"Holy Living"

Scripture: Matthew 6:5-18

This week, we continue to study Jesus’ words from his Sermon on the Mount. By now, you may have tumbled to the fact that everything that Jesus has ever taught is about how to live a Godly life. Whether it is about the Lord’s response toward our attitude in life, or how we use the resources that that he has placed at our disposal, or how we act and relate toward others, Jesus wants us to understand just what a Godly life not only requires on our part, but also what it can bring to our life.
Today, we delve into 3 more aspects of Godly living – prayer, forgiveness, and fasting. And as I’m sure you know, each one is about far more than simply engaging in each of these acts – it is about why we do them, how we do them, and where God and we intersect within them. In essence, it is about the purpose and depth of our search for holiness.

From Jerry Bridges, an evangelical Christian author:
Many Christians have what we might call a "cultural holiness." They adapt to the character and behavior pattern of Christians around them. As the Christian culture around them is more or less holy, so these Christians are more or less holy. But God has not called us to be like those around us. He has called us to be like himself. Holiness is nothing less than conformity to the character of God.
-Jerry Bridges.

The “holy life” is about setting the behavior and standards and attitudes of the world behind us, and beginning to set our focus on serving God in the way of God.

Read Matthew 6:5-8

Jesus is saying that prayer, for prayer’s sake, is not enough. He wants us to consider whether our prayers are a conversation with God, or simply our talking at God. Prayer, if it is to be effective and authentic, must be two way.
Through the years, there have been times when I have been asked the question “Are you listening to me?” When I was growing up, it was usually my mother who asked the question, and since I didn’t take her inquiry to heart, it would have to be asked again in later years - by my wife. And I suspect that the Lord has uttered those same words to me time and time again, because I haven’t always listened to him, either!

In this passage, Jesus isn’t demeaning prayer per se, but is calling us to consider our prayer as a type of worship, with both of us listening to each other. In worship, our lives are turned from our normal inward focus – from being self-centered – to an outward focus, or becoming God-centered. The same must be true of prayer.
Jesus’ comments toward hypocritical prayer, just as with last week’s look at hypocritical giving to the poor, is not against public prayer, but rather about our attitude in prayer. There are a number of acronyms that can help us consider our approach to prayer – the one I like to use is the word A-C-T-S. The letters stand for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. If you think about these 4 descriptives, the first three are directed solely toward the Lord and his goodness, and it isn’t until we get to the fourth that we begin to offer our personal requests and needs. It puts the primary emphasis on God, and places our self in a secondary position.

Jesus also offers the thought that our prayers should be keep secret. I believe that this isn’t so much a condemnation of public and corporate prayer (which I believe is vital for the life of the Church), but more about the “why” of our prayer. If we are tempted to seek glory for ourselves when we talk at God, then let’s remove that temptation, and keep the conversation purely between us and the Lord, and offer our prayers in complete isolation.
But aren’t we supposed to encourage and support others by praying with and for each other? Aren’t we to join with others in prayer every time we gather as the Church, wherever and whenever that may be? Aren’t we to celebrate the Lord’s presence and glory, not only when we are alone, but whenever two or more gather together? Of course we are, but we are also called to put the Lord first in our prayer, and through that, to bring honor and glory to his name.

His last thought on this matter is that prayer should be offered in a way that is natural for us. Lengthy and verbose prayers will only serve to show how great our grasp of the language is, and can, at times, be misconstrued as bragging about all that we have done, and not necessarily that most of them have been failures! Martin Luther was known for his excessive confession of practically every miniscule sin he had ever committed – with his confessional going on for hours at a time. Our prayers should be complete and loving, not long-winded!

I would like to suggest that before every prayer that each of us offers, whether it is at church, or at home, or at some public gathering, we consciously consider the fact that our conversation with God is, in all actuality, a form of worship, and then and only then, to begin to pray accordingly.

Read Matthew 6:9-15

On the surface, these verses also seem to be about the depth and focus of prayer, which they certainly are. But let’s use our acronym ACTS for just a moment. The first two verses of the prayer are intended solely to offer praise and glory to God. The next verse – “Give us today our daily bread.”, is the beginning of 3 verses of petition, with the last 2 focusing on forgiveness and prevention of our sinful choices.
The first petition, the one for “our daily bread”, raises the image of the heavenly sustenance (manna) that Israel received during their 40 years of wilderness life. It came each and every morning, it never lasted beyond that day except on the Sabbath, and it never failed to provide the daily nutritional needs of the people. The point of this is that we are to seek the Lord’s presence and guidance each and every day, and to never assume that the opportunities and blessings that it brings will last beyond today.
This then connects to the thoughts on forgiveness. Forgiveness for our wayward lives is something that we also need each and every day, and we can never trust that God will make everything right at the Judgment, whether we ask for it or not!

Our request for forgiveness must be honest and focused, and when we realize that we have sinned, we don’t wait quietly for a couple of days, hoping that the Lord will have forgotten what we did! That’s not going to happen! We go to him immediately, seeking his grace and mercy for our lives.

We are also told to pray that even the temptation to sin might be taken from us, because avoiding sin is far better than having to seek forgiveness for doing it. This part of the prayer also seems to imply that God might lead us to be tempted, just as Jesus was after his baptism. I believe that it isn’t that God will be the temptation for us to sin, but that his leading will, in some instances, cause us to be in a place or situation that can be sinfully tempting in a worldly sense. Jesus is calling us to pray that temptation, regardless of where we may go in his name, will never even cause us to be tempted to sin, and in doing that, that we will be delivered from the clutches of Satan.

This prayer definitely has overtones of the Final Judgment, but whether it is for the end times, or each and every day of our lives, the importance of seeking forgiveness, as well as our being delivered from the temptation to sin, is just as essential for our lives.

And even though it isn’t included as an integral part of the prayer, Jesus offers an additional thought on our forgiveness of others. Interesting, isn’t it? He doesn’t say that if we forgive others, that God will also forgive them. He says that however we forgive others, that is how God will forgive us.
In Matthew 18:23-35, Jesus tells the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant, in which a servant is released from a very large debt to his Master, but is unwilling to forgive a much smaller amount that another servant owes him. As a result, the Master’s forgiveness is rescinded, and the first servant is required to pay his original penalty in full. And the Lord says this is how we will also be treated if we do not forgive others.
It seems, then, that our forgiveness is dependent on how we treat the sins of others! It sounds strangely similar to Jesus’ call to love our enemies! (Matthew 5:43-45)

Read Matthew 6:16-18

Fasting is intended to be a spiritual cleansing of our soul, just as medical fasting does the same thing for our bodies. Fasting can be seen as a form of preparatory worship and prayer, but in this instance, it truly should be done privately. Of course, that doesn’t mean that we do it in solitary confinement! Isaiah 58, which I will leave to your personal study, addresses the issue of holy fasting verses fasting that only glorifies ourselves. He even gives instructions that reflect Matthew 25:35-40 – that even in our time of fasting, we are to care for the needs of others, without letting them know, however, that we are abstaining from satisfying our own personal needs.
That is what will bring honor and glory to Almighty God.

And it is our Godly, holy, righteous faith that will always bring glory to the Lord, and it is by our holy living - living in the way that Jesus lived - that will strengthen our faith, and grow our trust in Christ.
May your life become one great and glorious means of worship.