Learning To Pray
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
Theme of this year, on Sunday mornings, has been “The Life Of Christ.”
We have reached the great “Sermon on the Mount” and have looked at a few lessons already within this great sermon.
Today, we turn our attention to prayer Jesus taught his disciples in Matthew 5:5-14 and also we find this in Luke 11:1-4.
The prayer Jesus gives to his disciples, in just a few compressed sentences, has some of the greatest thoughts on prayer the world has ever received.
So, let’s examine this section of scripture, Matthew 6:5-14 now.
Jesus begins this section by talking about…
What To Avoid
What To Avoid
5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
Glory From Others
Glory From Others
Prayer is a Christian activity and responsibility that can easily be misused.
The Pharisees and Sadducees were often given to praying out loud so as others could her them and later praise them for their “holiness” or “righteousness.”
Prayer, other than when someone is leading a group in a prayer, has always been a private conversation between us and God.
Our “personal prayers” aren’t meant to be for “public consumption.”
Our prayers whether personal or public are not to be for “our glory” either.
16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Mechanical Prayers
Mechanical Prayers
If we are not careful, we can find ourselves praying a prayer, whether personal or public, that is not biblically unsound, as far as the words go, but rather emotionally void of meaning.
We can easily get into a “rut” of saying familiar words only to find ourselves not actually appreciating their meaning.
How many say the “Lord’s Prayer” or use parts of it without really stopping and really treasuring their value in meaning.
15 What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding.
Summary
Summary
Worshiping in prayer to our God has never been about us receiving glory or meaningless repetition.
Going to our God in prayer is about being fully invested in our praise, supplications, and thanksgivings to our God.
So, what can we learn from Jesus in the commonly called “Lord’s Prayer?”
This prayer is a great…
Model Prayer
Model Prayer
It’s An Example To Emulate.
It’s An Example To Emulate.
We not only find this prayer here in Matthew 6:9-13 but we also find it in Luke 11:1-4.
However, there in Luke we discover something interesting and that is that this was taught to the disciples because they ask Jesus, “Lord teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1).
This reminds me of what Paul wrote in Romans 8:26 and James in James 4:2-3, we don’t always know how to pray for what we need.
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
Now Jews were typically taught from a very young age how to pray.
After all, there are several great examples of prayer in the Old Testament including the entire book of Psalms.
However, I’m sure each of us have been in a similar boat as these men.
Have you ever thought you were good at something only to find when someone else comes around that is a lot better than you, that you aren’t as good as you thought?
I remember thinking, having been raised in the church, that I knew a lot of bible. When I got to BTSOP, I learned very quickly how little I really knew.
There is no doubt in my mind these men “knew how to pray,” however, after hearing Jesus pray a few times, they learned very quickly how much they needed to learn.
Thankfully, Jesus was willing to help his apostles and subsequently us as well.
That brings us to what we can learn from…
Jesus’ Prayer Example.
Jesus’ Prayer Example.
Let’s read Matthew 6:9-13…
9 Pray then like this: “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 this day 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 evil.
This prayer sets forth a vital patter or progress for us to follow in our prayers to God.
It starts by recognizing God for who he is to us.
He is our Father, the one who is leading us to his eternal home through his son.
5 He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”
68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,
He is our Father who is hallowed or holy in all ways and thus worthy of following.
23 For when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in his midst, they will sanctify my name; they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
God’s name, in our prayers, should be understood as a name that is to be honored, respected, glorified, and magnified.
Secondly, we see Jesus point to the “kingdom to come.”
The kingdom being talked about here is the church Jesus had come to establish and that which now has been established.
18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,
Why is praying about the kingdom of Christ i.e., the church, so important in our prayers today?
The Old Jewish Talmud makes the statement that “the prayer which makes no mention of the kingdom of God is no prayer at all.”
Our prayers should also focus on the kingdom of Christ here an now.
They should focus on the expansion of the church not only all over the world but in our own community.
The more I think of this and meditate upon this more I think almost every prayer of ours should focus on this reality.
Thirdly, that God’s will be done here on earth as it is in heaven.
We must never loose site of the fact that God’s will begins in heaven and therefore everything we do should be filtered through that reality.
Our prayer then should always include our desire to see God’s will done and for us to know that will through our study of God’s faithful word.
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
Fourthly, we read Jesus point to God’s recognition that we need “daily substance” to live and our need of God to provide us with such.
This is simply reality, God made us, as humans, to need food, clothing, and shelter to survive on earth.
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Fifthly, we read that we are to forgive others.
As we have been talking about, there is limitation to the number of times God’s mercy forgives us if we are willing to go to him and ask for forgiveness.
In the same manor there should not be a limitation on our forgiving of others as well.
21 Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.
Sixth, we read that we should ask God not to lead us into temptations.
The reality is wisdom stems from temptation or tribulations.
2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
However, with temptation comes the opportunity to sin and as such we should pray we are not led into temptations.
But like we said with talked about “seeking the will of God” we know that sometimes we need such to grow and those cases we seek God to “deliver us from evil.”
13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
Summary
Summary
This prayer is truly a “model prayer” and we should thank God for giving us such a beautiful and simple illustration of what makes for great communication with him.
Conclusion
Conclusion
The Lord’s Prayer teaches us so many things and is a magnificent prayer.
The more we look at it, meditate upon it, and study it the better our prayers content and substance will get.
These words are not to be “blindly repeated” but analyzed so we can see what real prayer is all about.
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.