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Praying Like Jesus: Prayer is simply talking with God. But more than that, prayer is an opportunity to spend precious time in communion with and awareness of God’s presence. Jesus was constantly praying and taught his disciples how to pray. Want to learn how to pray like Jesus? Listen here. Recorded on August 28, 2022, on Matthew 6:5-15, by Pastor David Parks. This message is part of our sermon series “The Unexpected Way,” from the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5-7 in the Bible. The way of Jesus is totally unique; it’s different from every other way of life, philosophy, or religion. Why? Because the teaching of Jesus — emphasizing holiness, humility, justice, faith, and sacrificial love — leads to a whole new gospel-centered ethic. This ancient ethic, if actually practiced, has the power to bring abundant love and joy and peace to anyone, anywhere today. This is the way. Sermon Transcript All year, we’re focusing on Learning the way of Jesus, which means that all year, we’ll basically be answering the question, “If the gospel is true, how then should we live?” For the past two months, we’ve been working through a very famous teaching of Jesus known as the Sermon on the Mount in a sermon series called, The Unexpected Way. And we’ve said that the teaching of Jesus leads to a whole new gospel-centered ethic. But it’s a different way from the other philosophies or religions of the world; it’s counterintuitive, it’s the unexpected way. Last week, we started a new section of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus turns his attention to religious works and the potential trap of these things. He teaches that there’s a way to be religious without it having anything to do with God, and he gives three examples in giving to the poor, prayer, and fasting. Last week we started this section by considering how serving the poor can really turn into serving ourselves if we’re not careful. Today, our focus is on Jesus’ example of prayer. If you have a Bible/app, please open to Matthew 6:5. Instead of reading the whole passage first, we’ll read and unpack this in two parts. So part one: Matthew 6:5-8 (NIV), “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” Let’s pause here. Now, I’m not going to spend as much time on this section because this is very similar to our passage from last week. Last week, I said that Mt 6:1 was really the thesis statement for this section of teaching. There, Jesus said, “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them.” This is a warning for us not to try and do good works, religious works even, in order to be seen by others. Giving to the needy was the first example of this kind of twisted religious behavior, and now here he moves on to prayer. But again, just like last week, I don’t believe Jesus is saying we should never pray publicly. And I don’t believe Jesus is saying we should never spend long hours, at times, in prayer, which would presumably use many words. First, we must remember the example of Jesus. On a number of occasions, Jesus prayed both publicly and often at great length. And second, remember the context. If verse 1 is the thesis, then this teaching is just another example of doing a religious work, that is, prayer, for self-serving, self-glorifying reasons: praying to be seen by others. Jesus is saying it’s far better to pray a secret prayer with few words than to pray publicly or impressively when God isn’t even involved. Ok,