Learning to Pray Like Jesus, Part4 (Pray Rightly) Notes

Pray Rightly, Part 1

Matthew 6:9-10

We’ve been learning to pray like Jesus. Jesus was closer to God than anyone in History. So if we want to be close to God, we need to follow Jesus’ example.

First, we looked at the fact that God expects us to pray. But, because He expects us to pray, he also tells us how to pray. 1) He expects us to pray privately, and 2) He expects us to pray sincerely. He doesn’t want us praying empty prayers.
In other words, to truly pray our hearts and minds must be engaged in the prayer, not just mere words.

In the following verses we see the, so called, “Lord’s Prayer.” A better word for it is the “Model Prayer” of Jesus. And in the model prayer Jesus teaches his followers a pattern of principles for right praying.

There are 2 sections in this model prayer: 1) There is the section that focuses on God (verses 9-10) and 2) the section where Jesus teaches us principles about asking/petitioning from God things for ourselves.

Pray then like this, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:9-10)

Main Point: Prayer is all about God.

We make decisions based on, “What’s in it for me?” When we pray, we often go with the same attitude. But we must understand that prayer is not about me getting what I want from God. It’s all about God.
Notice 3 ways that prayer is all about God…

I. Watch how we are to address God… “Our Father in heaven…”

Jesus was teaching His Jewish listeners something some thing amazing and ground breaking about God.
He said, “You can call God, Father/Daddy.” He’s more than just your Far of, Holy God on His throne in heaven, although He is that.

The early Jewish people showed great respect for God. For example, the scribes who were given charge to copy the Old Testament would always throw away the pen immediately after writing the name of God, YAHWEH. Writing the holy name of YAHWEH disqualified the pen from ever being used again.
But Jesus teaches intimacy with God. Yes, you must be respectful, but not at the expense of losing the love and intimacy with God.
Galatians 4:4-7 tells us that because we are sons, and not merely slaves, “God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying Abba Father!”

Because of our sin we are separated from God. We’re in debt to the law in that we keep on breaking the moral law and are unable to even the score and pay back what we’ve done with out giving our own lives. But Jesus paid that debt on the cross, so that you would not have to. Now all you must to is receive the gift & repent of our sins and we are now, children of God.
So because we are sons, we can now address God as sons would address a Father.

My kids address me with intimacy and yet remain respectful. They say, “Hey daddy…”, not “Hey Old man…” or “O Great earthly Father figure of the home…”
Jesus wants us to pray intimately to God. God is not just some heartless slave-driver who does not want people entering into His presence. He want us to come before Him as children come to a Father.

II. How do we petition God? “Hallowed by your name”

We’ll see to applications to this statement:

It’s a petition/request. “Hallowed” means to make holy, sanctify, or set apart.

Jesus is basically saying, “Father in heaven, make your name holy and glorified on the earth today.” The opposite of this is taking the name of the Lord in vain, like in Exodus 20:7.
It’s a prayer/petition that God would cause His name to glorified in the world.
Whatever can be done to bring glory to your name, Lord, do it.
This is a tough prayer to pray, because it cannot be prayed when there is pride in the heart of a believer. Pride says, “Look at me.” It says, “It’s all about be.” What can this do for me or what can God do for me?

It’s also a praise. “Daddy, praise your name. Blessed be your name.”

The best example of this is Job. (Job 1:20-22) Satan came before the Lord one day and the Lord said to him, have you considered Job? Satan said to God, “You won’t take your hand off of him. You bless everything he does, so of course he fears you. Take away everything and he’ll curse you in a second.” So God gave Satan the authority to take from Job his family and all his wealth. This is what Job said…
20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” 22 In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.
Job said bless the name of the Lord. He can do what He wants. He can give abundance or he can take away. But either way, blessed/glorified is His name!

David Jeremiah said in his book “Prayer: The Great Adventure” concerning these verses…

“When we come into the presence of God with and attitude of worship and praise, deferring our own requests until we have paid him the honor He is due, then we are hallowing His name.”
In other words, when we pray like this we’re giving to Him what is rightfully His before we begin to ask for things from God, that we really do not deserve in the first place.

Prayer is all about God! It’s not about me getting something from God.