This is NOT a full sermon, but a lesson/devotional on the basics of prayer that serves as an introduction to the Model prayer given by Jesus in our Scripture. It is a launching off point for a study on prayer that will last several Wednesday evenings and will be coupled with our congregation entering into a time of focused and intimate prayer time each Wednesday evening after the study!
Sermon Brief
Date Written: January 26, 2014
Date Preached: January 29, 2014
Where Preached: OPBC (Wed PM)
Sermon Details:
Series Title: A Study on the Lord’s Prayer
Sermon Title: An Introduction
Sermon Text: Matthew 6:9-13 [HCSB]
Series Basis Text:
Matthew 6:9-13 [HCSB]
9“Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, Your name be honored as holy. 10Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11Give us today our daily bread. 12And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.]
Essence of the Text: Jesus wanted His disciples to know how to pray…
Essence of the Sermon: Jesus wants believers today to know how to pray…
Objective of the Sermon: Prayer is vital for the believer, but prayer is not so much in the words as it is in the attitude behind those words. This model prayer lays forth a template that guides the believer in the direction of their prayer and the attitude of their heart.
Introduction:
Have you ever had the thought… How do I pray about this? Maybe there is a situation in your life where you know what you want out of it, but you also know that what you want and what God wants may not be on the same page… how do we pray for those things?
Maybe a situation arises in your life where you just don’t know where to turn or what to ask or what to pray… How are we supposed to pray about those things?
How about this… let’s say you are a believer and the troubles of life and the circumstances of this life are bearing down hard and you have lost your job OR you have had a car accident where you were at fault OR your children may be involved in something you just can’t believe they are involved in…
Whatever IT may be… there is something in your life that you KNOW you should pray about but you just cannot come up with the words… you just don’t know how to approach God with your heart’s prayer!
Well, I want to encourage you… FIRST as a believer, your prayers will NEVER fall on a deaf ear. The answer you get from your prayer may not be what you wanted but your prayers will never be ignored by God. Sometimes His answer is the total opposite of what we desire… and sometimes His answer is silence, but we can know that He IS there…
Second, we must realize that God is not some sort of Cosmic Vending machine where we can insert our prayers and make the selection we desire and it come to us… Prayer is NOT a formula to get what you want!
Prayer is an intimate time with the Creator God of the universe who already knows the most intimate secrets and desires of your heart, so prayer is NOT to announce your requests to God… prayer is a tool God created for us to communicate with Him and for us to grow closer to Him!
Prayer is FOR us… Prayer sharpens our focus… Prayer strengthens our resolve… Prayer slays our doubts and fears… Prayer is our direct link, our ‘hot line’ , if you will, to God to share all of who we are and to seek all of who He is! But so many believers are starved of that intimate communion with God because they simply do NOT have a vibrant prayer life. Most believers who do NOT have a vibrant prayer life… don’t have it because they have convinced themselves that they do NOT know how to pray!
Well we are going to cure that fact over the next several weeks… We are going to teach ourselves HOW to pray and our instructor is going to be Jesus! So turn with me in your Bibles to Matt 6 and we are going to read v9-13… I will be reading from the HCSB.
Matthew 6:9-13 [HCSB]
9“Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, Your name be honored as holy. 10Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11Give us today our daily bread. 12And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.]
Now here the situation was this…Jesus was teaching the disciples with what we know as the Sermon on the Mount… He was teaching them many things:
He had spoken on how He was the fulfillment of the Law…
He had spoken on sin and how it is birthed in the heart… giving examples:
Murder is a sin, but hating your brother in your heart is just as evil in God’s eyes
Adultery is a sin, but lusting after someone in your heart is just as evil and sinful in God’s eyes
Jesus told how marriage was sacred and divorce (although allowed) was hated by God.
Jesus speaks about our character and that when we speak our yes should always be a yes… and our no should always be a know… to reveal our integrity we must have consistency in our speech.
Jesus then spoke about the consistency of our character in our actions, that as His disciples, we are to go the extra mile… we will face adversity and we will suffer persecution, but we are not to strike out but rather we are to react with kindness and generosity…
Jesus then says that we are to do this to please God and NOT to look good to other people… we don’t live the life of a believer to impress others, but to please God! So whatever we are doing it should be done with that in mind!
Jesus then spoke about this same thing in regards to how we approach God… He says that just as we are not to do things to impress other people but to do it out of our love for and desire to please God… Just like that we should not approach God with flowery praise seeking to impress others with our super-religiosity… like in our prayer to God!
Jesus says that we are NOT to approach God like a hypocrite… one who prays out loud in front of people but lives their lives in a totally contradictory way… Rather God would prefer that we come to Him in secret or in private…
Now understand that public prayer is NOT forbidden. It also means that IF anyone prays in public it does not mean that they are a hypocrite! What Jesus was getting at was the attitude behind the prayer… if you come to God in secret and private and NO one knows about your prayer, it is usually a heartfelt and sincere prayer to God…and you are not seeking the approval of others!
BUT if you insist on praying in public and in your heart you want to let others know how close you are to God… how God ‘must’ be impressed with your words… this is the hypocrite Jesus is speaking about here! In other words… the words of the prayer do not match the attitude of the heart!
So Jesus had set this up by giving this example and in Luke 11 the disciples ask the question, “Will you teach us HOW to pray?” IN other words, you tell us how NOT to pray… will you tell us how TO pray?
So Jesus begins in v8 and says, “…therefore do NOT be like them [them refers to those who pray to be heard… not to speak with God… the attitude of their heart is not submissive to God] for your Father in heaven knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. In this manner, therefore, pray…” In other words, don’t try to impress God OR others with big words or flowery language… God already knows what you need… so here is how you should pray!
Now… the misconception about what Jesus said here has carried forward for centuries… many believe that what Jesus said became the ACTUAL prayer we should use… in other words simply repeating what Jesus said is how we are to pray!
HOWEVER, Jesus never taught in the manner and often allowed his disciples to take the initiative in ‘how’ they did things as long as it was obedient to God. So the words of this prayer, although important are NOT the words we need to use in our prayer to God… BUT the FORM of this prayer is important and we need to hold to the form of the prayer!
Over the next few weeks we are going to go thru this prayer and we are going to study the ‘words’ of this prayer and what they mean and how it applies to us… Tonight we are going to just read the prayer… but next week we will begin breaking it out and studying it in earnest!
Now let’s read the prayer ONE more time… and then I want us to break out in groups of 2 or 3 and pray for our church and our people…
Pray for your own personal walk with Christ… that it is full/rich
Pray for your Christian brother/sister walk in Christ…that it is full/rich
Pray for the body of believers known as OPBC…that we are obedient, that we are submissive to God, that we are willing to do what God desires of us!
Pray for the mission God has placed before us… Our community, Parc Fontaine Apts! That the love of God is proclaimed and souls come to know Christ as Savior!
Pray for our focus in sharing God’s love in everything we do as a church
Pray for people to come to know Christ as Savior…
Pray for people to come serve here at Oak Park Baptist Church…
Pray for the people of Oak Park Baptist church to serve as God leads…
Pray for the congregation of OPBC to be sensitive to God’s calling to missions/evangelism
Pray for those in our fellowship who have already surrendered to God’s calling, that God would shine brightly in their lives and that they would remain focused in their calling…
Pray for those in our fellowship who are dealing with the calling of God BUT have not answered God’s call OR they are rejecting God’s call on their lives…
Pray for those in our church who are struggling spiritually and the Enemy has deceived them into believing that they have NOTHING to contribute…
Pray for those in our church who are struggling emotionally and the Enemy has deceived them into believing they have NOTHING to offer our fellowship OR God’s kingdom…
Pray for those in our church who are struggling physically and the Enemy has them convinced and deceived that God cannot use them because of their physical condition or health issues…
