The Lord's Prayer – Part One

The Lord’s Prayer – Part One

Sunday June 18, 2006

Matthew 6:5-13

5 “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

6 “But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

7 “And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.

8 “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.

9 “In this manner, therefore, pray:

1 Our Father in heaven,

Hallowed be Your name.

10 Your kingdom come.

Your will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts,

As we forgive our debtors.

13 And do not lead us into temptation,

But deliver us from the evil one.

For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

My normal method of driving is with my gas tank as full as possible – I’ve run out of gas on several occasions and I’ve learned the value driving on a full tank of gas.

If you haven’t noticed, you don’t get very far driving around on fumes – besides that, it’s an extremely powerless, frustrating way to travel.

A lot of people are trying to operate their spiritual lives on fumes – trying to get somewhere without the fuel that provides the spark that energizes the power of God in us through the Holy Ghost!

You can’t get far in your walk without a “prayer life”, yet many are doing it because they think they can get away with it.

But if you ignore your need to pray it won’t be long until you’ll wind up on the side of the road looking for help.

Many times we have a struggle with prayer!

I’m glad we’re not the only ones – Jesus disciples watched Him pray one day and said, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Lk.11:1).

That’s interesting because they didn’t ask him how to preach, but when they saw him pray they said, “We need to get in on this”!

Jesus responded to their request by giving them a MODEL PRAYER we call “The Lord’s Prayer” – actually it’s our prayer!

Jesus said, Matthew 6:9

9 “In this manner, therefore, pray:

Jesus didn’t give us this “prayer” to read it as our prayer, but as an “outline” or “pattern” by which we can learn to pray!

Before we “detail” this pattern I want to give you a basic definition of prayer.

Prayer – a believer’s basic communication with God who is our Father, through the authority of Jesus Christ and assisted by the Holy Spirit.

Communication isn’t just talking.

God is a person to be communicated with, not someone we just talk to.

We pray in the name of Jesus because He’s our access to the Father.

The only way we can get to God is by the door that was opened through the blood of Christ.

John 14:6

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Jesus is our access to God, and because of what He did on the cross we can “draw near with assurance” and come “boldly before the throne” (Heb.4:16).

Prayer also assists us by the Holy Spirit.

Romans 8:26

26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

When all we can do is groan and grope for the right words, the Spirit interprets those expressions and turns them into intelligible requests before God.

The Spirit knows what we mean even when we don’t!

So the Spirit’s ministry in prayer is to take what cannot be clarified and clarify it!

That’s why you’re NOT wasting your time when you don’t know what to say because the Spirit is at work organizing your confusion.

The Lord’s prayer is set in what I call a “precautionary context” –

That’s because before Jesus gave them this model prayer he taught several important principles about prayer that we need to consider.

I. Principle #1 – Pray Regularly…

Matthew 6:5 – When you pray!

He didn’t say, “If” but “when”!

Our need to pray is the unstated assumption behind Jesus’ statement!