The Disciples Guide to Prayer

Intro:

Two weeks ago I talked about what Choosing your reward

Jesus gave options when it came to giving, prayer, & fasting

Choose the praise of people or the reward in heaven

In the middle of those rewards is the disciples guide to prayer

You know it as the Lord’s prayer, but it is really Jesus teaching the disciples to pray

They actually asked him how to pray

Luke 11:1 ESV

Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”

There is a guide for almost everything

You can use the instructions that come with a new package and try to interpret what the pictures mean

You used to be able to buy the dummies guide to everything

Now if you don’t know how to do something you Youtube it

There is even a famous book called “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe.”

Today we get one of the most practical guides you can use for your life

This will improve your prayer life

Jesus gives us the disciples guide to prayer

Read Matthew 5:9-13

Transition: Pray Like This

How many of you grew up reciting the Lord’s prayer over and over?

How many of you can recite it forwards and backwards?

People who don’t know anything about God can repeat some of this prayer

It is that well known

The sermon on the mount was a unique event but it was also a compilation of many messages that he spoke all over the Galilee

This prayer he gives is a guide on how to improve your prayer life

People struggle with what to say

Jesus gives us 5 keys that unlock a fruitful prayer life

Jesus says in vs. 9 Pray like this

He did not say, “Pray in these words.”

He did not mean it to be repeated verbatum

There are millions of people reciting this prayer thinking it suffices for a prayer life and they have missed the point.

He said, “Pray after this manner”; that is, “Use this prayer as a pattern, not as a substitute.”

As we learn the categories and start to pray over those our prayer will grow in width and depth

It shows us five petitions, two towards God and three for ourselves

In the Bible prayer is worship that includes all the attitudes of the human spirit in its approach to God.

The Christian worships God when he adores, confesses, praises and supplicates him in prayer.

A man prays because God has already touched his spirit

The Lord’s prayer is really a disciples guide to prayer

I want to give you five keys to improve your prayer life

Adore vs. 9

The first key to improve your prayer life is to Adore God

Adore means deep love and respect

The first words are Our Father

The Aramaic word is Patros and is translated into the Greek as Abba

That is an endearing term the Jews would never use

In fact, they wouldn’t mention God’s name out of reverence

And it’s true we should revere God, hence Jesus’ use of Hallowed

But our relationship with Jesus and our prayer life is much more powerful when it is more intimate and personal

Daddy is better

The introductory words of the prayer also remind us of the fact that all Christian believers are one in him, for we are to pray to him as ‘Our Father’

‘Hallowed be thy name’ is a prayer asking God to enable us and all men to recognize and honour him

So how do you Adore the Lord?

David gives us some clues

Psalm 29:1–2 ESV

Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.

Submit vs. 10

The second key to improve your prayer life is to submit to God’s will

Submit means to yield to a superior force or to the authority

Psalm 81:11 ESV

“But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me.

James 4:7 ESV

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Ask vs. 11

The third tip to improve your prayer life is to Ask God for what you need

Ask means to say something in order to obtain an answer

The petition ‘Give us this day our daily bread’ asks God as our heavenly Father to grant us the physical necessities of life

This verse alludes to God’s provision of “daily bread” (manna) for his people in the wilderness after he first redeemed them.

Prayers for God to supply one’s basic needs—of which bread and water are the ultimate examples—were common in the ancient world

Our prayer for daily sustenance is thus not meant to be a selfish prayer, or a prayer for material luxury, but a prayer in which we confess our utter dependence on God and look to him in faith and love to supply us with all things which we really need to enable us to live according to his will.

Matthew 7:7 ESV

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

Confess vs. 12

The fourth key to improve your prayer life is to confess your sins

Confess means to admit that one is at fault in some way

The Gk. word hamartias, here rendered ‘sins’, has the primary meaning of ‘missing the mark’ and thus ‘acting wrongly’ and ‘breaking the law of God’

By sinning we have incurred a moral and spiritual debt to our Father and Creator, who has full authority over our lives.

Jewish teaching regarded sins as “debts” before God; the same Aramaic word could be used for both.

Biblical law required the periodic forgiveness of monetary debtors (in the seventh and fiftieth years), so the illustration of forgiving debts would have been a graphic one

especially since Jewish lawyers had found a way to circumvent the release of debts so that creditors would continue to lend

In this petition we therefore humbly ask him for a remission of our debts, seeing that we ourselves can never earn our forgiveness.

Psalm 32:5 ESV

I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

Protect vs. 13

The final key to improve your prayer life is to pray for God’s protection

Protect means to keep safe from harm or injury

The Aramaic wording behind this verse, suggest that the first line means: “Let us not sin when we are tested”—rather than “Let us not be tested”

1 John 5:18 ESV

We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.

Forgive vs. 14-15

One Final note

Closing:

Mr. Moody tells us a remarkable incident in connection with an early visit to London. He had gone there for a visit. He was unknown in London, hence he did not expect to preach; but a little while after arriving there he was invited to preach for a certain church, which he did. He said it was a very cold and uninteresting service to him, but he announced that he would preach again that night

Upon reaching the church, he noticed that the atmosphere had changed, he did not know just why. At the close of the meeting he was led to give an invitation for those who wanted to be saved to stand. A great crowd of people stood. He left the next day for Dublin, Ireland. Shortly after arriving there he received a telegram from the church to return, stating that the whole community was in an upstir and clamor for a series of meetings. He went back and found that a great revival was beginning, and hundreds of people were being converted.

Not long after he learned the secret. An invalid lady, who could not attend the church, was praying for a mighty outpouring of the Spirit upon the church. She prayed for months. Once she saw in the papers accounts of some of the Moody meetings in America, and, although she had never heard of Mr. Moody before, she began to pray that God would send him to her church in London for a revival. One Sunday morning her sister, upon her return from the service, informed her of Moody’s presence and his preaching, whereupon she spent the whole afternoon in prayer that God would make that night a night of power. That explains the difference between morning and evening services!