into the presence of God, I'm going to speak to Him, He's going to hear me, and He's going to respond and He's going to bless me as a result of this. The question is, how much time can I spend doing this? How much time can I spend in the presence of God, seeking His face, remembering His character, conscious of His love for my soul, conscious of the One crucified and resurrected for my sins, the One who has reserved a place in heaven for me and is inexorably leading my life to that place in glory.

How much time can I spend with Him? And your motivations are completely different than having the latest pastor browbeat you because you need to spend an hour in prayer a day, or whatever. I don't care what a preacher says, how many minutes I need to pray. That's not in the Scriptures like that. Listen, if you will just take care of the heart affection side of this, the other stuff takes care of itself. And if you try to focus on the externals and meet time clocks and all of that, without a corresponding heart reality, you are wasting your time. Go watch television, go do something else. Don't insult the holiness of God by going through the motions in the presence of an omniscient God.

Don't waste your time. But better yet, take your heart affections around this flaming coal fire of the love and grace and goodness of God and warm your hands there. Warm your heart affections around the character of God. And when you do that, you're going to find you don't want to leave in the first place. When you do that, prayer is no longer a duty.

It's a delight. It's what you want. And when you pray out of that kind of heart, Jesus says, your Father will see you and reward you and bless you.

Don't you want that? Believer in Christ, don't you want that? The way out of your mediocrity in prayer is not found in saying, I've got to get up earlier, I've got to pray longer.

No, no, you start, you purify your motives, and say, I'm going to set my heart on seeking God in private, conscious of Jesus' promise that the Father will bless me. Well look, I'm halfway through my notes. I can either try to finish this in two minutes, or come back to it next time.

I'm going to vote with my majority of one to come back to this in the weeks to come. Keep our hearts focused on that. Listen, you are a precious people to me. To be called the pastor of Grace Life is the greatest honor that I have had in my life. And I am encouraged constantly and daily by your faithfulness to Christ, and the way that you serve, and the way that you manifest your love for Christ in a myriad of ways in the places that he has put you on.

And so, this is all designed to help you further that even more. Because this is where Christ leads us. He leads us to a place of grace and liberty in prayer.

Of grace and liberty in walking with him. And if prayer has been an irksome duty to you, it's been a source of irritation. Oh, I've been there. Look, this is the way forward out of that morass that we so often fall into. So we'll come back to this next week. Spend some time thinking about this in the week to come.

We'll come back next week and we'll wrap it up and put it in a package that sets a course for us to go forward from. Let's pray together. Lord, the wonder of coming to you in prayer is unspeakable. A privilege that is beyond all that we could ask just to come and to speak without you turning us away because of sin.

That in itself, Father, is amazing. The fact that you would hear us when we pray. That our sin stained stammerings. Our mixed motives in prayer. Our history of failure in prayer. And yet you would still receive us when we pray. You would hear us when we pray. Father, we see a depth of goodness that no line could measure.

It's unfathomable how good and how gracious you are, Father. We thank you for that. But to go even further, for Jesus to say that you will reward us when we pray to you in secret. When we pray from hearts that love you and trust you and seek your hand.

You'll reward us. Us that were once rebels against you. Us who so quickly go to a cold and indifferent heart even as believers. You would still reward us when we turn from our indifferent ways and seek you with all of our hearts. Father, the magnitude and the majesty and the monument of your grace is beyond anything that we can begin to imagine. We can see it in your word.

We can't grasp the fullness of it, but we can grasp it truly. And we thank you for it. And Father, I pray for these dear brothers and sisters in Christ, that those who have been discouraged in their walks with you, I pray that you would meet them in this time. Meet them through these words of Jesus in Matthew chapter 6 and encourage them to come back and to seek you afresh once more. To dig wells of spiritual searching for you that you would be pleased to bring water forth from that would refresh their souls. Father, for those that are faithful, those who feel affirmed by these words, would you strengthen them all the more? Ultimately, Father, would you make us like Christ?

Would you make us people? Would you shape our hearts, Father, so that our lives would reflect the spirit of what Jesus has taught us here through his word? We're so grateful, Father. We love you, we praise you, we adore you with unlimited and unreserved devotion. And as you have promised, Father, now we ask you that somehow in your wisdom and goodness that you would reward us for seeking you here today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Today on The Truth Pulpit, Pastor Don Green has shown us that to purify our motive in prayer, we must not pray to please men.

Rather, we must please God. Next time, Don will address the practice of prayer, so tune in then as we continue our series, What Jesus Thinks About Prayer. Right now, though, here's Don with some exciting ministry news. Well, my friend, today I have an opportunity to offer you something for free that goes beyond what we've done on our radio broadcast. It's a 10-message CD album titled The Bible and Roman Catholicism.

It's a series I recently completed at Truth Community Church, taking scripture and evaluating what Catholics teach and believe about the pope, about Mary, about the mass, and about the whole nature of salvation. It's a resource that you really need to have in your hands, either for yourself or for your friends and loved ones, to know how to interact with them. And it's available for free at the place that Bill's going to point you to right now. Just visit us at thetruthpulpit.com and click on Radio Offers to learn more. That's thetruthpulpit.com. I'm Bill Wright, and we'll see you next time on The Truth Pulpit.