Dr. Rick Mandl - January 7, 2021
Get In The Closet
Devotional Manuscript: Get In The Closet?
Message by Dr. Rick Mandl, January 7, 2021, Eagle Rock Baptist Church
Recorded in Los Angeles, CA.
If I were to ask you where in the Bible you can find Jesus teaching His disciples to pray – If you know your Bible you could might answer in one of two ways . . .
You could say . . . It’s in His Sermon on the Mount. Specifically in Matthew chapter 6 When he shares with them the pattern for prayer - - the Model prayer - - the prayer that we have come to refer to as “The Lord’s Prayer” And if you said that - you’d be right.
Or you could say, he taught his disciples to pray in Luke 11, in response to a question they asked when they said . . . “Lord teach us to pray - Just as John taught his disciples to pray” You find essentially the same prayer in both places – Matthew 6 and Luke 11
One thing that is particularly interesting about Jesus teaching on prayer in Matthew chapter 6 is that before Jesus taught his disciples HOW to pray, he taught them WHERE to pray. In Matthew 6 and verse 6 he said . . . (MEV) “But you, when you pray, enter your closet, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” This may seem strange to some of us, because we feel as though we can pray anywhere at anytime. Yet Jesus here, specifically is talking about praying in private, which is something we ought to learn as believers.
In the first century, many of the Jewish religious leaders - - the Pharisees loved to pray And they particularly loved to pray in two places— In the synagogue and the street corner. And you could set your watches by the time at which you could see them praying. At the same time every day, a trumpet would blow that would signal it was time to pray. Wherever you were and whatever you were doing, you were expected to stop and pray. The religious leaders loved to show how pious and holy they were, as they realized this was a great time to put their spirituality on display in front of everyone. Yet by contrast, Jesus teaches that real prayer - - is prayer that is offered for an audience of one. And that one is our heavenly father. What matters most is motive.
Why are you praying? To be seen by men, or to be heard by God? Jesus says what you do in secret will be rewarded because secrecy fosters sincerity. He’s not telling us that it’s wrong to pray in public What he IS saying is that when you are in that secret place, where there is no applause and nobody is clapping for your religious performance. . . Where it’s just you and God alone together . . He says there’s an intimacy there that you can’t find if you never practice that. And this is something that Jesus himself modeled for us . . . Scripture records the Lord Jesus getting away for solitary prayer: Mark chapter 1 tells us “Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray.” Mark 1:35 (NLT)
So let me encourage you . . . do what Jesus did . . . Wherever that special, secluded place is for you . . . A corner of your home Or maybe the only time and place you’re able to be by yourself alone is behind the wheel of your car. . . Wherever and whenever it is . . . Spend time just you and God in prayer. Amen.
Recorded in Los Angeles, CA.
From Series: "Daily Devotional Videos"
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