Teach us to Pray WHEATLAND

Who here know’s the Lord’s prayer?

Matthew 6:9–13 (ESV)

“Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

This is the model that Jesus gave us for prayer, found in Matthew 6:9-13. In Luke 11 we find a similar version of this prayer, which Jesus gave to His disciples after they said to Him Luke 11 1

Luke 11:1 ESV

Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”

This does two things for us: It gives us a model for how we should pray - as we see here in Matthew 6 and in Luke 11 - and it is an identifying mark. John gave his disciples a specific prayer, but this prayer from Jesus is distinctly Christian. We address God as “Father” - a term that not just anyone can use. But because of the sacrifice of Jesus, we have this privilege! How amazing is that!

The main point of the message today is that:

The Lord’s prayer tunes us to God’s heart.

‌Not just in praying this prayer, but in following this model I believe we find our hearts attuned to the heart of God. Jesus shows us here how to pray in a way that demonstrates submission and reliance on God. This whole prayer dials in our hearts to the heart of God. So this morning we’re going to look at four ingredients for how this model for prayer attunes us to God. This first ingredient we find is that:

We Pray For God’s Glory

So we talk to God simply, directly, and sincerely.

So we address God in sincerity and simplicity, but also with a beautiful reverent familiarity! Both Luke and Matthew start this prayer by saying “Father.” This is an intimate way of addressing the Almighty God! Not “Supreme Almighty One” or Awesome, All-Powerful Conquerer.” But Father. This is not a title just anyone can use. We see in the gospels that this is the right and privilege only of the believer. Matthew’s gospel though helps us keep it in perspective. While God is our Father, He is also the Almighty God! Our Father in heaven helps us to remember who God is, and to come to Him in reverence, as we hallow His name.

What does it mean to “hallow” God’s name? A name carries the reputation of that person and honour. When we hallow God’s name, we are worshipping Him, giving Him praise and honour and glory why? Because He is the One who is worthy of it. No one else is! This is why we hallow our Father’s name. So this is how Jesus models the start of our prayer. Immediately, we are giving God the praise, we are fixing our eyes on Him. This should hopefully naturally leads us to pray “come Lord Jesus.”

Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” This prayer both is for the present and future. Through Jesus and the Holy Spirit we have realized some of the benefits of God’s Kingdom right here and now. We should be living in a way that demonstrates our commitment to God’s will. We should be living in a way that pleases God, and that fulfills His will for us as we find in Scripture.

We also pray Maranatha, which means “come Lord Jesus!” God’s will is done in heaven, and we look forward with great anticipation to the day when God’s kingdom is going to come to earth. The model Jesus set out for us here helps us from the start to fix our eyes on our hope in Jesus. This causes the focus of our prayer right from the outset not to be on us, but rather on God. We’re praying that God would get the glory. We’re praying that God’s kingdom would come. The focus is completely and totally on God. We’re asking God to glorify Himself! And we should pray that God’s kingdom would come soon! As Robert Stein put it:

Luke The Lukan Message

When this desire is no longer present in the heart of the believing community, when the church no longer prays Maranatha, then it no longer loves God with all its heart, soul, strength, and mind

This first ingredient that helps attune our hearts to God is that we place the focus from the start on God, and pray that God’s kingdom - of which we have already experienced some of the benefits - would come in it’s fullness soon! This is the chief cry of our hearts!

But this is not the only ingredient: We also see that we:

We Pray for Provision

‌Let’s read Matthew 6:11 again:

Matthew 6:11 ESV

Give us this day our daily bread,

We don’t just come to God for direction, but with dependance and expectancy. We come to God and say “God, we are dependant on you! We need you for everything.” Likewise we also express that we are waiting, because we have faith that God will move, in His timing, how He see fits.

We come to God and ask here in the Lord’s prayer that God would provide our needs. We acknowledge our dependance on Him. We should pray daily for God to provide for tomorrow’s needs.

I’d like to share a story with you:

George Muller was an incredible man. A missionary to Bristol England in the early 1800s, he was known for trusting God to provide.

Night was falling over the harbor of Bristol, England, and in the orphanage founded by George Müller and his wife, the children were getting ready for bed. George was working in his study when his wife arrived with alarming news. “We’re out of milk,” she said. “There isn’t enough for the morning oatmeal.”

George laid aside his pen. This wasn’t the first time that money needed to buy food and other supplies was tight. The Müllers took in their first group of thirty girls in 1836, and their orphanage now housed over a hundred. From the first George remained resolved never to ask for funds from people or to borrow money. He went to God alone for every need, trusting wholly in the Lord’s faithfulness and provision.

The pastor rose from his desk and reached for his wife’s hand. “Mary,” he said, “let us pray.” Two orphanage employees joined them, and together they made their humble yet necessary request to God. Tiny, helpless mouths were depending on them for sustenance. “Be assured, if you walk with Him and look to Him and expect help from Him,” George reminded them afterwards, “He will never fail you.”

Someone knocked on the door. Mary hurried to answer, returning to the study a moment later. She handed her husband an envelope. “It’s a letter, George. Hurry up and open it.”

Enclosed was a sum of money, more than enough for the milk. Within minutes, two more letters arrived with money and pledges of support.

(From https://guideposts.org/inspiring-stories/the-inspiring-life-of-george-muller)

Is God going to give us everything we want? No, instead what we are supposed to do is earnestly ask God for provision for the next day. Niether Jesus’ words in Matthew or Philippians 4:19 are about us getting whatever we want. It’s about us asking God to provide for needs. What we need in order to be provided for, not what we want. The word "daily” in Matthew 6:11 is a little hard to translate from Greek. It means daily, necessary, and for tomorrow. The idea is that we ask God to give us what we need for the next day, and trust Him to provide for our needs spiritual and physically. God cares both about your physical needs and your spiritual needs. This second ingredient to prayer is recognizing our dependance on God and earnestly asking Him to take care of our needs, because He already knows all about them. So we trust God with the journey, and all Him to take care of providing for us.

Now, as we move into our third ingredient, we also realized we:

We Pray for Forgiveness

‌In Matthew 6:12 we read

Matthew 6:12 ESV

and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Let’s stop here and focus on the word “debts” for a moment. In Greek, the word in Matthew is translate correctly into debts, but we see in Luke 11:4 that this word is changed to sins. We are spiritually indebted to God because we broke His moral law. Right from the Garden of Eden at the beginning of time we find humanity breaking God’s law. throughout the Old Testament we see that humanity was unable to keep from sinning. Only one person - Jesus Christ, God the Son - has ever been completely sinless. He came and died for us, that we might be free and walk in newness of life through the Holy Spirit. But does that mean that we say sorry to God once and then go on our merry way?

Quite the opposite. In fact we are in need of God’s forgiveness every day. This is not so that we can continually secure the sacrifice of Christ in our lives. If you have accepted Jesus into your life as your personal Lord and Saviour, and have a personal relationship with Him, you have been declared righteous before God. Meaning that your sin - that debt - has been paid for! You are now right with God! And yet, here on this earth we still sin. When this happens, it does put a wedge between us and God. So we pray for forgiveness and the restoration of the close relationship we desire to have with God.

However, this compels us to forgive others as well. As David Turner put it:

“A forgiven person is a forgiving person”

To receive God’s pardon is a wonderful gift, but it means that we then extend forgiveness to others. Let me share this story with you:

Cory ten Boom spent years in a Nazi concentration camp, watching her family die and being horribly mistreated by the soliders. One day, in 1947, she delivered a talk on forgiveness, as she had been doing. A man met her afterward, and extended his hand, thanking her for the talk. “You mentioned Ravensbrück in your talk - I was a guard there” he said. He didn’t remember her, but she remembers him. His cruelty, parading naked in front of him on her way to get pitiful clothing. How could she forgive this man?

Here’s what she said:

It could not have been many seconds that he stood there, hand held out, but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do.

For I had to do it–I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. “If you do not forgive men their trespasses,” Jesus says, “neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses....”

And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion–I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.

“Jesus, help me!” I prayed silently. “I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling.”

And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.

“I forgive you, brother!” I cried. “With all my heart!” (From https://guideposts.org/positive-living/guideposts-classics-corrie-ten-boom-forgiveness/)

Was that easy for her? No, and according to her story for weeks she seethed inside about that decision. But as she pointed out, forgiveness is an act of will - one that requires the supernatural strength of god. And it is a commandment. Christ say right after this prayer in Matthew 6:14-15 that if we cannot forgive other, we have no capacity ourselves to receive God’s forgiveness. When we forgive others, we demonstrate how we have been forgiven by God. How can we presume to ask God for forgiveness if we refuse to forgive others?

This is our third ingredient: we pray for forgiveness. That God would forgive us, and even that we would have the capacity to receive that forgiveness and in turn forgive others.

Now, as we draw to the end of this prayer, Jesus adds one more thing:

We Pray for Protection

The first half of verse 13 is of particular interest:

Matthew 6:13 (ESV)

And lead us not into temptation,

At this moment, the hair on the back of your neck might rise a little bit. God doesn’t tempt people! You’re right, and as we see in Matthew 4:1, Jesus was lead into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil. Not by God. So you’re right God doesn’t tempt people. Yet we also see from the very same passage that Jesus was lead to a place of temptation. This is a testing for Jesus. Moreover, we know that God does allow temptation, we experience it everyday! How many time have you been tempted when someone crawls up right behind you while driving to just slow down to a crawl and really tick ‘em off? There you go! You have been tempted to take vengeance - which the Bible says is clearly God’s - into your own hands.

So what is this petition really about?

This and the next clause both have the same outlook. That God would help us overcome temptation, and would break the cycle of sin. Think about it, what happens when we sin? We are tempted, we give into that temptation, we sin, we repent and ask God for forgiveness. It’s a cyclical cycle which we need God’s help to break. this is why we need God to deliver us from evil, or from the evil one. we cannot resist temptation on our own. We cannot stop sinning on our own. We cannot come against the devil on our own. we need the Spirit of God’s help. So we pray for protection from the evil one, and that when we are tempted we would not succumb.

The devil has had 6,000-10,000 years to learn people’s weak spots, and to know how to weave lies. And apparently he already was pretty good at it in the Garden of Eden. He will try and tempt us, but we must resist it and flee from it.

As Christians, we need to pray for God to deliver us, and to keep us from giving in. It is possible for us to not give in, even to our most tempting of problems. But we need to rely on God, and be willing to do what it takes to flee temptation and resist the evil one. So we pray for God’s protection, and power to keep us from stumbling. And when we do stumble, as we all do, we come to God in repentance, asking for His forgiveness and to restore our relationship with Him.

Conclusion

As a reminder: The big idea here is that

The Lord’s prayer tunes us to God’s heart.

I know we’ve covered a lot, but what we’ve also looked at is these 4 ingredients show us why this model for prayer attunes us to God:

We Pray “Come, Lord Jesus!”

We Pray for Provision

We Pray for Forgiveness

We Pray for Protection

I think the other thing we need to be reminded of again is how amazing it is that this prayer is a mark of identification. This prayer is specific to Christians. Only Christians can call God Father.

Which leads me to a very important point: Do you know Jesus? If you do, you have the privilege of calling God Father. If you do not, it’s time you came to meet Him. God loves you, so much that He sent His only Son to take your place and punishment. Jesus died and rose to life again so that you can be clean before God, and so that you can have a relationship with Him again. Accepting Jesus as your Lord and Saviour grants you access to calling God Father - because He becomes your Father too. Come and meet Him today, and experience God as your Father.

For those of us who have accepted Christ, we now call God “Father.” This means that we now have an intimate relationship with God. When we pray, we can use this model Jesus gave us to help us draw close to our Father. So I want to challenge you to pray using this model. Start with praise, asking that God would bring His kingdom in its fullness soon. Bring your requests to God. If you’re not sure wether you’re being frivolous or not, allow the Holy Spirit to show you how you should pray within God’s will. Confess your sins to God and ask Him to restore your intimacy with Him. And pray for protection - for the courage to resist temptation and not give into the evil one. This is the model that Jesus taught us to use, and this week I encourage you to use this model in your prayer life as well.