"Framework For A Great Prayer Life" • 9.13.15 •
Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service
Intro
- It had not been very long since Jesus sent
His disciples out to announce His pending visit among the cities of the Galilee
with power and miraculous signs in tow.
- It's that much more intriguing to consider
the contents of Luke 11:1.
• Luke
11:1 : "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.'" : The disciples saw first hand that their
gifts and talents, however powerful and effective, were less impressive than
our Lord's prayer life!
- This was what one disciple initiated. He
wanted Jesus to teach them to pray. What we have before us is Matthew's account
of that teaching in what is called "The Lord's Prayer."
- The title is fair, but a more accurate title
would be "The Disciple's Prayer" which is less a model to repeat and
more a framework from which to approach the discipline of prayer.
- I believe that there are 3 parts of a
structure from which we are to build and maintain our prayer life upon.
I. Recognition (v.9)
II. Responsibility (v.10-13a)
IV. Reverance (v.13b)
Text
I. Recogntion (v.9)
• Matthew
6:9 : "In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father
in heaven, Hallowed be Your name."
: "In this manner" refers to the tone of your prayer. You are
addressing someone personal enough to be addressed in a familial way.
- Jesus does not command them to come to their
"Master" or "Lord." They are not instructed even to call
Him "God," though He is all of these to them and to us.
- Our primary point of access in prayer is
likened to one of the most intimate relationships on Earth! We are to come to
our Father!
- Every person who has ever known a great man
has never known him as their own children know him! Their access to their
Father is much more immediate than any other human relationship.
- There is no formality to breach. There is no
need for ceremony. There is confident access!
- The fact that he is "our Father"
teaches us that we are part of a family! God was the Disciples' Father individually
and collectively.
- This infers that they would pray together with
the radical and unparalleled thought of intimate access to God in their day.
This would have incensed the Jewish mindset of that time.
- Nobody called God "Father." It was far too intimate a term. God was
the Father of the Jews nationally, but certainly not in a personally.
- Jesus is turning His disciples and by proxy,
us, to our rightful posture before God, especially as blood bought redeemed childred
of God!
- As our perfect Father, He is always willing
to condescend to His child's cry, but He hears from Heaven, the realm in which He
rules.
- He is transcendant, in a place unaffected by
that which affects us. The rules and conditions there are quite different than
they are here.
- In Psalm
115, King David is giving glory to the Lord and explains how heaven
operates.
• Psalm 115:1-3 : "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, But to Your name give glory,
Because of Your mercy, Because of Your truth. Why should the Gentiles say, 'So
where is their God?' But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases." : Sometimes, our prayers reflect a belief that
God is as stymied by our conditions as we are! But this verse is very effective
in reminding us that our Father dwells outside of it all.
- Pressing this point further, I might also add
that heaven's goals and agenda allow for things which we might be praying
against! What is happening in your life today is Father filtered!
- As we venture to pray, let us keep this in
mind. Our Father is not without knowledge or concern or wisdom for any given
situation! We don't need to provide Him with details or plans!
- Our concern should be for His Name. "Hallowed
be Your Name!" This is not a statement as much as it is a request. To
"hallow" something is to bring honor to it, to promote it's value.
- The concept is that before anything else
happens in my prayer, let the prayer be intent upon the outcome of God's Name
receiving greater honor and glory in my heart and through my life!
- In my heart, may this prayer honor God by
aligning myself to His will. May the requests I make be made for the purpose of
further increasing His reputation in my sphere of influence!
II. Responsibility (v.10-13a)
• Matthew
6:10 : "Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth
as it is in heaven." : Our Father
is our King! Our primary concern lies with the laws of His Kingdom. Too often
our prayer concern is for our own Kingdom! There is an urgency in the original
language.
- The word "come" is at the point of
emphasis, literally, the initial part of verse 10 would be "Let come Your kingdom." Our desire is to see
it manifested and experienced in two ways.
- First, there is an expectation of complete
fulfillment. There is a desire and longing to see the complete, physical reign
of Christ here on Earth, which grows within us as we grow in Him.
- We increasingly want to live in a world where
His rule is final and where injustice and unrighteousness are finally and fully
eradicated forever!
- This rings the bell of expectation, but the
thrust of what we are praying for secondarily is expansion. We are praying that
His Kingdom expands it's presence in and through our lives.
- In our lives, we continually seek to conform
ourselves to the principles and practices that we discover in the Word of God.
There is a constant re-ordering of priorities.
- As we draw closer to the Lord, certain
actions and activities grow foreign and distasteful to us. There are things
that are less tolerable to us personally as we age and mature in Christ!
- That is the Kingdom of God expanding in our
lives, but there is also a desire to see it expand through our lives!
- We seek to influence those around us, whom
God has planted us near, ie. children, family members, neighbors, co-workers,
etc., hoping that they might experience God's rule as we do!
- When the Apostle Paul stood before Festus and
Agrippa in Acts 26, Agrippa, caught
in the grip of Paul's argument cried out, "You almost persuade me to
become a Christian!"
• Acts
26:29 : "And Paul said, 'I
would to God that not only you, but also all who hear me today, might become
both almost and altogether such as I am, except for these chains.'" : Evangelism is the greatest expression of
Kingdom expansion and this is the very heart of it! We would have every man,
woman and child know His heavenly reign!
- The next phrase enlightens us regarding the
nature of the kingdom and we are to pray "Your will", ie. God's
desires, be done, fulfilled, completed on earth as they are in heaven.
- What does this mean? God decress something in
heaven and it happens. There is no debate, no interruption, no question. His
Word is carried out perfectly, immediately.
- To pray "let your will be done on earth
as it is in heaven," is to pray with this in mind: Lord, let me be responsive to your
every command. Let my only response to you be "yes" and "amen!"
- Turn over to Luke 22. Jesus has reached the apex of human stress. He is about to endure a brutal horrific
public execution. Jesus went to pray and note His prayer.
• Luke
22:41, 42 : "And He was withdrawn from them about a
stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed, saying, 'Father, if it is Your
will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.
Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him."
˚
"He that taught us
this prayer used it himself in the most unrestricted sense. When the bloody
sweat stood on his face, and all the fear and trembling of a man in anguish
were upon him, he did not dispute the decree of the Father, but bowed his head
and cried. ‘Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.’"
Charles Spurgeon
- As a Christian today, my responsibility is to
the Kingdom. Prayer brings me back to the primacy of His will over my own, over
and above my personal desires and wishes.
• Matthew 6:11 : "Give us this day our daily bread..."
: "Finally, we get to
us!"
- Jesus gets to us only after considering what
we have just considered about Him and His Kingdom and His will! Looking at
"us" through that lens is much more challenging!
- "Give us." The cry of a child who
recognizes their Father's concern and obligation to provide. "This day our
daily." Today, we are to receive a portion from your hand as we do every
other day!
- There is a note of contentment and resignation
that what He deems fit for our daily experience is good for us!
- He delights to give us bread! Notice that
Jesus doesn't say, "Steak and Lobster!" He calls us to ask for bread.
- Bread wasn't fancy, but every table had it.
In the East, when it was consumed, there was a thought that each person was
becoming a part of the other.
- This is both a call for physical provision
and spiritual communion! Note the words "day" and "daily."
Why is it that Jesus puts such an emphasis on this here?
- In Biblical times and even in the not too
distant past, much of the food produced was freshly made. With the advent of
refrigeration and larger family needs, most tend to "stock up."
- But the principle at play reminds us that we
live and are guaranteed only this day!
- Frankly, too much of our life as we conceive
it is wrapped up in pondering our distant future!
- Many of us are obsessed with what we will
have or what we will be 25-30 years from now!
- The Kingdom of God is all about this day and
what His promise is for today. This day, we can be assured, will be His day to
provide for us.
- This day, through the breaking of bread, we
can sense Him present with us! How does this affect our relationship with
others?
• Matthew
6:12 : "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our
debtors." : As soon as we call upon
God for our physical need, we are to call upon Him for our spiritual need!
- He dispenses both bread and forgiveness being
the one who remits, or forgives our debt!
- Lord, cleanse us from sin. Forgive us for
Jesus sake! Let us be right with You! We all want that, but notice the
connection: As we forgive our debtors! The word "as" is striking
isn't it?
- Forgiving others is the condition by which
you and I are forgiven ourselves! To be forgiven people means that we rightly
recognize grace and then extend it to others.
- Turn with me to Matthew 18. Peter has asked a great question: Must I forgive my
brother for the same offense as many as 7 times? Jesus replied with a parable.
- It was about a man who owed a great debt,
hundreds of thousands of dollars which he was unable to pay. He begged for
mercy and he received it. The debt was remmitted.
- That same man walked out and found a guy that
owed him 20 dollars! He demanded his money and when that guy could not pay, the
first guy acted uncompassionately and threw him in jail.
- The compasionate master heard this story and
callled in guy number 1. Note these compelling words:
• Matthew
18:32-35 : "Then his master, after he had called him,
said to him, 'You wicked servant!
I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion
on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you? And his master was angry and delivered him to the torturers
until he should pay all that was due to him. So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you,
from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses."
- What a strong warning for us! We want
forgiveness of our sin, but if the sin of unforgiveness remains, how can we be
clean and right before Him?
- We love to taut our Kingdom responsibility in
evangelism and in seeing God's Kingdom effect the moral compass of the world
around us. But that Kingdom involves loving and forgiving our own!
- May our prayers not be hindered for the sake
of a grudge or a hurt that we have refused to let go of, especially in light of
what God has forgiven us of!
• Matthew
6:13a : "And do not lead us into temptation, but
deliver us from the evil one." : James 1:13 tells us this specifically
that God will never tempt us to sin. That capacity comes from within us. What
then does this refer to? Notice the
word "lead."
- In almost every translation, it appears this
way except for the NLT, which says "and don't let us yield to
temptation."Give us the grace not to fall!"
- I am reminded of the wonderful hymn,
"Come Thou Fount" with it's great line: "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love."
- This interpretation makes sense of my
experience and likely yours, rather well.
- We are constantly looking around, walking
where we shouldn't, living as close to the edge as possible, hoping not to get
burnt, but wondering how close we can get before that happens!
- Jesus knows the vulnerability of His people
and informs us of the wisdom to acknowledge our own weakness against temptation
and ultimately the evil one.
- He tells us to pray that we would be
delivered from the evil one. His influence, his lies, his schemes. Rescue us,
save us from the evil one.
IV. Reverance (v.13b)
• Matthew
6:13b : "For yours is the Kingdom and the power and
the glory, forever. Amen." : Praise
is always a response to who He is and what He has done! The more we acknowledge the first
parts, the more that our reverance will be augmented.
- Jesus gives us an example. For Yours is the
Kingdom. It all belongs to You God! It is all for His sake!
- Yours is the power. The expression of all
that You have done and affected. It is by Your doing! From beginning to end,
from inception to consummation, You have done it!
- Yours is the glory. The weight, the renown,
the reputation, the fame. All that anyone would ever say or ascribe to us,
belongs rightly to You!
- All that would shine of Your worthiness off
of me is merely a reflection of Your mighty hand!
- Forever. May it be that this praise goes on
into the annals of eternity, where a redeemed people sing Your praise and exalt
Your Name perpetually, without end.
- Let me ask you: "When was the last time
your heart responded with such heart felt praise?"
- When was the last time a doxology escaped the
lips of your heart unto the Lord? Prayer should make this a daily occurrence!
-
As we come to the last word of the disciples' prayer, we are confronted with
it's familiarity, but we often lose the sense of what it means to utter it.
- The word "amen" is almost a
universal word. Some have rightly said that it means "Let it be so."
The force of it however, is much more vital and personal.
- It means "I am in agreement with all
that has been said and let it be so...in my life."
- When I say the word "amen," I
commit myself to the terms of the prayer.
- If I say "amen" I had better be
ready for the Lord to make some significant advances in my life, that may
require some upheaval.
- Let me say clearly to you that whatever you
are afraid to lose, has nothing on what you stand to gain when you give God
this kind of leverage in your life!
Conclusion
- Prayer is built upon a recognition that our God is
our loving and concerned Father, whose Name and reputation is worth our live's
expression.
- Prayer is built upon a series of
responsibilities that we accept as Kingdom citizens.
- We are dedicated to His will, content with
His provision, and clear with regard to sin, relationships and our own fallen nature.
- Finally, prayer is built upon a growing
reverance which reminds us that everything we endeavor to achieve and all that
we live for, belongs to the One who is worthy of all!
- This life and all that it affects, is lived
for His Kingdom and His power and His glory! Amen!
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