Lord's Prayer
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How Do We Pray?
How Do We Pray?
Talk about the idea and act of prayer.
Point out the contrast of prayer given by Jesus.
Breakdown the Lord’s Prayer
Why is it that one of the most important acts of a Christian, which is prayer, is also one of the areas that many Christians struggle with?
Why is it that the most important task a church can do, which is to pray, also one of the most overlooked and sees that least participation in?
You see, prayer is vital not just to the individual believer but to the life and success of the church. Without prayer, the church becomes more of the image of the congregation rather than the image of the God that they were made in and are to worship.
Without prayer, the church makes the God they worship each week into their image, instead of allowing God to refine the image that He has made them into.
This is what prayer does! It is the act of God breaking and reshaping our hearts to reflect his image. To make us a little less like us and a little more like Him.
8 Yet Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we all are the work of your hands.
So I ask again, why is prayer such a struggle for believers in the Church?
I think we have become bored with praying to God. Growing up we teach our kids to pray and we read them cute bible stories that have been summarized in a book.
But something happens when we get older. Those cute bible stories and children’s prayers no longer appeal to us. Let it not be so that we treat the Bible and prayer as something that we grow out of or graduate from.
When you pray, how do you see God? Is he a loving father bending down listening to every word that you speak? Is He sitting in some grand throne and has his arms folded across His chest, listening to your words with judgement or critic?
“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”
“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”
― A.W. Tozer
Our prayers are based on our understanding and knowledge of God.
Prayer was something that we see was important to Jesus.
35 And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.
It was such a vital part of Jesus’ ministry that His disciples wanted to learn how.
1 He was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.”
2 He said to them, “Whenever you pray, say,
Father,
your name be honored as holy.
Your kingdom come.
3 Give us each day our daily bread.
4 And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves also forgive everyone
in debt to us.
And do not bring us into temptation.”
Now the Lord’s Prayer as we have titled it, is seen also in the sermon on the mount that Jesus preaching to a large crowd near the Sea of Galilee.
I don’t believe the two are the same moment but two different times that Jesus reuses the same material. As one who travels as much as Jesus did, speaking to many different crowds, that Jesus would use the same sermon or illustration.
After all, if it’s good stuff, why reinvent the wheel.
So here in Matthew’s gospel we come to our text for tonight.
5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.
8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
7 When you pray, don’t babble like the Gentiles, since they imagine they’ll be heard for their many words.
I like how the CSB put this idea. It says that many would babble, thinking that their amount of words would cause them to be heard.
In the ancient biblical world, there was this idea that the more words and extent those words were delivered, would draw the attention of the gods.
We see this idea played out with Elisha and the prophets of bael.
25 Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Since you are so numerous, choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first. Then call on the name of your god but don’t light the fire.”
26 So they took the bull that he gave them, prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “Baal, answer us!” But there was no sound; no one answered. Then they danced around the altar they had made.
27 At noon Elijah mocked them. He said, “Shout loudly, for he’s a god! Maybe he’s thinking it over; maybe he has wandered away; or maybe he’s on the road. Perhaps he’s sleeping and will wake up!” 28 They shouted loudly, and cut themselves with knives and spears, according to their custom, until blood gushed over them. 29 All afternoon they kept on raving until the offering of the evening sacrifice, but there was no sound; no one answered, no one paid attention.
36 At the time for offering the evening sacrifice, the prophet Elijah approached the altar and said, “Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, today let it be known that you are God in Israel and I am your servant, and that at your word I have done all these things.
Jesus is telling us here that it is not the amount of words we use or the size of our words that matter to God. What matters to God is the mindset and heart that we approach God in prayer.
Do we approach God with the idea that we have to do something for God to listen and answer us?
Or
Do we approach God with the attitude that this is not about us, but instead, about who He is?
Now that we understand how we are not to pray, Jesus continues to teach us how to pray. Understand me here, I am not saying that we have to say these exact words when we pray nor am I saying you can’t do that.
What I want us to see is that Jesus is showing us where the focus of our prayers should be pointed. Let us read together:
9 In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
10 Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On 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 do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
14 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
When we pray we must first....
Connect with God relationally
Our Father in heaven...
15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
Praise is an important part of our prayers. Prayer must start with us acknowledging who we are talking to.
We are addressing the God of the universe, to maker of heaven and earth.
Prayer is not some causal conversation over coffee but a holy encounter with our savior.
This idea of calling God father, communicates an intimacy they many in the 1st century would not understand.
Here though we see that Jesus wants us to see God, not as some distant and uninvolved father but one of closest and care.
When we pray we must...
2. Worship His Name
Hallowed be Your Name...
What does it mean to hallow God’s name?
This word used here can be translated a few different ways.
Holy, make
Sacred
Hallowed
Consecrate
Set apart
sanctify
Your Bible may translate this phrase:
your name be honored or regarded as holy.
may your name be kept holy.
hallowed be your name.
sanctify; make holy
5. set apart
How can we make God’s name holy?
When we pray, we should regard God as Holy. For His name to be hallowed in all of the world. In your own life, may God’s name be glorified in you, in our churches, and nation.
When we pray we must...
3. Pray His agenda first
10 Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
31 Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
What are some of the things that God’s kingdom and will be done on earth as in heaven?
Saving the lost
Wisdom and guidance for those in authority— spiritual, governmental, work-related
Caring for the poor and marginalized
Unity and love
Life for the unborn, the living and the elderly
Justice
Freedom for those in bondage.
God’s house to be a house of prayer:
7 I will bring them to my holy mountain
and let them rejoice in my house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and sacrifices
will be acceptable on my altar,
for my house will be called a house of prayer
for all nations.”
When we pray we must...
4. Depend on Him for everything
Give us our day our daily bread
Psalm 121:1–2
1 I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
“Father, I acknowledge that everything I need today will come from You. You made the heavens and the earth; You are more than capable of handling any situation I’m dealing with, so I give it to You completely. I look to You to help me, sustain me, and give me your strength.
When we pray we must pray to...
5. Forgive and be forgiven
12 and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
This is a difficult passage to pray, at least half of it that is. We don’t mind praying and asking God to forgive us but asking God to help to forgive someone else, is a different story.
We forget about v. 14-15
14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
How could Jesus say something like this? After all, 1 John tells us...
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Jesus is trying to get us to see that unless we are willing to forgive others of an offense done to us, we will never be able to approach God with the attitude of repentance; when we ask God to forgive us.
Understanding “Our Father”: Biblical Reflections on the Lord’s Prayer As above, so Below
We’re not just forgiving because we believe our offenders’ apologies are sincere, and they won’t trouble us again—because sometimes they’re not sincere, sometimes they don’t even bother to say they’re sorry, and often they sin against us again and again. But God forgives us when we apologize halfheartedly and when we become repeat offenders.
It is interesting that Jesus also follows asking for daily bread to asking for forgiveness.
Just as we need bread or food to live, we need forgiveness and to be free from sin in order to grow as a Christian.
Lastly when we pray we must...
6. Engage in spiritual warfare
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Ephesians 6:12
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Understanding “Our Father”: Biblical Reflections on the Lord’s Prayer God Does Not Tempt
We must read Jesus’ words with utmost care, for He chose them with a precision that is perfect and all-knowing.
The Lord’s Prayer is not the only time Jesus directed His followers to pray against temptation. Twice in the Garden of Gethsemane, He urged the apostles, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.… Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation” (Lk. 22:40, 46).
Jesus knows that we will face temptation as apart of the Christian walk.
When Jesus was tempted what was His response?
He ran to His father in prayer.
So I pray that you will adopt this prayer as your own.
“He who lives with little prayer— he who seldom looks up to heaven for a fresh influence from on high— he will be the man whose heart will become cold and barren.”
- Charles Spurgeon