Teach Us To Pray

Teach us to pray

Talk about the need to pray

Luke 11:1 - 13 (NIV) 1One 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.” 2He said to them, “When you pray, say: “‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread. 4 Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.’”

Trouble in the text: Set the stage

The text starts with Jesus praying in a certain place. Now we know from scripture that this was something that Jesus did often.

1. We see many times in scripture where Jesus would go off alone and pray.

2. Sometimes it’s important for us to just go get away ourselves and prayer amen?

3. Jesus understood the importance of this.

4. Prayer is a direct link with the Father. It’s our way of connecting with Him.

Some call it a means of Grace. What I mean by a means of grace is that God has established different way thru which we can access His grace. Grace…meaning getting or receiving something we do not deserve. And prayer is a means thru which we access this.

It’s kind of like a bank account. When you establish a bank account there are mean thru which you access your funds. You may have a few million dollars in the bank but that doesn’t help you unless you can access those funds. Now we can access these funds in different ways. One way is with a check. You can write a check to get your money. You can also use an ATM card. This can be used at most stores now. You just purchase what you want and use the card, this gives you access to the funds you have. Another way to access your funds would be to just go up to the teller at your bank and you fill out a form and then you receive your money.

Well means of grace is basically the same concept. But instead of accessing funds we access grace. The ways we access this are many. Prayer, fasting, corporate worship, bible study, the sacraments, Christian fellowship, accountability group, Hearing the word of God, stewardship, etc the more of these we use the more grace we receive. Just like the ways you can access the funds that are available in your bank account.

Now the means of grace that I am talking about today is Prayer. Now many believe this is the most vital means of grace. John Wesley also believed this, I also believe this.

We need to learn how to pray.

We all know in one way shape or form that praying is definitely something that is learned. Now for some of us it’s more natural then others. But we all have to learn.

1. Think about; for all you long time Christians and all of you prayer warriors can you remember when you first got saved?

2. How easy was it to pray? It was hard wasn’t it?

3. Prayer doesn’t come naturally for us. Prayer has to be learned.

4. Usually at first we stumble over it wondering what to say.

5. Most people can only go a minute if that before they are done. Our minds begin to wonder.

6. 30 seconds starts to feel like 2 hours,

7. Especially if you have to pray out loud on public. Now that’s a big deal isn’t it? Many of us feel so uneasy praying in front of people.

8. I can remember when I first started to say grace in public. It’s an uneasy feeling. Let alone praying in a group a people in Sunday school. No…..not the dreaded Sunday school prayer. Noooo.. Can everyone relate to me on this?

Trouble in the text: (The disciples don’t know how to pray)

We see here in scripture one of the disciples asks Jesus to teach them how to pray.

Wouldn’t you figure that they would know how to pray?

One of Jesus disciples whom the scripture doesn’t name says to Jesus teach us. So Jesus does.

It’s interesting to me that this question even came up. Wouldn’t you figure that they are with Jesus all this time and they would already know how to pray? I mean how can this be that they don’t know how to pray? They walked with Jesus, talked with Jesus, and saw Him do many miracles and they don’t know how to pray? Something’s wrong.

Jesus teaches them to Pray

1. Now we are not sure why on this particular occasion the disciples took interest in Jesus teaching them to pray, but when He was finished one of His disciples asked him “Lord, teach us to pray, just as john taught his disciples.