Teach Us To Pray

October 18|Teach Us To Pray| Matthew 6:9-13 

YOU Card Announcement - Give a hand to all our first time Guests. Again welcome and thank you for joining us this morning. As mentioned earlier, there's a YOU Card on your seats when you arrived, please make sure to complete it and drop it off at the Next Steps Banner to pick up a special gift that we have for you.  

----------------------------- 

Intro: This morning we’re beginning a series called Closer. We will explore various spiritual disciplines that are helpful to us growing closer in our relationship with God. To kick things off is prayer.  

Here’s what I want you to leave with this morning: Prayer draws us closer to God as we learn to trust him with all of our life. We come trusting who he is, willing to surrender what we want, and believing that everything we’re carrying matters to him. Open your Bible, if you have one, to Matthew 6:9-13.  

Raise your hand if you would like to have a better prayer life? But an important question worth asking is what does better mean? Does better mean praying longer prayers? Does better mean praying more frequently? Does better mean sounding like someone you admire every time they pray? Does better mean being able to get through prayer without distraction? If prayer is meant to draw us closer to God, is your 'better' informed by what God has said prayer should be? 

I think we've been taught things about prayer that have perhaps made prayer more burdensome than what God wants it to be. There is a lot that can be said about prayer but for this morning I want to share four things about prayer from the words and life of Jesus. 

In Matthew 6, Jesus taught his disciples how to pray. He gave them what amounts to a framework for how they should approach prayer. And he did that because just like in our day, the religious leaders of his day had made prayer more than what God wanted it to be. So, a question worth asking yourself is, "Have I made prayer more than what God wants it to be?" 

Before we get into the four things we learn about prayer from the words and life of Jesus, let's start with defining prayer. What exactly is prayer?  

When I talk to people and ask how's your relationship with God, they would often times say "it's not where it needs to be, but I always pray." Prayer can make you feel close to God even when you're not because prayer is seen as simply talking to God.  

Prayer does involve talking to God, but it is more than that. Prayer is what we see in Genesis 4:26, "...At that time people began to call on the name of the Lord." This might be the first recorded instance of prayer in the bible. To pray is to call on the name of the Lord with faith and trust. Prayer is more than just talking to God; it is recognizing that there is a name you must call on because he's great and you're not; because he's all powerful and you're not, because he's righteous and you're not, because he has all he needs and you don't. If prayer is calling on the name of a great God, then I can't just simply talk to him without worshipping him. I don't think you caught that. If praying is calling on the name of the Lord, then my life must also be submitted to that same Lord. We cannot afford to cheapen prayer and treat it like something that only makes us feel good about ourselves, without asking, does it also make us feel good about God? 

And that's why Jesus started his instruction on prayer with God the Father in Matthew 6:9, "Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." 

The first thing we learn about prayer from Jesus is that Prayer begins with God as the main attraction. What does that mean? First, it means: 1) We approach God as Father. We can call him Father because Jesus died to reconcile us back to him and so through our faith in Jesus, we are adopted as sons and daughters and can cry out "Father." Because of Jesus, we have a heavenly Father who is invested in our wellbeing. This is key in prayer. We must begin our prayer believing that God is our Father who loves us and wants what is best for us and not a bell boy who is there to simply meet our needs.

Second, it means: 2) We come ready to surrender to what he wants. How many times do we come to prayer thinking only about what we want? If we come to prayer without the posture of surrendering to what God wants, then how can we hear him when he speaks? We should come to God with the posture of caring about the name of God being honored as holy in our lives; We should come to God with the posture of caring about the reign and rule of God in our lives; We should come to God with the posture of caring about his will being priority over our own. Prayer is not all about you getting what you want, it is primarily about your heart drawing closer to the heart of God. 

For some of us, the posture we bring to prayer reflects the role God plays in our life. If what God wants doesn't matter in the way we live our life, then it wouldn't when we come to pray. That's why some can pray but have no relationship with God.  

The prayer that God desires, is the prayer with him as the main attraction; that's the first thing we learn from Jesus about prayer. 

Here's the second. Prayer is Personal. While prayer starts with God as the main attraction, it also involves our personal needs. Matthew 6:11 reads "11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." 

We all have personal needs that we want God to speak into. We know that it will not change if God doesn't lay his hand on it. And here's the good news: God wants you to bring it all to him. God wants you to bring your daily needs, even your failures, and even your spiritual struggles to him.  

Notice that the personal needs we bring to God in prayer is determined by the posture of our heart toward God. Jesus didn't just talk about the material needs in this prayer, he also talked about the spiritual needs. If you come to prayer thinking only about you, then your prayer will stop at the material and physical needs. But when you come to prayer thinking about God, then your prayer will extend to include your spiritual needs. Your prayer will include how you can get closer to this God who loves you.  

So, come to God praying for your physical healing but also come praying for your spiritual healing. Come to God praying for a new job and a new house but also come to God praying for your mouth and your eyes. We need God's help in both the physical and spiritual dimensions. that's the second thing we learn from Jesus about prayer.  

Here's the third. Prayer is Communal. You aren't meant to pray only by and for yourself. Jesus used all plural pronouns because sometimes prayer involves other people. How often do you pray with other people? How often do you pray for other people? How often do you ask other people to pray for you? Apostle Paul in Romans 15:30 wrote "I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me." Because prayer is communal, we can't be ashamed to ask other people to pray for us, we can't be selfish that we neglect to pray for other people and we can't be prideful that we only want to pray by ourselves. There are times praying by yourself won’t cut it. You've got to call on some brothers and sisters who know how to pray and ask them to call on the name of the Lord with you. That's why we have prayer every Wednesday mornings on Zoom. If you haven't joined in a while or you haven't joined at all, let me encourage you to join. You won't regret it.  

Prayer begins with God as the main attraction, prayer is personal, prayer is communal. 

Lastly, Prayer is simple. I want you to go home today with the freedom that you can call on the name of God without pretense, without the pressure to sound a particular way, without the burden of doing what you see other people do. Here me this morning, there are no fixed rules to how you pray. Your prayer is determined by your circumstance; your prayer is determined by what is going on in your heart.  Listen, if your prayer sounds the same every single time you pray, then your heart isn't in your prayer. Your circumstance should affect the way in which you cry out to God.  

Several times in the bible we read of Jesus praying and we're going to briefly look at three of those times and each time, I want you to notice Jesus prayed differently. I want you to see in Jesus the freedom to pray how the Spirit of God leads you.

Luke 6:12, "One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God." He went away by himself to a secluded area to pray, and he prayed all night. The next morning, he was going to make a very important decision. He was going to pick his 12 disciples. You don't need to pray for a long time every time you pray but there are moments that might require it. You don't need to always go to a secluded environment to pray but sometimes you might need to.  Important decisions might require you to spend an extended time calling on the name of God in a secluded environment. 

Here's another prayer. John 11:41-42, "So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me." Jesus prayed not on his knees, not with his eyes closed, but standing and looking up to the heavens. Prayer doesn't have to be in one fixed posture. You can pray with your eyes open while you're driving. You can pray with your eyes open on your morning walk. And notice that his prayer was brief. He was about to raise a man from the dead and yet he didn't spend all night praying. He simply offered a brief prayer of thanksgiving for what he believes God will do. Sometimes all you might need to pray is "Lord, help me", "Lord, I thank you that you're going before me", "Lord silence my enemies." 

Here's the third prayer. Luke 22:41,44, "He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed 44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground." Jesus in this prayer doesn't stand and look to the heavens, he knelt down and prayed. Not only that, his prayer had more passion than usual. His death was imminent and the weight of what will soon take place was heavy on him and it showed in his prayer. Sometimes your prayer will be accompanied with tears, sometimes it will be accompanied with a loud voice, sometimes it will be with strong emotions. And all of that is okay. Your prayers should reflect what is happening not just around you but in you.  

You have the freedom to pray for 2 hours or 2 minutes, on your knees with eyes closed, or on your couch with eyes open, with strong emotions or with little emotion. Your prayer is about you and God not what others think. Your prayer is about you drawing closer to the heart of God not so other people will admire you.  

Music Team 

As we wrap up, you don’t have to wait until you have more words or feel a certain way before you pray to God. You can turn toward the Father with the life you have today. Prayer is calling on the name of God in faith and trust. It is knowing that you have access to God because of the blood of Jesus that was spilled just for you. Jesus died so that you can approach God as your father with a surrendered heart and mind. Jesus died so that you can approach God with all that is on your heart. The physical and the spiritual. Jesus died so that you can open up your life to others so they can pray with you and for you. He died so you can open your mouth and pray for them too. He died so you can pray like your heart is in it.  

Prayer is so important that sometimes you have to plan for it. Here's how you can begin to grow closer to God in your prayer. Be intentional. Here's what the old saints used to do: They set apart a designated time each day for prayer. You can do the same this week.  

Pick a time of the day. Pick a location in your home. Put it in your calendar for a reminder. Spend some time, however long, each day this week, praying at that time, and in that place. You will be surprised by how God shows up.  

Commit to calling on the name of God who loves you, cares for you, and wants the best for you. And in doing so, you draw closer to him. Because Jesus died you have access to the throne of God! 

Let us pray.