The School of Prayer | Part 1 | Getting Schooled on Prayer
We’re there in Matthew 6. We’ll come back to Matthew 6 but go to Luke 11 now. This morning we’re starting a brand-new series that I’m really excited about it and I hope you’re excited about it. I don’t know that it’s that exciting of a topic as far as you know maybe trying to get people to visit or things like that but I hope that if you love the Lord and you’re a mature Christian or you’re trying to be a mature Christian that the thought of prayer and learning to pray would excite you. And we’re starting this brand-new series this morning and it is called “The School of Prayer”. And it’s interesting because the disciples made a request to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Look at Luke 11. Luke 11:1 “And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.”. Here we have Jesus praying and his disciples asked him to teach them to pray. We will see in this series that Jesus had a very active prayer life. It seems like when they see Jesus praying, they come to the realization that they aren’t doing it right. They realize that they aren’t doing it like he is doing it. Then they request Jesus to teach them how to pray.
Matthew 6 and Luke 11 are parallel passages. Sometimes certain passages provide more information or highlight different aspects of what took place. I want you to notice how Jesus responds to their requests. Matthew 6:9 “9 After this manner therefore pray ye:….”. So they ask Jesus to teach them to pray and he responds to pray in a certain manner. Jesus is happy to teach them and give them advice on how to pray.
Now let me just give you some introductory kind of thoughts in case you’re not excited about the subject of prayer. I would encourage you to consider a few things. Prayer is the most powerful thing that we as Christians have available to us. It gives us access to God. It gives us the ability to go to God for our needs and our requests. And though it is the most powerful tool in our arsenal, it is the least used tool in the life of a Christian. Many people have done research and studies and polls and things like that. And when people are allowed to be anonymous and Christians are allowed to be anonymous, they will tell you that prayer is probably the least practiced discipline in the Christian life. However, it’s interesting to consider that Jesus never taught his disciples how to preach or at least the Bible doesn’t record that. Now I believe in preaching and I believe in teaching people how to preach. I have classes and courses that I do with guys in our leadership class to teach them how to preach. It’s interesting though Jesus never taught his disciples how to preach.
He never really taught a soul-winning course. Now I believe in so many courses. I’ve written a soul-winning course and we’ve recorded a soul-winning course and of course Jesus did a lot of soul winning. That was training in and of itself. But he never sat down and trained them through the Romans Road. He never went through an outline for a sermon or Pastor Ministry or Church Administration. But what we do find in the Bible is that Jesus taught his disciples how to pray.
Now I need to show you a little bit of the importance of prayer. Some people act like prayer is some sort of a mystical thing. The word mystical means like a spiritual mystery and people think this is a mystical type thing. And though prayer is a spiritual thing, it is not a mystery and it is not mystical. In fact, it’s something that you can learn. Because when the disciples asked the Lord to teach them to pray, Jesus didn’t say “Well it’s this mystical thing where once the Holy Spirit comes upon you…”. When they ask to be taught to pray, he just immediately starts teaching them. I want you to understand that prayer is something that you can learn. You can learn to pray. You can learn to practice prayer. And what we’re going in this series is we’re going to enroll if you will into a prayer class being taught by the Lord Jesus Christ. And we’re going to look over the next several weeks the teachings of Jesus on prayer. And there’s lots in the Bible about prayer and we’re going to spend a lot of time on prayer. But in this series we’re going to look at the specific teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ on prayer. We’re also going to look at his personal prayer life and we’re going to sit at the master’s feet and join the disciples in this question “Lord teach us to pray”. And we’re going to allow the Lord Jesus Christ to teach us how to pray and when to pray and why to pray and all of those things.
Now I have one more introductory statement before we get into the sermon. Before he really teaches them how to pray, he teaches them how not to pray. There are a lot of misguided thoughts and confusion on prayer and a lot of wrong assumptions. So before we get to verse 9 where he says “after this manner”, he actually tells them a few things not to do. And that is what we will focus on this morning. We are going to show you the things not to do in regards to praying.
Matthew 6:5 “5 And when thou prayest,…”. Look at verse 6 “6 But thou, when thou prayest,…”. Look at verse 7 “7 But when ye pray,…”. Lesson number 1 on prayer is to pray. When do pray? When do you set aside a time during the day to spend time with your heavenly Father in prayer? Because I want you to notice that he begins to give them all these teachings but they’re all under the that you are actually praying. So the first idea we have to look at is “When do you pray?”.
Go to Mark 1. I told you that Jesus had a very active prayer life. And I want you to notice that Jesus is not a hypocrite because he actually has an active prayer life. Mark 1:35 “35 And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.”. There’s an emphasis being made here that it was early in the day. Jesus was an early riser. By the way, if you study the Prophets in the Old Testament, you’ll notice that this phrase is brought up over and over where it talks about them rising up early in the morning. If you want to be like Christ, if you want to be a godly man, learn to get up early. So here’s a question I have for you. When do you pray? When do you pray? Go to Psalm 55. I’m not here to try to make you feel guilty but I want to encourage you and maybe shake you up a little bit. My question is “Do you have an appointed time that you set aside to pray?”. Because Jesus says “When ye pray.”. And we see that Jesus rose up very early to pray. Psalm 55:17 “17 Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.”. So the first lesson is “When do you pray?”. You’ll notice that great men of God, great prayer warriors had a time set aside to pray.
In my introductory statement, I said that Jesus never taught anybody how to preach but he did teach people how to pray. I would encourage you if you want to study the Bible and learn the Bible to learn how to pray. If you want to understand the deep things of the Bible, end times prophecy, then do what Daniel did. You should pray. In fact, if you study the life of Daniel, you’ll see that he spent much time in prayer and fasting in order to be able to give us the things that you want to learn so that you can repeat them to others or preach them or teach them.
In Daniel 6, we have the story of prayer being illegal. Daniel 6:10 “10 Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.”. Daniel was a man of prayer. Jesus was a man of prayer. Paul was a man of prayer. These great men of God throughout the Bible, these Christians that had strong powerful walks with God and had the power of God were also people that had set times to pray.
Go back to Matthew 6:5 “5 And when thou prayest,…”. The assumption is that you have a time to pray. “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 may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.”. Now Jesus begins by talking about public prayer. And let me just say this as we kind of get into this idea of public prayer, there’s nothing wrong with public prayer and Jesus is not necessarily attacking public prayer. We have examples of public prayer all throughout the Bible. Let me just give you one of those examples.
1st Kings 8:1 “Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, unto king Solomon in Jerusalem, that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion.”. I want you to notice that he brings all these people together and we will see him pray publicly. Verse 28 “28 Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O Lord my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer, which thy servant prayeth before thee to day:”.
Look at verse 54 in the same chapter. “54 And it was so, that when Solomon had made an end of praying all this prayer and supplication unto the Lord, he arose from before the altar of the Lord, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven. 55 And he stood, and blessed all the congregation of Israel with a loud voice, saying,…”. And then he is going to go on with his prayer. I’m only reading this to you to highlight the fact that here we have Solomon who gathered the entire nation of Israel, the congregation of Israel together. This is at the opening of the temple. You see them raising their hands. And by the way, you only see people raising up their hand to heaven while praying. Not during a worship concert. The Bible speaks about lifting up your hands in prayer. This is public prayer here. God responds by sending fire to consume the sacrifice. My point is that there is nothing wrong with public prayer. On Wednesday evenings we take prayer request and assemble together and we have a time of corporate prayer. There’s nothing wrong with public prayer in and of itself.
Go to Matthew 6:5 again. “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 may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.”. There’s nothing wrong with public prayer but there is a tendency when we do things in public to do things to be noticed. It’s not just prayer by the way. In the Christian life, anything you do to be seen of men, there’s no reward for that in heaven. You’ve got your reward. The problem with public prayer is not public prayer. The problem is when we do public prayer as a show.
Matthew 23:14 “14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.”. The word “pretense” means an attempt to make something that is not real seem true. See, Jesus was looking at the hypocrites and saying that they have these big public prayers while standing on the corner of the street and it’s all an act. They were just putting on a show.
By the way, let me just say this. I remember my Pastor growing up would say to have short public prayers and long private prayers. Don’t make your public prayers some big show. Prayer should not be you showing off. Prayer should not be you bragging. Prayer should not be you making a point. Prayer should not be you showing off how godly you are or spiritual or full of knowledge you are. I always find it interesting when you have these hyper spiritual people with long prayers. They are just like the Scribes, Pharisees and hypocrites. There’s nothing wrong with public prayer but there is something wrong with public prayer when it’s done to show off or brag. When we pray on Wednesday nights, I try to keep those prayers as short as possible. Why? We should have short public prayers and long private prayers.
Lesson one – “When do you pray?”. He teaches there’s nothing wrong with public prayers but we don’t want to make a show out of them. We don’t want to use our prayer time to make a point. But a second question or thought is “Where do you pray?”. Notice Matthew 6:6 “6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”. Jesus tells us that we should have a time to pray but we should also have a place to pray. Matthew 14:23 “23 And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.”. The question for you is not only when do you pray but where do you pray? Are you ever alone with God in prayer? Do you ever have a time and place to privately meet with God in prayer?
Mark 1:35 “35 And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.”. Solitary means alone. We live in a world today where we are never alone. We always carry our phones with us and we are always connected with people. I understand we have responsibilities and I’m not against it. However, I’m asking if there is ever a time where you turn off the phone, turn off the internet, turn off the computer, turn off the tablet, turn off the television and by yourself go to spend time with God in prayer.
You say “I don’t need private time with God because I just write down my prayer requests and Pastor prays for them on Wednesday nights”. I’m not against public prayer and we will talk about the benefits of that in a few weeks but let me let you in on a little secret. Public prayer is not enough. You must have a secret time of prayer. Let me show that to you in the Bible. Matthew 6:6 “6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”. Now when it comes to things such as going to Church or soulwinning, other people will reach out to you if you start missing to make sure you are ok. But with your prayer life, there isn’t that natural accountability and you could go for days, weeks or months without praying and nobody will know.
Matthew 6:6 “6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”. The Bible shows us that it is when we go to God secretly that he will reward us openly. What does that mean? Well if you put in a prayer request for Wednesday night Bible study and everyone is praying for you and we publicly mention it, that is not being rewarded openly. Because the Bible says that we must go to God privately. What I’m saying is that it would be hypocrisy to say that you need the brethren to pray for you but you never pray about it privately yourself. If you ask to be prayed for but you never get alone with God, you never get on your knees with God, you never lift up holy hands to heaven and ask God to help you then that is hypocrisy. Public prayer is not enough. You must have a secret prayer life. Secret prayer is the only way. Jesus said secret prayer is the only way to get public answers.
Jesus is showing them that before he can teach them, he has to show what they are doing wrong. He is telling them that they have to have a place where they can get alone with God. I’m not saying you have to pick a closet at your house and empty everything out and make it a prayer closet. That is wonderful if you decide to do that but it isn’t necessary. I am also all for you writing prayer requests and our Church praying for you. However, you better partner with me and pray secretly as well. Otherwise there is no reward.
Prayer lesson number 1 – When do you pray? Number 2 – Where do you pray? Number 3 – Why do you pray? Notice Matthew 6:7 “7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.”. Vain means “empty”. Let me just kind of deal with this because we have to deal with it. It’s the obvious application but it’s not the primary application. Please understand what I’m about to tell you. When Jesus rebukes vain and repetitious prayer, the obvious application is not the primary application. The obvious application is that we should not have prayers that we chant to God. Jesus says don’t say vain and repetitious prayers. He says “I don’t want you to repeat the prayers”.
Obviously the number one example is the Catholic Church with the prayers and the prayer beads and they just recite a prayer over and over and over. I’ve highlighted this for you many times in the past but I just think it’s hilarious. In Matthew 6:7 he says don’t pray vain repetitions as the heathen do. Then in verse 9 he gives us the model prayer “Our father which are in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come…”. Then the Catholic Church says “Hey, I got an idea. Let’s repeat that prayer over and over again.”. Why do the Catholics chant prayers? Because they’re heathen. That’s why. Now I didn’t say that. Jesus did. Jesus said don’t use vain repetitions as the heathen do. He says instead I want you to pray like this. Then he gives an example of how we should pray. Then the Catholics come along and just repeat that one over and over. “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven….”. We should avoid that. That’s the obvious application.
But here’s the primary application. Notice what he says there. “7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. 8 Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.”. He said don’t chant prayers and recite prayers and read prayers like the Catholics and everybody else that came out of the catholic Church does. That’s what heathens do. He says be not ye therefore like unto them. He says don’t be like them. Why? Well notice this “for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.”. So we aren’t supposed to just come up with a set wish list that we just pray repetitiously. People constantly coming to God and asking to be rich or to have a Ferrari The Bible tells us don’t be like the heathen that do this.
Jesus was making a point. His first lesson was “When do we pray?”. 2nd lesson was “Where do we pray?”. 3rd lesson – “Why do you pray?”. Why do you go to God in prayer? He tells us not to use vain repetitions as the heathen do because they think they will be heard for their much speaking. The Bible tells us not to be like them. God knows what we have need of. So why are we bringing our requests to God? Now a wrong application would be for us to see that God already knows what we need so there is no reason for us to ask. That attitude reveals an inappropriate view of prayer. Because in your mind prayer is only going to God to get what we want. And though prayer is, please don’t misunderstand me, prayer is asking and receiving, you need to know that it is so much more than that. If you reduce prayer to a simple wish list to God you are wrong. And if we were honest, wouldn’t we say that that’s how we all usually treat prayer.
They come to Jesus and ask for help with prayer and he is happy to teach them but he first shows them the things they are doing wrong. They need to be schooled in prayer. He says when do you pray, where do you pray and why do you pray. If you say “To get what I want.”. The problem with that is because he already knows the things you have need of.
Several weeks ago on a Wednesday night, we went through our prayer list like we normally do. And a day or two later I happened to be on our YouTube channel and I was looking at some of the videos and checking some things. There’s a comment that somebody left and it caught my eye. I’m going to read it for you. I’m not going to give you the individual’s name. I don’t know if this is a good guy or a bad guy. I’m not going to read the whole comment to you. Parts of it sound like someone who is friendly but then part of it sounds like someone who is hostile. I just think it’s interesting and it highlights the inappropriate view of prayer that people have in regards to prayer. And again this was after our Wednesday night Bible study, a comment left on our YouTube channel after our Wednesday night Bible study when we took time to pray publicly.
This individual wrote this: “I noticed such a sincere and earnest list of prayers. If it’s God’s will then God will do without your prayers. And if it’s not God’s will, no amount of prayer will help you. So why bother?”. He goes on to say this “Not to be pessimistic. God has never answered any of my prayers and I don’t pray for a million dollars but I do know who does answer prayers. I have seen Pentecostals pray for the most selfish things and be granted their wish. Now I don’t even waste my breath praying”.
And when I read that I thought to myself “This individual is disillusioned with a type of prayer that the Bible never advocates.”. God never answers my prayer and God never gives me what I want so therefore prayer doesn’t work. But see the problem is that you begin with an assumption that prayer was bringing all of your wish list to God and God would give you everything you asked. That’s not prayer. Now prayer is asking for things from God but it is so much more than that. When Jesus is teaching on prayers, he starts with the 1st lesson of “When do you pray?” and then “Where do you pray?” and then “Why do you pray?”. If you reduce prayer to simply bringing a wish list to God then you’re not doing it right.
Go to James 4. Let me just give you some concluding statements and we’re going to leave it right there. Some of you are thinking “I thought the whole point of prayer was asking God to give us what we need and now you’re saying he already knows. If he already knows what we need and that’s not why we should pray then why should we pray?”. Next week we’re going to get into the study where Jesus actually begins to teach us how to pray. Next week we’re going to look at a study and I’m calling it prayer 101. It will be a basic understanding of prayer. Because if you’re like most people, you had a wrong assumption about prayer. Now please don’t misunderstand me. Prayer is asking and receiving. Prayer is getting a request from God but it’s more than that. Why would Jesus need to begin by schooling all of us on prayer?
The book of James which was written by the half physical brother of Jesus. In James 4 he kind of highlights or echoes the same teachings of Christ about schooling us on prayer. James 4:2 “2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.”. We go through struggles and fights and problems and what is the reason? Because people ask not. Because if we are honest with ourselves, many of us would have to admit that we don’t pray. We don’t have an answer for when and where. One reason we don’t have is simply because we don’t ask.
James 4:3 “3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.”. The word “amiss” means inappropriately or out of place or in the wrong order. You ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lusts. Jesus also began by telling us what we are doing wrong with our prayer life. I write in prayer requests on the Wednesday night prayer sheet and I hope you do but Jesus tells us that we better take that prayer request into our closet also. You better have a when and where that you pray. Do not treat prayer like God is Santa Claus and you’re bringing your wish list to him. Because before you even get into that just know that your Heavenly Father already knows what things we have need of. He says when do you pray? Where do you pray? And then he says why do you pray?
So here’s the homework assignment because we are entering the “School of Prayer”. Here’s your homework assignment. Choose a place and choose a time to pray every day this week. Why don’t you make a decision right now? I’m not asking you to pray for an hour. I’m not asking you to do that. Now eventually if you could get there that’d be great. But I’m just asking you to pick a place and time even if it’s just for a few minutes every day this week. You say “But what if I’m doing it wrong?”. We’ll talk about the why we are praying next week. You come back next week and we’ll talk about the why. We understand why God wants us to pray. But before we can even get with why let’s ask when and where. Choose a place, choose a time and pray.
Let’s close in prayer.