Closet Christians

Pastor Don Carpenter / General

Inside Out: The Pursuit of Genuine Christianity / Prayer; Closet; Secret; Hypocrisy / Matthew 6:5–8

When Coach Bobby Bowden played baseball in college, he never hit a home run. His senior year at Howard College, he was the only player not to hit a home run. One day, he hit a line drive against Auburn. As he approached third, the coach was waving him on. As he made his turn, he heard his third base coach say, “But hurry!”

When he touched home, the team was ecstatic, slapping his back and shaking his hand back in the day before “high fives.” The first baseman yelled for the catcher to throw him the ball. The umpire yelled, “out.” When he ran the bases, Bobby Bowden never touched first.

Maybe that’s why he became a football coach. Anyway, you can probably imagine he told his players, “If you don’t take care of first base, it doesn’t matter what you do.”

Matthew 6:6 is part of the Sermon on the Mount. This is the first time Jesus taught his first disciples about prayer. His first lesson was, “Spend time alone with the Father in prayer.” If we don’t follow his first lesson, we are not following the example or the command of Christ.

In the last several weeks we have been looking at Jesus’ radical sermon on true Christianity. We have seen that we must do better than the Scribes and Pharisees, and they claim to be better than everybody.

Matthew 5:20 KJV

For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

We have seen that our righteousness must start in the heart with a true conversion, then extend to our actions. Last week we talked about alms giving. We saw that we must not do it to be seen as righteous, but we must do it ,often in secret, to be righteous. This week we will look at prayer in the same light. While some of us may pray in public from time to time, the real power comes when we learn to be Prayer Closet Christians.

A Closet Christian Will Pray to God.

Matthew 6:5 KJV

And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

 • When you pray – not if… when was the last time you really prayed?

Psalm 55:17 KJV

Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: And he shall hear my voice.

 • Don’t pray for others to hear.

  • If you quote scripture, quote it to claim it, not to educate your audience.

  • Don’t pray to preach

  • Don’t pray to rebuke an audience

  • Don’t pray to impress others

  • Don’t be a hypocrite, God knows the real truth anyway.

 A pious church member, who thought himself to be a great Christian, says Warren W. Wiersbe, visited the Junior Department of the Sunday school. The Superintendent asked him to say a few words to the boys and girls. He stood pompously before them, and asked, “Why do you think people call me a Christian?”

  There was an embarrassing silence, then a small voice from the back of the room said, “Because they don’t know you.”

—Christian Victory1

1 Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc., 1996), 1136.

 • Pray to God.

A Closet Christian Will Pray In Private

Matthew 6:6 KJV

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

 • Thy closet – have a place that is yours. (Describe the one I found in Shaffer dorm and the one on the top floor of Jackson Hall.

 • Shut the door. Have a place and a time where you are completely alone and undistracted with God. No cell phone, no background noise, no audience.

 • Be intimate in this place of intimacy.  

 • God will reward openly.

Psalm 34:15 KJV

The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, And his ears are open unto their cry.

 • Make it a priority to have AND USE this private place of prayer

  Of Mr. John Shepherd, of the United States, it is recorded that he was greatly distinguished for his success in the pulpit. When on his death-bed he said to some young ministers who were present, “The secret of my success is in these three things:

  “1st. The studying of my sermons very frequently cost me tears. 2nd. Before I preached a sermon to others I derived good from it myself. 3rd. I have always gone into the pulpit as if I were immediately after to render an account to my Master.”

  All who knew that devoted man would have united in expressing his secret in three words—”In the closet.”1

1 Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc., 1996), 1079.

A Closet Christian Will Pray For Real!

Matthew 6:7–8 KJV

But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. 

Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

 • Do not use empty repetition… like praying on auto pilot.  

 • Prayer is to communicate, not to put you in a trance or mood. The heathen would repeat the same prayer same words, same mantra, to induce feelings… it would work even when praying to a lifeless idol.

  I love the story about the Lutheran pastor who always started each service off with the phrase, “The Lord be with you.” The people would then respond, “and also with you.”

  However, one Sunday the sound system wasn’t working very well. The pastor stepped up to the pulpit and said, “There’s something wrong with this microphone.”

  The people responded, “AND ALSO WITH YOU!.”

 • This does not mean we can’t pray for something more than once… Jesus did… Paul did.

Romans 1:9 KJV

For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers;

1 Thessalonians 1:2 KJV

We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers;

Philemon 4 KJV

I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers,

 • Remember who you are talking to! You are talking the God of the universe, and the Savior who loves you.

   The brother of a seminary student came to visit him one day. Unsure of directions, he turned to the first person who passed by and asked, “Is this Davidson Hall?” On hearing the man described later, the seminary student asked his brother if he had realized that he had been talking to a world-famous theologian. The brother couldn’t believe it. He had the opportunity to ask any question—and he asked only where a building was.

   Unfortunately that’s how many of us pray. We talk to God and ask for inane little things that are really insignificant.

 • Prayer needs to be passionate and intimate. It is appropriate (especially in the prayer closet) to get in touch with powerful emotions. This can be done when we pray aloud.

James 5:16 KJV

Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

The truth in today’s passage is pivotal to living a successful Christian life. We all know we should pray. But this morning we discovered that if we pray in public, we must check our hearts and not pray for people, or pray empty routine phrases. We have seen that the lion’s share of our prayer life is to take place in private, with the door closed and our heart open. We must develop a habit of becoming Closet Christians.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 11:59 AM February 29, 2020.