Lord, Teach Us To Pray - Part 2 Series

Lord, Teach Us to Pray - Part 2

The Gospel of Matthew

Matthew 6:9-15

Sermon by: Rick Crandall

Grayson Baptist Church - September 24, 2017

(Revised March 13, 2021)

BACKGROUND:

*Do you ever wish you could learn how to pray better? You are not the only one. In Luke 11:1, one of the disciples saw Jesus praying, and when the Lord finished praying, that disciple said, "Lord, teach us to pray." Jesus replied by giving them a prayer very similar to the Lord's Prayer here in Matthew 6.

*In Luke 11:2-4:

2. . . 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.

3. Give us day by day our daily bread.

4. 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.''

*These two prayers are so similar that for years I thought Luke 11 was a different report on the same event. But I was wrong. The Lord's Prayer here in Matthew 6 was given at the beginning of Christ's 3-year ministry. And the prayer in Luke 11 was given just a few months before the cross.

*John Gill explained that "though the prayer in Luke 11 is similar, the prayer in Matthew 6 was given at another time and in another place. In Matthew 6, Jesus was in Galilee. The Luke prayer was given in Judea. The Matthew instructions were given as part of the Sermon on the Mount. But in Luke, the instructions came after a request from one of the disciples who saw Jesus praying." (1)

*But the thing that stands out to me, is that after 3 years of following Jesus, this disciple was still hungry to learn more about prayer. And God wants us to have that same kind of hunger! He wants us to know more about prayer, so our prayer life will grow stronger than ever before.

*Please think about this as we read Matthew 6:9-15.

MESSAGE:

*Jesus gave us the Lord's Prayer as a model to teach His followers how to pray. And it gives us vital lessons for today.

*The first lesson last time was to make sure that His Father is our Father. We must make sure we can truly call the Lord's Heavenly Father "OUR FATHER." We must make sure we are in the Father's family by believing in His crucified and risen Son Jesus Christ.

*The second lesson was to pour out our praise to God. As vs. 9 says, "Our Father who is in heaven, HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME." Albert Barnes explained that this means "Let Your holy name be celebrated, worshiped and revered as holy everywhere. Let Your name receive proper honor from all people." (2)

*The third lesson came from vs. 10, where Jesus told us to pray to the Father and say, "Your kingdom come. . ."

*Rodney Buchanan explained that when the Lord put God's Kingdom first, Jesus was teaching us to be more concerned about eternal things than earthly things. And we shouldn't just care about our own needs, we should care about other people, especially their place in the Kingdom of God. That why James McCullen said, "Thy Kingdom come" is an evangelistic prayer." (3)

*Luke 17:20-21 tells us that when Jesus "was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, 'The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, "See here!" or "See there!" For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.'''

*People will never have a place in the eternal Kingdom of God, until God's Kingdom has a place in them. Christians: That is why we must pray, "Father, Your kingdom come."

*The fourth lesson last time also came from vs. 10. Jesus told us to pray to the Father and say, "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

*Remember that "Your will be done" is one of the most holy, Christlike prayers we can ever pray, because it is the prayer Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before the cross. God surely calls us to pray with this devoted, Christlike spirit. And we can pray this prayer with total confidence because we can always trust God's will for our lives. But we must not think that following the will of God will put us on easy street. Sometimes it will put us on the hardest road we have ever walked.

*Tonight, the Lord gives us more vital lessons about prayer.

1. FIRST, JESUS TEACHES US TO HAVE FREQUENT CONVERSATIONS WITH OUR FATHER.

*For Christians, prayer should be an everyday, ongoing conversation with God. And Jesus reminds us of this truth in vs. 11. Here the Lord taught us to pray, "Father, 'Give us this day our daily bread.'"