The 4 Parts of Prayer
Luke 11:1-4
Introduction
We have been studying for a while now about the book of Revelation, and this morning I thought it would be important to take a small break and focus on prayer.
As many Christians can testify too, prayer is extremely important. It is the vehicle we have to talk to God, and it is the vehicle God uses to talk to us. If you are not hearing from the Lord today, I would venture to say that it is because you are not spending time listening in your prayer time.
Far too often we get wrapped around the axle about talking about what we need or want, and God never has time to do any talking. Last week, I had asked for folks to pray for this church – to spend 7 days in prayer over our church along with their your other prayer needs.
Let me ask you honestly, did you do it? God knows the truth … so don’t lie to impress me.
Today, I want to examine the importance of prayer – and take a deeper look at this vehicle we have to talk to God. It is because God gave us this method of talking to Him that we ought to take the opportunity to do so.
Prayer is what will help this world, but we need to why it is important if we are ever going to make an impact on this world for Jesus.
Read Luke 11:1-4
Pray
As I read this passage, I immediately see that prayer is 4 different things. As disciples of Jesus, these men were required to understand how to pray, and to put into practice what they have been taught. The exact same thing applies to us as well -- if you are a believer of Jesus Christ, knowing how to pray is vital to our survival.
Jesus is showing His disciples exactly how to pray so that their prayers will be effective, and from this passage there are 4 specific points to discuss.
Prayer is: Focus, Fellowship, Forgiveness, and Freedom
I. Focus
Who do you focus on when you pray?
When we pray, we need to focus on God the Father -- not ourselves.
“Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name …”
When we pray, we are coming into the very throne room of grace - the very presence of the One who created the Universe - and our focus needs to be on God - not ourselves.
Far too often we come to pray just to “get it done” and move on with our activity. God requires that we come into a prayer time with reverence, with compassion, and with understanding that we are communicating with Him.
Praying to God ought to be something done often and done faithfully.
When you focus on the One who sits on the Throne, we take the focus off of us. (John 3:30) We must look to the Throne for leadership, for rebuke, and for training.
When you focus on God, he is able to communicate with you.
We were created to commune with God - we were the ones who decided to rebel - and we are the ones who needed a Savior to be able to communicate with God again.
His mercy, His understanding, His love is what we need more of -- and praying faithfully and intently is one of the primary ways we will get it.
We focus first on Him, and then He provides for us in Fellowship.
II. Fellowship
“Give us our daily bread …”
Our daily bread is not the food we put into our stomachs -- it is the Word of God!
Jesus when tempted said that man does not live on bread alone, but on the Word of God.
Hold up your Bibles and repeat after me:
This is my Bible
This is the Word of God
This IS my daily bread!
Do you believe it?
Each day we need to have time with the Lord, each day we need to be filled up on the Word and commune in fellowship through prayer. Jesus was teaching how to pray, but He not only taught it, he practiced it.
Mark 1:25 says “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”
Jesus was not the type of teacher who gave folks the old “Do as I say and not as I do.” Very early in the morning, he arose to spend time in prayer and commune with God. Jesus wanted to be in complete fellowship with the Father - and the only way He could do that was to have a time of devotion with Him.
This is true fellowship.
When we gather for church services, dinners, or meetings, we have fellowship because we are gathered together for a common cause -- but that should NEVER replace the communion we MUST have with God the Father.
If you want to measure your spiritual level - simply look at your prayer life. If the only praying you do is on Sunday morning praying along with me, I can safely say that your prayer life is severely lacking and while you might be saved, you do not know God or have a very good relationship with Him. You are a weak soldier, and the devil and his enticement of sin into your life will devour you eventually.
Take a marriage for example - if you only talked to your spouse for an hour a week - how solid would your relationship be?
We are to have constant communion with God the Father -- it is our only chance for survival!
The third part of praying is asking and granting forgiveness.
III. Forgiveness
Notice that Jesus instructs us to ask for forgiveness. This means you have to come to terms and understand what your sins are, and then confess them. * Unspoken sins are not confessed!! *
Even though God knows what they are, if He lays a sin on your heart and you know it is sin, He wants you to talk about it and get it in the open.
In this time God is trying to show us that WE need to confess it! When you pray and He gives you a thought in your mind about a past sin, you need to confess it! Get it out in the open, and get it dealt with. Some of the best times of prayer I have had have been over cleaning out my heart with God -- try it, you won’t regret it!
Next, we ask forgiveness for those who have offended us. I believe, there is a second part here. When we ask for forgiveness, I really believe the follow up action is to go to that person and ask for their forgiveness. If you have sins between you and another, you should go and ask forgiveness of them. When you clean things out with God, you must clean it with another - sin between Christians is to be reconciled! (James 5:16)
Holding bitterness in your heart against someone else is called -- SIN! This confession of asking forgiveness of those who have sins against us cleans you out to be receptive for that conversation with your brother or sister.
If there is something today that you need to ask forgiveness for, you need to get it done. It does not matter how long you have held onto that sin, confess it and get rid of it!
When we do not forgive others (get this now), WE are NOT forgiven. Jesus tells us to forgive our brother over and over again!
Matthew 18:21-22 says “Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”
Without forgiving others – we cannot be forgiven! We must be clean before each other as well!
When we pray, and we get our hearts right with God - we have to protect them. Praying and having God do heart surgery on you leaves you open, and now you have to fill it up with God stuff. This comes from reading the Word, and having God assist you in your walk.
IV. Freedom
What we are asking for when we pray “and lead us not into temptation” is we are asking to have and possess freedom from temptation! The moment we get our hearts right, the moment we clean ourselves out, the devil is going to come knocking to mess you up.
If your heart is clogged with sin today -- if your mind is filled with images that should not be there, you are NOT a threat to the devil and you are not ready to work for God. Sure, you are loved … but you are ineffective! (Get that today - reread if necessary.) If you are living with all kinds of sin in your life, the DEVIL has you exactly where he wants you to be because you are living against God’s desires and plans for your life. (Jeremiah 29:11)
Once you get your heart right -- once you focus on the Father -- you need His guidance and love to keep you from temptation. You need God’s instruction in your heart to focus your mind on Him. When you focus on God - when your prayer life is solid, I tell you the truth that the devil will have no power over you.
Right now, today, I would venture to guess that there are many dealing with sin in their minds. I would venture to guess that many have bad thoughts from years ago, or even hours ago, filling their minds and you are also holding things against someone else.
LET IT GO! Get right in your prayer life by facing up to and knowing that prayer is four things - it is four things in order to be successful. It is: Focus, Fellowship, Forgiveness, and Freedom.
This last part is called freedom - to be truly free. Won’t you come and be free today?
Pray
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