Sermon Brief
Date Written: June 27, 2013
Date Preached: June 30, 2013
Where Preached: OPBC (AM)
Sermon Details:
Series Title: Miscellaneous
Sermon Title: What Is True Prayer?
Sermon Text: Matt 6:9-15 [NLT]
Introduction:
Over the past several weeks we have studied stewardship & learned that true stewardship has a very basic foundational truth, that is–God Owns it All!
God owns it all… & for those of us who have surrendered our hearts to Christ in repentance… For those of us who have professed our faith in Christ as our Savior, we must understand that God Owns US! If You feel that NO-ONE owns you, then you have issued out on God & you're not a part of His family!
If God owns it all… and God owns all of whom He has saved… What does this mean for ME as a believer? What does this mean for us as a fellowship? What does this mean for the church as a whole?
If God owns it all and we are called to serve Him, we must honor Him and place Him in the right place in our lives! When we pray correctly, we put God in the right place! So when someone asks you 2 pray 4 them or w/them about something, Do YOU know how to pray?
The disciples recognized that they did NOT understand how to pray! they did not fully understand how to put Jesus in the right place in their lives. They knew they needed to pray, but were confused on HOW they should pray.
In Matt 6 Jesus is teaching what we know as “The Sermon on the Mount” where He taught how we are to live in respect to God & in respect to all of humanity. Part of Jesus taught was a focus on how we should pray…and that is our focus for this morning! What is TRUE prayer? Turn to Matt 6:9-15 [NLT]:
9Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may Your name be kept holy. 10May Your kingdom come soon. May Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. 11Give us today the food we need, 12and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. 13And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one. 14“If you forgive those who sin against you, your heaven Father will forgive you. 15But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
In this passage Jesus was teaching on prayer at the beginning of this chapter and he starts out his teaching by laying down a few ground rules prior to teaching about HOW to pray…1st he tells them how NOT to pray:
First Jesus tells His disciples that they are NOT to pray so that they can be seen & noticed by others!
What Jesus is saying here is NOT that we cannot pray in public, but rather that prayer is not spiritual demonstration OR some measuring stick of how spiritual someone is… Prayer should never be used to ‘impress’ or show up others…
Next Jesus teaches His disciples that prayer is NOT how God finds out about your needs… Prayer is an intimate moment between you & God; Prayer is for YOU to draw YOU closer to Him! Your can ask for things but the focus of the prayer must always be on God not yourself or your desires!
The 3rd thing Jesus teaches is that Prayer is NOT smoothing talking… Jesus says that flowery words and repetitious phrases are not what God pleases God. His desire for prayer is a heart yielded to HIM and is repentant over its sin!
But what I believe happened here was that as Jesus was teaching that He may have seen some confusion in the eyes of His disciples and those listening to Him.
Up to this point, prayer by the Pharisees had become a public spectacle & because they prayed like that, many believed that was the right way to pray!
So HERE Jesus teaches the right way on how to pray to God and it was NOT like the Pharisees! Instead Jesus lays out a template for how to pray…What Jesus was saying here was basically, “Hey don’t be confused, I will show you how 2 pray to please God!”
So as we take a quick look at the model prayer that Jesus shares… We need to understand Jesus was NOT saying USE these words… There is NOTHING magical about the words Jesus uses here!
The words that Jesus uses are powerful words BUT His focus is not on the words, but the principle of prayer…
What Jesus said was, “Pray LIKE this…” Jesus was laying out a template for a pleasing prayer to God…
OR basically a formula OR faithful pattern we apply to our prayer regarding the situations of our lives!
But why do we pray? As I have already alluded to, we don’t pray so that God can find out what we need! Our PRAYER does not reveal our need to God… God already knows what we need! So why pray?Prayer is so much more than just going to God with a need…
First of all - Prayer acknowledges our limited ability -- we cannot BUT that fully we trust and believe that God can!
Second - Prayer recognizes our limited position -- God is in control and we are not...we are but His creation!
Third - Prayer reveals our limited resources - that we must rely on God for ALL things in this life--He is our Jehovah Jirah - The Lord who provides!
Finally - Prayer exposes our true heart & attitude toward God!
So this morning I want us to break down this “model prayer” that Jesus laid out for believers to use… what does this prayer reveal? What are the principles and precepts that are important for the believer to understand within this prayer?
I want us to examine each section of this prayer & I want us to understand what each section of this prayer means:
In the first section we read, “Our Father in Heaven may Your name be kept holy…”
“Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed by thy name” This is a way most of us have probably heard this first section… it is a more traditional way of reciting the model prayer!
In this first section, we recognize God for WHO He is… The one praying must understand that the One they are praying to is the sovereign Creator of the universe… He is the All- powerful God to whom we owe all reverence & respect!
This section elevates God above all things! It places the one praying in the position of acknowledging God’s position & authority! This phrase is placed here by Jesus because it reveals the necessary action of the one praying to recognize and submit to God’s authority in the universe!
When you pray… what is your attitude toward God? Are you treating Him like a waiter who is taking your order? Are you treating Him like a vending machine where you can put in your prayer & OUT pops what you want?
We must realize that when we pray, we are bowing our heads, hearts and knees to the God who rules all of Creation! How can we think that we can come to the God of creation and be so demanding of Him!
This is GOD we are praying to… not our parents… not our spouse… not our children… this is God and we have no authority over Him! God is sovereign and we must recognize that sovereignty!
The 2nd line of the prayer says:
2. May your Kingdom come soon. May Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven…
Your Kingdom? What does that really mean? God’s kingdom is technically ALL things as He created all things! But we can see that God’s kingdom stretches further out than heaven itself!
What Jesus is teaching here is that God’s kingdom is to be recognized and acknowledged here on earth… just like it is in heaven!
The angels soar around heaven seeking to serve God in the manner He calls them to serve Him… What Jesus is saying here is that we should strive to serve God just like the angels in heaven!
When we step back and take a closer look at this section, it reveals a deeper & much more intimate understanding of the God we SAY we love, serve and honor!
The statement taught here by Jesus was a proclamation that God is not only the sovereign ruler of the universe BUT that He is also supposed to be the sovereign ruler of our hearts!
What this section is saying is that we are to seek God’s kingdom above all things! And JUST like the angels in heaven obey without question! Our obedience to God should be as faithful as the angels!
What about you when you pray, is your focus on serving God? Is your focus on doing the will of the Father… Is it on the making God’s will known to humanity? Or is it more about your desires and what you want FROM God?
We cannot allow our self-centered desires to get us off track in serving God! Our focus must always be on His will and plan for our lives!
The 3rd line of this model prayer is:
3. Give us today the food we need…
Now when I look at this it seems a bit off to be asking for food, but when we look at the overall message of the Sermon on the Mount, we can see that this really fits in well with what Jesus is teaching. He is speaking about the physical needs we all have in this world!
As humans we DO have physical needs… needs that we must have fulfilled to simply survive! With this in mind we need to understand that what Jesus is teaching here!
He is simply teaching that in our prayer we must acknowledge our need for God to intervene in our lives...EVEN for the basic physical needs of our lives!
I believe when we submit to this type of prayer that it opens our eyes to God and who He really is! It reveals to us that God DOES own it all AND that unless God provides it, we won’t have it!
So when you are praying do you focus on YOUR desires or wants? What is your prayer life like? Is it focused on the will of God and seeking His desires? Is your prayer a prayer of trust & seeking His provision! What does your prayer look like this morning?
The 4th line of the model prayer is:
4. And forgive our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us…
I believe that this section represents the spiritual realm of our existence! It reveals our personal relationship with God!
What this section really does is recognize that forgiveness of sin can come only from God, but also in accordance with the teaching of Jesus, God’s forgiveness is withheld if we are UNWILLING to be forgiving!
How often do we come to church seeking a blessing, but we harbor hate in our heart/ a grudge against a brother/sister! WE have to understand that there is nothing wrong about seeking a blessing from God.
However, our prayer time must laced with forgiveness & love for other people (not just believers) then we know that God is pleased and will listen to our prayer, then is when He will bless you!
Finally this morning we can see the 5th part of this model prayer:
5. And don’t let us yield to temptation but rescue us from the evil one…
This last section of the prayer represents our complete dependence on God… It reveals our spiritual weakness and affirms that without God’s intervention we are slaves to the evil one.
What this is saying to God is that the temptations of the evil one will overcome anyone who claims to have the will power to resist him!
A believer’s BIG mistake is that when he begins to leave God out of the equation, his temptations will overwhelm his resistance…
What Jesus is saying here is that, as humans, we are totally subject to the evil one’s power without God… this section of the prayer is a desperate cry for God’s intervention on our behalf… it is a cry out to God because we NEED Him to survive spiritually in this world of the evil one!
We cannot survive spiritually OR physically in this world without God! We live in a world that is broken, where sin is rampant & temptation flows free…
Our human heart’s desire can & will be swayed without God there to intervene… this phrase in this prayer is a cry for God’s intervention in our lives & that He would give us His deliverance & salvation!
I want us to take note of what Jesus was teaching us…
1) This prayer recognizes God’s Sovereignty;
2) This prayer understands God’s Plan/Will;
3) This prayer outlines the physical need of humanity and humanities utter dependence on God;
4) This prayer also reveals the spiritual need in our lives and our total dependence on God for it;
5) This prayer is also our confession of how helpless we are without God! It is also a cry for God’s intervention/ salvation in our lives!
So the question this morning is how is your prayer life? Are you praying as Jesus has called you to pray?
In your prayer time do you recognize and realize that God is ALL powerful and ALL everything? Do you understand that He is in control? Or do you pray without recognition of who He is?
In your prayer time, do you make yourself available for God’s purpose and plan… even if it is inconvenient and contrary to YOUR own plans… what is your focus, is it on serving God or on your own desire?
In your prayer time, do you recognize God for how He provides for you? So often we go to God with our prayer and we tell Him how awful our lives are because we don’t have ‘this or that’… How often do we go to God recognizing His part in providing for us? Do we REALLY trust God to provide all we need for us?
In our prayer time do we recognize and understand that forgiveness plays a major role… God’s grace promises forgiveness for ANY sin and that there is NO gulf of sin too wide that God’s grace cannot span…
However, are you harboring ill will toward someone? Are you holding a grudge against someone in the church? Someone on church staff? Do you have bitterness in your heart? Is your heart UNFORGIVING… if you are NOT willing to forgive… God is not going to forgive you!
Finally this morning I want to ask, DO you realize that God is our only source of strength and power! We can't overcome this world or the master of this world! It is only thru Jesus that we can know victory over the evil one who opposes God in all things?
This morning you have heard how we are called to pray… we are not called to just ‘say’ the WORDs in this passage(like many believe) but instead we are called to reveal the attitude of the heart that God demands of those who follow Him and profess Him as Savior!
Give invitation here…
