Teach us How to Pray

Introduction:

It is Mothers day today and I would remiss if I did not thank Mothers for their prayers for their children.

Many of us here today would not be here had our Mother not been in prayer for us. Had she not be up all night on her knees before God asking God to take care of her baby.

Grandmothers on their knees before the Lord of Hosts for her grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Spiritual Mothers crying out before the King of Kings for those that He has entrusted her with.

When I think about prayers, I think about the prayers of Mothers. I would not be here had my mother not prayed, my grandmothers not prayed, my great grandmother not prayed.

Throughout the Scripture we are reminded of great women of God who prayed, who touched the throne room of the Lord.

Mothers did not get that way on a whim, I believe God designed women with an innate ability to touch the throne of God on behalf of her family.

Even yet, they did not get that way over night. That’s where we are starting today,

Maybe you are a mother here and you have asked yourself how do I pray?

I don’t pray as eloquentally as that lady. Maybe you are a father here and you’re asking yourself that same question. How do I pray? How do I touch the throne room of God.

This is what we’re going to talk about the next few weeks. I have been asked a few times “how do I pray” I want us to engage in this teaching/preaching series and let us learn what the Scripture says and how the Scripture teaches us to pray.

let me read to you a few prayers that have been said in the past

Dear God, Instead of letting people die and having to make new ones, why don’t you just keep the ones you have?—Jane

Dear God, Maybe Cain and Abel wouldn’t kill each other so much if they had their own rooms. It works with my brother—Larry

Dear God, I bet it is very hard for you to love all of everybody in the whole world. There are only 4 people in our family and I can never do it. –Nan

Dear God, I read the bible. What does “Beget’ mean? Nobody will tell Me.—Love, Allison

Dear God, Are you really invisible or is it just a trick? ---Lucy

Dear God, is it true my father won’t get in Heaven if he uses his bowling words in the house? –Anita

Dear God, did you mean for the giraffe to look like that or was it an accident? –Norma

Dear God, Who draws the lines around the countries? –Nan

If I were to ask you, “Who here prays every day,” I am sure that everyone would raise their hand.

Most of us probably pray over our food when we eat,

or if you are anything like me you have to ask forgiveness every day,

and we are often faced with difficult tasks that cause us to whisper, “help me God.”

I am sure that most of the time---as Christians--- We all think of God at least once throughout the day, and may whisper some sort or form of prayer.

So if I was to ask how many of you pray every day, probably all of us could raise our hands.

But I wonder how many of our “meal time” prayers and “help me, God” prayers, and even our “please forgive me” prayers are sincere. Are we really engaging God in our prayers, or is it just a matter of convenience and routine.

If I was to step it up a notch and ask, “How many of you engage God in prayer on a daily basis?” (And that would mean getting somewhere by yourself, getting alone with God, and focusing your full attention on God) well I wonder how drastically the number of hands would go down.

I don’t even think it is necessary to ask that question, because I am sure that most people in this room do not feel like they pray as much or effectively as they should or could.

But you are not alone, even the disciples recognized that they needed help with prayer. After observing the effective, passionate, and power-filled prayer life of Jesus, they approached Jesus and asked Him,

“Lord, please teach us to pray.”

In essence they were asking Him, “Teach us to pray LIKE YOU.”

How many of you this morning feel inadequate in your prayers?

How many of you feel like your prayers are ineffective?

How many of you sometimes wonder if you are praying right?

How many of you would like to learn to pray like Jesus?

I think you will find that prayer is not quite as hard as we make it.

Jesus simplified it for us, but yet we still tend to complicate it.

I read a story about a man’s daughter who asked the local pastor to come and pray with her dying father. When the Pastor arrived, he found the man lying in the bed with his head propped up on two pillows and an empty chair beside his bed. The pastor assumed that the gentleman had been informed of his visit, so he said, “I guess you were expecting me” The elderly gentleman replied, “No, I am sorry, and who you are?”

We’ll I’m the new pastor at your local church,” the pastor replied. “When I saw the empty chair, I just figured you knew I was going to show up.”

“Oh yeah, the chair,” said the bedridden man. “Would you mind closing the door?”

Puzzled, the pastor shut the door.

“I’ve never told anyone this, not even my daughter,” said the man. “But all of my life I have never known how to pray. At church I used to hear the Pastor talk about prayer, but it always went right over my head.”

“I Abandoned any attempt at prayer,” the old man continued, “Until one day about four years ago my best friend said to me, “Joe, prayer is just a simple matter of having a conversation with Jesus. Here’s what I suggest. Sit down on a chair, place an empty chair in front of you, and in faith see Jesus on the chair. It’s not spooky because he promised, ‘I’ll be with you always.’ Then just speak to him and listen in the same way you’re doing with me right now.”

“So, I tried it… and I’ve liked it so much hat I do it a couple of hours every day. I’m careful, though. If my daughter same me talking to an empty chair, she’d either have a nervous breakdown or send me off to the funny farm.”

The pastor was deeply moved by the story and encouraged the old guy to continue on the journey. Then he prayed with him, and returned to the church.

Two nights later the daughter called to tell the pastor that her daddy had died that afternoon. “Did he seem to die in peace?” he asked. “Yes, when I left the house around two, he called me over to his bedside, told me one of his corny jokes, and kissed me on the cheek. When I got back from the store an hour later, I found him dead. But there was something strange, in fact, beyond strange—kind of weird. Apparently, just before daddy died, he leaned over and rested his head on a chair beside the bed.”

You see, prayer is not near as complicated as we make it out to be, yet it still remains one of the hardest disciplines for us to do.

If I was to ask for reasons why we do not pray more;

the number one answer would probably be time.

“I don’t have time. I ran out of time. I am too busy.”

We have time for all those things in the day that we want to do, but we don’t have time for the most important thing that we NEED to do.

Why do we always run out of time? First of all, I would say that it is because we really do not understand the importance of prayer; if we did, we would pray more. Second of all, it is because our enemy DOES understand the importance of prayer, and he is doing everything he can to keep us distracted from it—and he is doing a very good job of it.

C.S. Lewis wrote, “The moment you wake up each morning, all your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists of shoving it all back, in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other, larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.”

Prayer is a discipline.

It is something that we have to discipline ourselves to do. There are certain things in our lives that will NEVER change if we do not pray.

1. So why pray? What’s the importance of prayer? What do we benefit from it?

John 14:13 MEV

I will do whatever you ask in My name, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

A. One of the reasons that we pray is simply the glorification of the Son. When our prayers are answered the Son of God, Jesus Christ is glorified.

He is lifted up. So pray so that way when your prayers are answered God gets the glory!

Anyone remember when they were kids the parents probably tried to force you to pray. What good does that do? Forcing someone to pray? It doesn’t do anything because a lot of the time that person would just go and sit and stare at the wall.

This type of forcing children to pray doesn’t train them in the importance of prayer.

Prayer should not be a religious obligation that you simply fulfill so God doesn’t get angry with you..

That’s how God works isn’t it? He gives us the rules, and you follow them or else… Unfortunately, many people have come to view prayer like this.

Prayer to some is nothing more than a religious act that is necessary to keep God happy with them and show they are doing what they are supposed to be doing. We should be teaching our children by them seeing OUR prayer life that prayer is much more than making requests known, rather that prayer is all about a relationship with Almighty God

Why pray?

If God is God, He is going to do what He wants to do anyway?

Whether I pray or not will not change that. If everything was meant to happen, then it was meant to happen whether I pray or not. My prayers will not make a difference. Therefore, why pray?

This is the question at the heart of it all. This is the question that must be answered before you can ever really commit to prayer; why pray, and what difference does it really make?

Let me give you a few examples of some prominent Christian leader’s ideas on prayer.

S.D. Gordon says “You can do more than pray, after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray, until you have prayed. Prayer is striking the winning blow. Service is gathering up the results.”

John Wesley said “God does nothing on this earth save in answer to believing prayer.”

E.M. Bounds says “God shapes the world by prayer. The more prayer there is in the world the better the world will be, the mightier the forces against evil. The prayers of God’s saints are the capital stock of heaven by which God carries on His great work upon earth.  God conditions the very life and prosperity of His cause on prayer.”

These men are basically stating that God cannot do anything on this earth except a person pray for it.

  God is not limited to our prayers but He has literally limited himself to our prayers when it comes to this earth.

That is why it is important for us to pray.

When we pray we release the hand of God and power of God into our situation!

Look at God’s opinion on the topic.

1 Kings 18 God told Elijah that it would rain, but Elijah still had to pray for that rain… 7 times in fact

Daniel he had to pray 21 days- Sometimes persistent prayer is the only thing we can do.

God continues to shock us with this Scripture in Ezekiel 22:30-31

Ezekiel 22:30–31 MEV

I sought for a man among them who would build up the hedge and stand in the gap before Me for the land so that I would not destroy it, but I found no one. Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them. I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath. Their own way I have recompensed on their heads, says the Lord God.

In a time like we’re in now, We need men and women of God that are standing in the gap for our nation!

God looked for someone to stand in the gap but did not find one! This shows us that He limits himself to what he can do on this earth because of man…

Think about this either God wants it to continue the way it is without someone praying to where God is powerless to do anything here on earth or he wants someone like you and me to be the person on our knees bringing forth petitions so we can release his hand!

Jack Hayford puts it like this “ Prayer is a partnership of the redeemed child of God working hand in hand with God toward the realization of His redemptive purposes on earth.”

That’s who we are working hand in hand with God BUT ONLY IF YOU PRAY!

How do we pray?

WE can find a ton of books on subjects that try to teach us to pray. We can talk with some of the greatest evangelical leaders of this and past times on the best way to pray. But who better to teach us to pray than the Son of God Himself, Jesus Christ?

Before Jesus teaches us how to pray, He teaches us how not to pray.

Matthew 6:5–8 MEV

“When you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, enter your closet, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. But when you pray, do not use vain repetitions, as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their much speaking. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what things you have need of before you ask Him.

Notice the first thing God says is WHEN YOU PRAY.

Jesus is assuming that because you are a Christian you are going to pray. Period.

It is apparent that as a Christian in a relationship we need to be praying. Not IF you do, but when you do.

Then Jesus Continues he says to pray in secret and not in the open…

Now, in this statement He is not communicating that we must never pray in public.

He is simply saying that we need to not be praying for people to see us.

Jesus continues and shows us that we are to find a special place to where we can be alone with Christ…

Can I tell you, If you pray at church only… You do not have an effective prayer life.

Jesus shows us time and time again the importance of going and having alone time with God…

If JESUS Who is the literal Son of God, who is God incarnate needed it.

oh how much more do we?

Secondly Jesus says do not pray for much speaking because that’s the what the pagans do.

Prayer is not an effort to overcome God’s unwillingness to respond by wearying Him out with our words.

It is not a competition to see who can last the longest you or God.

It is not the size of the prayer that matters…

Dwight L. Moody said “Some men’s prayers need to be cut short at both ends and set on fire in the middle.”

Paul Bunyan said “When thou prayest rather let thy heart be without words, than thy words without heart.”

One Pastor quoted these statistics: The Lord’s prayer contains 56 words; the Gettysburg address 266; the Ten Commandments 297; the Declaration of Independence, 300; and a recent government order setting the price of cabbage, 26,911 words.

Only after Jesus tells us how NOT to pray, does He begin to tell us How to pray.

This has been called the Lord’s prayer but is more aptly called the Disciples’ prayer because He teaches US how to pray! This is our prayer not His.

Matthew 6:9–13 MEV

“Therefore pray in this manner: Our Father who is 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 forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Before we move any further I feel I need to make this disclaimer: This prayer given to us from Jesus is not for us to copy on a day to day basis. It is not for us to recite as mantra like some other denominations do… All this is, is a guideline for us to follow. And in following that we are praying a prayer that has it all.

The prayer that has it all!

A. As we look at this Prayer three things come to mind..

First is how brief this prayer is.. it is only 56 words. To many pastors try to impress their congregations by praying Long prayers thinking that if they pray that long then they are more spiritual.. sometimes we need to embrace the mantra K.I.S.S Keep it simple stupid…

Secondly, how simple the prayer is… No big theological ideals, no obscure phrases no geanoligies.. simple.

Thirdly, how comprehensive it is, everything you’ll ever need to know it is in this prayer, everything you’ll ever pray about is in this prayer IT contains all.

Everything is in this prayer.

God is in this prayer

We’re in this prayer

The past is in this prayer

The present is in this prayer

The future is in this prayer

The father, Son, and Holy Spirit are in this prayer

Conclusion: the first half of this prayer talks about God, His name, His Kingdom, His will

The second half of this prayer talks about us, Forgive us, Deliver us, Lead us So for the next several weeks we are going to try to make this prayer a daily part of our lives in everything that we pray. So Let’s start now everyone pray this with me.

9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in 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 lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Now I pray.