A Primer on Prayer

Matthew 6:9-13:

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.

Today’s passage of scripture is a very familiar passage of scripture to most of us, even those of us who may not have a church background. Even non-Christians are familiar with the words that we have labeled as the "Lord’s Prayer" Today we are going to look at this prayer and try to decide exactly what it was that the Lord meant for us to pray for.

Many believe that we must pray this prayer, word for word, and we must all pray in and identical manner. Others believe that to do that would be considered vain repetitions, an action that scripture warns us against. Jesus gave us this model prayer, and he told us we are to pray in this manner. So what did he mean by it?

It is your pastor’s opinion that Christ intended for the prayer to be a "model" to show us the framework of how we should pray, not to be a prayer to be repeated in its entirety without another thought. We can see several instructions as we look at the verses.

I. Acknowledge God for who He is. (V9)

We must pay homage, or tribute, to God because of who He is. Our God deserves our honor, and our respect. Jesus uses the image of a father here, and it is the same sort of imagery that he used in Luke 15:20-24 when He tells the parable of the prodigal son. In this passage of scripture we see that the father loved his son so much that he rejoiced when he returned home. This is the picture of God that Christ painted for us, and the picture that we must maintain in our mind as we begin our prayers.

Though we can realize that God is a loving father, we must also acknowledge that he is a Holy God.

Isaiah 43:

3: For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.

14: Thus saith the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships.

15: I am the LORD, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King.

We are honored to be allowed into his presence, and it is indeed a great privilege to be able to go to God.

Illus:

President Bush visited Daytona Beach last Wednesday, and only 1,000 people were chosen to be in attendance. In order to see the President you were required to have a ticket. Now, your pastor was not one of the ones chosen for this honor, but Pastor Hargrave at Riverbend was given a ticket. There were many people, even loyal party members like the former mayor of Daytona Beach, who were not able to attend. They didn’t have the ticket.

It is somewhat similar when approaching God. We must have the right "ticket". It should both humble us and give us great confidence to think that the creator of our universe loved us so much that he provided for us a way to come to Him. (Gift of the Savior----)

Illus:

It’s said that when President Kennedy was in the White House, often his son would come running unannounced into the Oval Office to see his "Daddy", yet even Kings of other countries were only allowed to call him Mr. President.

We have the opportunity to call God "Daddy". What a blessed opportunity that is.

II. Seek HIS Will for his Kingdom (v10)

· This should be the first request from us after giving God the honor due him.

· His answer to this will affect the rest of our prayer.

Walter Knight told of an old Scottish woman who went from home to home across the countryside selling thread, buttons, and shoestrings. When she came to an unmarked crossroad, she would toss a stick into the air and go in the direction the stick pointed when it landed.

One day, however, she was seen tossing the stick up several times. "Why do you toss the stick more than once?" someone asked. "Because," replied the woman, "it keeps pointing to the left, and I want to take the road on the right." She then dutifully kept throwing the stick into the air until it pointed the way she wanted to go!

Today in the Word, May, 1989.

Is this how we seek God’s Will? Do we keep trying over and over until we get what we perceive to be the right answer?

· We must understand that He is capable of taking care of our needs.

· We must remove distractions from our prayer life.

· We should focus on God when we pray, and what God is going to do through us, and ignore what else is going on.

We let the obstacles become the primary focus of our prayers, and that obscures our path. We must come to realize that the temporary setbacks and obstacles that the enemy places in our way will be overcome, and God will take care of them. I think it is possible that Jesus is trying to tell us in verse 10 that we shouldn’t worry, that God will take care of us!

III. Ask Him to Supply our Daily Needs (V 11)

It is clear from scripture, even within the same chapter we are looking at today, that God knows our needs before we ask. But Jesus makes it clear to us that God wants us to ask. If we ask, God will provide.

Missionary statesman Hudson Taylor had complete trust in God's faithfulness. In his journal he wrote:

Our heavenly Father is a very experienced One. He knows very well that His children wake up with a good appetite every morning... He sustained 3 million Israelites in the wilderness for 40 years. We do not expect He will send 3 million missionaries to China; but if He did, He would have ample means to sustain them all... Depend on it, God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply.

Our Daily Bread, May 16, 1992.

Genesis 22:

14: And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh (the Lord will provide): as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.

Philippians 4:

19: But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

We must make faith a part of our prayer life. Faith in God to supply our needs.

IV. We must Ask for and Give Forgiveness (v 12)

· Forgiveness for us was provided on the cross when Christ became our substitute.

· Every sin we have committed, or will commit is covered by this act.

· This is God’s Grace.

Confessing our sins, and thanking God for the forgiveness shows our love for Him, but there is more to it that that. We must also be willing to forgive others. This is God’s Love.

Thomas A. Edison was working on a crazy contraption called a "light bulb" and it took a whole team of men 24 straight hours to put just one together. The story goes that when Edison was finished with one light bulb, he gave it to a young boy helper, who nervously carried it up the stairs. Step by step he cautiously watched his hands, obviously frightened of dropping such a priceless piece of work. You've probably guessed what happened by now; the poor young fellow dropped the bulb at the top of the stairs. It took the entire team of men twenty-four more hours to make another bulb. Finally, tired and ready for a break, Edison was ready to have his bulb carried up the stairs. He gave it to the same young boy who dropped the first one. That's true forgiveness.

James Newton, Uncommon Friends.

Luke 17:

4: And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.

How much does God want us to forgive? How often, how many times can we offer forgiveness to one who has wronged us. The idea given to us in scripture is that we are to forgive others just as God has forgiven us. It is an amount that has no limit, no boundaries.

In his book. Lee: The Last Years, Charles Bracelen Flood reports that after the Civil War, Robert E. Lee visited a Kentucky lady who took him to the remains of a grand old tree in front of her house. There she bitterly cried that its limbs and trunk had been destroyed by Federal artillery fire. She looked to Lee for a word condemning the North or at least sympathizing with her loss. After a brief silence, Lee said, "Cut it down, my dear Madam, and forget it." It is better to forgive the injustices of the past than to allow them to remain, let bitterness take root and poison the rest of our life.

V. We must pray for God’s Protection (v 13)

Our battle is not a battle against a human enemy, but rather against the temptations of Satan. Satan can, and will tempt us, much as he did Jesus. We have to realize that Satan is a liar, and is crafty, and will use all the tricks in his bag to cause us to stumble.

Many will object to the idea that we are battling a being that is supernatural, but I think scripture is quite plain as to who it is that we battle.

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.

I Peter 5:

8: Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.

9: Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

Notice it doesn’t say to engage Satan directly. There is a popular movement among many churches to engage Satan in battle verbally. No where in the model prayer do we see Jesus telling us to speak to Satan. Instead, we see Him exhorting us to ask God to deliver us from him. Let God do the work!

Writing in Moody Monthly, Carl Armerding recounted his experience of watching a wildcat in a zoo. "As I stood there," he said, "an attendant entered the cage through a door on the opposite side. He had nothing in his hands but a broom. Carefully closing the door, he proceeded to sweep the floor of the cage." He observed that the worker had no weapon to ward off an attack by the beast. In fact, when he got to the corner of the cage where the wildcat was lying, he poked the animal with the broom. The wildcat hissed at him and then lay down in another corner of the enclosure. Armerding remarked to the attendant, "You certainly are a brave man." "No, I ain't brave," he replied as he continued to sweep. "Well, then, that cat must be tame." "No," came the reply, "he ain't tame." "If you aren't brave and the wildcat isn't tame, then I can't understand why he doesn't attack you." Armerding said the man chuckled, then replied with an air of confidence, "Mister, he's old -- and he ain't got no teeth."

VI. End by acknowledging that Everything is God’s

a. For HIS kingdom

b. In His Way.

c. His Power.

d. ‘His Glory.

Notice the theme here in this last verse. It’s all about God. Not about us, not about our church, not about our family. It’s all about God. Jesus taught us to begin our prayers honoring God, and end them honoring God.

We must pray, and we must pray powerfully. This model, that Christ has given to us, will teach us how to do just that.

When we pray, remember:

1. The love of God that wants the best for us.

2. The wisdom of God that knows what is best for us.

3. The power of God that can accomplish it.

William Barclay, Prodigals and Those Who Love.