Lord Teach Us to Pray

   TEXT:  Luke 11:1-4

TOPIC:  Lord, Teach Us to Pray

Pastor Bobby Earls, FBC, Center Point, Alabana

January 4, 2009

INTRODUCTION: The ministry of Jesus was a ministry constantly bathed in prayer. On many occasions, Jesus would spend entire nights in prayer to the Father. The disciples were so impressed with the prayer life of Jesus that they asked the question "Lord, teach us to pray." In His answer Jesus gave a model prayer which serves as the pattern for powerful praying. 

Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.”

2 So He said to them, “When you pray, say:

Our Father in heaven,

Hallowed be Your name.

Your kingdom come.

Your will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

3      Give us day by day our daily bread.

4      And forgive us our sins,

For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

And do not lead us into temptation,

But deliver us from the evil one.”

 I.  THE PATTERN FOR PRAYER, Luke 11:2a

So He said to them, “When you pray, say: A.   We must be children of God in order to call him "our Father."            

1. God is the creator of all men but not the father of all men.           

2. Some human beings are not children of God but children of the devil. - John 8:44           

3. We become children of God by personally receiving Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. - John 1 :11 

   If God is our father, it is natural for us to talk with him. 

II.  THE PERSON OF PRAYER, Luke 11:2b

Our Father in heaven 

We have been invited to call God our father by the most intimate term "Abba, Father." - Romans 8:15  

III. THE PURPOSE OF PRAYER, Luke 11:2cHallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come.Your will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

A.   The major purpose of prayer is to seek and secure the will of God            

1. Prayer is answered only within the limits of God's will. -   I John 5:14

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.              

2. Praying within God's will does not mean to be restricted, but it means to claim God's best blessings. 

IV. THE PROVISION OF PRAYER,  Luke 11:3

Give us day by day our daily bread. 

A. God is concerned with every single need of our lives.           

God has promised to meet all of our needs each day. - Phillipians 4:19 

V. THE PARDON OF PRAYER, Luke 11:4a

And forgive us our sins, For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

Powerful prayer comes only from a cleansed heart. -  Psalms 66:18

VI. THE PROTECTION OF PRAYER, Luke 11:4b

And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. We have an enemy from which we need to be delivered.

The word evil in verse 13 should be translated "evil one."            

B. Prayer is our offensive attack upon Satan and the forces of evil. - Ephesians 6 

VII. THE PRAISE OF PRAYER, Matthew 6:13

For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

A. The model prayer both opens and closes on a note of praise.           

B. Praise is the best expression of faith that we can give in prayer.                       

1. When we ask God for things, that is petition.

2. When we thank God in advance that He will answer prayer and give us that for which we are praying, that is praise.            

C. The model prayer begins "Our Father" and it ends "thine is the kingdom", pointing out that our Father is a king. We must continually remember the greatness of God, to whom we pray.