Sermon: "Bad Prayers"

Second in the "What Happens When We Pray" series.
Delivered July 24, 2005 by Rev. John Schmidt.
Other sermons in this series - 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

Theme: There is such a thing as bad prayers. Not only are there those that are bad in the sense of being evil (curses), but prayers that are bad in the sense that they are not real prayers, not effective prayers. What does Jesus have to say about "bad" prayers?

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Sermon Notes are at the end.

We just heard some prayers. Which of them are good prayers? Effective prayers? Were there any bad prayers among them? It is sometimes hard to tell. It's not always hard to tell about a bad prayer. I've got one in mind right now. It's written by Shel Silverstein and it goes like this.

Now I lay me down to sleep.
I pray my Lord my soul to keep,
and if I die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my toys to break.
So none of the other kids can use them. Amen.

We know there is something wrong with that prayer, but what about the prayers that we pray ourselves? Are there times that we leave the path of praying something that's effective, something that's good and actually start praying something that ends up being empty, empty of meaning? Because there are such things as bad prayers. That's what Jesus is going to be dealing with in the passage that we are going to read in a moment. Jesus talks about bad prayers. Now, it's not necessarily bad in the sense of evil, like cursing people, although there are bad prayers like that, but that's not what I am going to be talking about today and that's not really what Jesus talks about here. There are bad prayers in the sense of being ineffective prayers. You know just putting God before a request doesn't all the sudden turn something in to an effective, good and healthy prayer.

I think one of the reasons why so many of us struggle with prayer is that we have prayed so many ineffective prayers and we had to listen to so many bad prayers in groups. And I think sometimes that is only the barrier between us and building our intimacy with God with real effective prayer. And I am also not talking about effective prayer, good prayers being prayers that always get exactly what you want, because that's not the case either. There is something more to it than that, because Jesus prayed prayers that he didn't exactly get what his request was. When Jesus said, "Please take this cup from me, nevertheless not my will, but yours be done", when Jesus prayed that prayer, the cup was not taken away from him. So we are not talking about getting what we want as being a sign of an effective prayer, but nevertheless they are good prayers, effective prayers, Godly prayers, and there are things that I am choosing to call bad prayers. Let's hear what Jesus says about prayer and some of the things that he says about bad prayers. We get this from the Book of Matthew, beginning in Chapter 6. We are going to read Verses 5 to 15. Matthew, Chapter 6:

"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 men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 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's done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. This, then, is how you should pray:

"'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not in to temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins."

Let's pray. God, we thank you for this teaching from the lips of Jesus and we pray now that we might hear what he has to say to us today, for we ask it in his name. Amen.

Jesus points out two models of prayer that are ineffective, that don't please God, and I am going to use them as categories of prayer so that we can explore it more, in a little more detail.

The first thing that Jesus points out in Verse 5 is the prayer of what he calls the hypocrites, the people who are praying, who love to stand in places and be seen praying. So, the first category is prayers that are meant for people, not for God. That's the first kind of bad prayer. It was easy to see if someone was praying in a society like that because men who were praying would put on a special shawl over their head to pray, and they would get in a special position and posture for prayer. You can see this now when you see pictures of people at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. So, it is very obvious when someone was praying, and some people decided that it was important to get into this posture of prayer out in places where people could see them, because they wanted people to know how pious they were. And Jesus said that if that is your motive in praying, you've got your reward. Your reward is that other people are going to think you are pious, but forget about any answers from God. This idea of prayer being for people instead of for God.

Another kind that comes up like that is the polished prayer. Now, there is nothing wrong with writing prayers, there is nothing wrong with correcting your grammar trying to be clear, trying to be comprehensive, trying to honor God. There is nothing wrong with all of that. There is nothing wrong with eloquence, but there is something wrong if you are working on all of that because you are afraid of what other people will think about you when you pray, because the issue is, is God, when we pray. And so sometimes all of this anxiety that we have about praying in front of people and doing this, it's because we have way too much focus on people and not enough focus on God. So sometimes those very polished prayers can be prayers made for people.

The other kind is preaching prayers or maybe announcement prayers. You know you forgot to say something so you pray about "Oh God, at 12:45 there is going to be a special meeting of the student ministry and please get all the people there that are supposed to be there." That's a prayer meant for people. How is God supposed to answer a prayer like that? Sometimes it's a preaching prayer. You know, something happens in your small group, somebody is a little bit rude and so instead of confronting it on the side later saying you know, don't yell when you have a disagreement. There are other ways to work it out. Instead of doing that, at the end of the meeting you pray about it, "Oh God, we recognize how bad it is to yell at each other in small group. Even when we have good reasons, Lord you know it's not..." You know you're preaching to somebody and it's amazing how often, particularly for pastor's how often that temptation comes to preach in your prayer. That's not appropriate. Prayer's are for God. Prayers that are made for people are bad prayers.

Now, there is another category though, Jesus goes on, he doesn't just talk about the hypocrites who are praying for people, but he also talks then about the pagans who babble. This kind of prayer is bad. These are prayers that have heart disease. There is something wrong with the heart, the relationship, the intent of the prayer and so the example that Jesus points out is the babbling of the pagan's. And so what he is pointing to is that there is certain groups, in certain religions, that believe that if you repeat a prayer often enough that somehow this is going to be effective in getting these things to happen, getting our will to happen in the world. And so, for example in some religions there are prayer wheels and there are people who spin the wheel day in and day out, year in and year out, in order to reduplicate the prayer over and over and over again. This is a jackhammer sort of idea prayer, where you chip at it a little bit over and over, and if you do it long enough somehow it's going to be effective. It's amazing what extent this can go to.

I've got an article here from "Hinduism Today", February 1995. "Robo-priest has arrived."

"The robed and bearded Buddhist monk who serves 24 hours a day in Yokohama Central Cemetery in Japan raises one hand in prayer while beating rhythm with the other and always says the right prayers at the right time. The computer driven robot was created two years ago by a man who saw a need for priests, and filled it, noting that fewer young people are becoming Buddhist priests these days. Price tag $400,000. Here's one priest that won't complain about long hours or beggars gruel."

Now there might be a good intent behind an effort like this, but it shows a mindset that's radically different than Jesus', because there is this thought that if you do the right thing at the right time and do it over and over again without ceasing, that somehow this is going to be effective with God. Now, it's not just people in other religions that struggle with that. We sometimes begin to babble in our prayer when we believe, when we forget about the whole issue of the relationship and the will of God and our own submission and all of these other things. And we are feeling that if we just keep on bringing it up with God, it's going to happen. Now believe me, perseverance is good. Jesus tells us to persevere, but perseverance is based upon an understanding of the character of God, that God is a good God, that God does hear, that God is concerned about us, that we have the right to come before God and Jesus Christ and on the basis of all of that if things aren't happening and things are still on our heart, we can continue to pray, that is good. Perseverance is good, but when it becomes a technique, when we feel like if we could just get enough people to pray about it, even if they don't care about it, then we start to move in this direction of believing in the technique and the repetition and not in the reality behind it. So that's one kind of heart disease in prayer.

Another kind is the prideful prayer. Jesus talks about a prideful prayer in Luke 18. It begins like this:

To some who were confident in their own righteousness and look down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: "Two men went up the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, robbers, evildoers, adulterers - or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God have mercy on me, a sinner.' "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

Prayer that is overly confident and our own achievements and our own abilities and our own righteousness, this leads to ineffective prayer, because it's prideful. Prayer that looks down on the sins of other people and doesn't focus enough on our own sin, that's prideful prayer and I see it all kinds of times, but one of the times that I see it is in Christian political groups, as they pray about issues, they are always praying about the sins of the other political party. And I think there is plenty sin going all around folks and there is plenty of opportunities to pray about our own sin, for whatever group we are a part of. Churches that pray about the sins of just what other people do, political parties that pray just about the sins of the other group. All of this is in the danger of being a prideful prayer. Looking down our nose at the errors of other people.

Another kind of heart problem in prayer. Selfish prayers. The ATM god, sort of idea where you just kind of put in a request and get out what you need for the day. Now there is nothing wrong with asking for what you need, but is that all we do when we pray. Prayer is supposed to be more than that. Is our whole world of prayer just the concerns we carry for the day, just the things that are important to us or do we ever lift our eyes to something that is bigger than that? Selfish prayers will end up being ineffective prayers.

Another category. Dishonest prayers. When you pray about something you have absolutely no intention of doing. You know, I had a friend in college, Blane, who every time it came close to finals, he would start praying for the second coming of the Lord, okay? And when he got concerned that that might not happen in time, he would pray that he would never the less get good grades, and he had no intentions of studying. It's a dishonest prayer. How about when we pray about a struggle with pornography and yet are not willing to tell a single person or change a single setting on our computer or do anything at all to actually deal with the problem, and yet we pray about it. Well, that's a dishonest prayer. It's no wonder that prayers like that are not answered. Heart problem in prayer, dishonesty.

How about prayers without forgiveness? This is one that Jesus brings up actually. It's that important that when Jesus is teaching us about prayer, he immediately goes to this issue of forgiveness. It's that important. When we pray to ask God for our own forgiveness is an important thing, but at the same time, we have to be willing to forgive others, because God wants us to be in his image and to be transformed and to be a channel of the same blessing and forgiveness we received and we are supposed to pass that on to others. And if we are not willing to forgive, it hinders our prayer.

What about prayers without faith? That's another kind. Without faith it's impossible to please God. It is what is said in scripture. Yet how often do we pray about things that we really don't believe, we really don't trust God about an issue? I think about how many times I have prayed for healing at times when I didn't believe that God would do anything. How often do we do things like that? You know if we are praying about something we really don't have the faith to believe, maybe we should pray about the other things around it. If we are praying for somebody and we just don't have the faith at the moment to pray for their healing, maybe we should be praying for the skill of the doctors and pray for the people that care for them and for perseverance in their life and then to work on our faith and work on our understanding of what God is going to do in a situation so when we do finally pray for their healing, we can pray it with faith, pray it with a confidence that God is leading us to pray this prayer. Prayer should be honest and part of that honesty is to pray with faith, because part of what happens in prayer is we begin with what we believe God could do and we move in prayer to a conviction that this is what God will do. So we've got to struggle with this issue of trust, this issue of faith.

Jesus then gives us a model of a good prayer, The Lord's Prayer, and we can't go into that in any detail this morning, but there are three major things about this prayer that I would like to point out as we think about it. The first, is that it begins with your concerns, God's concern, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth. It begins with a focus on the fact that God has an agenda in this world, that God is king, that God rightfully has a concern for what happens in this world and prayer then focuses in on what God wants to do.

Then it goes to our concerns. We have the right to bring our concerns before God. So give us what we need, our daily bread. Forgive our debts and then keep us from temptation. These are legitimate things for us to pray about. It's okay to pray about our needs. We have the right to. Jesus gives us a model of how to do that, but it comes recognizing that that's not the only thing that we pray about. We are supposed to be praying too about what God wants in the world. Your concerns, our concerns are both important and when we are talking about the concerns of God, we are talking about things that he has revealed, the fact that God is not content that there are people oppressed in the world, people being used by other people, that there are poor people who have drastic needs on map like the ones we saw on this video. This is on God's heart. This is clearly on God's heart. It is shown to us in the word of God. We need to be praying about these things even as we also pray about the things that impact our own lives. So God's concerns, our concerns and the third thing is forgiveness, that's in this prayer.

Jesus in teaching about prayer points to this issue of forgiveness and so we've got to recognize that this heart problem that we have can affect our prayers, it comes right up in the Lord's prayer.

Now, the Lord's Prayer isn't a formula. It's not something that we do and if we do it exactly this way, and exactly these words that it's going to have an impact on the world. It's a model of prayer. It shows what's important about prayer and there are other models or prayer that reflect the same priorities and one of the ones that has been used in the life of this church is the ACTS prayer. That stands for adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication. This also is a model of prayer that is based upon biblical prayers and it kind of covers all the basis of what a good prayer is all about.

The first part is adoration. We begin by telling God just how wonderful God is. How great he is and we use scripture to do that. It says here, one of the passages, if you need a scripture to give you some content for something like that, First Chronicles 16, verses 8 to 36 deal with this. It's a great passage on the greatness of God and thanksgiving towards God. We begin with adoration because God is worthy of that, but we also begin because it raises our eyes off our own need, off of our own troubles, off our own abilities and reminds us again that God is big enough for what we face. Adoration.

Confession. The second part of good prayer is prayer that recognizes that we are part of the problem. We are not just part of the solution. And that there are things that as God works in this world, working his will out in this world its not just that he uses us, but he has to work on us for us to be useful. And so we recognize our own failings and shortcomings, things in us that need to change.

The third part, thanksgiving. Thanksgiving reminds us that God has already been good to us that we are not praying in a vacuum. God has already been good. God has already been working around us and in us and we thank God for that and we build that sense of blessedness, that God has already been good to us, how will he not continue to be good as we bring our new concerns before him and that's when we come to the issue of supplication, where we bring our needs and the needs of the world to God. At that point, our eyes have been raised. We are ready to pray with some faith now, because we recognize that God is great. We recognize that we are trying to get in line with God and be useful to God, and we also recognize that God has already been good to us and with that sort of confidence we bring our concerns before God. ACTS prayer.

So here's the challenge. Some of you are praying a lot more than that, solidly praying in all kinds of ways. For those of you who are struggling with this, I want to challenge you to pray 10 minutes a day starting now, and I want you to use the ACTS model of prayer. It's one we have found across 50 years of this church to be a good model of prayer. Just spend 10 minutes a day, but making sure that some of that time is in worship and recognizing the greatness of God, some of that time is recognizing your own struggle and problems and what God needs to change and some of that time thanking God for the incredible things that he has already done to you and for the people around you and then bringing your concerns as well before God. It's an experiment. Try it and see if God doesn't use this to change your life and through you to change the lives of other people.

Let's pray. God we struggle with prayer. Lord, none of us always pray with full hearts, deep faith, Lord we all struggle, all of us have prayed ineffective prayers, prayers that are only prayers in name, not in reality and so wherever we are, whatever our struggle is with prayer right now, help us to take steps forward and we pray particularly that we will give at least this basic amount of time to seeking you. And for those Lord who are taking bigger steps, we pray for them as well, that we might learn from Jesus to pray effective prayer, to pray prayer that will please you and bring honor to you. For we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Sermon Outline Notes:

• Bad kinds of prayer--
• Prayers meant for people, not for God:
• Polished
• Preaching
• Prayers with "heart" disease:
• Babbling
• Prideful
• Selfish
• Dishonest
• Without Forgiveness
• Without Faith
• Good models for prayer
• The Lord's Prayer:
• Your
• Our
• Forgiveness
• ACTS prayer:
• Adoration
• Confession
• Thanksgiving
• Supplication

© 2005, Rev. John Schmidt
Central Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD 21204 410/823-6145
www.centralpc.org