(Audio and Text)
Title: How to Pray, Part 2
So today we finally move into the actual section of scripture commonly referred to as the Lord’s Prayer or as the Model Prayer. We’ve now spend two weeks working up to this point. Two weeks ago we discussed the proper posture for prayer; things such as where we pray, why we pray, and to whom we pray become immensely important to the effectiveness of our prayer.
Then last week I argued for the conclusion that it doesn’t make much sense to think that when Jesus gives us the Lord’s Prayer that what he’s telling us to do is just repeat word for word what he’s said, but rather that the Lord’s Prayer serves as a guide and an outline for the ingredients that should be found in effective, God-honoring, humble prayer.
That is where we will pick up today: with a verse by verse exposition of the Lord’s Prayer so that we might be able to use it as a model and outline for our time alone with our Lord.
I want to prepare you for something. I thought of several different ways to present this text and in the end I concluded that the best way to make it as effective as possible as a teaching tool was for me to be very transparent with you by showing you how I would apply this prayer in my life. Some of what you hear today will be deeply personal…more personal that I’d usually get in a sermon, but my hope is that as you see the actual application in action in will aid in solidifying this extremely important tool in your heart.
(read/pray)
I.Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed by thy name
POINT: Proper Salutation:
We begin our prayer with a correct salutation:
We are praying to the Father recognizing where he is.
We recognize what he is doing there. (reigning sovereignly over the universe)
We confess that his name is Holy, because He is all that is Holy.
Other Thoughts?
Example: “Precious heavenly father, I recognize that you are the ruler and sustainer of the universe. I recognize that you are holy and all that is good flows from you. I do not take my prayer lightly because you do not take my prayer lightly. It is only by the blood of your son that I have an audience with you, and as I spend my time in devotion and prayer to you, let me remember to whom I am talking. Like Job before me, I have sought an audience with the Almighty, and you have granted it to me. Lord, hear my prayer.”
- Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven
POINT: Seeking the right attitude and willingness to be joyfully sacrificial
Like Jesus in the Garden of Gesthemane, we realize that our goals and our joy needs to be our Lord’s goals and our Lord’s joy.
We put aside our desires in favor of His.
We live sacrificially so that His will can be done through us.
We recognize that His is a kingdom, and we are his subjects.
The future coming Kingdom will be such that God’s will on Earth is not hindered by sin…we desire to be a part of that process.
Other Thoughts?
Example: “Lord, my life is far from perfect. My joy is not found in your will as often as it should be. I understand that when you took me into your family and kingdom is was with a purpose, and that purpose is the furtherance of your kingdom though my personal growth and the growth of others. May I lay aside the petty things of this world, that you would renew my mind so that I would consider it an honor to sacrifice my life and all aspects of it unto you. Let your will be done in my life.”
- Give us this day our daily bread
POINT: Requests
We are to depend on God TODAY. We will repeat this again tomorrow. But today is the business at hand.
We recognize that all comes from the Father, and no blessing comes that he does not allow. No trial comes that he does not allow.
This model tells us to ask for requests before we ask to be forgiven. Why?
Other Thoughts?
Example: “Lord, I have much on my mind. I pray that you would keep me from the sin that so easily entangles. Guard my eyes from seeking that which is displeasing to you, guard my hands from evil, guard my heart from doubt. Give me the resolve to get through today, and I will seek you early tomorrow. Be with my daughter, may she grow in the Grace and knowledge of your majesty and love, that the heart you have given her would be used for your glory. Be with my son, as he grows, may he grow with you, that he would surpass his mother and father in every conceivable way. Be with my wife, that she would tolerate her husbands shenanigans and the trials of being a pastor’s wife which she never asked for, but so eagerly accepts as part of her sacrificial ministry to you. May you use her to ground me, and keep me from myself. Lord, be with my church, that somehow, some way, you would have us to grow and flourish as we strive to promote an understanding of you that in Scriptural and not based on our mere preference. Be with the names and situations on our prayer list, that they not just be name we consider, but names that burden us so much that we are moved to action.”
Close:
We will deal with the second half of the Lord’s Prayer next week and I hope that as we break this text down you can start to apply this model prayer into your own devotional times. I have found it to be instrumental in shaping not only what I pray, but also why I pray.
With that being said,
Let’s pray.