P90x For The Soul - Prayer Series

P90X for your Soul

Prayer

Luke 11:1-4

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Intro

Well, we are continuing in our series “P90X for your Soul.” We have been taking steps to put ourselves in positions for God to grow us in godliness so we can be spiritually fit just as we seek to be physically fit.

It seemed to be that years ago, when you wanted a good workout for your physical fitness, all you did was do whatever you could to sweat a lot. You could go running or just go lift a lot of weight and you had a good workout if you worked up a sweat.

But as people have learned, you have got to mix things up so you work out different muscles and it is not so much about working up a good sweat and being out of breath as it is about keeping your heart rate in a certain zone depending whether you are trying to burn fat or increase your cardio stamina.

It is as people have continued to study the body and have seen the affects that they have learned about how to work out so that it is most effective.

Transition

Well, in our spiritual life, there are some disciplines that we think we know a lot about but as we study God’s word, we find out that there is more to it than we may have thought in the past.

This morning, as we continue our series “P90X for your Soul”, we are going to talk about prayer.

Slide

Now prayer seems like something that is so easy. It is certainly something a child can do, but I think sometimes we believe we know all we need to know about prayer that we miss what it is really intended to do and our prayer life becomes some shallow, ineffective time where nothing really seems to happen, either in our relationship with God or in response to our prayer.

The fact is that there are some things that I believe we need to learn about prayer.

The disciples felt that way. They saw Jesus pray and knew there was something different about his prayer and the effectiveness of his prayer that they wanted him to teach them.

So today, it is my hope that we too will have Jesus teach us how to pray in a way that helps us grow and to live the righteous and godly life that the Lord wants us to live so that our prayer life will be “powerful and effective”. (James 5:16).

Turn with me to

Luke 11:1-4

Slide

Here we are going to see some familiar verses that are probably familiar to most of us here we are going to read both Jesus’ teaching to the disciples in Luke about prayer as well as His teaching to a wider audience in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6.

Let’s start in

Luke 11:1-4

1 One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples."

2 He said to them, "When you pray, say:

"’Father,

hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come.

3 Give us each day our daily bread.

4 Forgive us our sins,

for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.

And lead us not into temptation.’"

His teaching on this topic of prayer in Matthew in the Sermon on the Mount as he teaches to more people reads like this.

Matthew 6:9-13

9 "This, then, is how you should pray:

"’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 today our daily bread.

12 Forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from the evil one.’

Pray

Ok, we see that these passages as Jesus teaches how to pray are very similar although with a little bit more added in the Matthew passage.

Now, did anyone here grow up in a church where you would recite this as a prayer or pray this prayer together or maybe in a religious system where you would say this prayer a certain number of times as some form of penance to pay for some sin you committed?

I know I did.

Now, I don’t think it is bad to quote or recite or pray recorded Scripture back to the Father.

However, we must be cautious that our memorized words don’t become meaningless babbling. Jesus spoke against that in the verse right before his teaching on prayer in Matthew.

Matthew 6:7 - And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.