"When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him! Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one. “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins." (Matthew 6:5-15, NLT)
(SLIDE 2)
INTRODUCTION
A small town had one church and one bar. Members of the church complained that the bar was giving the community a bad image. And to make matters worse the owner of the bar was an out spoken atheist who didn’t believe in God. The church had tried for years to shut down the bar and finally decided to hold a prayer meeting. The church folks gathered on Saturday night and there was a horrible thunderstorm raging outside and to the delight of the church members, lightning hit that old bar and it burned to the ground. The next morning the sermon in the church was on the power of prayer. But the insurance assessor promptly notified the bar owner that they were not going to pay for the damages because the fire was an ‘act of God’, and that was an exclusion in the policy. The bar owner was furious and he sued the church, claiming that they had conspired with God to destroy his business. But the church denied that they had anything to do with the cause of the fire. The presiding judge opened the trial with these words: “No matter how this case comes out, one thing is clear. The atheist believes in prayer and the Christians do not.”
The disciples did believe in prayer! That was why they asked Jesus “Lord teach us to pray.” At first glance this is a strange request since from infancy as devout Jews they had been taught to pray. At their mother’s knee, by their fathers, in the rabbinical schools, they had been taught the fundamentals of prayer.
Yet they ask Jesus to teach them to pray. Significantly that they never asked Jesus, nor did he ever teach them to preach suggesting that it is more important to learn how to talk to God than to talk to other people about God!
As the Disciples had observed Jesus at prayer they had witnessed something different, something unique about the way Jesus prayed. They realized that for Jesus …
PRAYER IS NOT
A MOUTHING OF WORDS (although words are essential in effective praying)
A RELIGIOUS DISCIPLINE (although effective praying takes discipline)
A CELESTIAL 911 (although pray does involve requesting God’s intervention in a time of crisis…
Reminds me of the sign in a classroom that read ‘In the event of a disaster, the ruling against prayer in the School will be temporarily suspended!)
A DIVINE REQUISITION FORM (although prayer does involve making our requests known to God. Perhaps a good litmus test or our prayer life is to ask ‘What portion or percentage of my prayers is made up of presenting my requests to God?’)
A HEAVENLY HIGH (although sensing God’s awesome presence is vital, it should never be restricted to my mood or inclination towards feeling spiritual)
Jesus demonstrated in His own prayer life as well as in His teaching on prayer that prayer, true prayer is more that a repetition of learned phrases or formulas, prayer as Jesus taught His Disciples (and us) in the Lord’s Prayer is more than something we memorize, something we babble unthinkingly. For Jesus …
PRAYER IS A PATTERN FOR LIVING
When Jesus said ‘Pray like this’ he never meant us to just repeat the words as a sort of religious incantation or chant rather He meant us to use it as the basis of our daily conversation as we walk through life in communion with our Heavenly Father.
How would we feel if our loved ones only spoke to us in carefully memorized and canned phrases? “I love you , mother most dear, you are always so kind and gracious tending to all my needs” We want to connect, to experience an authentic, heartfelt, genuine relationship with our loved ones…
How much more does our Heavenly Father want to connect, authentically connect with us as we live out our lives on a daily basis!
When Jesus taught us the Lord’s Prayer, He showed us that …
PRAYER AS A PATTERN FOR LIVING IS
First and foremost … A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD AS our Heavenly FATHER which provides a vital…
A RESOURCE FOR PURPOSEFUL LIVING and gives us a meaningful barometer,
A RATIFICATION OF our SPIRITUAL HEALTH
Look briefly at each aspect of experiencing prayer in this way.
(SLIDE 3)
A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD AS FATHER
Upon arriving at the Church Office one Monday Morning, a pastor was surprised to find a dead donkey in the Church parking lot. He informed the police, but since no foul play was suspected they referred it to the Health Department. Since it provided no immediate threat to public health it was passed on to the Sanitation Department. The manager of Sanitation refused to act without the Mayors authorization. Knowing that the mayor was hard to deal with, it was with a degree of trepidation that the pastor phoned the Mayor. True to form the Mayor ranted and raved saying “Why did you call me? Isn’t it your responsibility to bury the dead?” To which the pastor replied, “Yes your honor, it is my job to bury the dead, however I must first notify the next of kin!”
In introducing us to the PATTERN OF PRAYER that we call the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus points us to the foundation of all our praying … Our relationship to the God of the Universe …
“The knowledge of God’s Father-love is the first and simplest, but also the last and highest lesson in the school of prayer. Prayer begins in a personal relationship with the living God as well as a personal, conscious fellowship of love with Him.” (Andrew Murray – ‘With Christ in the School of Prayer’).
BEFORE ADDRESSING GOD ABOUT
• HIS PERSON - may your name be kept holy
• HIS PROGRAM - may your Kingdom come
• HIS PURPOSE - may your will be done
BEFORE ASKING GOD ABOUT
• OUR PROVISION - give us today
• OUR PARDON - forgive us our sins
• OUR PROTECTION - rescue us from the evil one
JESUS DIRECTS US TO THE BASIS OF OUR PRAYERS
• OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD: Our Father
When we pray we come before the One in whom all power exists, through whom the Universe was created and is sustained, but Jesus teaches us that we come before Him as Father.
GOD IS
• “OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN”
THROUGH FAITH IN JESUS WE HAVE ACCESS TO GOD IN A NEW AND INTIMATE WAY
Paul says … "Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us." (Romans 5:1, NLT)
"So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when He adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”" (Romans 8:15, NLT)
HE IS OUR FATHER
WE ARE HIS CHILDREN
You may remember the story about Kay Arthur, that I shared a few weeks ago. Kay tells that one day as a young widow with two children, she was having a bad day. As she got out of her car, arms loaded down with books, and not wanting to go into her house, her mind went back to a time in her childhood when she had been running through the grass toward her dad, terrified and screaming. He had scooped her up in his arms and given her comfort. She wished that she could be a little girl again. She wished that she had someone to hold her right then.
As she turned to go into her house, she envisioned herself a little girl again, running down a vast marble corridor, tears streaming down her cheeks. At the end of the long corridor she saw two huge golden doors. On either side of the imposing doors stood two magnificently dressed guards blocking the entrance into the room beyond. Undaunted, she ran straight toward the doors, crying, “Abba!” She never broke her stride for as she neared the doors, the guards flung them opened and heralded her arrival: “The daughter of the King! The daughter of the King!” Court was in session. The cherubim and seraphim cried, “Holy, holy, holy!” and the elders sat on their thrones, dressed in white, wearing crowns of gold, and talking with the King of kings. But none of this slowed the little girl. Oblivious to everything going on about her, she ran up the steps leading to the throne, and she catapulted herself into the King’s arms. She was home and wrapped in the arms of His everlasting love. He reached up and, with one finger, gently wiped away her tears. Then He smoothed the sticky hair on her face back into her braids and said, “Now, now, tell your Father all about it.”
Kay Arthur said she walked into the house, left her books on the table, walked through her house, and knelt by her bedside. Then she proceeded to tell her Father all about it.
That is the relationship Jesus opened up for us. That is the relationship that underpins all our prayers!
(SLIDE 4)
A RESOURCE FOR PURPOSEFUL LIVING
Prayer perhaps more than anything else is indicative of the fact that we are invited through Jesus into a living relationship with Almighty God.
Dallas Willard defined prayer as “talking with God about what we are doing together”
We shouldn’t say prayers; we need to live our prayers. It is an intimate moment by moment sharing of our lives with our Heavenly Father. Yes there will be times when we spend extended quality time with Him. There will be other times when it is sharing as we go about living.
An elderly man was living out his last days in a nursing home. Each day, as the nurses would tend to his needs, he insisted on having an empty chair next to his bed. The man would look at that empty chair and talk for hours at a time each day. One day one of the nurses asked him why he wanted that empty chair. He told the nurse, "That is where Jesus sits when we talk." Eventually, the old man passed away. When they found him, his head was resting in the "empty" chair. The nurses said he left this walk of life with his head in the lap of Jesus. He had a genuine relationship with his Lord.
This is the relationship Jesus introduced us to; In prayer inviting God into our daily activities and seeking His management over our entire lives. That is what THE
LORD’S PRAYER IS meant to be A PATTERN FOR LIVING…
NOTICE THE FOCUS, NOTICE THE SEQUENCE
• HIS PERSON
Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.
MAKING GOD THE CEO.
This is the starting point, handing over control to the One who alone has the right to control our lives. We need to do this as we start out each day. We need to consciously do this through the day.
God must be first in our lives … not to do this is the ultimate sin from which every other act of disobedience evolves.
• HIS PROGRAM
May your Kingdom come soon.
SEEKING HIS WILL.
If God is in control, then we should always do what He wants us to do. This is obeying the Word of God.
• HIS PURPOSE
May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
OBEYING HIS COMMAND.
When God speaks we must obey! Prayer is not trying to persuade God to change His mind but to allow God to align us to His will.
Ivan Denisovich was enduring the horrors of a Soviet prison camp and one day as he was praying another prisoner ridiculed him by saying: “Prayers won’t help you get out of here any faster.” Opening his eyes, Ivan answered, “I do not pray to get out of prison but to do the will of God.”
• OUR PROVISION
Give us today the food we need,
TELLING HIM WHAT ON YOUR MIND.
He wants to know! He wants us to share! He wants to be part of your life!
"Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you." (1 Peter 5:7, NLT)
A man was driving down a street in a panic because he had an important meeting and couldn’t find a parking place. Looking up to heaven, he said, “Lord, take pity on me. If you find me a parking place I’ll go to church every Sunday and give up all my bad habits.” Just then a parking place appeared. Quickly the man looked up again and said, “Never mind. I have just found one!”
Recognise that when you do tell Him all your needs, it is He who gets the Glory …
• OUR PARDON.
In this life we will fall short, we will fail, we will make mistakes, therefore …
and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
ASKING FOR FORGIVENESS.
You will need forgiveness and it is given!
• OUR PROTECTION
And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.
It is not a prayer to be kept from temptation or trial but a prayer against being drawn or sucked, by our own will, into sinning.
DESIRING HIS PROTECTION
HIS PREEMINENCE
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
GIVING GOD THE GLORY
Over the succeeding weeks we will examine each of these petitions in greater detail.
(SLIDE 5)
A RATIFICATION OF SPIRITUAL HEALTH
PRAYER WAS THE MOST CHARACTERISTIC MARK OF JESUS…
HE SPENT GREAT AMOUNTS OF TIME IN PRAYER
EVERYTHING HE DID CAME FROM HIS TIME IN PRAYER
WHY? …
BECAUSE OF HIS strong RELATIONSHIP TO HIS FATHER
REMEMBER THE STATE OF YOUR PRAYER LIFE …
Also REFLECTS THE STATE OF YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE FATHER
Jane Walsh was secretary to essayist Thomas Carlyle. Later she married him and devoted her life to him and his work. He in turn loved her deeply but was so busy with his writing and speaking that he often neglected her. After a number of years of marriage, Carlyle’s wife Jane died. After the funeral Carlyle went alone into Jane’s room and paged through her diary. Saddened he found these entries, “Yesterday he spent an hour with me. It was like heaven. I love him so” “I have listened all day to hear his step in the hall but now it is late. I guess he will not come today!” Carlyle wept broken hearted realizing his neglect”
God loves us dearly and waits for us to commune with Him, make Him part of our daily activities. How many days do we forget Him.
Luther who prayed for 3-4 hours everyday tells us that the fullness of his life came from these times of communion with his Heavenly Father. They were never hours lost from his day’s activities but rather were the sustaining foundation upon which all else rested.
What relationship is healthy without spending quality time on it? How much more is this not true of your relationship with your Heavenly father!
(SLIDE 7)
PRAYER IS NOT
DISCIPLINING YOURSELF
BUT
DEEPENING YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST
An unknown author put together a great summary of the Disciples’ Prayer.
• I cannot say “our” if I live only for myself.
• I cannot say, “Father” if I do not endeavor each day to act like His child.
• I cannot say, “hallowed be your name” if I am playing around with sin.
• I cannot say “your kingdom come” if I am not allowing God to reign in my life.
• I cannot say, “your will be done” if I want my way all the time.
• I cannot say “give us this day our daily bread” if I am trusting in myself instead of in God’s provision.
• I cannot say, “Forgive us our debts” if I am nursing a grudge or withholding forgiveness from someone else.
• I cannot say, “lead us not into temptation” if I deliberately place myself in its path.
“ … if you will swing the door of your life fully open and ‘pray to your Father who is in the secret place’ every public thing in your life will be marked with the lasting imprint of the presence of God” (Oswald Chambers)
“When we view prayer as a way of life, communicating continuously, God leads us moment by moment to become more of the people He intends us to be. And the result is the life we were longing for” (John Burke)
