Impudent Prayer

The Lord’s Prayer

Luke 11:1-13

February 20, 2022

I’m going to start off with a kind of crazy what if question . . . .

If Jesus happened to walk up to you, you see, it’s kind of outlandish in a way. If Jesus were to walk up to you and sat down and you shared a meal with Him, and you could only ask Him one question . . . what would you ask Him?

We might ask about our loved ones who have died. We might ask about heaven. Maybe we’d ask what something really means in the Bible. We’d maybe ask if He had a Calvinist or Arminian theology. Maybe which mode of baptism is right? Or should we still tithe? We might ask about what heaven’s like!

I know one person who’s told me he’d ask why sharks get new teeth and we don’t! There’s one to wonder about. That’s something to think about, and maybe you can ask it in your prayer.

This is our last week looking at prayer and the Lord’s Prayer. Today, we’re looking at it from Luke’s passage in chapter 11. But we’re going to go beyond just the Lord’s Prayer, and look at what Jesus says after that, because I believe He’s giving us some help in how we approach God in prayer.

The great Welsh preacher, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, once said that prayer is “the highest activity of the human soul.” If this is true, then why do so few pray?

Ted Olsen wrote an article in 2012 called Go Figure in Christianity Today magazine. Olsen said the percentage of Americans who say that they pray daily is 59%. He added, the average American spends 9 minutes per day in religious and spiritual activity. 9 minutes per day. I calculated that. . . .

That’s not much. It’s disappointing. That’s .6% of our day.

Is it possible that our Christian lives aren’t as impactful as they could be because we really don’t have a very good connection with God? That’s really what this series has been about. Connection! How do we better connect with God. I really believe God wants to give to us. And I hope we’ll see that today!

So, let’s jump into the story. Luke tells us - -

1 Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” - Luke 11:1

If you read the NT, you know Jesus prayed on a regular basis. Luke tells us Jesus was praying and His disciples were there. They were watching. They knew Jesus was committed to prayer and connecting to His Father. They’re watching!

It’s also interesting that John the Baptist was doing the same thing.

This is so important! As a parent, what and how are you teaching your children? Do they see you pray, read the Bible, control your anger / bitterness? Do they witness how you talk about others? Are your coworkers and classmates aware of your faith by the way you demonstrate Christ’s power and grace?

We have an amazing opportunity to show the world around us, whoever that might be, who Jesus is in our lives. Jesus and John modeled prayer for their disciples.

Again, what’s interesting in all the time the disciples spent with Jesus, this is the only request for teaching. They didn’t ask how to preach, teach, or evangelize. No other teaching requests. They wanted to know how to pray. What they saw in Jesus, they wanted for themselves. It was how can I better connect with God.

Jesus simply responded to them and said - - -

2 “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread,

4 and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.” - Luke 11:2-4

We’re not going to go through this prayer as we just did that with what we read in Matthew 6.

As a quick recap, and then we’ll move on. There’s great points to remember through the Lord’s Prayer - - -

We start with honoring and praising God the Father. We proclaim Him as holy, awesome, majestic. We seek His kingdom over ours. We pray for our needs, our daily bread. We seek forgiveness for our sins, just as we ask for the power and strength to be able to forgive those who sin against us. And finally we ask God to give us strength to withstand the temptations of the world, as we put on the full armor.

OK, that’s the Lord’s Prayer in a nutshell. But I want to focus on what Jesus says after the prayer. He wants us to understand, to believe in what God is offering us.