The Model Prayer (Matthew 6:9-15)

Introduction

As we begin our time this morning, let us begin by asking ourselves a question, a rhetorical one I might add, how often do we like to talk about ourselves, our wants, our desires, our dreams?

If we are honest, we love talking about ourselves. I think this is why there was a song written a number of years ago “I wanna talk about me” by the late Toby Keith. We like talking about ourselves, even if in a song we say we like usually talking about someone else.

If this is true in our normal day to day conversations, how much more so is this true when we pray? Think about the great temptation and danger of how we approach prayer. On one end of the spectrum, we approach prayer reluctantly or as a last result. Then on the other end of the spectrum, we approach prayer easily, but only in hopes to make all our dreams and wishes come true.

And because of this is the two pitfalls on both ends of the spectrum, our prayers are often left a bit lack luster.

Thankfully, our Glorious King knows our need to be taught both about prayer and the way in which we as his disciples are to pray. He teaches us this here in our passage this morning here in Matthew 6:9-15. I invite you to open your Bibles here now, using the table of contents there if you need. If you do not have a Bible, you can grab a Red Pew Bible there in front of you and find our passage on page #964.

We looked in part at this passage last Sunday in the context of us being called to beware hypocrisy, particularly in the call to not only do acts of righteousness, but to do them from the right heart and for the right glory, God’s glory.

But this morning it is crucial that we return to this passage and zoom in a bit more on what has become known the LORD’s Prayer. This prayer though is not simply words that we are to repeat in formality, it is to be the very model of our prayers if we are to be faithful disciples of the LORD Jesus! This prayer is to be the format of our private prayers and of our corporate prayers.

Therefore this morning, may King Jesus not only teach us how to pray, but then through this teaching awaken us to be a people given to praying prayers that glorify our Great God!

And as we do, here is what I think the main idea of Matthew 6:9-15, the LORD’s prayer is, Our prayers, Christian, are to be God-centered; moving from praise to dependence. We are going to unfold this in 2 points: (1) Seeking God’s Glory and (2) Seeking God’s Provision.

Point #1: Seeking God’s Glory

Having just warned us how not to pray like the hypocrites before others, and not to use many words, Jesus gives us a better way to pray. He says here in the first phrase of verse 9, “Pray then like this.”

It is in what follows that Jesus teaches us what has been called the LORD’s Prayer. But it is not simply the prayer of the LORD Jesus, for Jesus teaches us this prayer as a model and a guide to our own prayer lives so that we may know how to pray as his disciples.

In this model prayer, Jesus even teaches us how we are to start our time of prayer. He teaches us that we are to start our prayers by addressing the one to whom we are praying, the Lord God Almighty! Particularly here in the model prayer, he addresses God as our Father in heaven.

This is important for us to remember, for unless we remember to whom we are praying, our prayers will veer off course, they will veer towards wants and wishes rather than child-like dependence. Therefore it should be no surprise that Jesus here teaches us to say, “Our Father in heaven” as we start.

For this is a great reminder to us as disciples of who we are in relation to God Almighty! Yes he is the creator of the universe. Yes he is the one who is the only Holy God. Yes, he is the Sovereign Lord of the universe. But as we come to faith in Jesus and are united to him by faith, we are given the right to become children of God (John 1:12).

Therefore as we pray we are as children coming before our Father to make our requests, to make petitions to him. But because we have been adopted as his children, our prayers are not just about our own wants and needs. If we are to belong to the Father as part of his family, we are to be concerned about family matters. We are to be concerned with the things of our Father, as well as our own dependence on him as little children.

This is why the model prayer starts here, to remind us that we are as one of these little ones in our midst. That as they are dependent on mom and dad, we as the children of God are to be dependent on our Father in heaven.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we would do well to begin our prayers with God as this model prayer teaches us. Whether it is starting here with, “Our Father in heaven”, or whether it is with acknowledging various attributes of God depending on what we are praying for.

One of my other go to starts to prayer is, “O Sovereign LORD”. For this reminds me that the one to whom I am praying is over all things as king. He is ruling it. But we could also start our prayers by saying O Merciful God. Or still yet, we could start our prayers with praise to God for how majestic he is and praising him for all that he has done. The important thing is for us to fixate on the truths of the one whom we are praying. For these aide us to remain Godward in our prayer.

And this Godward focus is what Jesus continues to teach us in this model prayer with the first three petitions, that is requests.

1.1 Hallowed be Your Name

Petition #1 is found at the end of verse 9, “hallowed be your name.”

What does it mean to be hallowed? According to J.I. Packer in his excellent resource, Growing in Christ, “Hallowed means known, acknowledged, and honored as holy.” (1)

It is then not just that God’s name be revered as holy, but that his Holy name be honored and acknowledged as well. For this is what was written long ago in Isaiah 29:23 “23 For when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in his midst, they will sanctify my name; they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.”

In this first petition, it is a petition that our Father’s name would be famous to the ends of the earth, causing people to be in awe of the one and only God. That is name would be glorified.

As children of God, we should desire that he be made famous in light of what he has done for us. For he has taken us from being outsiders to adopting us as his children. He is the one who has redeemed us from the guilt of our sins.

To borrow from J.I. Packer again, “Salvation, first to last, is of the Lord, and the hallowing of God’s name requires us to acknowledge this, and to praise and adore him for the whole of it.” (2)

Because of who he is and what he has done, it should be easy for us to seek and desire for our Father in heaven’s name to be hallowed, to be made known so that people may stand in awe of him and be lead to worship him alone.

For is not this our chief end as man? Is it not rightly summed up in the Westminster Shorter Catechism Question #1 that “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.”?

Then let our prayers be saturated with seeking for God’s name to be kept holy and his fame to spread. Praying that we would keep his name holy and bring him glory by finding more joy in him. Praying that others would come to hear and to know of our Father and fall back in awe of the one who is Holy and yet redeemer of broken sinners.

O Father, may your name be hallowed to the ends of the earth, and may we seek this daily in our prayers.

1.2 Your Kingdom Come

Petition #2, verse 10a, “Your kingdom come.”

Not only are we to recognize God as Father, but as King. Therefore this 2nd petition is seeking for the rule of our king to come. A rule that comes as the kingdom of heaven comes.

For it is the message of the kingdom that has already began to take center-stage here in the gospel according to Matthew. John the Baptist as he prepared the way preached about the kingdom of heaven being at hand and urging people to repent to prepare the way for its coming. Jesus, when he began his public ministry began in the same way, preaching this same message.

A message in fact that Jesus has continued to preach and even now teach his disciples here on the mountain. He has been teaching them that these are those who inherit and enter the kingdom. From blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven; to blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. To what we read back in Matthew 5:20 “20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Jesus is about the kingdom of his Father, and he is teaching us to be concerned about this kingdom and pray that it comes. A kingdom that comes as people bow in allegiance to God’s forever king, King Jesus.

For this is the message of the kingdom, that we must turn from our allegiance to sin back to God. That we must bow before God as the one who defines what is good and evil.

And therefore when we are praying, “Your kingdom come” we are asking that the rule of the LORD would come. But this isn’t just for those out in the world, brothers and sisters. No, this is asking firstly that God’s rule would continue to come and advance in our own hearts. It is asking for God’s rule to work itself in us in the midst of our struggle with that particular besetting sin that we continue to struggle with over and over again. It is seeking for God’s rule to conquer our sinful flesh.

But then even as we pray, asking for our Father’s kingdom to come, we are asking outside of us, that his kingdom would come into the world which we live. That his good and right rule would take place instead of the rule of the world that has been corrupted by sin.

To pray for our Father’s kingdom to come, we are praying that his rule advance. Therefore we are here praying for his rule to enter the hearts of men and women through the power of the gospel. For the rule of our Father does not come through laws of the land, but as people enter the kingdom of grace through Jesus!

Oh father, may your kingdom come, may your rule spread as the gospel advances. May your kingdom come and advance through the establishing of more kingdom embassies, that is of more local churches being planted and established around the world where Christians can gather and mature. Where these embassies can be a light in the midst of darkness. Where these embassies may teach your rule and submit to it so that others may see and be in awe.

This is what we seek in this 2nd petition.

1.3 Your Will be Done

Petition #3, verse 10b, “your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Notice what this petition is not, it is not a prayer for our will to be done, but our Father’s. Prayer is not then about us coming and having our wishes and dreams come true. Prayer is not to be used as if it were some magic lamp where a great and powerful genie pops out and grants us our wishes.

Prayer is to be focused on seeking our Father’s will to be done. Therefore, Jesus here is teaching us that part of our prayer then is to be praying for us to die to our own wills and desires. How? Let us consider how Jesus himself died to his own desires by looking at the night he was betrayed:

Matthew 26:36–39 “36 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” 37 And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” 39 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.””

Jesus was sorrowful as the hour of his death loomed, he knew that the cup of God’s wrath against all sin was about to be poured out on him, and that he would drink it all. But as agonizing as the death would be, the part that he dreaded was that brief moment where he would become forsaken by the Father so that we could be made righteous. It is this cup that Jesus asked to pass. But Jesus asked not his will be done, but his Father’s.

The model prayer here then teaches us to seek the will of our Father and not our own. It teaches us to make our petitions and request, but to submit them and give them up if it does not coincide with our Father’s will.

It is a prayer for us even to learn discernment for understanding what God’s will is. Particularly that of his already given will. It is a prayer asking for us to be obedient to the things that God has made plain for our lives, our pursuit of Christ and our growing in him. Our putting on of the new and off of the old and sinful patterns of living.

It is praying for wisdom to discern the particulars of our lives and the more secret things of God by thinking godly and practical.

Brothers and sisters, let us petition that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In our lives, the life of our church, and the world around us. For it is his will that is perfect while ours is not. His will is pure, ours is tainted by sin that remains within.

In these first three petitions, the model prayer teaches us to seek our Father’s glory, from his name to be hallowed, his rule to come, and his will to be done. As we have just seen, prayer is not just about petitions for our own needs. Our petitions are to start with God and praying for his glory. Therefore if we are to be faithful disciples who pray in a God honoring way, let our prayer lives be transformed to imitate this model prayer both in private and in corporate prayer. Let us start with God and seeking for his rule and will to be done.

Point #2: Seeking God’s Provision

While prayer is to be God focused, it is also a tool that God has given us to acknowledge our need for his care. For where the first set of three petitions focused on God’s glory being sought, the second set of three petitions shifts to seeking God’s daily provisions in our lives.

2.1 Give us this day our daily bread

The first petition in this second set comes in verse 11…

While our prayers are to be God-centered, it does not prohibit us from seeking God’s provisions for our daily needs, specifically of provisions for our daily bread. In fact, the model prayer encourages us to make our needs known to our Father in heaven.

By turning to our Father and making our needs known, we are acknowledging our ongoing dependence of our Father in everything. Acknowledging that we need his provisions for food and water and clothing and shelter.

For while we may tempted to think that if we work hard enough we are able to provide of our own labors for these needs, that is not the case. For all of these things we are dependent on the LORD for these most basic provisions.

Now maybe you are here this morning and you are not yet a believer. And because of your unbelief you are tempted to doubt this point. Friend, does not God cause the rain to fall on the just and the unjust? The sun to rise on the good and the evil? Our God provides all of these things by granting you a job and being hired. He is sovereign over all of these details of life. And he is the one who is working behind the scenes. Therefore it is to he that we are encouraged to turn and make our needs known, depending on him for our daily provisions.

For we are but like a toddler who must ask mom and dad for milk. As the toddler is dependent for such a thing, so are we for all our daily needs.

Needs that go beyond bread alone, but as already stated that of food, water, clothing, and shelter. Our Father knows we need these things and we should be encouraged to make our petitions for his provisions. And learning to trust that his grace is sufficient for the day, that he as a good Father will provide for our most basic needs, even if it is at the last moment.

We also should see that we are encouraged to seek the LORD and his provisions for us in practical care. For we see the Apostle Paul pray for such a matter.

2 Corinthians 12:7–8 “7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.”

Paul puts to practice this model prayer by making his need, his request known. A request three times to remove this unknown thorn in the flesh. But it was not the LORD’s will, and Paul was content in this. For the LORD answered, 2 Corinthians 12:9 “9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

Brothers and sisters, let us go to our Father in heaven and ask for our daily bread, our daily provisions of need and care. However, we must not think that this is a call to greed and chasing our wants. Again, prayer is not a magic lamp to grant us all we desire. It is us as little children asking our Father in heaven for those most basic needs since we are dependent upon him.

2.2 Forgive Us Our Debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors

Petition #2 of this second set comes in verse 12…

What are these debts we must be forgiven? These debts are the penalties, the fines we owe for our breaking of God’s law. Just as when one gets a speeding or a parking ticket when breaking the law, they must pay the fine.

But the reality is, the debt we have stacked up is so great that all the wealth of the world could not repay. For one breaking of the law has left us guilty not of a debt of money, but a debt of death. For the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23a).

And unless this debt of death be paid, none could ever be forgiven, none could ever live before a Holy God. And yet here God has made a way. He has made a way for the debt of sinners to be repaid, allowing us to stand before him in all his glory and live.

That way is through the life, death, and resurrection of his beloved Son Jesus! Jesus descended from heaven to be born of a virgin, to live a sinless life, and yet he would die among thieves on a cruel cross. Jesus went to lay down his life so that the innocent could pay the debt of sinners like us. That he who was righteous might be declared guilty and we who were guilty declared righteous.

How can it be that no condemnation lay on those who were unrighteous and now no condemnation lay? What a debt our Lord Jesus Christ has paid by the shedding of his own blood. And he has now justified us and declared us righteous by our being united to him in faith.

Yet while this answers the answer to what is this debt, it also creates some question. If the debt has been paid already for those in Christ, then why does the model prayer teach us here to ask for our Father to forgive us our debts on a presumed daily basis?

Because though our sins have been forgiven in our being united to Jesus, we still are called to bearing fruit in keeping with repentance. And to bear fruit in keeping with repentance we must constantly confess our ongoing sin and continued struggle with it. For it is in confessing sin that our sin is brought to light and dealt with rather than remaining in darkness where it festers and grows. It is in the confessing of our daily debts and pleading for forgiveness that we acknowledge the one who is faithful to forgive as well.

So Spurgeon writes,

The Gospel of the Kingdom: A Commentary on the Book of Matthew Chapter 6:1–18: The King Contrasts the Laws of His Kingdom with the Conduct of Outward Religionists in the Matters of Alms and Prayer

Our Lord knew that we should always have debts to own, and therefore would always need to cry, “Forgive!” This is the prayer of men whom the Judge has absolved because of their faith in the Great Sacrifice; for now to their Father they come for free forgiveness, as children.

Beloved, let us remember the words of 1 John 1:9 “9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Our father is faithful to continue to forgive us of our debts if we confess. Therefore let us bear fruit in keeping with repentance by constant confession of sins and turning from them.

But there are some among us this morning that need to realize that they need to confess this sin and seek this forgiveness from their debts for the first time. They need to pray that the Father would wipe it away and trust that he will if they will set their eyes and hope in Jesus the one who bleed and died so that they could live. Come you sinner poor and needy. Come to Jesus and trust that his payment is sufficient to cancel your debt in its entirety once and for all. You will never repay it on your own. But Jesus already has. You simply must come and believe this truth this morning and find your hope in it.

But there is an additional statement here that we must acknowledge and take to heart. Because God is faithful to forgive us, we too are to forgive our debtors there in the second part of verse 12.

Failure to forgive our debtors while desiring our debts to be forgiven is hypocrisy. Therefore we must pay close attention here to what is added in verses 14-15…

Showing forgiveness to others shows we have grasped our forgiveness, but failing to is the result of one who has yet to grasp the forgiveness that is promised in Christ and the debt that we owe.

2.3 Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil

The final petition of the model prayer comes in verse 13….

As the 2nd petition of our dependence on God was for forgiveness, so the third is about seeking God’s dependence for our deliverance.

The request here is that the Father would lead us away from temptation, that he would keep us from it. It is understanding that the enemy with all his schemes and strategies works behind every corner to attempt to cause us to stumble. Therefore King Jesus teaches us here how to pray, to pray for our deliverance from evil.

This deliverance from evil being from the evil of sin, the evil of Satan himself.

This final petition teaches us to beware the lurking dangers at every turn in the Christian life. It teaches us to regularly pray for our spiritual good and well being, for God’s aide in it.

How many times have we fallen, Christian, that might have been avoided if we remained constantly on guard and in prayer from the snares that lay before us?

(1) Packer, J.I. Growing in Christ. (Wheaton, IL, Crossway, 2022), 191.

(2) Packer, J.I. Growing in Christ. (Wheaton, IL, Crossway, 2022), 193.