01-25-2026 - DO OR DO NOT - THERE IS NOT TRY- Matt-6:7-9

MESSAGE BY PASTOR DANIEL PARK

FROM BETHANY BAPTIST IN RICHMOND, BC.

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I invite you to pray together: O Father of mercies and God of all comfort, our only help in time of need: We humbly beseech thee to behold, visit, and relieve thy sick servants for whom our prayers are desired. Look upon them with the eyes of thy mercy ( Vicky O, Nancy R, Tere G, Liz N, Stevie A, Socrates D, Sara's mom H, Margarita G,   Rosy Ch, Patricia L. Lina J.  Magda- Laci M.  Gloria F, Miguel A H. Silvia H, Brianda M, Alejandro M, Natalia M, Oscar N. Laci N. Miguel C.)   Comfort them with a sense of thy goodness; preserve them from the temptations of the enemy; and give them patience under his affliction. In thy good time, restore them to health, and enable them to lead the residue of their life in thy fear, and to thy glory; and grant that finally they may dwell with thee in life everlasting; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

You can add names from family and friends who need prayer

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Some people might recognize the title, “Do or Do Not, there is No Try” as famously spoken by Jedi Master Yoda in Star Wars in this scene…

Yoda:

Always with you what cannot be done.

You do nothing that I say.

You must unlearn what you have learned.

Luke:

All right I'll give it a try.

Yoda:

No! Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try.

There are so many nuggets of spiritual gold we can draw out here

• NOT because we are learning from the movie

• But because the movie borrowed so heavily from the bible

Yes, people tend to focus on what cannot be done

• We are often very bad at following good advice and teaching

  • Because we are entrenched in what we have accepted as truth, and are sometimes too proud to admit that we are wrong

• Which is why sometimes unlearning the old ways is just as important as learning a new way

And then there is the “trying.”

• Which can be such an easy catch-all word to put to everything we are not ready to do yet…

Last week, Rob took us through the prayer Jesus taught His disciples

• Today, we are actually going backwards a little to the introduction of the Lord’s Prayer in a prelude, as we wrap up our miniseries on prayer

Let me read Matthew 6:7-9 (NLT)

7 “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. 8 Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him! 9 Pray like this:

Our Father in heaven,

may your name be kept holy.

It’s easy to forget that the Lord’s Prayer is smack in the middle of the famous Sermon on the Mount - Matt 5-7

• Which outlines what living as a Christian in the world looks like

• A kind of rule of thumb or baseline

• Covering a broad spectrum of topics from personal emotions, relationships, living in society, money and possessions

• And smack right in the middle is the Lord's Prayer

• Or as Tim Mackey from Bible Project says, “At the centre of the centre.”

• And you might remember me saying that Jewish writers always reserved the middle part of a section for the most important idea.

We are going to look at a small passage leading up to the Lord’s Prayer, where Jesus invites people to learn from His model of how He lives, prioritizing God in His life.

1. Pray, Do

6 Beware of practicing your righteousness before others to be seen by them; if you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.

9 This, then, is how you should pray: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.”

Verse 7: "When you pray”

- From the beginning of chapter 6, we see a repetition of this phrase:

- "When you...

- Give (1-4)

- Pray (5-8)

- Fast (14-18)

Notice: not IF you pray - but WHEN you pray

- Assumption that you will pray

- That you DO pray

- Prayer is something Jesus never commands us to do

- Not even tells us to

• Jesus models and expects us to

Praying is not a rule

- Praying is not an extracurricular activity

- Praying is not an extraordinary activity

- Prayer is not a ritual or ceremony

- Prayer is not a spell

Then what IS prayer?...

- Let's first go over what prayer is NOT...

2. Babble, Do Not

7 “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again.

The Gentiles are people who do not know God

- They think of prayer as what I mentioned before, that prayer is not

- That it IS a rule, extraordinary extracurricular activity, ritual and ceremony, like a magic spell that can hopefully make things happen

- When you consider prayer like this, you babble

- Your prayer becomes a babble that goes on and on...

- Because you think the words and combination of words could unlock a secret power or force

That's not how it works, that's not what it is

As we think about WHAT prayer is, we see 3 words that are clues

- “answered”, “ask”, “need.”

- You can ask for things you need, and wait for your request to be answered

- Jesus acknowledges this in verse 8

• Your Father knows what you need even before you ask Him

And this is the most common understanding of what prayer is: asking God for something you need

- This is not wrong

- BUT this is not ALL of it

- Nor, what it mainly is

Which brings us to our third point, which teaches us how to begin

3. Like this, Pray

Or as Jesus said, Pray like this

• Our Father is in heaven, may Your name be kept holy.

- Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name

- Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name

First, prayer is to our Father

- MY father

Abba Father in Hebrew. 

I’ve shown these pictures before, but I think they convey our relative position to God in some aspect.

• For JFK Jnr, his father was his dad, but also the president of the United States

• This kind of duality or 2 nature describes our relationship with God.

  • God IS our dad

  • But we cannot forget that he is God, the creator of heaven and earth

  • Who should be held in the highest honour

At the same time, a child who knows their dad loves them, and they love their dad 

• Don’t care who or what their dad does

• Our relationships with our dads change - especially as we grow up - as it should

• And for a lot of people, the relationship may have gotten very bad

• But I’m sure a lot of people may still be able to remember a time when you were younger and completely dependent

  • When your dad was the most powerful and greatest being ever

Jesus is making THAT our reality in relation to God

• With God, who is perfect and never changes

Without Jesus, God was out of reach and could only be feared

• Imagine you are doing something wrong that disappoints your parents the most

• Or makes them angrier

• You would be afraid to approach them or be near them

• This is what sin does

But Jesus has taken all the blame and received all the punishments instead of us.

• The only Son of God whom God loves and treasures above even creation

• Died for us, so that we can have that same access and relationship with God as Jesus Himself

So you don’t need to put on a show

• Hide

• Pretend

• Because God knows everything already

• And He loved you even while you didn’t deserve it

• And sent His only Son, to die for you, so that you can call Him dad

Despite Yoda's wisdom, trying is still a form of doing.

• I invite you, as Jesus did, to do by trying

• To pray to your Father in Heaven

• You don’t need fancy phrases

• Just be yourself

• Talk like you would to your best friend - your dad, who would do anything and everything to keep you safe.

www.bethanybaptist.bc.ca