INTRODUCTION
· By now many should have seen Passion of the Christ. For me, the most impressionable scene was the praying Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.
· I’ve not come to see a person prays with such intensity. Have I ever prayed that way? Maybe when one of my loved one is dying away...
· It was so intense. No wonder people say praying is the "outpouring of one’s soul."
· Heb 5:7 - During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.
· I saw intimacy. I saw the strong bond He has with the Father.
o We’ve read about Jesus going off to quiet places frequently to pray…
o And we’ve read about the long hours He was away praying…
o But now I see something that I admired.
· I admired people who give prayer a priority in their lives. Prayer is one of the most difficult disciplines of my life. It has been more intermittent than persistent.
THE PRAYER LIFE OF JESUS
· In the life of Jesus, prayer was the work, and ministry was just the reaping…
o He wasn’t discouraged because He made connections with the Father daily.
o Miracles happened because the power of God was flowing through Him.
· For me, prayer is the preparation for the ministry. But for Jesus, it was the battle itself.
Having prayed, he went about doing His ministry, healing the sick, delivering the oppressed.
· His prayer time was the real thing… the real battle, the real fight.
o When we look at His intense prayer at the Garden, we may ask: “If He is so broken up when all He is doing is praying, what will he do when He faces a real crisis?”
o Why couldn’t He approach this ordeal with the calm confidence of His 3 sleeping friends (disciples)? They were much calmer than Jesus.
o Yet when the real test came, Jesus walked to the cross with courage, and His 3 friends fell apart and fell away.
· That’s why I admire those who PRAY… and pray and pray… That’s the real thing!
THEY SAW JESUS’ PRAYERS
· His disciples were so inspired by the way He prays.
o Luke 11:1 - One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples."
· They have been with Him for more than 2 years now. Jesus was a great teacher, a good counselor, an excellent preacher. Yet they wanted Him to teach them how to pray.
o When we’re with a successful banker, we ask, “Teach us how to invest.”
o When you’re with Tiger Woods, you ask, “Teach us how to play golf.”
o When you’re with Michael Jordan, you ask, “Teach us how to throw the ball.”
o Jesus’ disciples asked, “Lord, teach us to pray.”
THE LORD TEACHES US HOW TO PRAY
· It would be nice if we could have a record of Jesus’ personal prayers. But that wouldn’t be possible, because He prays usually alone, up in the mountains and quiet places.
· But He left us few words we called the Lord’s Prayer. Better called Jesus’ blueprint for prayer because it is not His personal prayer – He need not say, “Forgive us our sins.”
· We must take note of these few lines, because therein lies the important principles about prayer that we need to know.
· Obviously it is not a prayer for us to simply recite. Just before this, He said in verse 7: "And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words."
· We pray that at the end of these sessions, we’ll go away with a stronger conviction and motivation to pray.
THE LORD’S PRAYER
· The prayer falls quite neatly into 2 major sections:
o Approach Him right – we are talking to our Father, about our Father’s concerns!
His Person, His program, His purpose…
“Hallowed be Your Name, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done…”
o Then we talk about His children – our need for provision, pardon and protection…
“Give us this day our daily bread, forgive us our sins… lead us not into temptations.”
1. Jesus showed it in His life – that the over-riding purpose & motivation of His life – to see God’s will done. He prayed the same way in the Garden – “Not my will, but yours be done!”
2. When we commune with God, our over-riding focus and concern is Him! Not us.
o Why? Because there are different values attached to different things.
o There is temporal vs eternal, spiritual vs material, heavenly vs earthly concerns.
o When we come with a checklist of wants, we are majoring on the minors.
o Matt 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
1. "OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN..."
o This is very revolutionary (in Jesus’ times). Jews do not address God this flippant way. They address Him as Elohim (the supreme God), Yahweh (Source of all things, Creator God)...
o The word Abba used here is the common Aramaic word with which a child would address his father. No one, under any circumstances, ever used it in connection with God.
o Remember the scene in Passion of the Christ, Gethsemane, when Jesus addressed God as Abba? Through the Gospel, Jesus addresses God only as "Father". (He uses Father more than 60 times).
o That’s how intimate your relationship with God is today.
o And only you can call Him ‘Father’, because Jesus redeemed you and given you the right to become children of God. (John 1:12)
o It’s a privilege we easily take for granted. Don’t. Start talking to Him.
o In his book What Jesus Said About Successful Living,
Haddon W. Robinson writes, "In the Old Testament, the Israelites did not individually address God as Father. As far as we know, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, or Daniel never fell to their knees in the solitude of their chambers and dared to address God that way. Yet in the New Testament, God is called Father at least 275 times, and that is how we are instructed to speak to Him. All that a good father wants to be to his children, Jesus told us, God will be to Christians who approach Him in prayer. We can pray as children." (Discovery House Publishers, p.190).
o When you come to God in prayer, what you find is a Father’s heart, a Fathers’ love, a Father’s protection. Isn’t that wonderful?
2. YOUR FATHER IS IN HEAVEN...
o What affects you will not affect Him. What troubles you here does not trouble Him.
o He is in heaven, seated upon His throne. The resources of heave are in His hands. This is what we must SEE.
o Max Lucado describes...
Is an eagle disturbed by traffic? No, he rises above it.
Is the whale perturbed by a hurricane? Of course not, he plunges beneath it.
Is the lion agitated by the mouse standing directly in his way? No, he steps over it.
o Our God is able to soar above, plunge beneath, and step over the troubles of this world.
o HIS WAYS ARE HIGHER, SEEK HIM
o 1 Cor 1:25 "For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength."
o Isa 55:8-9 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
o We may be thinking of ’preserving the body’, He is thinking of ’saving the soul.’
We may be thinking of a pay raise. He’s thinking of ’raising the dead.’
The world looks at the American Idol and say, ’Be like him." God points to the crucified and bloody person on the cross and says, ’Be like Christ."
o He has a different agenda. He dwells in a different dimension.
o We need to CONSULT Him. We need to seek Him.
o JESUS GAVE THEM A REVELATION OF GOD
o Before Jesus could give them the practicalities of prayer, He first revealed the Father.
o How you see Him, will affects how you pray.
If you see Him as the Creator who guides the galaxies for thousand of years, can He guide your life for 70 years?
If you see Him as the Almighty who ignites the sun, can He be mighty enough to light your path?
o Who do you see when you pray?
How we see Him is important. Philip Keller explains
I sometimes think of His character in the form of a perfectly symmetrical 6-sided cube. On one side, He is utterly holy, pure and flawless. But this is counterbalanced on the opposite side by His absolute love, compassion, and concern. Only because of this is it possible for us to approach such a sublime being. On a third side, He is completely righteousness, just, impeccable. Yet again this is counterbalanced on the 4th side by His boundless mercy, kindness and longsuffering. If it were not so, how could we ever stand in His presence? He is also, on the 5th side, utterly honest, true and reliable, again counterbalanced on the 6th side by His infinite faithfulness, understanding and interest in us as His children.”
3. "HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME"
o Our appropriate response is PRAISE. Like Isaiah’s experience, when man comes before God, his only appropriate first response is worship.
o We direct our focus on His Name, His Kingdom, His Will... Only after this, man’s concerns and needs.
o As in Ten Commandments - first 4 talks about our relationship with God. And then the next 6 address our duty towards man.
FOUNDATION OF ALL PRAYERS
· It’s all about Him, about His plan for this world, for my life, for the salvation of mankind... This world is moving according to His timetable, and things are happening according to His plan.
· In fact, this is the reason why we even pray - He is working out His purpose and good plan in my life.
FOCUS ON HIM AND NOT THE PROBLEM
God gave the people of Israel a very unique experience - 2 Chron 20(Moabites, Ammonites, Meunites came up to attack them. King Jehoshaphat prayed...)
· v.12 For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us...
· v.15 the Lord says, "Do not be afraid... For the battle is not yours, but God’s"
· v.17 "stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you."
· vv.18-19 King and Levites bow down in worship - there is nothing they can do.
· vv.21-22 "appointed men to sing to the Lord and praise Him..."
· The first thing in prayer is to KNOW WHOM you’re talking to. Look at Him...
o Everything else changes and will change. What give us hope - an unchanging God.
o Song 20 - Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.
· So look at Him and worship Him.
o Billy Graham - does it every morning by reading 5 psalms.
o Philip Melanthon found Martin Luther depressed and suggested: ’Come, Martin, let us sing a psalm and spite the devil!’
o Everything else changes and will change. What give us hope - an unchanging God.
CONCLUSION
· I cannot say OUR...
if I live only for myself, if my faith has no room for others and their need.
I cannot say FATHER...
if I do not endeavor each day to act like his child, and demonstrate this relationship in my living.
I cannot say WHO IS IN HEAVEN...
if all my interests and pursuits are in earthly things, and I’m not laying any treasure up there.
I cannot say HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME...
if I, who is called by His Name, am not striving for holiness...
· Jesus set us an example; let us start praying again... For those who are at it, keep it going.
· God’s purpose in prayer is not to make us sit up and beg. He wants us to know Him.
Just Pray
Do you want to know how to deepen your prayer life? Pray. Don’t prepare to pray. Just pray. Don’t read about prayer. Just pray. Don’t attend a lecture on prayer or engage in discussion about prayer. Just pray.... Don’t be so concerned about wrapping the gift that you never give it. Better to pray awkwardly than not at all.
And if you feel you should only pray when inspired, that’s okay. Just see to it that you are inspired every day.
... Max Lucado, in When God Whispers Your Name.
