It is time once again for the weekend sermon. I hope that everyone had a good week. This was an exciting week in the Christian religion. I am not a Catholic, but I thought that the election of Pope Francis was extremely interesting.
The bird landing on the Sistine Chapel chimney was cool, especially since St. Francis is associated with birds, and the new pope chose the name Frances in honor of St. Francis of Assisi. St. Francis is one of my heroes by the way.
The experts had it all wrong about who the new pope would be. No one I listened to even mentioned Cardinal Bergoglio as a possibility. I can just hear my Dad if was here. He always thought that it was funny when the so called experts never got anything right. My Dad would be laughing at these experts now.
Last week, we began Matthew chapter 6 in our study of the Sermon on the Mount. I explained that this chapter deals with the matter of hypocrisy. I also mentioned that giving alms, prayer and fasting were three important spiritual disciplines. We then went on to look at the importance of giving alms and making sure that we didn't draw attention to ourselves in our giving. We are to be seen and rewarded by God and not by people.
In today's sermon, we concentrate on Jesus' teaching on prayer. I did a series of sermons on Jesus' teachings on prayer a few months ago. I invite you to read these for more detail. In that series, I went over the Lord's Prayer as a pattern for prayer. I am not going to do that today.
Jesus says in Matthew 6:5, " And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they many be seen of men. Verily, Verily I say unto you, they have their reward."
Once again, Jesus warns His followers about practicing their deeds of righteousness to be seen by people. This reminds me of the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican. The Pharisee prayed out loud an elaborate prayer. The publican wouldn't even lift his eyes to Heaven. He simply said, "God be merciful to me a sinner."
What is the application of this passage for us today? One thing this passage reminds me of is some of the elaborate read prayers I've heard in some churches. The person praying was using big words and speaking in a stilted way. It's as if he wasn't talking to the Lord, it is just part of the Sunday morning performance. We should never pray in public to impress people.
Prayer is simply talking to God. We don't have to have a formula or some type of elaborate speech. We should just talk to the Lord and tell Him about our needs and our hurts. We should intercede for others asking the Lord's help for our families, our friends, our nation and the world.
What did Jesus mean in verse 6 about going to the closet to pray? I believe that most of our prayer should be in private. We don't need to tell people what we are praying about all the time. This is between the individual and the Lord. This teaching of Jesus does not mean that all public prayer is wrong. Jesus Himself prayed in public. One example of this is in John 11 when Jesus prayed to the Father before calling Lazarus our of the grave. Jesus also gave thanks and blessed the bread before it was distributed when He feed the multitudes.
There are many other public prayers in the Bible. Daniel prayed in his window facing Jerusalem. Daniel is listed as one of the three most righteous people in the Old Testament. The apostles and the 120 in the Upper Room prayed together before the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Praying in public isn't wrong if the attitude of the heart is right and we are not trying to show off.
Jesus gave us a prayer to pray. I believe that we should pray this prayer every day. The ancient Christian writing called the Didache instructed believers to pray the Lord's Prayer three times a day. I think that this is a good practice.
Also, we need to be people of prayer. I couldn't make it through the day without talking to Jesus. Sometimes, I don't understand why he doesn't answer my prayers in the way that I want them answered. But, I know that He is always with me, and He hears me. He care about me, and He wants me to tell Him about my concerns. He wants to hear my praise for Him in my prayers, and He wants to hear me give thanks for all that He has done.
I Peter 5:7 tells us to cast our cares upon the Lord because he cares for us. One Scripture that I think is great is in Revelation 5:8 that says that our prayers are like incense in the throne room of God.
Finally, what are we to make of verses 14 and 15? Will we not be forgiven if we don't forgive? I believe that this is what Jesus meant. He talked about his in His story about the two debtors.
As believers, the Lord has forgiven us of our great debt of sin that we could never repay. Jesus paid it all. If we truly realize this, how can we refuse to forgive those who have sinned against us. Our attitude of forgiveness demonstrates the reality of our relationship with Jesus Christ.
Jesus shed His blood and rose again that whosoever calls upon Him in repentance and faith might be saved. If you are reading this and you have never repented of your sins and invited Jesus into your life as your Lord and Savior, I pray that you will turn to Jesus today.
Next week, Lord willing, we will deal with the issue of fasting. On Wednesday, I will post another chapter of my book about Toby. Two nights ago, I had a dream that the two of us were together again. It was a nice dream. May God bless you. Amen.
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