Teach Us to Pray (Part 5): Yield to Jesus!

Introduction

Palm Sunday

“Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!”

The word Hosanna means “Save us please” or “Please Deliver Us”

Shouting “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” is a statement with rich messianic undertones.

Pairing it with “…even the King of Israel” left no doubts about the declaration of the peoples.

By shouting this to Jesus, the people we expressing their belief that Jesus was Messianic King who would save God’s people!

As Jesus was entering into Jerusalem, people were yielding themselves to Him for their rescue…but their idea of rescue was far smaller than the rescue that Jesus would truly bring to them by the end of the week!

As we wrap up our series on prayer, we are looking this morning at yielding to Jesus when we pray. As we pray purposefully, we…

Praise Him

Repent to Him

Ask of and Seek Him

Yield to Him so that we embrace His desires rather than only yielding if He meets ours!

Matthew 6:9–13 ESV

9 Pray then like this: “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 also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen

1)…Deliver Us From the Evil One!

James 4:7–8 ESV

7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Part of yielding to Christ is to realize the importance of keeping our focus on God and in opposition to our spiritual enemy.

As we pray and ask God to deliver us from the evil one, there is only one way in which we can be delivered: Submit to God and draw near to Him.

Part of yielding to Him is recognize that He alone has the power of save and deliver.

He alone has the authority and the ability to rescue.

Too often we will struggle and strive to resist the enemy in our own strength, only to fail and fall way short.

Usually this looks like stressing out and allowing ourselves to bent out of sorts.

When our stress is about to reach “freak out” mode or has reached “freak out” mode, we finally break down and reach out to God…

As we actively engage in prayer and seek Jesus, part of yielding to Him is we seek Him to deliver us from the Evil one as of first importance!

2)…Yours is the Kingdom!

Matthew 18:1–4 ESV

1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them 3 and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

As we pray, we need to make sure that we seek out and promote the Kingdom of God and now our own culture and influence.

Here we see the disciples, that followed, Jesus focusing on their own culture and influence.

Jesus uses this moment as a valuable teaching tool.

By taking the focus off of the disciples and placing it on a child, one who was obviously being overlooked in the debate of the disciples, Jesus is snapping them back to reality.

Jesus uses this child to illustrate that disciples of His are to be dependent upon Him like a child is dependent upon others.

A child knows they need help and, in a healthy situation, doesn’t stress about self-sufficiency nor self-advancement.

They typically don’t try to grab all the attention to themselves, and if they do, we call that acting out and we know that isn’t right.

As we pray and yield to God, we pray acknowledging and realizing that the Kingdom is His and we are dependent upon Him so that His Kingdom motivates our actions and we take our cues from Jesus.

3)…Yours is the Power!

Luke 10:1–4 ESV

1 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. 2 And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3 Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road.

As we yield to Jesus for deliverance, and to advance His Kingdom culture in our lives, we also yield to His power in us.

In this situation, we find Jesus teaching his disciples through “on-the-job” training. He is sending them out “as lambs in the midst of wolves.”

Furthermore, He tells them to “carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road.”

Jesus instructs His followers to abandon any concepts of self-reliance and to carry out the purpose of God fully relying on the power and provision of God!

When we yield to God, we pray that His power be put on display in our lives…this means we need to live by the power of God and not in the futility of our own strength.

We will never get to experience the power of God in our lives, until we yield to Him in surrender and live life in reliance upon Him.

The same is true for our church. We will never experience the power of God unless we rely upon Him.

As we pray to God and yield ourselves to Him, we acknowledge there is evil as we need His protection. We depend upon Him and His Kingdom culture in our lives. We lay down our own strengths and place our confidence in Him.

4)…Yours is the Glory!

2 Corinthians 2:14–17 ESV

14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. 15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? 17 For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.

When soldiers and generals of the 1st Century returned from victorious battle, they paraded through every city on their way back home, back to Rome.

These processions would include the towns and cities gathering in their main streets and throwing crazy amounts of flowers through the air, eventually landing on the road.

Most of the times, captives from war were included in the procession. The parade of captives and the vast armies would trample the flowers as they came down upon the pathway of victory.

As the flowers would be crushed, the aroma would flood into the air and provide…the sweet smell of victory!

Our lives are to be lived in such a way that the aroma of Christ’s victory over death permeates all circumstances we find ourselves in.

We are live in such a way that in all circumstances the knowledge of Christ and His righteousness permeates the lives of others for the glory of God!

It is Christ who leads the procession. It is He who gets all the glory as the conquering King!

It is Jesus who receives all glory!

As we pray, may our prayers lead us to yield to Jesus so that He is exalted and glorified…not me.

CLOSING

As we pray and yield ourselves to God, may seek seek His protection and deliverance from the evil one. May we declare to Him belongs the Kingdom and the power and the glory FOREVER!