Pray Like Jesus

“When you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private.” – Matthew 6:6 

When you were a child, you may have been taught a short prayer.  It might have been this one: “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. And if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” That’s a pretty scary prayer, for kids, don’t you think? It made kids want to sleep with one eye open: “Oh, no! If I fall asleep I’m gonna die!” Here’s another familiar one: “God is great. God is good. Let us thank Him for our food. Amen.” But that 10-second prayer was evidently too long for some kids, so they shortened it to: “Rub a dub dub, thanks for the grub. Yay, God!”

For a 3-year-old, memorizing a simple prayer is a good way to learn to pray. But if you’re 15, 25 or 65 years old, and you’re still praying canned prayers that sound like a broken record, then you haven’t really started to pray. This is nothing new; it was going on in Jesus’ time as well. That’s why, in His great Sermon on the Mount, He set out to teach us the RIGHT way and the WRONG way to pray.

In Matthew 6:5, Jesus begins telling us the wrong way to 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.” In those days, when Jewish men prayed in the synagogue, they would often pray standing with their arms lifted in the air. That was a common prayer position in a worship service and in private prayer as well. But on a public street corner, it stood out like a sore thumb. It was a position that screamed out, “Look at me! If you want to hear a prayer that will knock your socks off, listen to me pray!” And Jesus says plainly, “I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.”

In other words, the “attaboys” that flashy pray-ers get from other people are all the reward they’ll ever get. They won’t receive any reward from God. The wrong way to pray is to pray in a way that makes YOU the center of attention.

In verse 6, Jesus explains the RIGHT way to pray. As the New Living Translation puts it: “But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.” Simply put, the right way to pray is to pray discreetly and privately—motivated by a heartfelt desire to spend quality time with your Father in heaven. In other words … pray like Jesus. 

In Matthew 7, Jesus continues: “When you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.” In those days, pagan worshipers would string together long, unintelligible phrases and repeat them over and over as a mantra. Jesus says, “Many hypocrites’ prayers are like that! Their prayers are full of words, and some of those words sound really impressive. But their prayers are meaningless. They claim to be talking to God, but they’re actually just putting on a dog and pony show for people. They’re just … babbling.”

Now, you and I can babble almost as badly as the pagans. Before lunch on Sunday: “Dear God, bless this food that we are about to receive to the nourishment of our bodies. In Jesus’ name, Amen.” And the same thing before lunch on Monday. Then, before bed on Sunday: “Dear God, thank You for this day. Help us to get a good night’s sleep and wake up refreshed in the morning. Forgive us for our sins. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”  And the same thing before bed on Monday. It becomes meaningless babbling!

Why on earth do we pray the same tired old prayers? We could never get away with saying the same tired old lines to people we're in a deep relationship with. If you spoke to your spouse every day with the same tired old language that you speak to God every day, would they think your words had any meaning whatsoever? Parents, if you spoke to your kids every day with the same tired old language that you speak to God, do you think your kids would feel loved?  

At times in our lives, we’ve all heard Christians stand up in church and pray beautiful, eloquent prayers. And we’ve thought to ourselves, “Wow! I wish I could pray like that!” But Jesus turns to us and says, “No! I don’t want you to pray like that. You are a unique child of mine, and our relationship is special. So, your prayers to Your Father in Heaven should be special. They shouldn’t sound like anyone else’s. Don’t worry about using the right words. Just talk with God like you’re talking to your Daddy who loves you more than anything in the world.”

Your Father knows what you need, and He is waiting for you to bring that need to Him. He wants to listen to your needs and meet them. He wants to hear you praise Him for who He is to you, and He wants you to thank Him for the unique blessings that He’s sent your way. And He wants to share His heart and thoughts with you as well.

You need to spend quality time with God—every day—just the two of you. He is waiting for you to come to Him. He is waiting for you to pray like Jesus.

Dane Davis is the Pastor of Impact Christian Church. Please join us for our in-person worship service tomorrow at 9 a.m. at 17746 George Blvd. in Victorville. Or, join us online at 10 a.m. on the Impact Christian Church YouTube channel or Facebook page. For more information, visit www.GreaterImpact.cc.

Give Like God

“When you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your charitable giving will be in secret.” — Matthew 6:3-4

There’s a story about an Eastern holy man who used to sit at a prominent street corner in his city. Every day he would cover himself with sackcloth and sit there on a pile of ashes to show his humility. Often, tourists would stop at the corner and ask to take a picture with him. He always agreed—but before the picture was taken, he would quickly rearrange the ashes to make himself look more humble.

That makes me stop and think. I’ve been a follower of Christ for over 40 years, and during that time I’ve done my best to do good deeds. But I wonder: How many of those good deeds did I do while I was rearranging the ashes to make myself look good for the picture?

I believe Jesus wants you to ask yourself the same question. In Matthew 6:1, as He continues His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warns, “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.” Jesus speaks this truth as He’s getting ready to teach about giving to the poor, prayer and fasting. He counts all of these as acts of righteousness; in other words, they are good and necessary expressions of our Christian faith. God expects us to give to the poor, to pray and to fast. And He promises to reward us for these acts of righteousness—if we do them in the right way. 

In verse 1, Jesus points out that we shouldn’t give in order “to be seen” by people. And in verse 2, He points out that we shouldn’t give in order to be “honored” by people: “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.”

When we give to people in need, we shouldn’t announce it with trumpets: “Hey, everyone! Look at me! Who’s God’s gift to the poor? I am!” You might think Jesus is exaggerating when he talks about someone blowing trumpets, but sadly, He’s not. The Pharisees often blew trumpets on the street corners when they were about to help out poor people. If you asked why, they would have said they did it to spread the word around town that the giveaway was about to begin. But Jesus knew the REAL reason that the Pharisees blew the trumpets. It was to draw attention to themselves.

In verse 2, Jesus calls such givers “hypocrites.” In ancient Greece, a hypocrite was an actor who wore a mask in a play. In other words, he was pretending to be someone else. Now, we all sin and fall short of the glory of God—but hypocrites use religion to disguise their own sins. They pretend to be good and righteous on the outside, but they are dishonest and corrupt on the inside. And Jesus tells us in no uncertain terms that the hypocrites’ way of giving is the wrong way to give.

God holds no reward for followers who shine the spotlight on themselves when they give. The praise they get from the people around them is all the reward they’ll ever get. I like the way the The Message paraphrases these verses: “Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don’t make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won’t be applauding. When you do something for someone else, don’t call attention to yourself. You’ve seen them in action, I’m sure—‘playactors’ I call them—treating prayer meeting and street corner alike as a stage, acting compassionate as long as someone is watching, playing to the crowds. They get applause, true, but that’s all they get.”

So, the WRONG way to give is to give like a hypocrite—only giving when people are watching you. In verses 3 and 4, Jesus teaches us the RIGHT way to give: “But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your charitable giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”

The left hand/right hand illustration has a story behind it. In Jesus’ day, there was an offering box at the temple where people could deposit alms for the poor. That box was in the doorway to the temple—on the right side. So, Jesus seems to be saying, “When you walk into the temple and place your gift for the poor into the offering box, be so discreet about it that even your left hand doesn’t see what you’re doing.” The right way to give is discreetly and privately, motivated by a heartfelt desire to bless someone in need. As Matthew Henry puts it, “When we take least notice of our good deeds ourselves, God takes most notice of them.”

So, is Jesus teaching us that we should never give or serve when people are watching? No. But when you have the option to do a good deed either publicly or privately, do it privately. Most importantly, when it comes to your motive for giving, make sure it’s to truly help people in need—not to help yourself. God loves to give good gifts to us, not primarily for what HE gets out of it, but because of what WE get out of it. He is a loving Father who loves to give good gifts, especially to His children who follow Christ. So when you can, give privately, and give out of a sincere love for people. In other words, give like God.

Dane Davis is the Pastor of Impact Christian Church. Please join us for our Palm Sunday service Sunday, March 28th, and our Easter service next Sunday, April 4th, 9 a.m. at 17746 George Blvd. in Victorville. Or, join us online at 10 a.m. on the Impact Christian Church YouTube channel or Facebook page. For more information, visit www.GreaterImpact.cc.

Four Commands for Dangerous Times

“Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” – Luke 12:1

When it was launched in 1936, the Queen Mary was the largest ship to cross the oceans. Through four decades and a World War she served until she was retired as a floating hotel and museum in Long Beach. During the conversion into a hotel, her three massive smokestacks were taken off to be scraped down and repainted. But on the dock, they crumbled. Nothing was left of the 3/4-inch steel plates from which the stacks had been formed. All that remained was more than thirty coats of paint that had been applied over the years. The steel underneath had rusted away.

At the end of Luke 11, Jesus rebuked some Pharisees and scribes who were a lot like those smokestacks. They were all painted up and looked really good on the outside, but on the inside they were wasting away. They were, in a word, hypocrites. Out of deep concern for what would face them on judgment day—and deep concern for the souls of the people they were corrupting—Jesus took a stand and called them out. And on the heels of calling out this hypocrisy, Luke records for us four warnings that Jesus gave to his true followers.

Jesus knew that the time of his crucifixion was fast approaching, and he wanted to prepare his apostles for the challenges they would soon face. The time was short for them, and, honestly, the time is short for us too. So, the four commands that Jesus gave his disciples in Luke 12:1-2 are four commands he also gives to his disciples today.

Command #1: Be on your guard against hypocrisy. In the first half of Luke 12:1, we’re told that “a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another.” And the second half of the verse contains Jesus’ warning to “be on your guard against the…Pharisees’ [hypocrisy].” How are those two statements linked? Because Jesus wanted to warn his followers that the pull of hypocrisy was coming from two directions: from the Pharisees AND from the crowds. Jesus was warning his disciples not to change their behavior out of a desire to please the crowd. And he was warning his disciples not to change their behavior out of fear of the religious leaders. They might be tempted to betray their own internal beliefs and character by behaving differently around the Pharisees than they did when they were NOT around the Pharisees … and soon they could end up being as hypocritical as the Pharisees themselves.

Command #2: Don’t fear people. Fear God.  Some of us go through life being so afraid of people. Why? People can only hurt us a little bit. And the hurt is always temporary. On the other hand, in recent years it’s become common for Christians to explain away the verses in Scripture that tell us to “fear God.” They explain, “God doesn’t want us to be afraid of Him. The word ‘fear’ can also be translated as ‘respect’ or ‘honor.’ God wants us to respect Him and honor Him.” But show me a Christian who doesn’t have a healthy fear of God’s eternal consequences for rebellion, and I’ll show you a Christian who’s out of control. On the other hand, as we live out our fear of God by trusting and obeying Him, we don’t have to be afraid of anything, including God Himself. You see, fear of God keeps us in check so that we don’t have to live in fear. Try to wrap your mind around that one!

Command #3: Confess Christ openly, boldly and often. As Jesus puts it in Luke 12:9, “He who disowns me before men will be disowned before the angels of God.” If you claim to have Jesus in your heart, but Jesus is never proclaimed from your mouth, then you really don’t have Jesus in your heart.  As Jesus said in Matthew 12:34, “Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.” So, if Jesus is really in your heart, let him flow freely from your lips. Your family, friends and community desperately need to hear the good news of Jesus Christ.

Command #4: Do not worry about how to confess Christ to others; the Holy Spirit will help you. Some of us are so afraid of confrontation, criticism and slander that we never, ever, ever bring up Jesus or heaven or church in our conversations with certain family members and friends. That’s sad. We don’t need to thump people over the head with the Bible, but talking about Jesus and heaven should be a natural part of our conversations. After all, Jesus is pretty amazing, isn’t he? And heaven is going to be pretty amazing, isn’t it? So, we should talk about it! And if you get tongue-tied, don’t worry—the Holy Spirit will help you find the words.

So, are you like the smokestacks on the Queen Mary—mostly paint and very little substance? Maybelline and Cover Girl are really good at making us look good on the outside. But Jesus Christ specializes in making us truly good on the inside. He specializes in eradicating hypocrisy from our lives. All we need to do is let him.

Dane Davis is the Lead Pastor of First Christian Church in Victorville and the author of "Holy Huldah: Lessons You Should Never Forget from Bible Characters You've Never Heard Of." For more information, visit www.YourVictorvilleChurch.com, and join us for our Worship Celebration Sundays at 10 a.m.

Toxic Hypocrisy

“Then the Lord said to him, ‘Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.” – Luke 11:39

The story is told of a zoo that was famous for its great variety of different animals. One day the gorilla died, and to keep up the appearance of a full range of animals, the zookeeper hired a man to wear a gorilla suit and fill in for the dead animal. During his first day on the job, the man made some feeble efforts to move and act like a gorilla. But as he tried to move convincingly, he tripped and fell over a perimeter wall and ended up in the lion exhibit. He began to scream, convinced his life was over…until the lion spoke to him: “Be quiet, or you’re going to get us both fired!”

It’s not very often that we run into people pretending to be apes or lions, but every day there are those around us who pretend to be much nicer on the outside than they really are on the inside. And far too often these individuals are quick to criticize others’ bad behavior while ignoring their own internal rottenness.  We have a word to describe such people: hypocrites.

In Luke 11:37-44, Jesus tackles hypocrisy head-on. And I’ve got to warn you: For some of us, his words sting a little. For others of us, his words sting a lot!

The passage begins with an invitation to dinner. One of the religious legalists (aka, a Pharisee) asked Jesus over to his house for a meal, and Jesus accepted his invitation. But as Jesus made a beeline from the front door to the dinner table, the Pharisee was shocked. Jesus didn’t join the other dinner guests in their traditional hand-washing ritual before dinner. Now, this wasn’t a matter of hygiene – it was purely ceremonial. For several generations the Jewish legalists had prided themselves in their meticulous observance of legalistic traditions that their forefathers had added to the Old Testament. Sadly, strict adherence to these rituals had become a litmus test for religious sincerity, and the Pharisees were the biggest promoters of this religious snake oil. On this occasion in Luke 11, Jesus had had enough. So, he spoke up and leveled 3 warnings against the Pharisees for their hypocritical legalism.

Warning #1: (v42) You major in the minors. Jesus challenged the Pharisees’ priorities. They spent considerable time counting out 10% of every seed and herb in their garden to give as their tithe. Meanwhile, their neighbors were suffering injustice and God was not being worshiped. What a travesty! The Pharisees had reduced their relationship with God to a list of rules, and it had backfired. Just as a healthy marriage cannot be reduced to a list of rules to follow, our relationship with God cannot boil down to a “Top 10” list either. The Pharisees believed that they were in God’s favor because they split hairs over the most insignificant religious acts. But they were dead wrong! God is much more concerned with love, compassion, justice and internal righteousness than He is with seeds and herbs.

Warning #2: (v43) You put your reputation before your character. In Jesus’ day the seats in a synagogue worked a lot like the seats at Dodger stadium. The seats up front were the VIP seats, and the seats in back (in the “nosebleed section”) were cheap seats for the unimportant people. Guess where the Pharisees always wanted to sit? You guessed it—in the front row where EVERYONE could see them and be impressed by them. The Pharisees had somehow forgotten what God had taught the prophet Samuel in the days of King Saul: “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” Warren Wiersbe says it so well: “Reputation is what people think we are, character is what God knows we are.” Therefore, since our character is what’s most important to God, it must be what’s most important to us as Christ’s followers.

Warning #3: (v44) Instead of helping people, you’re harming them. In verse 44, Jesus compare the Pharisees to unmarked graves. According to Numbers 19:16, any Jew who touched a dead body would be ceremonially unclean for a whole week. Because of this, the Jewish people would walk far out of their way to avoid touching any grave or tomb. Yet Jesus told the Pharisees at the dinner table that they themselves were unmarked graves and tombs. In other words, when people came to the Pharisees to receive godly counsel and sound biblical teaching, what they actually received was ungodly counsel and false teaching. Instead of moving people closer to God, the Pharisees actually pulled them away from God. Instead of blessing people, they corrupted them.

Sadly, in First Century Israel the Pharisees were doing more harm than good. It was bad enough that their hypocrisy had corrupted their own relationships with God. But their hypocrisy was actually corrupting the whole community as well. Innocent bystanders were being defiled by their teaching. And Jesus knew that when this happens, judgment day will be especially severe for these toxic teachers and leaders.

Jesus’ stern warning to the Pharisees two thousand years ago stands as a stern warning for you and me today. Hypocrisy is a serious matter in the eyes of the world. But it’s an even more serious matter in the eyes of God. He calls you and me to be sincere: The same on the inside as we are on the outside. He calls you and me to eradicate hypocrisy from our lives and live as authentic, honest believers and followers of Jesus Christ. Until Christ returns, toxic hypocrisy will most likely remain in our world. But it doesn’t have to remain in you and me. 

Dane Davis is the Lead Pastor of First Christian Church in Victorville and the author of "Holy Huldah: Lessons You Should Never Forget from Bible Characters You've Never Heard Of." For more information, visit www.YourVictorvilleChurch.com, and join us for our Worship Celebration Sundays at 10 a.m.