Speaking to God in Prayer--Life with God Series

            When I play board games, I’m the kind of person who likes to play as an individual. If a game is designed for me to have a teammate, that’s fine—I can live with that. But sometimes, I find myself at a gathering that has 12 people, but we have a board game that only allows for four players. Now what? Some of you don’t mind just pairing up with another person, but I would rather bow out and watch everyone else play than play with someone as a team.

            The reason for that is pretty silly, to be honest—when I think I have a winning strategy, I get so stubborn that I don’t want to have to work with anyone else! They may not see the obvious superiority of my strategy, and they may have the audacity to suggest a different plan!

            Playing a board game as an individual is one thing, but there are some activities in life that simply require partnership and cooperation. Communication is definitely in that category. We’ve all been in one-sided conversations before, and we can all attest that they are a far cry from real communication. Communication truly is a two-way street; it involves sharing and receiving. If only one person is truly interested or active in a conversation, communication simply will not take place.

            In the last couple of weeks, we’ve learned that God communicates to us through the Bible. Today, we’re going to start talking about how we communicate to God, and that is through prayer. Along with obedience, prayer forms a major part of how we respond to what God communicates to us in the Bible.

            Since prayer does form a major part of our response to God, it’s just like God to give us plenty of teaching about it in the Bible. Today, we’re going to start taking a look at the model prayer that Jesus gave us which we often call “The Lord’s Prayer.” We’ll take a close look at the Lord’s lead-in to that prayer in the Sermon on the Mount, and in that lead-in we will find the roots of fruitful praying.

The Roots of Fruitful Praying

            If I had to sum it up, I would say that the roots of fruitful praying are to pray in a manner that fits with what our God is like. We must pray in a way that is befitting the kind of character that God has, as He has revealed it to us through His promises and actions. In that light, we find two attitudes in Matthew 6:7-8 that could give us a disease in the very roots of our prayer lives if we don’t watch out for them.

Diseased Attitudes About Prayer

1. God can be manipulated into answering my prayers

            Notice the warning that Jesus gives us in Matthew 6:7 – “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.” Let me focus here not so much on what these non-Jewish people did, but on what they thought – they thought their prayers would be heard because of their own actions. Their confidence for answered prayer was not in their god, but in whether or not they did things in the proper way.

            In this case, Jesus highlighted the practice of offering long, drawn-out prayers, but the actions could be anything. He could’ve mentioned offering the proper sacrifices or demonstrating sorrow in a visible way like cutting yourself, because those were also common practices among the Gentiles.

            This attitude toward prayer is a hallmark of false religion. There are many examples of this notion that I can make my prayers effective by my own actions. Consider the Muslim habit of prayer, for example. They believe that their prayers will be effective if they offer them at precisely the right times of day, facing the proper direction, and with the proper order of standing, kneeling, and bowing. Or we could consider Hindu practices, such as crawling for miles to a temple in order to show your sorrow over your sins.

            Whenever I start to think that I can force God’s hand by something that I do, I am catching a disease at the roots of my prayer life. Yet it’s very easy to slip into this mindset. I might think to myself, “If I just get down on my knees and stay there until my knees are raw and my back aches, then God will see how serious I am about this prayer business, and he will answer my prayer.” Or I might think, “If I can just work myself into tears about this, then God will see how desperately I desire this request, and he will give it to me.”

            I have a friend who preached at a church one time, and during the course of the service he prayed a prayer from the pulpit. After the service, the elders of that church were furious with him because he didn’t end his prayer in the way that they thought was necessary. They told him that he had to end his prayer with, “In Jesus name I pray.” They thought his prayer wouldn’t be effective with any other ending.

            My friends, let me be clear about this – when God grants us what we request, it is not because of anything we have done, but simply because of what God is like. He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. He is willing to answer prayer because he is good, not because we have made him cry “Uncle!” by using the right postures or the right phrases.

Remembering what God is really like is the key to avoiding the second diseased attitude.

2. God needs to be convinced to care about me

            The Lord continued his teaching on prayer by saying this in verse eight: “Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” In their religions, the Gentiles had no reason to think that their gods really cared about them. Perhaps their gods kept tabs on them, but there wasn’t really a notion of personal concern or affection.

            For that reason, their prayers were more like uninvited interruptions, and if you’re going to interrupt your god and make a request, it had better be good, right? You had better speak eloquently, or you better offer lots of compliments. Or better yet, you might try to butter him up by offering some gifts or making some vows.

            But what a drastically different situation we face when we pray to the true and living God – the God of the Bible! As Jesus reminds us here, he is our Father, and one way he demonstrates that is by keeping up with our needs – anticipating them and knowing them before we even realize that we have them!

            When we go to God in prayer, we are like a weary traveler who stops at a home to ask for shelter only to find that the table has already been set for our arrival! The bedsheets have already been turned down in expectation of our visit! Prayer is not a means to convince God to care about us because he already does!

            When we feel like God needs to be convinced to care about us, the result is that we will not pray about very many things. We will consider most things to be too insignificant to merit God’s attention, so we won’t pray about them. Consequently, we will miss out on a multitude of opportunities for God to strengthen our faith by showing his faithfulness through his compassion and care.

            We know God cares about the “big” problems in our lives. We know he cares when we are diagnosed with a devastating disease, or when we receive that eviction notice – but does he still care when we’ve lost our car keys for the third time in a week and we have to get to an appointment? Should we think that we have an invitation to pray even about that, or should we feel like it would be an interruption?

            I’ve certainly had my ups and downs with battling this prayer disease, but I can tell you that when I have chosen to pray to God about the “little” things, he has so often delighted my heart by showing me that he cares. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve prayed that we could find a child’s blanky at bedtime! And you know what? We still have their blankies!

            I remember a time a few summers ago when I was briefly working for Matthew over at United Suppliers. I was driving a delivery truck, and I usually had to leave pretty early in the morning to make my deliveries. On one particular morning I arrived at the warehouse and for some reason, my key simply would not unlock the door! It was like someone had changed the lock; I just couldn’t get in.

            Because it was so early, I didn’t want to call Matthew and bother him, so I said a prayer something like this: “Lord, I really don’t want to have to bother Matthew right now, but our customers need this delivery. Would you please help me get into the building?” I don’t know if an angel came and straightened out my key or something, but I put it back in the lock, and that knob turned as if it had just been freshly oiled!

            When we fail to pray about the little things, we miss out on so many opportunities for God to show his concern and to build our faith. God cares about you, and he even cares about the little details of life. You don’t have to convince him to care, so go to him with all of your concerns.

Now that we have dismissed these diseased attitudes about prayer, we might be left asking ourselves…

What is Prayer All About?

            If prayer is not a way to make God work for me, what is it all about? If it’s not a method to convince God to care about me (since he already does!), then what is its purpose? If it’s not even a tool to inform God about my needs (since he already knows them), then what is it really for? By remembering that prayer is part of a cycle of communication, I think we can readily see one purpose.

1. It is a way to express my love to God

            Even if you know that someone loves you deeply, it’s still good to hear it again, isn’t it? And even if I’ve expressed it to my loved ones a thousand times, it’s still good for me to say it again – “I love you!” Expressing your love has an interesting way of expanding your love. When you express your love to God, it reinforces that love and builds it.

            When you pause to pray, that choice communicates that you value your relationship with God. Even if you don’t speak the words “I love you,” your actions demonstrate it. Expressing love is a healthy and vital part of any relationship, and prayer is one of the ways that you can express your love to God.

And when we think about what God wants to build in our lives, I think we can see another purpose for prayer.

2. It is a way to express and cultivate humility in my heart

            Whenever you pray to God to thank him for something or ask him for something, that act is a tacit admission that you cannot live this life on your own. Praying to God reveals that you understand your need for him; praying to him even about the little things in life demonstrates that you know you need his power and intervention every moment of the day.

            Perhaps more than anything, a lack of prayer should be seen as a symptom not of busyness or forgetfulness, but of pride. When I do not pray frequently, my actions express that I believe I can make it through most of life just fine on my own. In those moments, I am treating God more like a safety net than a shepherd, as if he is simply something for me to fall on when I’m in trouble rather than a kind master whom I have to trust for every need in my life.

            I’m starting to think that the main reason that God answers prayer is this – because prayer expresses humility, and God has promised to give grace to the humble. James and the Apostle Peter both remind us that God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble. Because God is good, he delights to respond with kindness and grace toward those who humbly approach him.

            Why would we ever hesitate to pray to a God like that? Why should we ever doubt whether he cares about the things that concern us? He has given us this wonderful way to express our love and our humility to him. May we not be negligent to use it!

Stepping Down From the Bench--Sermon on the Mount Series

            During my senior year of high school, I worked at a Mr. Goodcents restaurant for several months, and one day I had an experience that helped me learn a good lesson. I was standing at the counter waiting on some customers, and I had one of those moments when I just knew I was about to be robbed (if you’ve ever worked at a place with a cash register, you know what I’m talking about).

            I looked out in the parking lot, and a man was coming in to the store, and he was huge! He had tattoos all over his arms and several piercings, and I was sure he was going to rob the store. After he came in, he placed his order and I started making his sandwich, and at that time I used to wear a gold cross on a necklace. When I started making his sandwich, he said to me, “Hey, I like your cross.” I was thinking, “Here! You can have it—just don’t kill me!”

            But after he said that, he turned and walked down to the other end of the counter, and on the back of his shirt was Matthew 7:1—“Judge not, that you be not judged.” He started talking to one of my co-workers who was a Christian and I found out that this guy was a new Christian and actually attended my co-worker’s church!

            Now, I am quite certain that every person in this room knows Matthew 7:1—even if you didn’t know it was Matthew 7:1, you’ve heard the verse, “judge not, that you be not judged.” Surveys have shown that in our country this verse is the most widely-known verse of the entire Bible. However, I don’t think its any exaggeration to say that this verse is also the most widely misunderstood verse of the entire Bible.

            Today, we’re going to learn what Jesus actually meant when He said, “judge not, that you be not judged.” It turns out that if we simply read the verses that come after Matthew 7:1, we get a great commentary on what Jesus is trying to tell us (imagine that—if we keep a statement in context, it helps us make sense of it!). The points of my outline are going to serve as a paraphrase or commentary on these words, so hopefully these points themselves will give you a better idea of what Jesus is telling us. Let’s first read the whole section for today so we can get a sense of where we are going [READ Matt 7:1-6].

I. There is a Judge, and you are not Him. (v. 1)

            Verse one contains the famous statement, “judge not, that you be not judged.” When most people in our country today hear those words, they hear them in light of the popular idea that standards of what is right and what is wrong are simply matters of opinion. I may have very strong opinions about right and wrong, but according to this popular idea, they are nothing more than just my opinion—they are not standards that other people are obligated to live by.

            So with that idea in the background, when people in our country today hear these words from Jesus, they interpret Him to be saying, “Don’t evaluate the behavior of others, and certainly don’t ever tell them that they are wrong.” If there is one universal standard of right and wrong that our society buys in to, it is “don’t ever tell others that they are wrong.” Of course, no one ever stops to think about how that could always be wrong if there are no such things as universal standards of right and wrong!

            Jesus certainly did not buy in to this idea that statements about right and wrong are simply matters of opinion. Somehow, it escapes people’s notice that Jesus is giving us a command with these words—in other words, He is presuming to tell us what is right and what is wrong. In Jesus’ worldview, standards of right and wrong come from God. His commands show us the dividing line between right and wrong.

            With that idea in mind, we’re “getting warmer” in our search for what Jesus is talking about. God is the final judge of right and wrong, and ultimately, the only perfect judge of right and wrong. That is His position, His role, so Jesus is telling us not to take upon ourselves a role that rightfully belongs to God. We see this same thought expressed in commands that tell us not to take revenge.

            For example, Romans 12:19 says, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’” When I take revenge against someone else, I am trying to administer justice, but that is not my role. That is not the proper part for me to play in this world—that role belongs to God.

            That thought also helps us clarify what Jesus means when He says, “do not judge.” It is very important to realize that Jesus is not saying, “do not evaluate someone else’s behavior.” If that were the case, there would be many other biblical commands that we couldn’t possibly carry out—including the command of v. 6, as we’ll see in a moment.

            I think the illustration of a trial-by-jury is very helpful for us in clarifying what Jesus is saying here. In a trial-by-jury, the jury’s role is to consider all the evidence presented in a case and then determine if the defendant broke the law. It is the judge’s role, then, to administer justice—to determine the appropriate sentence and see that it is carried out.

            In our lives, the Bible does call us to play the role of the jury. We can observe behavior, look at the evidence of God’s word, and determine whether the behavior violates the standards of God’s Word. What Jesus does not leave open to us is trying to play the role of the judge—in others words, acting like we know what someone else deserves and trying to make sure that they get it. We are to have a different response, as we’ll see in a moment.

The Lord then goes on in v. 2 to mention a strong deterrent against judging others.

II. If you try to be the Judge, He will use your own standards against you. (v. 2)

            Let’s read v. 2 again [READ v. 2]. It seems that God’s attitude toward us is, “Okay, if you think you are fit to be a judge, then let’s see how you measure up to your own standards.” I think if we’re honest with ourselves, we really don’t want God to deal with us in the same way that we often deal with other people.

            When we try to act like we know what other people deserve, we do so with such a pitifully small amount of information. We may not know how hard someone fought against a temptation, or what the circumstances were that made a temptation look so appealing. It is far better for us to extend mercy to other people than attempt to take justice into our own hands. As Jesus had already stated that day, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy (Matt 5:7).” And after giving us His model prayer, the Lord said, “if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses (Matt 6:14-15).”

            So this is the third time that Jesus has mentioned this same idea in this sermon—and He’s not bluffing about this. When we stand before Jesus to answer for our lives, He will adopt the same posture toward us that we adopted toward others. If that’s the case, my friends, then I don’t know about you, but I want to be very merciful and forgiving rather than judgmental.

Jesus then goes on to criticize the hypocrisy that feeds a critical, judgmental spirit.

III. Focus on and deal with your own sins first, then help your brother (vv. 3-5)

            We really get a glimpse of Jesus’ sense-of-humor in these next verses [READ vv. 3-5]. Let’s allow the full weight of this comparison to sink in. Think about how invasive you have to be to find a speck of dust or a tiny splinter in someone else’s eye. You really have to invade their personal space! The point is that you really have to put out effort to see a speck in someone else’s eye; you have to be looking for it.

            I hate to say it, but we’ve all known people like that—people who are always on the lookout to find fault with others. Their life verse is Luke 17:3—“if your brother sins, rebuke him!” They’re the self-appointed fruit inspectors who are always looking for tiny bruises on everyone else’s spiritual fruit.

            To them and us all Jesus says, “Why do you look so closely for a tiny fault in someone else and look right past the log that’s in your own eye? And what makes you think you’re qualified to help someone else with their minor problem when you have a major problem that you’re not paying any attention to?” That’s the irony of a judgmental spirit—it puts our attention on everyone’s business but our own. We also end up applying standards to everyone else that we do not apply to ourselves. That’s why Jesus calls this attitude hypocrisy.

            We’re supposed to attend to our own business first. We should root out our own faults and be on the lookout for our own failures. Notice the situation that results if we will do that: “then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” Remember—Jesus is not telling us that its wrong to assess the behavior of others. If I notice a fault in someone else, after I have assessed myself, then I will be in a position to help them. Notice that Jesus is talking about help, not condemnation.

            This is where we find an unusual twist on the trial-by-jury illustration that I used earlier. We can play the part of the jury, but after we’ve determined guilt or innocence, we’re supposed to step out of the jury box and offer help to the defendant. We’re like a brother or sister helping a sibling fix something before Mom and Dad get home.

As v. 6 tells us however, we do have to use wisdom when we seek to help others.

IV. Use wisdom when deciding how to interact with others (v. 6)

            Let’s read v. 6 again [READ v. 6]. Let’s get a few things straight as we think about this verse. First of all, Jesus wasn’t hurling insults at anyone—he wasn’t calling a particular person or group of people “dogs” and “pigs.” He was simply using those animals as an illustration to teach a lesson.

            Second, when you hear the word “dog,” don’t think of a cute, cuddly house pet. Dogs were not common house pets in Israel at that time—they were wild animals. When Jesus said, “do not give dogs what is holy,” he was probably making a reference to the meat that the Jewish people received from their sacrifices in the Temple. With certain sacrifices, the person who offered it would receive some of the meat and take it home to eat it. This was very special meat; it wasn’t something you would just give to a wild dog roaming around the streets—it wasn’t appropriate for them.

            Likewise, no one would think about tossing pearls out to pigs (this is probably another example of humor from Jesus). Pearls are not appropriate for pigs, and they might be angry that you tossed them something they couldn’t eat.

            When we consider this statement in its context, its clear that Jesus is telling us that we have to use some wisdom when we consider how to help others. He has just told us that after we remove the log from our own eye, then we are in a position to help others—but even then we must not rush into a situation without using wisdom. I love what one commentator had to say about this verse: “Since we’ve just been told to love our enemies and not to judge, we might fail to consider the subtleties of the argument and become undiscerning simpletons. This verse guards against such a possibility.”¹

            Many verses of Scripture tell us about the need to exercise wisdom as we seek to help others. For example, Proverbs 9:7-8 says, “He who corrects a scoffer gets dishonor for himself, and he who reproves a wicked man gets insults for himself. Do not reprove a scoffer, lest he hate you. Reprove a wise man, and he will love you.” Before we approach someone with the intent to help them, we have to consider if they are likely to receive it graciously. We might be wasting our efforts and inviting trouble for ourselves if the person has given a clear indication that they don’t want to hear what we have to say.

            In the New Testament, we find verses like 1 Thessalonians 5:14—“And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.” Before we can carry out those commands, we have to determine which of those categories a person falls in. Are they idle—are they not doing someone they can do and know they should do? Are they fainthearted—are they capable of overcoming something, but just wearied by the struggle? Are they weak—are they incapable at the moment of bearing some burden by themselves? You can see that this requires wisdom; otherwise we might help someone who is just being idle or we might admonish someone who truly is weak.

            As Jesus once told His disciples before He sent them along to minister without Him, we must be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves (Matthew 10:16).” Our passage today has taught the same lesson in reverse order. Verses 1-5 tell us to be innocent as doves. We must not take upon ourselves a role that rightfully belongs to God. When it comes to obeying God, our attention must be given to rooting out the sins from our own lives. Then, if we happen to notice an opportunity to help a brother, we can pursue that opportunity.

            Verse 6 then tells us to be wise as serpents. Jesus is not calling us to be naïve or careless about our interactions with other people. Instead, they should be properly motivated and properly thought out—then we will be prepared to act with wisdom and innocence.

Notes:

1. Paraphrase from a statement by D. A. Carson in Matthew, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, vol. 8 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984), 185.

Walking Away From Worry--Sermon on the Mount Series

            By the grace of God, human beings have accomplished some amazing things during our history. We have explored outer space and put a man on the moon. We have developed techniques and tools that allow us to operate on the heart and the brain. We have found ingenious ways to combat belly fat. We have created useful inventions like the light bulb, the computer, and the Snuggie.

            But despite all that we’ve achieved, no one has ever found a way to turn worry into something productive. Like the people of old who labored to find ways to turn lead into gold, people all over the world have indulged in worrying in a vain effort to improve or sort out their circumstances. As far as Scripture is concerned, we will probably find a way to turn lead into gold before we ever find a way to make worry a useful or beneficial thing.

            Today we’re going to take a look at a very familiar passage of Scripture that contains some very precious words from the Lord. The lesson will be nothing new for most of us—we know we’re not supposed to worry—but perhaps we can gain some fresh insights today that will help us gain the upper hand when we face the temptation to worry.

Why does the Lord tell us not to worry?

1. Worry blows things out of proportion (Matthew 6:25)

            As we start to look at v. 25, notice that it begins with the word “therefore.” That word tells us that the Lord is about to make a point based on what he had just talked about. Jesus had just told us in v. 18 not to lay up treasures here on earth, and now He’s going to make this point about anxiety because it is one of the main factors that make us tempted to lay up treasures on earth. If we indulge the temptation to worry, then we will be tempted to lay up treasures on earth, and that will affect our ability to serve God with the kind of freedom that Jesus calls for here.

            The first reason we shouldn’t worry is that worry blows things out of proportion, and it does so in two ways:

            1. It turns healthy attention into harmful distraction

            Jesus states, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on.” Its important to note that the Greek word translated “anxious” in this verse is used elsewhere in the Bible to describe an appropriate degree of concern about something. For example, in Philippians 2:20, Paul told the Philippians that he was planning to send Timothy to them, and here’s why: “For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare.” Those words “genuinely concerned” translate the same Greek verb that we find in Matthew 6:25. Paul was obviously talking about a good trait in that verse—he wasn’t going to send Timothy because Timothy was a worry wort!

            So that Greek verb can describe an appropriate concern about something, and that’s important to understand. There is an appropriate degree of attention that we should give to questions like, “What will I eat?” Worry, then, seems to simply be a good thing gone bad. It is observation that has become obsession; it is forward-thinking that has turned into fear, so our healthy attention actually becomes a harmful distraction.

            2. It turns lesser things into ultimate concerns

            Jesus goes on to say this at the end of v. 25, “Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” The answer of course is, “yes.” Getting dressed is just one part of caring for the body; eating and drinking are just one segment of life. But when we indulge in worry, all of life starts to revolve around something that is only supposed to be one segment of life.

            I’m sure we’ve all experienced how this works. When you give in to worry about one detail of life, it starts to dominate everything else. When you’re worried about basic needs like getting food, for example, it dominates your thinking even when you need to be thinking about other things. It consumes your energy and leaves you with no energy for the other things that you need to be doing.

            To borrow an old saying, its like the tail begins to wag the dog. One area that’s really just a portion of your whole life begins to dominate your whole life in a way that its not supposed to.

2. Worry is unobservant (v. 26)

            Worrying causes you to overlook the way that God works in the world every single day. Let’s read v. 26 [READ v. 26]. Notice that Jesus doesn’t say that birds don’t work for their food—He just emphasizes that they don’t work for it in the same way that we do. They don’t produce lots of food all at once and then store it up and try to preserve it. Birds go out day by day and look for their food for that day, and God is faithful to make sure that they get it.

            This is a process that repeats itself every single day—for who knows how many birds, not to mention other animals—and yet we often look right past it. Worry gets us distracted with other concerns, and we fail to see the obvious—that God provides for His creatures. And notice how Jesus makes an argument from the lesser to the greater. The birds are simply God’s creatures, yet He is faithful to feed them. We, on the other hand, are His adopted children; we are of more value than they are, so we can be even more confident about God’s faithfulness to provide for us.

3. Worry is unproductive (v. 27)

            Let’s read v. 27 [READ v. 27]. Jesus could have used a lot of comparisons to remind us that worry doesn’t accomplish anything, but I think its fascinating that He chose to talk about our health and well-being. I think he may have been giving us a clue about the power that worry has to actually damage our health and well-being.

            Worrying leads to the release of certain hormones in the body, and when we get an excess of those hormones, it can lead to a weakening of the immune system, digestive disorders, muscle tension, short-term memory loss, coronary artery disease and heart attacks. Worrying will never add an hour to your life, but it just might take some away!

            Worrying accomplishes nothing, and on top of that it drains our ability to accomplish other things. So when we invest our minds and our energy in worrying, we get no good returns from it, and its more than likely that we will get bad returns from it.

4. Worry reveals a faith in need of growth (vv. 28-30)

            Look at vv. 28-30 [READ vv. 28-30]. Once again, Jesus points us to nature as our school teacher to give us a lesson that should be quite clear if we would just pause and “consider” the world around us, as Jesus says in v. 28. Again, Jesus uses an argument from the lesser to the greater—God delights to adorn plants with beauty that cannot even be matched by the wealthiest man in the history of Israel, yet they are such temporary things. Should we not then be confident that God will clothe us, since we are so much greater than flowers and grass?

            The Lord gives us a gentle rebuke when He calls us people of “little faith.” I picture Jesus speaking those words with a bit of amazement. These lessons that Jesus draws from nature are around us all the time. The natural world is constantly reminding us, constantly teaching us about God’s loving care, yet its as if we’re walking through the world in a trance because we fail to consider—we fail to observe—all that happens around us on a daily basis. If we are ignorant about these things, it is a self-imposed ignorance, because our professors—the birds and the flowers—are constantly teaching us their lessons. If our faith is small, it is because we are not feeding our faith with insight into what happens all around us every day.

5. Worry imitates a bad example (vv. 31-32)

            Follow with me in vv. 31-32 [READ vv. 31-32]. Remember that the word “Gentiles” refers to all non-Jewish people. In a religious sense, it means that these people do not know the one true God, the God who spoke through Moses and revealed Himself to the Jewish people. You may remember that when we talked about prayer a few weeks ago, I mentioned that the Gentiles had no concept of having a personal relationship with the gods that they worshiped. They had no reason to think that their gods cared about them or even paid attention to their lives.

            Its understandable, then, why they would be consumed with worry about their basic needs—they had no expectation of help from their gods. In light of those beliefs, the grace and goodness of our God shines out all the more. God has adopted us into His own family, which means that He has committed Himself to do all of the things that a Father should do for his children—love us, teach us, protect us, discipline us, and yes, provide for us.

            When Carmen and I were going through the process of getting approval to adopt, we had to show that we were as prepared as we possibly could be to take care of a child. We had to go through a physical exam, a review of our finances, background checks, an interview about our family background and our emotional well-being. Now do we think that God would adopt us and then fail to follow through on what He has committed to do? Would He say, “Wow, I didn’t realize how hard this was going to be! I really wasn’t prepared to take care of all of these children. I just can’t do it!” Of course not.

            Do you see, then, how unbecoming it is for us to worry about these things just like people who have no relationship with God? That is not at all the kind of example we should follow.

The remedy: Give your attention and effort to obeying God (vv. 33-34)

            Look at vv. 33-34 [READ vv. 33-34]. Notice the exchange that Jesus is calling us to make. In v. 32, He said that the Gentiles “seek” after the basic necessities of life. Their attention and energy are given over to pursuing those things because they have no promise of help from their gods.

            So instead of seeking those things, Jesus tells us to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. We have to exchange one focal point for another. Its like the illustration that speakers use at times when they tell you not to picture a pink elephant in your mind. You can’t help but picture a pink elephant unless you get your mind wrapped up in something else.

            When we confront worry, we can’t just put off worrying—we have to put on something else in order to keep that worry at bay. Its similar to what Jesus said about God and money in that we have two distinct choices before us: are we going to give our energy and attention to shoring up our basic needs, or are we going to give our energy and attention to obeying God and trust Him to shore up our basic needs?

            Don’t you see, my friends? God has our basic needs covered, so we are set free to focus on other things. We are empowered to live like no one else because everyone else is held back by worries about their basic needs. Without the knowledge of the promises that we have from God, it only makes sense that others are consumed with obsessing over food and drink and clothing, but armed with these promises, we are at liberty to invest our energy and effort in greater pursuits.

            But, worry does remain a strong temptation for us. All that we have learned about worry today will help us form a strategy for walking away from worry and pursuing obedience to God instead. If worry blows things out of proportion, we can walk away from worry by keeping things in proportion. For one thing, we can kick some false guilt out the door by remembering that there is an appropriate degree of attention that we must give to our basic needs or to working through problems that we encounter. We don’t need to think that such things shouldn’t occupy our attention and energy at all, but when they start to dominate our attention and energy at the expense of other things, then we can know that we’ve crossed the line.

            If worry is unobservant about God’s work in the world, then we can walk away from worry by being more observant about God’s work. We should consider God’s work in nature, as Jesus tells us here. We should remember what God has done for us in the past. Frequently, when we worry, its because we’ve just plain forgotten how God got us out of a similar jam in the past. Write these things down; find some way to remind yourself about them.

            If worry is unproductive, then invest your attention in something that is productive. Prayer is an obvious choice, especially when we make sure to give thanks for everything we can think of. Also, we sometimes worry about a situation simply because we don’t have much information about it. If we will take the steps we can to just gain some more information, we might gain some insight that will put our worries to rest.

            If worry reveals a faith in need of growth, then do things that will help your faith grow. For one thing, we can’t very well trust God to keep His promises if we don’t know what he has promised to do for us. We have to feed our faith with the Word of God and then exercise our faith by obeying what we read. If you want to make your muscles stronger, what do you do? Give them the proper food and then put them to work. If you want to make your faith stronger, what do you do? Give it the proper food and then put it to work.

            If worry imitates a bad example, then imitate a good example. Sit down with that godly person you know who just radiates peace of mind and talk to them. Be like Jacob wrestling with God, and tell that person, “I won’t let you go until you bless me! I want to know how you do it.”

            Praise God that we don’t have to be imprisoned by worry. We can walk away from it to give our energy and attention to greater things.

Serve the Master, Not His Tools--Sermon on the Mount Series

            There was once a man who worked for a wealthy landowner, and one day the landowner came to him and said, “I’m going to be away for a few months, and while I’m gone I want you to clear the trees off of this portion of my property.” Then the landowner gave the man an axe and left to go on his trip.

            The next day the man woke up and started to get to work. He took the axe and went out to the edge of the trees and began to decide which one to cut down first. He also began to look at the axe, and he noticed that it was a very fine piece of craftsmanship. The blade was perfectly sharpened, and it really had a nice shine to it when you held it in the sunlight. The handle was perfectly carved to fit in a man’s hands.

            The man began to think, “If I use this axe to cut down all of these trees, the blade will grow dull and lose its shine. The handle may get rough and start to splinter.” So instead of getting to work, he went back home, and each day he would think about cutting down the trees, but he couldn’t bear to think of the wear-and-tear that the axe would endure, so he would just stay at home and polish the blade and sand down the handle.

            After a few days, it dawned on him that others might realize what a beautiful axe he had, and he began to worry constantly about robbers. He would lay awake at night to keep watch, and pretty soon he was too tired each morning to even think about cutting down the trees.

            Then one day, the landowner returned and was very upset to see that the land had not been cleared. He went to the man to ask him about it, and the man said, “Sir, this axe you gave me is so beautiful that I couldn’t bear to put it through that kind of wear-and-tear.” The landowner was irate, and said, “You fool! I was planning to use this land and all of that wood to build new homes for all my workers—including you!” And the landowner left in a rage.

            The man was left alone to think about what he had missed out on, but he thought to himself instead, “At least I still have my axe!” But when he looked at it, he realized that his daily sanding on the handle had made it so thin that it couldn’t support the weight of the axe head any more. If he tried to use it, it would have snapped like a twig! Not only had the man missed out on the good plans of his master, but now even his beloved axe was useless.

            This little story of mine describes a temptation that we all face with the tools that God gives us to do His work, but in particular it describes the temptation that we face with our money and possessions. Money and possessions have a very seductive power to them, and it is very easy for us to fall in love with and begin to serve these tools rather than God, the master who gives them. Today, we’re going to receive a strong challenge from the Lord Jesus to remember to serve the Master, not His tools.

            As we jump back into our study of the Sermon on the Mount at Matthew 6:19-24, we’re going to read about some teaching from the Lord on money and possessions. Just prior to this section, the Lord had been discussing the proper way to fast, and it may seem odd that Jesus would move from a discussion of fasting to a discussion about money, but remember that from the beginning of chapter 6, Jesus has been encouraging us to not to prize the fleeting praise of other people, but to seek the far more valuable and lasting rewards that come from obeying God from a sincere heart. It is along those same lines that Jesus is going to command us to think about our money. As we go through this section, I want you to remember our overriding lesson to serve the Master, not His tools.

1. Pursue the things that have lasting value (vv. 19-20)

            In vv. 19-20, Jesus reiterates the lesson that He has been stressing since the beginning of chapter 6—we should pursue those things that truly have superior value, such as praise from God rather than praise from other people. Now he challenges us to consider the lasting value of the things we treasure [READ vv. 19-20].

            Here Jesus draws upon the common-sense principle that it’s better to invest in things that have lasting value rather than things that wear out or are insecure. When you buy a house, for example, it’s better to buy a home that is likely to keep its value, or even increase in value. When you buy a car, it’s wise to purchase one that has a good re-sale value. With any purchase you make, it’s always wise to buy something of good quality that it will last.

            So here Jesus commands us—and notice that it is a command—to lay up treasures in heaven, which will last, rather than treasures on earth, which are subject to decay or robbery, as He mentions. Rather than stockpile the treasures of this world, like money and possessions, we should invest in a greater share of the treasures of heaven, such as praise from God and the chance to occupy an honored position of service under King Jesus.

            Now in just a moment, we’ll wrestle with the question, “How do I know if I’m laying up treasures on earth?” Where is the line, for example, between saving and doing what Jesus warns us about here? We’ll deal with that in a moment, but first, notice that it is not only wise to invest in heavenly treasure because it is lasting, but also because there is a profound moral principle at work in this discussion.

2. Remember that what you value will own your heart (v. 21)

            Jesus simply says in v. 21, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” The heart can be used as a metaphor for everything that goes on inside of us—thinking, feeling, worshiping, aspiring. Here we might simply paraphrase Jesus’ words by saying that your whole life will get wrapped up in whatever it is that you treasure. It will occupy your thoughts and squeeze out thoughts of other things. It will shape your goals and aspirations and tug at your emotions.

            So when we consider what we will treasure, we are really considering what it is that will form the core of our lives. It is obvious, then, why this is such a monumental decision. If we treasure those things that are considered valuable in this life, then those are the things that we will pursue; but if we treasure those things that are valuable from a heavenly perspective—again, things like praise from God and a greater opportunity to serve Him—then those are the things that we will pursue.

            We often try to kid ourselves, however, by attempting to have our heart in two places at once, thinking that we can somehow treasure the things of this world and the things of heaven in an equal balance. But Jesus is about to warn us that such a case of divided loyalties really results in no loyalty to one master or the other.

3. Beware of a faulty perspective (vv. 22-24)

            In vv. 22-23, Jesus uses a metaphor to warn us about having a faulty outlook when it comes to serving God or serving money [READ vv. 22-23]. The idea of this metaphor is that our outlook gives us a proper insight on things so that we see them clearly. If our outlook on a matter is faulty, then we will not see the matter clearly or correctly. We will be in the dark, so to speak, and if we do not see one matter clearly, that can produce a snowball effect that clouds our insight on other matters. That’s why the Lord says, “If the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” A faulty outlook can quickly expand.

            The Lord then plainly and bluntly tells us in v. 24 what our outlook on serving God and serving money should be [READ v. 24]. Notice that Jesus did not say, “It is hard to serve two masters,” or “its pretty tricky to serve two masters, so be careful how you do it.” No—he simply says that it is impossible to serve two masters. It simply cannot be done.

            Jesus was speaking during a time when slavery was still commonly practiced, and that’s the picture that he’s drawing on. If you are a slave to some master, that’s not an 8-to-5 sort of thing. You don’t clock in and clock out with the idea that some of your time is your own. You are at the beck-and-call of your master at all times, so how could you possibly be at the beck-and-call of two masters? If you’re serving one at the moment, then you are not available to serve the other—but that’s not how the master/slave relationship works.

            So here, Jesus portrays our money and possessions as being a rival master to God, and He tells us that we must make our choice. They cannot both be number one; we cannot be at the beck-and-call of both. Remember—the choice is really between serving God or serving the tools that He has given us to do His work. We are in the same position as the woodsman who was given the axe. Will we use the tool to serve our true master, or will we fall in love with the tool and begin to serve it?

            Now in our society—which is, on the whole, the most affluent society that the world has ever seen—a passage of Scripture like this should make us pause. It should make you pause no matter what your economic standing is, because as Jesus makes clear, this is a heart issue—it is not about how much money you may or may not have.

            So how might we diagnose these problems within ourselves? How do we know if we’re “laying up treasures” on earth? How do we know if we’re serving money rather than God? Let’s deal with each of those questions in turn.

How do I know if I am “laying up treasures on earth?”

            We might wish that there were simply a dollar amount we could appeal to that would make the answer to this question very cut-and-dry, but that simply is not the case. There are some questions we can ask ourselves, however, that will begin to help us draw a conclusion.

1. What is your goal for the money you save (or the possessions that you hang on to)?

            Are you holding on to these things in order to use them for some kind of biblically-permissible purpose, like taking care of your family or having something on hand to give to people in need? Or, are you saving for biblically unacceptable reasons, like winning the envy and admiration of others or trying to find a sense of security in life?

2. How tight is your grip on the things you have?

            Are you obsessing over them? Are you constantly thinking about them? When you become aware of a legitimate need, does it take the “jaws of life” to get your wallet open, or do you have a ready willingness to give? We don’t cling tightly to things that we don’t value, so this idea of clinging to something can be a helpful gauge. The tighter you cling to something, the more value you place upon it.

How do I know if I am serving money as my master?

1. What are you willing to do to make money?

            If you are willing to do something unethical or illegal, then you are clearly serving money rather than God because you’re breaking God’s commands. We also need to consider this question not only in the light of one-time decisions, but patterns of behavior as well. I once heard it put like this—if someone came up to you and offered you $100,000 for your children, you would be furious and insulted. But that is precisely the kind of deal that many people make when they work so hard to make money that they leave no time, no energy, and no attention for their kids. Now of course, I’m talking about the person who is working that way to gain excess, not the single parent who may have to work two jobs just to keep the electricity on. If you are willing to put your family on the back-burner in pursuit of excess, you are serving money.

2. Where do you find comfort when you think about the future?

            Do you find comfort in your nest egg, in the FDIC, or in the promises of God? Do you have a sense of peace because you’re in good hands with Allstate, or because, like a good neighbor, State Farm is there? I think we can only find comfort when we believe that our master will take care of us, but who or what are you trusting to take care of you?

            In 1 Timothy 6:17, Paul writes, “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.”

3. Are you content in your current financial state?

            First Timothy 6:6-10 says, “But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.”

            Contentment is a very helpful gauge in this area. Now this doesn’t mean that we can’t seek to improve our financial situation—we must simply ask ourselves again about our motives for doing so. Those who are serving God as their master should be able to be content with the most basic of life’s necessities. If a gnawing desire for more is present in your heart, that is a sign of a lack of contentment. If our souls feel unsettled until we get the latest version of our cell phones, that is a bad sign.

4. Are you thankful for what you have?

            Contentment and gratitude are like two peas in a pod. If you are not thankful for what you currently have, that is a bad sign.

5. Do you find yourself looking for ways to spend your money on yourself or to meet the needs of others?

            When you dream about what you’re going to do with your money, who plays the starring role in your dreams? Is it only and always—you? Is your financial planning all about how to make your life more comfortable? Do other people fail to even enter your plans? If so, then you are likely serving money rather than God, because here is our master’s command for those who have excess: “They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life (1 Tim 6:18-19).”

            Possessions are to be a pathway, never a destination. They are to be a means, never an end. They are a tool, not the final product. They must take their proper place in line rather than becoming the bottom line. Your possessions should be at your service, not the other way around. Ultimately, they are to be at God’s service, since they are simply His tools that He gives us to carry out His work.

Not So Fast--Sermon on the Mount Series

            Today, on this Sunday after Thanksgiving, we’re going to talk about something that we all might feel like doing right about now—fasting. Our study of the Sermon on the Mount has brought us to Jesus’ words about fasting at a rather ironic time since this is also a First Sunday, and we normally eat pretty well on these days, but I’ll give the Lord credit for this timing, and we’ll just “dig in” to this subject of fasting.

            I think its pretty interesting to look at the variety of opinions among Christians today on the subject of fasting. We can see a very diverse range of opinions on this subject. On the one hand, some Christians promote fasting as a virtual “cure-all” for the spiritual life. At christianbook.com, you’ll find books with titles like, “Fasting: Opening the Door to a Deeper, More Intimate, More Powerful Relationship with God,” and “The Power of Prayer and Fasting: God’s Gateway to Spiritual Breakthroughs.” Its also very interesting that you can’t “pigeonhole” this enthusiasm for fasting to any particular denomination or theological background.

            On the other side of the spectrum, there are Christians who only think about fasting on the day before a colonoscopy. Whether this is intentional or not, they just never really talk about fasting and don’t assign any particular value to it.

            So what should we think about fasting? Today, we’re going to begin with this passage from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:16-18, and then we’ll branch out to a more general discussion of fasting—because as we’ll see, the Lord’s warning about fasting here is the same warning that He has already given us about giving to the needy and prayer. Let’s read His words here in Matthew 6:16-18 [READ 6:16-18].

The Warning: Don’t use fasting as a tool to seek praise from others.

            As with giving and praying, Jesus warns his audience not to follow the example of those whom He calls “the hypocrites”—in other words, the actors or pretenders. We know from the context of this sermon that Jesus is talking about the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the Jewish people at that time. As part of their system of worship, the Pharisees fasted twice a week—on Mondays and Thursdays. That was not commanded by God, but apparently the Pharisees did it as a show of their great piety—and apparently they put on quite a show! Jesus said that they would disfigure their faces so that it would be obvious to everyone that they were fasting.

            And again, as with giving and praying, Jesus stated that any praise they received from others would be all the reward that they would receive. He then encouraged His audience to choose a different route when they fasted.

The Solution: Do your fasting privately.

            Jesus told the people that when they fasted, they should take all the normal steps of personal hygiene for that day so as to conceal the fact that they were fasting. Such actions would reveal that they weren’t trying to impress other people—they truly were fasting as an act of devotion to God. And for their sincere act of worship, God would reward them. And so we have another illustration of the Lord’s words in Matthew 6:1—“Beware of practicing your righteousness before others people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.”

            Jesus mentioned fasting here—along with giving and praying—because it was a common part of Jewish religion at that time. It is not so common among Christians today, and that should cause us to ask some questions. Are we neglecting something that God wants us to do? Does Jesus expect His disciples to fast—perhaps even command us to in some way, shape, or form? I’d like to spend the rest of our time talking about these questions and discussing some potential dangers and potential benefits of fasting.

Does the Bible ever command us to fast?

            In the Old Testament law, God commanded the people of Israel to fast once a year on the day known as the Day of Atonement. That day was a very solemn and somber holiday on the Jewish calendar, a day in which special animal sacrifices were offered for the sins of the nation. The Lord told them in Leviticus 16:29 to “afflict themselves” on that day, and they—apparently correctly—interpreted that statement as a command to fast.

            And so they did, but that was the only commanded fast that the people had to observe. Over time, however, it became common for the people to fast more often—in fact, some of the prophets called the people to fast as a sign of repentance for certain sins. Fasting also became a common way to grieve the death of a loved one or to prepare for a particularly difficult or important task.

            Slowly, then, fasting became a part of Jewish worship, so much so that the Pharisees (as I mentioned earlier) fasted twice a week during the time of Christ. But in the New Testament, we do not find any commands to fast. Since we are no longer required to follow the Old Testament legal code, we don’t have to observe the annual fast that was mentioned there. In fact, fasting isn’t even mentioned in the New Testament after the Book of Acts. That would certainly explain why fasting is not a universal practice among Christians today.

So the Bible doesn’t contain a command for Christians to fast today. However, we should wrestle with the question…

Does Jesus simply assume that we will fast, so that we are violating His will for us if we don’t?

            As many Bible teachers have pointed out, Jesus does say “when you fast” in vv. 16-17 rather than “if you fast.” He used the same words earlier when He talked about giving and praying, so it seems that Jesus does assume that those who heard Him on that day would do all three of these activities—giving, praying, and fasting.

            But we are not the people who heard Jesus on that day, so we still have to sort this out a little bit. The people in Jesus’ audience that day already had regular habits of fasting as part of their culture, so it makes sense that He would speak to them with the assumption that they would continue to fast. But does Jesus still have that expectation of us today?

            I don’t think God has any expectation or requirement for us to fast today. We know that He wants us to continue giving to the needy and praying, but we know that because we have clear commands throughout the New Testament that tell us to keep doing that. We just don’t have a clear command or a clear expectation that Christians today should continue to fast.

However, that certainly does not mean that we cannot choose to fast as a spiritual exercise, and there could be some very real benefits to doing so.

What are some possible benefits of fasting?

            As we consider this question, I’m going to expand the concept of fasting just a bit beyond the thought of merely going without food. I think other forms of self-denial can work in much the same way as going without food, and thus can have very similar benefits.

1. It may foster humility

            Humility is the character trait that is most closely associated with fasting in the Bible. When we choose to fast out of proper motivations, it is a way to express humility before God and foster greater humility in our lives. It becomes a very tangible reminder of what Jesus said in Matthew 4:4—“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

            But how can an act like denying yourself food build a spiritual trait like humility? Its because of the connection between body and soul. We all know that spiritual issues can take a toll on our physical health. If a person deals with extreme guilt, stress, or anxiety for instance, those spiritual issues can create physical problems like ulcers or high blood pressure.

            That same connection between body and soul can work the other way as well. What we do with and to our bodies can shape our soul. Just think about all the things we do at times to our environment to change our frame of mind. Perhaps we put on some quiet music when we want to relax—or we put on some loud, upbeat music when we’re getting ready for a game. Maybe we turn on some mood lighting or light a particular candle to have a certain fragrance in the house. Perhaps we dress up for a special occasion. All of these actions can put us in a certain frame of mind and express or reinforce certain attitudes.

            Likewise, when we choose to go without something like food, we’re quickly reminded of our physical weakness. We remember again how frail we truly are, which drives us back to God as the source of our strength in all things—even our physical energy for the day at hand.

2. It may build self-discipline

            Choosing to say “no” for a time to a physical craving like eating can help you learn the self-control that you need to properly handle all of your physical urges. For example, sometimes our emotions may feel uncontrollable. We can get into such a rage from anger that we feel like we just have to scream or throw something. But self-discipline in one area tends to spread into other areas. Fasting can then become like something of a practice session for dealing with all of your physical urges and keeping them under control.

            Self-control is certainly a virtue in God’s eyes. In 1 Corinthians 9, the Apostle Paul wrote about the way that he sought to control himself so as not to cause offense to anyone else or to fall into sin against God [READ 1 Cor. 9:24-27]. It is quite possible that Paul’s efforts to maintain self-control included fasting; he was formerly a Pharisee after all, so fasting certainly had been a common part of life for him, and he may have continued that habit to some degree after he became a Christian. So for this benefit, fasting could be a worthwhile practice for us to consider as well.

3. It may help us avoid or battle addictions

            As we go over and over through the daily routine, its not always obvious to us when we’ve actually become addicted to something—whether it’s a certain food, a medication, a hobby, or some form of entertainment. So if we take a step such as fasting from these things to intentionally change up our routine, it can alert us to something that has actually become an unhealthy addiction.

            We’ve probably all had the experience of discovering an addiction after something that we didn’t anticipate threw our schedule out of whack. Perhaps something prevents us from having a favorite food or drink or we’re kept from pursuing our hobby for a while and we start to feel that irrational attraction to that object or activity. When that happens, we find ourselves thinking, “Wow! I didn’t realize how bad this was,” and then we choose to make some positive changes.

            Well, why don’t we just choose to mix things up from time to time? Why not intentionally fast from certain foods, or fast from the TV or the Internet or all kinds of other things? Such changes may alert us to a problem we didn’t know we had.

And following closely with this benefit is another benefit…

4. It may help us re-gain perspective in our lives

            Denying ourselves various things can help us truly sort out needs from wants. We’ve probably all had that experience where circumstances have deprived us of something, and we’ve come to think, “You know, that wasn’t so bad! I thought it would be terrible to go without that certain thing, but it turns out that I really don’t miss it.”

            Unexpected events can teach us those kinds of lessons, but once again, why do we have to wait for unexpected events? We can choose to go without all kinds of things almost any time we want, so why not do that every so often and see what you discover?

So there are some definite benefits that we might gain from the practice of fasting. We should also be aware, however, of some potential dangers that we must avoid.

What are some possible dangers of fasting?

1. The physical danger of going without food

            Before you might choose to fast, you should have a good understanding of your own health to ensure that you’re not making a decision that could actually be dangerous for you. Certain health conditions can be aggravated if you don’t eat regularly, and that could lead to complications, so you want to make sure that fasting would be okay for you.

2. Using the practice as a tool to manipulate God

            It is so easy for us to fall into that pagan mindset of thinking that certain rituals we perform or certain words we say will influence God to answer our prayers, and we can slip into that mindset when we think about fasting. Fasting feels like a rather extreme step to us, so we might think that by fasting, we’ll show God how serious we are about something and He’ll be more inclined to answer our prayers. When we think along those lines, we’ve simply turned fasting into a tool to manipulate God, which is improper.

            But as we learned today from Matthew 6:16-18, we can fast with proper motives, and that kind of fasting will be rewarded by God. I think we embrace the proper motives when we fast in order to devote ourselves to God, not to manipulate Him. If we are fasting to devote extra time to prayer or to cultivate humility and self-control or a renewed perspective, I believe those are desires that God will honor and which will thus receive His reward.

Pray Then Like This (Part 3)--Sermon on the Mount Series

            Last Sunday, the members of the music team and I got to talking briefly about the old party-line telephone systems that used to exist. If you’re not familiar with a party line, it was an arrangement in which you and your neighbors literally shared one phone line, so that if they were on the phone, you couldn’t make a phone call until they were done (or, if you wanted a little entertainment, you could just listen in on their conversation without them knowing about it!). That kind of arrangement seems completely foreign to us today with technology like cell phones, but it was fairly common not that long ago, especially in rural areas.

            Now, we are going to finish our study of The Lord’s Prayer today, and when we think about prayer, I suspect we normally think of it as a private conversation between us and the Lord—we feel like other people really have nothing to do with it. But as we will learn today, prayer is really more like a party line—not in the sense that other people can listen in on our prayers, but in the fact that the way we treat other people may “clog up the line,” so to speak. Our behavior toward others may cause interference for the prayers that we pray to God.

            Let’s quickly review the lessons that we have drawn from The Lord’s Prayer over the last two weeks, and then we will move on to consider two final lessons from this model prayer. So far, we have seen that we should pray in…

1. A manner that is personal

2. A manner that is respectful

3. A manner that is worshipful

4. A manner that is confident

5. A manner that is submissive

6. A manner that is petitionary

7. A manner that is repentant

            Now before we touch on our final two lessons, let me answer a question that you may have—what has happened to the words that we recite at the end of The Lord’s Prayer: “for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” If you are following along in our pew Bible, you’ll notice that the words aren’t there. No matter what kind of Bible you’re using, you’ll probably find that those words are either omitted or included with a footnote that says something like, “these words are not found in early manuscripts.” What’s going on here?

            You may remember that a few months ago, when we looked at Matthew 5:22, we talked about the history of how the Bible was copied. Well, when we look at the ancient copies of Matthew 6, we find some copies that contain the words “for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” and some copies that don’t contain those words. Our English translations are left to sort that out, which is why some translations omit those words and others include them with some kind of footnote.

            In my opinion, Jesus most likely did not speak those words on that occasion. Its hard to imagine why any copyist—let alone many copyists—would have omitted those words if they were in the original Gospel of Matthew. Here’s what seems to have happened—The Lord’s Prayer was apparently recited in church services from a very early date in church history (just as it is still recited in many church services today). In the earliest days of the church, Christians all shared a Jewish background, and at that point in history it was common for Jewish people to end their prayers with a statement like, “for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever amen,” in the same way that we end most of our prayers with a statement like, “in Jesus’ name I pray, amen.” So its likely that The Lord’s Prayer was recited in church services with those additional words from an early date, and over time some copyists added them into their copies of the Gospel of Matthew.

            This discussion has more sentimental value than anything else, because it doesn’t affect anything that we believe as Christians and shouldn’t shake our confidence in the text of Scripture at all. But many of us have recited The Lord’s Prayer with those words since we were kids, so there is a sentimental connection there. Honestly, I don’t think there’s any problem with reciting those words when we recite The Lord’s Prayer; we can simply understand that we’re doing it as part of a long-standing Christian tradition rather than something that comes specifically from the text.

But let’s move along to our final two lessons from this model prayer.

8. A manner that is circumspect

            This statement simply means that we should pray with an eye toward our surroundings—not our physical surroundings, but our relationships with other people. This is why I said that prayer is more like a party line than a private line.

            Last week, we learned that is appropriate for us to ask for forgiveness when we pray, but there is a specific way in which we must show that we understand our need to be forgiven. In v. 12, the Lord teaches us to say, “and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” That’s very interesting—Jesus ties our request to be forgiven together with our obedience to God in forgiving others. The idea is that by forgiving others, we have shown our understanding of our own need to be forgiven.

            Since the Bible commands us to forgive others, we are sinning if we fail to do so, and that means that if we ask God to forgive us, yet we fail to forgive others, we are sinning at the same time that we’re asking for forgiveness! That doesn’t make any sense. That would be like asking someone to forgive you for being a bully while you’re punching them in the gut!

            When we fail to forgive other people, that reveals that we haven’t fully come to terms with the depths of our own sins, and that is a requirement for being forgiven by God. The biblical term “confess” literally means “to say the same thing as another,” so when the Bible speaks of confessing our sins—as in 1 John 1:9—it means that we must say the same thing about our sins that God says about them—that they are vile and despicable and a great insult to Him.

            But if we fail to forgive others, that is a sure sign that we are downplaying the severity of our own sins. Jesus tells a great parable to illustrate this idea in Matthew 18 [READ Matt 18:21-35]. That’s what its like when we fail to forgive others—it reveals that we have minimized the severity of our own sins.

            That’s why Jesus elaborates on this thought in Matthew 6:14-15—“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” When we forgive others, we are displaying a truly repentant heart, which is what God requires of us for our sins to be forgiven.

            Now let us not read vv. 14-15 as a requirement to either gain or keep our salvation. Notice that Jesus calls God “your heavenly Father”—He is speaking to those people in His audience who were already believers, those who could already call God their Father. We’re talking about the “family” forgiveness that we discussed last week—the kind that wipes away not any sort of legal charges, but the barriers that may hinder the fullness of joy and intimacy and inheritance from a father to his children.

            So we must understand that the way we treat others can cause “static on the line” when we pray to God; it may cause our “call” to be dropped, like when you drive through a dead spot in your cell phone network. Psalm 66:16-19 sums up the same idea: “Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul. I cried to him with my mouth, and high praise was on my tongue. If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. But truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer.”

9. A manner that is trusting

            We draw this lesson from the final two phrases of the prayer: “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Our English word “temptation” really does not do justice to the Greek word that it is attempting to translate. When we talk about “temptation,” we think of some enticement that is designed to make us sin, and its very confusing to think that we would need to ask God not to put us in a situation that is designed to make us sin. As a matter of fact, James 1:13 tells us that God cannot even do such a thing: “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.”

            What we have to understand about this Greek word in Matthew 6:13 is that it can refer to all kinds of difficult situations. It can refer to temptation if the one doing the tempting is Satan or simply our own sinful desires, but it can also refer to times of persecution or even the hardship that comes from dealing with a physical illness. So we might do well to translate this term in a more general way—something like “lead us not into difficult times.”

            In my opinion, even the words “lead us” kind of obscure a beautiful word picture that comes through in Greek. This Greek verb translated “lead us” is the same verb used to describe the actions of the men who carried their paralyzed friend to Jesus and lowered him down through the roof. Here in this phrase, it creates the picture of God literally carrying us through life, and our request then is that He would not carry us into difficult times.

            When I think of this request, then, I think back to times when my family used to go for walks when I was very young. I had a hard time keeping up, of course, so when I got tired and we still had a long ways to go to get home, I would say, “Dad, its shoulder time for Timmy,” and he would put me on his shoulders and carry me the rest of the way home. I think with this request to God we’re basically saying, “Lord, could we just always make it shoulder time? I’m so weak, Lord, and I know that my strength might give out, so would you carry me out of these hard times?”

            But as every parent knows, our children must learn to walk on their own and to keep going even when they’re tired. God knows and has even told us about all the good that can come out of hard times, so sometimes He does carry us into difficult moments—even moments when we face attacks and temptations from Satan, who of course is “the evil one” mentioned in v. 13. We need only to think about Job, or the Lord Jesus Himself, who was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, or the Apostle Paul, who said in 2 Corinthians 12:7 that he was given “a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.”

            The book of James tells us that we should actually rejoice when we face hard times because of the good that such moments can produce within us: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials [the same Greek word as “temptations” in Matthew 6:13] of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

            But this encouragement from James sets up an odd situation—if James tells us to rejoice when we face hard times because they can do us good, why does Jesus teach us to ask God not to carry us into those times? I think the Lord is teaching us two lessons. First, that it is okay for us to bring our requests to God. Even though we know that hard times can be good for us, it is okay for us to ask God to do things a different way. Jesus prayed this very way in the Garden of Gethsemane when He said, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” He made His request for God to do things a certain way, but of course He ended that prayer with the words, “nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

            Second, I think Jesus is teaching us that its healthy for us to pray in this way. Whenever we pray for God to do something about our circumstances, we are acknowledging our belief—our conviction—that God really can do something about our circumstances. In the same way that it is healthy to tell your spouse “I love you” over and over throughout your marriage, it is healthy for us to continue to acknowledge the truths we believe about God. When we pray about a certain need, we are again affirming our belief in God as provider. When we ask God again and again to forgive us for the sins we commit, we are reaffirming our belief in God as Savior and Redeemer. And when we ask Him not to carry us into difficult times, we acknowledge again that He is in control—our lives are in His hands, and we pray to Him because we know that He can intervene in our lives and because we know that He loves us enough to consider our requests.

            And though Jesus may not have spoken these words on that day, it is not a bad way to express our praise to God by saying, “thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”