INTRODUCTION
• It is bound to happen sometime, it usually happens when we get into trouble. We are not sure where to turn for help; we feel helpless, powerless and lost.
• What do we do?
• According to a 1993 study by the Barna Research group: Most people who pray offer their prayers several times a day (52%). About one out of three people say they pray once a day (37%) when they pray. The remainder say their prayer frequency depends on the day and their circumstances.
• The subject that we are going to look at is something that almost everyone can relate to is some manner. People who call themselves Christians do this on a regular basis and people who do not consider themselves Christians do it also.
• According to a 2001 study by the Barna research group While 96% of born agains pray in a given week, 72% of non-born agains report that they have prayed in the past seven days.
• Why do people pray? Once again according to Barna research in 1994 and 1991 studies says; Americans believe in the power and impact of prayer. Four out of five (82%) believe that "prayer can change what happens in a person’s life." (1994) Nine out of ten adults (89%) agree "there is a god who watches over you and answers your prayers." (1991)
• According to these studies, most people pray because they realize or hope that it does something for them.
• Prayer seems to be a part of the lives of many people.
• During Jesus’ day as we have stated before, prayer was an important part of the religious life of the people. For many people prayer became something it was not supposed to be, a ritual to be seen by other people.
• In this part of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is going to address the subject of prayer.
• In this text we will see the proper attitudes for a solid prayer life and the elements of prayer.
• How many times have we given up on prayer because we did not think it would do any good? Is there anything we can do to make our prayer lives better and more fulfilling?
• Do you want to have a dynamic fulfilling prayer life? I believe that if we will listen to what Jesus has to say and take it to heart that our prayer lives will change.
• Do you want to have a solid prayer life? Listen today as we look at; Jesus on Prayer!
SERMON
I. ATTITUDES FOR PRAYER (V5-8)
Effective pray springs from proper attitudes. The first attitude Jesus deals with the desire of intimacy with God. We covered this part of the text last week, but I want to take a little different approach than we did last week by looking at the intimacy issue.
A. Intimacy (5-6)
• Read verses 5-6
• Jesus was condemning the attitude of wanting to put on a show for people with our prayer life. Jesus told us that we are to pray in secret, in other words, we are praying to God, not to other people.
• Our desire should be to communicate our needs to the Father with whom we have a great love and respect for.
• We are to disclose or deepest desires to the Father because we know He cares.
• Those of you who are married, do you remember the excitement of getting the opportunity to speak with your then girl friend or boy friend? Much to the chagrin of my father, Robyn and I used to burn up the long distance lines to speak to each other. I used to find creative ways to get out of classes so that I could see her.
• When we were together, it was not for show nor was it a fake relationship.
• God does not want a show or a fake relationship; He wants an intimate relationship with us!
• Another attitude that Jesus deals with is found in verses 7-8. Let’s read them. Read verses 7-8.
B. Thoughtfulness (7-8)
• As we look at verse 7, Jesus warns us not to pray like the gentiles who use meaningless repetition when we pray. We should pray neither like the Pharisees, for public recognition (vv. 5-6), nor like the pagans, with “meaningless repetitions”, (vv. 7-8).
• What does it mean to pray with meaningless or vain repetition? It does not mean that we are not be persistent in our prayers because Jesus prayed the same prayer 3 times in the garden.
• Meaningless repetition seems to indicate reciting memorized prayers without thinking about what you are saying, or multiplying words, not for the sake of communicating anything thoughtful, but for lengthening the prayer in an attempt to gain God’s attention. Pagan incantations, for example, often used every imaginable name for the god they were invoking, hoping at least one of them would “stick.” This kind of flowery rhetoric, or even nonsense syllables, common in pagan magical incantations, doesn’t impress God.
• An example of this we have in 1 Kings 18:26: “They called on Baal from morning until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us!
• It is praying to God without giving though to what you are saying.
• It can be something as simple as saying, “forgive us for our sins” when we say this without really considering the sins that need to be forgiven. It is not necessarily the words we use, but the thought or lack there of that goes into what we are saying.
• In the faith that I was raised, we were told to say x amount of a certain prayer when we sinned. The number of times we say a prayer is not important if we do not put thought behind what we are praying.
• Jesus does not want heartless prayers. Do you want your loved one to speak to you without heart or thoughtlessly tell you that they love you?
• In verse 8, Jesus tells us that meaningless repetition does not catch God’s attention because He already knows what you need before you ask.
• That begs the question, “Why pray?”
• As a parent you know what your children need, do you just want to provide for then without any interaction, without any exchange of love for one another?
• One of God’s greatest desires is to have fellowship or a relationship with you. If He just provided for you without you ever asking, that would not happen because you would not know where the provision came from.
• Jesus is assuring His listeners that God knows their needs before they ask.
• Praying to Jesus is not like the two boys who were praying.
• Two young boys were spending the night at their grandparents. At bedtime, the two boys knelt beside their beds to say their prayers when the youngest one began praying at the top of his lungs. For my birthday, I PRAY FOR A NEW BICYCLE...I PRAY FOR A NEW NINTENDO, I PRAY FOR A NEW VCR. His older brother leaned over and said, "Why are you shouting your prayers? God isn’t hard of hearing?" His little brother replied, "No, but Grandma is."
• Thus, Jesus warns us against two common errors in prayer. We are not to pray so as to attract attention from a human audience. Neither are we to pray in an attempt to manipulate God into giving us what we want. We are to pray so as to genuinely communicate with God and to lay our needs before him.
• Now let us get into the elements of what Jesus says should exist in our prayers.
II. ELEMENTS OF PRAYER (V9-15)
• Read verses 9-13
• The first thing that we need to see in verse nine before we get into the elements of prayer is that Jesus DOES NOT say, when you pray, PRAY THIS PRAYER.
• Jesus says, “Pray then in this WAY.”
• Tradition has designated the prayer as the Lord’s Prayer, even though Jesus’ words are primarily intended to shape the prayer-life of the disciple. In addition, in light of verses 7 and 8 it certainly was not intended to be repeated mechanically, as if the “frequent repetition develops spirituality.” However, the sentiment and theological focus of the prayer does provide key components that every disciple should incorporate into his/her prayer-life. (College Press Commentary)
• Jesus is giving us a pattern to follow, not necessarily words to repeat. He is not giving us a magic potion that will solve all of our woes if we repeat the prayer enough.
• It seems to be our nature to go through the motions of something that we do all the time. We can do it in our prayer, in our song service or even communion if we are not careful.
A. Understanding WHO God is (9-10)
• One of the first elements of a fulfilling prayer life is understanding WHO God is.
• Notice that Jesus calls God “our Father”. The Prayer in verse 9 begins with reminding us that all prayer is grounded in our relationship with the Father. “Our Father”
• You can come to the Father if you belong to Him and expect that HE will hear you. (USE GOING TO DAD ILLUSTRATION VS GOING TO ANOTHER PERSONS FATHER)
• Jesus goes on to say that our Father is in heaven- The God that we pray to resides in heaven. He is not some figment of our imagination; He is the creator of the heavens and the earth. We are not.
• Hallowed by His name. This means that the God we claim to be our Father is a holy God. In Leviticus 11:44 God says that He is Holy. 1 Peter 1:16 reminds us that we are to be holy because God is holy! Hallowed means holy.
• In verse 10, we are told that because of the closeness that we have with God and because we know that His will for us is the best and that we want His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
• When we pray this we are not only expressing our hope that God’s will be done, but that we will be active participants in the ushering in of His will upon earth.
• We understand that God is the best thing for a person and we want God to be a part of all of our lives.
• When we understand who we are praying to, it can add excitement to our prayer lives. Can you imagine being able to go to the most powerful person in the world with your needs? Would you go to the person with no expectations? Would you go to them with a sense of excitement?
• I remember when I was a kid around Christmas time. I would boldly and expectantly go to see Santa Claus down town to give him my wish list. I was excited because I thought Santa could deliver the goods. (My 20’s)
B. Realizing who WE are and our need for God
• When we start to pray we should get a real sense of who we are and who God is.
• If we really understand who God is it helps us to understand how undeserving we are of God’s grace.
• Before we start asking God, we need to understand our need for Him and our need for Him is reflected in the areas that Jesus tells us we need to ask.
C. Making our requests known (11-13)
1. Daily provision (Daily bread) (11)
• Jesus tells us we should ask God for our daily provision. We are to ask Him for what we need to make through the day. If we do not think that we need God, we will no ask of Him.
• A woman told the following story about her grandchild. When our granddaughter was 4, she came to the table one day in a disgruntled mood. She complained loudly about every dish on the table. Hoping to change the mood, her mother suggested that she give the blessing. After a sullen pause, she prayed, "OK, God, I forgive you for this food."
• We are to ask with gladness.
2. Confession of sins so we can receive forgiveness (12)
• READ VERSE 12 again
• This is a reflection of our awareness of our personal failures.
• This element of the model pray can only happen if we understand that our God is holy and that when we sin, we sin again God. We have to understand our need for forgiveness.
3. Help with dealing with temptation (13)
• God does not tempt us to evil. (James 1:13)
• When we face temptation and trials, God gives us what we need to be able to endure it. 1 Corinthians 10:13
• We are seeking divine protection from factors that could destroy ones eternity
• We are asking God to help keep us from falling pray to the enticement to sin from the evil one
D. Appreciating WHAT God has done for us (14-15)
1. Appreciating our own forgiveness should lead to our forgiving others.
• In verses 14 and 15 we are told that if we forgive, God will forgive, if we do not, then God will not.
• Why is this element in the model prayer?
• Our God is a God of forgiveness. When we realize how much God has forgiven us, then we cannot help but forgive other people.
CONCLUSION
• Prayer is all about an awareness of the great God that we serve. It is all about realizing who we are and who God is.
• Sometimes we can be so ho hum about prayer, but when we get that way we are forgetting the wonderful gift that God has given to us.
• God has given us a wonderful gift.
• Jesus gives us a wonderful model of prayer to follow. Jesus did not give us a magic potion to recite; He wants us to pray from the heart.
• Do not neglect the great gift that God has given to us. Pray daily, pray all the time!
