Prayer

Matthew 6:5-15

5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.8 Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

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.14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

I.       Look in verse 5

A.    Some people pray to be seen by others.

B.    Jesus tells us “they will have their rewards”.

1.     They’re rewards is being seen by men.

2.     But what is most important thing about praying, that your prayer is directed towards God. He is the one who is going to answer it.

C.    There is nothing wrong with praying in public.

1.     We pray here together while one is praying.

2.     When one is praying the others should be praying along with the one praying.

II.     Now lets look at verse 6

A.    The first thing I want you to notice is the word “Father”

1.     No one can call God “father” unless you know Christ as your Savoir.

2.     You must be born again to go to the Father in prayer.

a)     How can anyone call someone father unless they are in the family.

b)     John 1:12, But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.

c)     John 3:3, Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

3.     Some one can pray to God (one who wants to get saved).

B.    Christ talks about praying in secret.

1.     It is not that we can’t pray with our love ones or here in church.

2.     God wants you to pray to Him and not make a show of it like the people did back in verse 5.

3.     Prayer should always be from the heart and sincere.

a)     When Jesus prayed in the garden.

b)     One of the things I have taught is to pray just like you talk to someone, prayer is talking to God.

III.    Look in Verse 7. Vain repetitions.

A.    When we pray asking God over and over again in the same prayer does not do any good.

1.     Some people think that if I pray a lot about a subject God will hear me.

B.    Put at the same time God wants us to continually come to Him in prayer about the same thing.

1.     Luke 18:1-5,1 And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;2 Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: 3 And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary.4 And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man;5 Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.

2.     Luke 18:7-8, And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

Stop

IV.   Verse 8. Why does God want us to pray?

A.    God already know our needs before we pray.

B.    If you are like me, you want your children to come to you and talk.

1.     I love it when my children come to talk or ask questions.

2.     This last week I was praying and I was saying to God how grateful I was that He permits me to fail, I was lead to call my son and let him know that as far as I am concerned it is ok to fail and I still love him.

C.    God longs for us to come to Him and talk. He already knows our needs, but want to fellowship with us, as any father or mother would.

D.    God wants to take care of us as any father does.

1.     We have to go to Him and fellowship with Him, we need to have that relationship with Him.

2.     It is reported that D. L. Moody once felt so overwhelmed with God’s blessings that he prayed, “God, stop.” That is what God will do with every faithful believer who comes to Him as an expectant child to his father-smother him in more blessings than can be counted or named.

3.     I can tell you from my experience that God does bless you more when your time with him becomes more.

a)     The more time I spend with God the more He spends with me.

E.     God wants to take care of us and already knows what we need, so we need to come to Him in fellowship. Have a good time with God and tell Him how much you appreciate Him.

V.    Lets look at Verse 9.

A.    Jesus ministered about 3 years here on earth.

B.    During that time, He spends a lot of time in prayer.

1.     After one does some research, you will find that Christ would prayer early in the morning and at night each day.

C.     Someone has said that many Christians offer their prayers like sailors use their pumps-only when the ship leaks. At that point they have to pump to keep the water out of the ship so it will float.

D.    The Bible teaches a great deal about prayer and how effective it is.

1.     James 5:16, Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

2.     So if you learn to pray and pray like this, your prayers will avail much with God.

E.     As we see here in verse 9, the maim purpose of prayer is to bring honor and glory to God.

1.     When God answers a prayer it is to bring honor to Himself,

a)     God answered it and therefore the honor and glory must and should be His.

b)     John 14:13, And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

c)     So what happens is that as God blesses you, you have the opportunity to let people know what God is doing for you.

(1)   Which in turn help others who are going through problems themselves.

(2)   This is a great witnessing tool.

F.     The prayer starts with “Hallowed be thy name”

1.     Which means this = “Let thy name be Holy”

2.     How do we make God's name Holy?

a)     By the type of life we live.

b)     When people see that we love God they start to respect God themselves and see how Holy God is.

c)     I just spoke on Daniel and what a testimony he was to the unsaved king.

VI.   Lets go to verse 10; “thy kingdom come”

A.    This is talking about the future kingdom that Christ will setup when He comes back.

B.    So in our prayers we should be looking to the things of God and what He wants.

****************************

VII. Look in verse 11; “Give us this day our daily bread”

A.    This speaks of our dependence upon God each day.

B.    When God lead Israel through the wilderness, He was in control and being in control He supplied their needs each day.

1.     Remember they were not permitted to take mana for more than one day.

2.     God was teaching them to trust Him day by day to supply all their needs.

VIII.         Verse 12,

A.    We ask God to forgive us of our sin.

B.    We need to forgive people of the wrong they have done to us.

C.    How do we expect God to forgive us when we can’t forgive others?

1.     We must learn to give the very thing we want. Forgiveness.

2.     Ephesians 4:32, And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

3.     Matthew 18:21-22,21 Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?22 Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

D.    Think about this, we (as Christians) live today base on what Christ has done for us.

1.     Christ died for our sin so we can go to heaven.

2.     Christ died for our sins so we can live a good life here on earth in fellowship with Him.

E.     We in turn must forgive others to have God bless us.

! IX.   Verse 13,

A.    Lead us not into temptation.

1.     The word “lead” give us the wrong impression here.

2.     James 1:13, Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

3.     A better way to translate this is “Leave us not in temptation”.

4.     1 Corinthians 10:13, There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

B.    Deliver us from evil could mean the Devil himself or a evil person.

1.     Do you ever get tired of sinning and praying to God to help you. We are in a battle with evil or Satan and we need help and a lot of it.

2.     Ephesians 6:12, For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

C.    Than we finish with telling God that all is His, and He has the power to do whatever He wants.

1.     He is the Almighty God.

Conclusion: Praying is having a relationship with God. Praying is talking to Him.

No matter were you pray, in public or by your self, pray as though you are in a closet alone with God.

I hope that this has been a help to you and we will do more studies on prayer in the future.

Sunday Morning Biker Service 3/25/06 for the last 3 weeks