Spiritual Dependence (Values of the Cross): The way of Jesus is fundamentally different from the ways of the world. Why? Because the story of the cross produces unique values that transform our focus, conflicts, purpose, allegiance — everything! Lent is a season to reflect on these unique values. And prayer and fasting, two traditional practices of Lent, can be great tools to help us refocus on our spiritual dependence on God. Recorded on Mar 16, 2025, on Matthew 6:5-18 by Pastor David Parks.
This message is part of our Lenten sermon series, Values of the Cross. Christians are called to follow Jesus, but the way of Jesus is often completely upside down and backward compared to the ways of this world. Why is the way of Jesus so different? Join us during Lent for our sermon series, Values of the Cross, as we consider some of the unique values of the cross-shaped way of Jesus and how they transform every part of life. The cross changes everything!
Sermon Transcript
If you’ve been with us, you’ll know that last week, we finished a long series on Exodus in the Bible. And I just want to say thank you for your endurance. As always, if you missed any of those sermons, you can always go back and watch or listen online. But today, we get to start a six-week series for Lent called Values of the Cross from the gospel according to Matthew. And here’s the big idea for this series: Christians are called to follow Jesus, but the way of Jesus is often completely upside down and backward compared to the ways of this world. You might wonder, “Why is the way of Jesus so different?” Well, in our series, Values of the Cross, we’ll see that the unique story of the cross and the empty tomb produces unique values that lead to a totally unique way of life. So, as we learn to follow Jesus and his uniquely cross-shaped way, it can transform every part of life, including our focus, conflicts, purpose, expectations, allegiance, and our record. The cross changes everything! Today, we’ll consider how some of the classic practices of Lent, that of fasting and prayer, can help us change our focus. Sometimes, it feels like I’m a little pebble in a rushing river. The force of our culture in this broken world and its values/desires constantly rushes past and presses against me while I try to follow Jesus. Sometimes, even mature believers can get swept up in or pushed off course by the ways of the world. We can lose our focus. We can forget our complete and utter dependence on God. But Lent is a time to refocus, and prayer/fasting can be a way to remember our true spiritual dependence on God, to remember our values/way. If you have your Bible/app, please open it to Mt 6:5.
Matthew 6:5–8 (NIV), “5 “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.”This passage is found in the middle of Jesus’s famous Sermon on the Mount, where he lays out a vision for the kingdom of heaven and what life looks like for anyone who would follow after him. Matthew chapter 6 is all about traditional religious works such as almsgiving (giving to the poor), prayer, and fasting. We didn’t read it, but v. 1 is 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.” Be careful. Ok, so this is a warning for us. About what? It’s a warning not to do good works, religious works even, to be seen by others. If you do these things to be known as a good person, to virtue-signal, then you shouldn’t expect any additional reward from God because they were never for God; they were for yourself. Don’t pray on the street corners to be seen by others. Now, Jesus isn’t saying we should never pray publicly. And he isn’t saying never to spend long hours, at times, in prayer, which would presumably use many words. Jesus prayed both publicly and often at great length. Rather, this is just another example of doing religious works for self-serving, self-glorifying reasons — praying to be seen by others or to be impressive to others. It’s far better to pray a secret prayer with a few simple words than to pray publicly or impressively when God isn’t even involved. Before we go any further, let’s ask a big question: What is prayer? According to the Bible, prayer is simply talking with God. God is personal and relational, and communication is vital to having a relationship with God. But more than that, prayer is an opportunity to spend precious time in communion with God and experience God’s presence. Prayer opens your awareness that God is with you, is near, and is involved in your life. To pray is to talk with God, which includes both speaking and listening, and to be with God. Jesus prayed (publicly, I might add) before the miracle of feeding the five thousand in Mt 14. But he often went off by himself to a solitary place to pray. Prayer was not a performance to Jesus, but a regular practice of spending time with his heavenly Father. After feeding the five thousand, Jesus went up on a mountainside by himself to pray, and he prayed for hours. In Lk 6, before choosing the twelve apostles, Jesus spent all night praying about that decision. The night before his crucifixion, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed and prayed, asking his closest friends to stay up with him because he was so overwhelmed by the hell he was about to endure. As a preacher, it’s interesting to me that in the gospel accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry, the disciples never asked Jesus to teach them how to preach. But they did ask Jesus to teach them how to pray. Do you want to be able to pray like Jesus? Do you want to have that kind of vibrant, ongoing communion with and awareness of the presence of God in your life?
Matthew 6:9-15 (NIV), “9 “This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ [Some manuscripts add, “for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.”] 14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” Let’s consider each line of this model prayer, often called The Lord’s Prayer (disciples’ prayer?).
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name: When you pray, start by recognizing your relationship with God. By faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, his Father becomes our Father. God is not a divine spark, or a force, or even first an Almighty King (although he is that, as well). He is first: our Father. God is our protector and provider. He knows your name because you are his child, and he loves you. He doesn’t mind being interrupted by you. He doesn’t see you as an inconvenience but as a joy. Now, maybe your biological father wasn’t a good father. Maybe you were an inconvenience to him, or you were abandoned by him. But this is not how your Father in heaven sees you or will treat you. The whole record of Scripture shows time and again that our Father in heaven is good and faithful. So who are you talking to in prayer? Our Father in heaven. Second, when you pray, remember that you are praying to our Father. When Christians pray, we pray as a son or daughter in a great family, the family of God, that is, the church. No matter what your ethnicity/income/gender/age, we are all brothers and sisters in Christ, united in our relationship with God our Father. The Lord’s Prayer isn’t a lonely prayer; it’s the prayer of the community of the saints. Whenever you feel alone, you should pray like this, remembering your relationship with God and with the whole family of God. You are never alone. Why? For God is our Father. But third, God is not a human being, he is not stuck in this broken world or bound by space and time, he does not face all the real and perceived threats that we face here and now. He is above all, he is over all, he is transcendent and sovereign. This is what we must remember when we pray to our Father in heaven. We are not talking with a person with our own limitations or capacities. God is not our peer or therapist. He is the creator of the heavens and the earth. For this reason, fourth, his name should be seen as holy. “Hallowed be your name.” This is a prayer that changes our focus. This is a reminder that God is God, and we are not. A name in ancient times represented more than just what people called you. It represented all of your being, all of who you are and what you have done. For God’s name to be hallowed, which means holy or set apart, it means he has the primary place in our hearts/minds. When I start praying, I often need to be reminded of this perspective.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven: What does it look like for God’s kingdom to come here on earth as it is in heaven? It looks like God’s will being done. It looks like men and women who wholeheartedly love God and love people. It looks like men and women who joyfully submit to the commands of Christ both privately and publicly as salt and light in the world. It looks like men and women who learn to follow the way of Jesus in every area of their lives, experiencing more freedom/love/joy/peace as they do so.
