There are 5 parts of worship: prayer, singing, teaching, communion, and
giving. This morning we are going to talk about prayer. It has been
said that the greatest tragedy is the un-prayed prayer. And yet many
Christians are lost when it comes to this vital portion of our worship.
This morning’s lesson will be on the scriptures Luke 11:1-4 and Matthew
6:5-14 we will start with:
Matthew 6:5-14
“And
when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to
pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that
they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their
reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have
shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your
Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do
not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they
will be heard for their many words.
“Therefore, do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you
have need of before you ask Him. In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your
will be done On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily
bread. And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. And do not
lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is
the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also
forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither
will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
The second place we can find this prayer is in
Luke 11:1-4
Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He
ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray,
as John also taught his disciples.”
So, He said to them, “When
you pray, say:
Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your
will be done On earth as it is in heaven. Give us day by day our daily
bread. And forgive us our sins, For we also forgive everyone who is
indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from
the evil one.”
Most of us know the Lord’s prayer, many of us even memorized it when we
were young. But why is it in the Bible? Many religions memorize and
recite this prayer saying it is the proper prayer to offer to God. So
then why do we not recite this prayer? Why do we pray from our hearts
rather than from prewritten “acceptable” prayers? The answer comes early
in our second reading before Christ ever utters a word. In Luke 11:1
the disciples ask, “Lord teach us to pray.” They do not ask to be
taught a prayer. There is a reason for this, and it is given to us in
Matthew 6:7, “And
when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do.”
If Christ had wanted us to repeat the Lord’s Prayer verbatim, he would
not have cautioned us against vainly repeating his words like a mantra
against evil. This prayer was given as an archetype, or model, of the
proper prayer. And not as many insist, the only proper prayer.
It is worth noting that the Lord’s Prayer is repeated nowhere else in
the New Testament. There is no record of the early church, nor the
Apostles reciting this prayer, despite the many other prayer passages in
the New Testament.
Now if we accept that the Lord’s Prayer is a model of the proper
prayer. What lessons can we learn from it in order be sure we are
praying with the proper spirit?
We will be focusing primarily on the example of the prayer in Matthew
6:9-13.
Let us start at the beginning: “Our
Father who art in Heaven hallowed be Thy Name.”
The prayer starts out by acknowledging the closeness to God that we
receive when we pray. We are children of the Almighty God, so much so
that Christ taught his disciples to pray to God as a child crying out to
their parent. Throughout this prayer we can see many kinds of the
requests that should be asked of our Heavenly Father: praise, desire to
for all to accept God’s will, forgiveness of our sins, daily needs,
relationships with one another, and our relationship with God Himself.
That we pray to a mighty God that hears and answers prayer is unique of
all the world’s religions. We do not simply chant a mantra to
emptiness, but to a Father who listens and provides for his children.
Which we can read Christ explain in the very next chapter:
Matthew 7:9-11
Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give
him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If
you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how
much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those
who ask Him!
The next thing we see is the adoration that is given to God, “Hallowed
be Thy Name”.
I want to understand this: God knows His Name is Hallowed, or Holy. We
are not telling God something here that he does not already know. We
are admitting that we know that His name is Holy. We are acknowledging
His worthiness to be praised and offering praise. This acknowledgement
is the single most important fact in the universe. Christ Himself
declared this fact when He answered the Pharisees in Matthew 22:37 the
greatest commandment was to “love the Lord your God with all you heart,
with all your soul, and all your spirit.” God must be worshipped, and
it must be a part of our prayers. Further approaching the Father with
admiration sets the tone for our prayers reminding us that we are indeed
speaking to the One True God.
The next part of the prayer: “Your
kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. Give us
this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our
debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the
evil one.”
Is a model of the requests that Christ wants the disciples to use in
their prayers. We will get into the specifics of the requests in a
moment, first though we have to look at what all these requests have in
common. Which is when we offer a prayer we must have faith.
The writer of Hebrews tells us that faith is a requirement to
please God in:
Hebrews 11:6
But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to
God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who
diligently seek Him.
Faith must extend past the point where we simply believe that He
is real, past the point that we believe he will hear us, to the point
that we understand and accept that He WILL answer our prayers according
to His will. A Father when answering his child might say, yes, no, or
here is something else that you need more. I do this OFTEN with Thomas,
who has never met a cookie he would not eat. Sometimes it is fine that
he has a cookie, others not, and still others he may need to eat a meal,
or get a big drink instead. So, when we pray we must have faith that
the answer we receive will be the one we need, not necessarily the one
we want.
Romans 8:28
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love
God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
In talking about faith required for prayer I have also talked
about the first request made in this model prayer, “That God’s will be
done.” So, the next request in our model, “Give us this day our daily
bread.” There are two connotations for this particular request so let
us look at them both. Because they are both good points. The first is
give us the bread of life, or salvation, which is in Christ, Jesus.
John 6:35
And Jesus said to them, “I
am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who
believes in Me shall never thirst.
This is a request that we should always and continuously pray.
The gift of salvation through our obedience to the Gospel is worth more
than all the world.
Mark 8:36
For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his
own soul?
The second connotation is actually the literal denotation of the
words, “Please, give us the sustenance we need to survive this day.”
The words of Christ again give comfort for this request.
Matthew 6:31-34
“Therefore
do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or
‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For
your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek
first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things
shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for
tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its
own trouble.”
The next request is explained immediately following the prayer
in Matthew.
Matthew 6:14-15
“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also
forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither
will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
So, we can move on to the next request, “do not lead us into temptation
but deliver us from evil.”
First, God is not the one who offers the temptation, temptation
is sin and there is no sin in God:
1 John 1:5
This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you,
that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
This request is another way of asking that whatever temptation
that you are faced with, that God will provide the deliverance necessary
to overcome it. And luckily we are promised just that.
1 Corinthians 10:13
No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God
is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are
able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you
may be able to bear it.
Now let us look at the closure of this prayer and the one thing not
included in this prayer that we must include when we pray. “For
Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.”
Here we end right where we started with admiration and worship. Here to
show the majesty of God Christ lists what belongs to God… in a word,
everything!
So, what is this model prayer missing? Only one thing. We address the
prayers to the Father, but the only way they are received by Him is
through the Son, Jesus Christ.
John 14:6
Jesus said to him, “I
am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except
through Me.”
Now Christ did not have to add this little caveat to His prayer,
mostly because, well, He had direct access to the Father.
Looking at what is required of a prayer using the Lord’s Prayer
as our template we see:
Prayer brings us close to God.
We must bring an attitude of worship.
Faith he will listen and answer.
The willingness to accept his answer.
Offer thanksgiving for the gift of Salvation through Christ.
Thank God for the blessings in our life.
Confess our sins and ask that they be forgiven.
Ask for help forgiving those who have wronged us.
Ask for deliverance from the temptations in our life.
Address the prayer to the Father but send it through the Son.
By focusing on the lessons found in the Lord’s Prayer we can improve our
prayer life and bring ourselves closer to the foot of God.
Before I close I want to put in one more point. “The Lord’s
Prayer” teaches us how to pray. But many of us still struggle with when
we should pray. And there are two answers to that question, and they
are both right and both required. The first is always; at all times, in
your victories, in your defeats, in your joys and sorrows, in your
accomplishments and your failures. Pray to God constantly.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for
this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
The second answer to the question, “when should I pray?” is in a
special time that is set aside for prayer. Even during the height of
his ministry Christ made time to pray to God.
Luke 5:16
So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.
Some argue if I am constantly praying, why do I need special time set
aside specifically for prayer. The answer is simple, when you talk to
someone amongst the noise of the world there is only so much that can be
said. But when you sit in private with that person you can tell them
everything. In relationships we call it intimacy, this is a word that
makes most of us a little uncomfortable because the world has added a
sexual connotation to it. But true intimacy is not sexual, it is
achieved by sharing all that you are with another and having them share
all that they are with you. It is this kind of relationship that Christ
desires with Christians. This is from another prayer by Christ this
time he is at Gethsemane.
John 17:22-23
And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one
just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made
perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and
have loved them as You have loved Me.
Prayer is an essential part of our life as Christians. It is
one of the commanded forms of worship. It is how we talk to the Creator
of the World, how we tell him our wants, our needs, praise him for our
blessings, seek comfort in our sorrows. It is how we connect to our
Savoir and get to know Him personally. Simply, it is how we talk to
God. Understanding how to pray, and when to pray are essential tools
for every Christian.
If this morning any have a need that requires the prayers of the
congregation, or this morning is the day you have decided to obey the
Gospel and be baptized come forward as we stand and sing.
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