TEACH US TO PRAY
Text: Matt. 6:9-13
Introduction
1. Illustration: In his classic book With Christ In The School Of Prayer, author Andrew Murray says, “Jesus never taught His disciples how to preach, only how to pray.”
2. We have designated 2020 as a year of rest and reflection. During that time, we are resting from the outreach that we have done, but we are also taking a good hard look at everything we do as a church and asking God to show us how to do it better.
3. We are going to ask God to give us…
a. A new vision
b. A new focus
c. A new purpose
4. The key to hearing from God in all of those things is prayer. It is the key for us because it was the key for Jesus and his disciples.
a. Through their time with him the disciples knew that the secret to Jesus success in ministry was his up relationship with the Father.
b. Jesus also knew for his disciples to be successful in ministry it was going to take a strong up relationship.
c. For us to be successful it is going to take a strong up relationship.
5. So, this morning we are going to ask the Lord to teach us to pray! The Lord’s Prayer, or more appropriately, The Model Prayer, consists of six components…
a. Character
b. Kingdom
c. Provision
d. Forgiveness
e. Guidance
f. Protection
6. Stand with me this morning, out of respect for the Word of God, as we read Matthew 6:9-13.
Proposition: We need to learn to pray as Jesus instructed us.
Transition: The first component of the model prayer is…
I. Character (9).
A. Our Father In Heaven
1. The first thing that Jesus teaches us in prayer is to recognize the otherness of God.
2. In v. 9, Jesus says, “Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.”
a. Jesus begins with a simple word that demonstrates an important relational concept: Father.
b. Jesus uses the Aramaic word Abba, an informal name often translated Daddy.
c. It’s an intimate name for an intimate God!
d. Now, none of us would ever deny that Jesus has the right to address God the Father in this fashion.
e. However, what we sometimes fail to recognize is that Jesus is teaching us that we can have the same relationship with the Father as Jesus does.
f. This relationship also transcends barriers. God was just as much Jesus’ Father on earth as he was in heaven.
g. The same is true for us. He is just as much our Father now as he will be when we are in heaven.
3. The other thing we need to recognize is that even though we can have an intimate relationship with the Father, we also need to be aware that he is very different from us.
a. The greatest aspect of God’s character is his holiness.
b. We are to offer respect and reverence to God because he is holy, with no darkness or sin.
c. Christians, who bear the holy name of Christ, must be responsible to honor him in every aspect of their lives.
d. We pause to acknowledge that he is what we long to be. We long to be like God so that his glory will be revealed to the people we meet.
e. When we pray for God’s name to be honored, we pray that this world will honor his name, and we look forward to Christ’s return when that will be a reality.
(Barton, 31).
B. Otherness of God
1. Illustration: R.C. Sproul tells us, transcendence means literally, "to climb across." It is defined as "exceeding the usual limits." When we speak of the transcendence of God, we are talking about that sense in which God is above and beyond us. He is higher than the world. He has absolute power over the world. The world has no power over Him. Transcendence describes God in His consuming majesty, His exalted loftiness. He is an infinite cut above everything else. [The Holiness of God p. 55]
2. First thing we do in prayer is acknowledge the “otherness” of God.
a. Isaiah 55:8-9 (NLT2)
8 “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
b. God’s desire is for us to have an intimate relationship with him, but we must always recognize that He is almighty God and we are his creation.
c. We must acknowledge that he is everything we are not.
d. We must acknowledge that he is holy, and we are sinners in need of His grace.
e. But this ought to overwhelm us even more that he wants an intimate relationship with us.
f. In spite of the differences between us God calls us to come to him, sit on his lap and say, “Daddy!”
g. Like any parent, he wants to hear from us on a daily basis and to have a close intimate relationship with us.
Transition: The second element of the model prayer is…
II. Kingdom (10).
A. May Your Kingdom Come
1. Jesus continues the model prayer by talking about one of his favorite subjects, the Kingdom.
2. In v. 10 he says, “May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.”
a. “Here Jesus says, “Yes, you’ve been fully adopted into God’s family.
b. You have every right to be talking to him, but do you realize who your Daddy is? He’s the King!” Not a king, the King.
c. So we say, “I want what you want, Daddy.
d. Your Kingdom is an awesome kingdom of light and love, and I want your Kingdom to advance in this world of darkness and hate.
e. My desire is the same as your desire: to see everyone come out of this world of sin and into your Kingdom of forgiveness.
f. I want your rule to advance and be known in this world.”
B. The Kingdom
1. Illustration: "Because the will of God is the glory of heaven, the doing of it is the blessedness of heaven. As the will is done, the kingdom of heaven comes into the heart."
2. When we pray for His Kingdom and will to be done, His desire become our desire.
a. Matthew 26:39 (NLT2)
39 He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”
b. As we pray and ask God for his Kingdom to come on earth, and His will to be done, what we are asking of Him is for more and more people to come into that intimate relationship with him that we have.
c. His will is for more and more people to come to him, repent, be forgiven, saved and filled with the Holy Spirit.
d. That is what Ohio for Jesus if all about! It’s about seeing the Kingdom of God come to Ohio!
e. It’s about seeing people set free by the power of God and receive forgiveness through the cross.
f. And that is what we are asking for when we pray for His Kingdom and will to be done.
Transition: The third element of the model prayer is…
III. Provision (11).
A. Give Us Today
1. The focus of the model prayer now shifts from “your,” to “us.”
2. In v. 11 Jesus says, “Give us today the food we need,”
a. “As humans, we are needy beings. In prayer we can admit those needs.
b. We have physical needs—food, shelter, clothing—that must be met daily.
c. We need health in our bodies. We have spiritual and emotional needs—hope, someone to love, faith—that also must be cared for daily.
d. We need strength in our spirits. All of this is included in “daily bread.”
e. This is where we pull a chair up to our Father’s table.
f. We acknowledge that he has the means to feed us—whatever our hunger is.
g. We go to him with our most basics needs anticipating he will feed us from his bounty.
h. We ask because it demonstrates not only our need, but our trust in his provision for us.”
B. Meet Our Needs
1. Illustration: As a new Christian, I presumed Jesus’ main job was taking care of me. He led to me a job, roommates to share apartment costs, and a car that ran. But after a while my tastes got fussier. Like the Israelites waking up to manna every morning, I was tired of the same-old, same-old. I wanted a home with more privacy, a more interesting yet less stressful job, and a shinier new car. My list continued to grow. I wanted Jesus to perk me up when I was down, remove my difficulties, and make living a whole lot easier. When those things didn’t come, I felt as if Jesus had walked away from me. What I didn’t realize was that He had put loving distance between us, just as He did with the crowd that night, knowing that they wanted to force Him to be king. For me, and for them, it took a stormy night to point out why those expectations were off base.
2. God will meet all our NEEDS according to His riches.
a. Philippians 4:19 (NLT2)
19 And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.
b. Now our name it and claim it friends will take from this that God has to give me whatever I want.
c. If I want a new Corvette or my own private jet all I have to do is ask God for it and he has to give it to me.
d. But that’s not what this verse says at all. In fact, the context is talking about being content with what you already have.
e. The verse in the model prayer is talking about “our daily bread,” in other word, “the bread I need for today.”
f. God is not our errand boy! It’s not his job to give us the latest and greatest gadget.
g. He meets our needs not necessarily our wants.
Transition: The fourth element of the model prayer is…
IV. Forgiveness (12).
A. Forgive Us
1. An important part of prayer is acknowledging our sinfulness to God and asking for his forgiveness.
2. In. v. 12 Jesus says, “…and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.”
a. God has given us territory that is ours, and his provision within that territory is full and without want.
b. Yet for some reason we often stray from our land and try to take what is not ours.
c. We trespass into our neighbor’s land and incur a debt we cannot pay.
d. When we sin against someone, we are saying, “God, what you have given to me is not enough.”
e. And for this we must ask forgiveness.
f. We need to be aware that God has set a path for us; he has called us and given us a destiny.
g. In this prayer we are asking God to help us not to stray from his place within his kingdom.
h. And when other people stray from their path onto ours, hurting us and abusing us and causing us pain, then we need to forgive them as God has forgiven us.
i. “Keep us, Lord, from being indebted to you in withholding forgiveness from others.”
B. Let Us Reason
1. Illustration: In the John Wayne movie, "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon," The John Wayne character is noted for telling people, "never apologize, mister, it's a sign of weakness." I hate to tell you this, but as much as I love John Wayne movies, his character is dead wrong on this one. When we’re wrong, we need to admit it, and ask forgiveness. Even to our kids, when we blow it with them.
2. God calls us to daily confess our sins to him and receive forgiveness.
a. Isaiah 1:18 (NLT2)
18 “Come now, let’s settle this,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool.
b. Scripture is clear that we are sinners, and if we are honest, we know that we sin on a daily basis.
c. Another things Scripture tells us is that if we don’t confess our sins God won’t hear our prayers.
d. So daily confession ought to be a regular part of our prayer life.
e. When we do this, Scripture says that God forgives us and cleanses us of our sins.
f. The other side of this is that just as God forgives us, we need to forgive others when they sin against us.
g. In fact, a few verses later in Matt. 6 Jesus says, if we don’t forgive, we won’t be forgiven.
Transition: The fifth element in the model prayer is…
V. Guidance (13a).
A. Temptation
1. One thing that becomes unmistakable to a new believer is that this Christian life is not always a bed of roses. In fact, sometimes it’s hard work!
2. In the first part of v. 13 Jesus says, “And don’t let us yield to temptation…”
a. Lead us not into temptation. Up until now, the prayer has been dealing with our relationship with the Father and with those around us.
b. Here the prayer changes, now dealing with us going out into the world with the message of God’s love and forgiveness.
c. The Greek word translated temptation does not mean “enticement to do evil” but “testing.”
d. Sometimes God allows his people to be “tested” by temptation.
e. But this testing is never without a purpose: God is always working to refine his people, teach them to depend on him, and strengthen their character to be more like him.
f. How he does this differs in every person’s life. The prayer, then, is that we not yield to temptation.
(Barton, 32).
g. “When you take us out into the world, Father, to do your bidding, to advance your kingdom, give us the strength to be in the world but not of the world.”
B. Testing
1. Illustration: A number of years ago, the Douglas Aircraft company was competing with Boeing to sell Eastern Airlines its first big jets. War hero Eddie Rickenbacker, the head of Eastern Airlines, reportedly told Donald Douglas that the specifications and claims made by Douglas’s company for the DC-8 were close to Boeing’s on everything except noise suppression. Rickenbacker then gave Douglas one last chance to out-promise Boeing on this feature. After consulting with his engineers, Douglas reported that he didn’t feel he could make that promise. Rickenbacker replied, "I know you can’t, I just wanted to see if you were still honest." (Today in the Word, MBI, October, 1991, 22.) The truth is that temptation is a part of our everyday Christian life. Christ was not exempt; neither are you. You will be tempted and always will be tempted. Holiness of character depends upon your resisting these temptations.
2. We need to pray daily for the strength and wisdom to pass the tests that come our way.
a. Matthew 26:41 (NLT2)
41 Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak!”
b. Everywhere we look and go there is temptation.
c. There’s temptation at work.
d. There’s temptation at the grocery store.
e. There is temptation in the parking lot and on the highway.
f. There’s temptation at school.
g. There’s certainly temptation on the internet.
h. So we need to constantly asking God to protect us from these things.
Transition: The final element of the model prayer is…
VI. Protection (13b).
A. Rescue Us From The Evil One
1. Jesus was not immune from the schemes of the devil, and he wants his disciples to be on their guard against him.
2. At the end of v. 13 Jesus says, “And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.”
a. And deliver us from the evil one. Our souls have an enemy, and his devices of evil include temptation to participate in that evil.
b. If we are led astray by his temptations, eventually we will end up in his hands.
c. The evil one comes only to steal and to kill, says Jesus. He wants to steal our health, steal our joy and our love.
d. If he is successful in his endeavors, we will enter into an eternal death in which we will forever be separated from the love of Christ. We are praying that God would keep us safe as we venture through life in the Lord’s service.”
e. Jesus wanted his followers to place their trust in God during trying times and to pray for deliverance from the evil one and his deceit.
f. All Christians struggle with temptation. Believers who pray these words realize their sinful nature and their need to depend on God in the face of temptation.
(Barton, 32).
B. Roaring Lion
1. Illustration: He’s out there, just beyond your field of vision, He’s stalking you. He’s looking for a sign of weakness, He’s ready to pounce and devour. He has no mercy or compassion in him, you are his prey.
2. It’s important to stay on our guard against the devil’s tricks.
a. 1 Peter 5:8-9 (NLT2)
8 Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.
9 Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your Christian brothers and sisters all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are.
b. There’s a reason that Jesus includes this in the model prayer, and, I believe, a reason he puts it last on the list.
c. As soon as we stop praying the devil starts scheming.
d. Once we get off our knees the attacks begin.
e. So, fight in prayer. Fight on your knees.
Conclusion
1. The Model Prayer, consists of six components…
a. Character
b. Kingdom
c. Provision
d. Forgiveness
e. Guidance
f. Protection
2. 3 Things To Remember…
a. Take one phrase every day and focus on that for your prayer time.
b. Use that phrase to pray for the needs in your life and in the lives of those around you.
c. If you feel you have reached the bottom of that phrase, that there is no more for you to get out of it, dig some more.
