The Design of prayer

The Design of Prayer

Matthew 6:9–15

Sermon 4

By Dr. Jerry Sutton

Matthew 6:9-15

9 "This, then, is how you should pray:

"'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 today our daily bread.

12 Forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from the evil one.'

14 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

NIV

Last week we finished up with this; We are to pray with the motive of being heard by God.

We are to pray expecting God alone to answer our prayer.

And we are to pray, being specific about our needs, understanding that the Father knows before we even ask.

PRAY: Pause, Rejoice, Ask, Yield (The Navigators).

Pause

Rejoice

Ask

Yield

Today we will be looking at the Lord's prayer. This prayer is typically called the “Lord's prayer”; but in reality it should be called the”Disciples prayer”.

Warren Wiersbe; says Jesus did not give this prayer to us to be memorized and recited a given number of times. In fact, He gave this prayer to keep us from using vain repetitions. Jesus did not say, “Pray in these words.” He said, “Pray after this manner”; that is, “Use this prayer as a pattern, not as a substitute.”

Introduction:

After Jesus lays out the dynamics of prayer in verses 5–8, He shifts Hfocus, helping us learn the proper pattern for prayer.

This is not so much a prayer to be prayed as it is a pattern to be followed.

If the “many words” of the Pagans will not facilitate effective prayer (v. 7), then what will facilitate effective prayer?

Here Jesus lays out the design, or pattern, to follow in prayer. He includes six components.

Component I.

First, we initiate prayer with praise (v. 9).

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.”

The Greek word: ἁγιάζω (hagiazō). vb. To consecrate, to make holy, sanctify, hallow, treat as holy. Describes the divine act of setting aside as sacred. Can also refer to a human attitude of reverence shown to divine things.

This verb is mostly translated as “to consecrate”, “to dedicate,” or “to sanctify.” The Septuagint uses it to translate the majority of instances of קָדַשׁ (qādaš, “to make holy”). In the NT, the range of meaning for hagiazō includes the idea of setting something apart through divine activities (e.g., atonement by the blood of Jesus; Eph 5:26), religious rituals (e.g., baptism; 1 Cor 6:11), or personal dedication (Rom 15:16). Christians are to sanctify (hagiazō) Christ as Lord in their hearts (1 Pet 3:15). Consecration can also be achieved by contact with what is holy (e.g., unbelievers by a Christian marriage; 1 Cor 7:14) and the removal of what is incompatible with holiness (1 Thess 5:23). In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches disciples to pray that God’s name should be hallowed (hagiazō; Matt 6:9)—i.e., held in reverence and honored.

Hon-Lee Kwok, “Holiness,” ed. Douglas Mangum et al., Lexham Theological Wordbook, Lexham Bible Reference Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014).

Prayer begins by focusing not on ourselves but God.

When we pray, we pray to the God who created both us and the world in which we live.

If you see the ants; He created them. If you breath air; He created air. If you are held to the earth by gravity, guess what He created it.

He understands us and desires only what is in our best interest. I encourage you to read John 17:6-26; but I am going to read to you just 2 verses from this passage; that proves to you that He desires only what is in our best interest.

John 17:20-21

20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

Praise acknowledges God for who He is and not simply for what He can or might do.

Jesus’ words acknowledge that He is our Father and that we approach Him as His children!

Component II.

Second, we incorporate His priorities (v. 10).

“Your kingdom come. Your will be done.”

In short, we acknowledge our submission to His agenda.

Jesus said, “But seek first the kingdom of God . . . and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).

Jesus was focused on ushering in a new kingdom, where He is the King!

The kingdom of God has come wherever the will of God is accomplished.

So here we see the standing priority of God in prayer that the will of God would be done on earth, just as it is done in heaven.

Can you imagine with me everyone in heaven standing in God's will.

Read Rev. 5: 9-14

As we pray, we seek to adjust our own lives to be in the center of God’s will.

Where the will of God is accomplished, the kingdom of God is established!

So, how do we know the will of God?

As we get into the Word and pray, He will help us see His general will.

For example, 1 Thessalonians 4:3 says,

It is God’s will that you should be sanctified:

1 Thessalonians 4:3

The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), 1 Th 4:3.

“This is the will of God, our sanctification.”

What is sanctification? To be set apart.

Kenneth D. Litwak, writes this in “Sanctification,Lexham Theological Wordbook, Lexham Bible Reference Series.

Sanctification relates to being or becoming holy. Objects, such as shovels and pans, land, time, and sacrificial animals are holy when they are set apart to God. The objects of the tabernacle are made holy both by being sprinkled with blood and being set apart for use only in the tabernacle. Humans become holy—set apart for God—by becoming a member of God’s people. Believers are referred to in the NT as “saints” (ἅγιος, hagios), literally “holy ones,” because they belong to God. Holy things are appropriate for sacred use but not for common or ordinary use; similarly, holy people appropriately act in certain ways but not in other ways. When people are sanctified, this implies that they will act in accordance with their sanctification. Thus, both Israel (Lev 19:2) and believers in Jesus (1 Pet 1:15–16) are to live holy lives, which reflect God’s holiness.

Kenneth D. Litwak, “Sanctification,” ed. Douglas Mangum et al., Lexham Theological Wordbook, Lexham Bible Reference Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014).

The Bible contains numerous references to the will of God.

Scripture testifies that when we walk in obedience to God’s general “will, He will, by His spirit, reveal for us His specific will.

Yet, we are called to walk by faith and not sight, which is not always easy.

So we’ve entered into His presence (courts) with praise (see Psalm 100:4), and we’ve acknowledged His priorities as our own. What next?

Psalms 100:4

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving

and his courts with praise;

give thanks to him and praise his name.

NIV

Component III.

Third, we bring before Him our need for provision (v. 11).

Recall that Jesus has already said, “Your Father knows the things you need before you ask Him” (v. 8).

So this component of prayer is not telling God something He does not know; it is confessing our specific needs to the Father and “expressing a trusting dependence on Him and His ability to provide for what we need.

When Jesus instructed us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” He was saying, “Trust God for today!

What do you need?

Ask Him to provide.

Understand that anything large enough to worry about is big enough to pray about.”

Component IV.

Fourth, we make sure that our connection with Him is unbroken through purity (v. 12).

We must be pure, we are approaching a Holy God. If someone of royalty were to walk in we would give them our best.

Jesus puts it this way, “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”

Jesus here is dealing with our moral obligations.

And this portion of prayer is actually an expansion of what He has taught us in chapter 5.

God forgives us based on the finished work of Christ on the Cross and our confession. Look at 1 John 1:9.

1 John 1:9

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

NIV

In turn, we, too, should forgive.

Understand that this encompasses personal offenses and does not necessarily let a serious offender escape accountability for his actions, particularly when the gravity of his offense is damaging to more than the individual offended

.“Coupled with this, Jesus instructs us to pray, “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” (v. 13a).

As we forgive and are forgiven, we are still vulnerable to temptation and the schemes of the evil one.

Pray that God leads you away from both!

Component V.

Fifth, Jesus concludes the pattern by bringing us into His perspective:

“For [God’s] is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever” (v. 13b).

We acknowledge that we are players on His stage in His world.

He is not simply a player on our stage in our world.

Component VI.

Finally, Jesus wraps up His instruction on prayer by reminding us of two essential principles, forgiveness and faith. vs.14-15

14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mt 6:14–15.

Prayer is contingent on our willingness to forgive and is predicated on faith.

Will we trust God to be God in our lives and in our world?”

Conclusion:

Warren Wiersbe says this: The important thing about prayer is not simply getting an answer, but being the kind of person whom God can trust with an answer.

Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 26.