18) Praying For God’s Kingdom & Seeking God’s Will Series

TEACH US TO PRAY

Part 3 – Praying For God’s Kingdom & Seeking God’s Will

TEXT: Matthew 6:9-13

RECAP

Alright brethren – So here we are again…

Attempting to discover ...those things most surely believed among us (Lk 1:1).

And our focus of late has been all about Prayer.

Remember in Luke 11:1 – we found one of the disciples coming to Jesus and saying:

...Lord teach us to Pray – and of course we find Jesus doing exactly that,

Teaching His disciples how to pray...

Through what we have now come to commonly refer to as “The Lord’s Prayer”.

In fact, in Matthew Chapter 6 – we see Jesus providing a practical demonstration, through His own prayer - Showing us the type of heart we should pray with...

And the kinds of things we ought to be praying for.

Take a look at how Jesus begins this prayer in verse 9.

He says: After this manner therefore pray ye:

Now Jesus is quite clear about this I think…

Because He says: “After this fashion… and following on in a similar way…

This is how you should pray.”

It’s not the only way we can pray…

It’s not the way we have to pray…

But it’s a good example to follow,

And just one of many examples on prayer in the Bible.

How Not To Pray

And speaking of examples, let’s not forget that just proceeding all this in Matthew 6,

Jesus makes reference to others who were praying in the wrong way.

And He identifies two groups – as examples of which we ought not to follow.

First there were the Religious Hypocrites, among the Jews,

Who used “prayer” to put on a bit of a show.

For them prayer was all about presenting…

The right spiritual appearance before others.

And verse 5 showed us their heart motivation saying they did this:

…that they may be seen of men.

Remember the very definition of the word Hypocrite in the Greek = “Pretender”

And there are still a lot of Religious Pretenders in the World.

Jesus says – don’t be a pretender when you pray!

The second group Jesus warns us about following…

When it comes to prayer were the Heathens.

Heathen – really just means “Gentile”…and refers to someone who is not a Jew.

And Jesus says look for them - Prayer is all about saying the right things

And in verse 7 he says they engage in vain repetitions…

…thinking they will be heard for their much speaking.

Now these were examples that Jesus gave in how not to pray…

And please understand the problem here was not race!

Prayer is not about being a Jew or Gentile – that doesn’t matter to God.

Neither is prayer about what can be seen or heard,

With God - prayer is always a matter of the heart.

Prayer is the means by which we humble ourselves before God…

And open up our hearts to Him.

How To Pray

Of course, after providing a few examples of how not to pray,

Jesus begins to teach us all about the right way to Pray.

Instead of what everybody else is doing - Jesus says: “Pray like this”: (verse 9)

Our Father which art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

And immediately Jesus starts emphasising the kind of Heart

We should reflect in our prayers.

And it all starts with a Heart of Reverence

In fact, very quickly Jesus acknowledged through His prayer,

Who God Is - saying…Our Father

Where God Is At - saying…Which art in Heaven

And The Lord’s Position in our Lives declaring… Hallowed be thy name

So Immediately, Jesus exhibits an enormous amount of

Honour and respect towards the Lord in the way He prayed.

He Reverenced the Person God Is,

He Reverenced the Place where God Resides,

And He Reverenced the Holy Position God should hold in our lives.

You see, we must all recognise who we are actually Praying too,

Because the Lord is always someone deserving of our Reverence.

Reverence God

And doesn’t that just kind of make sense?

I mean doesn’t it all just seem somehow fitting

That before we request anything from the Lord…

We first take the time to just Reverence who He is.

After all Paul tells us in the book of Philippians that our God has been given:

9 … a name which is above every name: (Philippians 2:9)

Of course, the Scriptures reveal that there are many names the Lord is known by,

He is Elohim, the “creator of heaven and earth” (Genesis 1:1),

El Ely-on, meaning the “Most High God” (Genesis 14:18-19),

He is Jehovah, - meaning “I am” (Exodus 3:14),

He is Adonai, which simply means “the Lord”;

And we can all pray to God and acknowledge any of these names