REVIEW
FLIP CHART: SOM’S KEY VERSE, GOAL, MOTTO
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness ….” (Mt. 6:33a).
The law sends us to Christ for justification; Christ sends us back to the law for sanctification.
FLIP CHART: Show new “Perfect Righteousness” chart explaining steps to coming to Christ (As a worm, mourning, meek, spiritual hunger/thirst with the result of legal righteousness). Explain: moral righteousness, immediate moral change at conversion, gradual change through life’s challenges and speeding up moral change via CCRC (Concentration, Choice, Reflection and Confession/Thanksgiving). Key verse, “By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb. 10:14).
FLIP CHART: John Stott’s outline of SOM.
INTRODUCTION
And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. [One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, when you pray – Lk. 11:1-2] This then is how you should pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. (Matthew 6:7-13)
REVIEW:
1. Jesus taught us what a personal relationship with God looks like. He is our Dear Heavenly Father. Understanding and relating to God as our Abba, our Dear Father accents intimacy, His presence, His love!!!! (Your Father)
2. Jesus in Mt. 6:1-18 lists three of many spiritual disciplines which we must practice if we are to become Godlike / Christ-like people.
3. Every “Act of Righteousness” should be performed for our Father alone. He is our “Audience of One.” Our lone desire must be for the “Applause of Heaven.” (Your Father who sees what is done in secret.)
4. Our heavenly Father pays attention to all we do with an earnest desire to reward us but the greatest reward in practicing “Spiritual Disciplines” is the joy and happiness we experience in developing an intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father. (Your Father will reward you.)
5. The Logic Behind Prayer: (a) We pray because Jesus prayed; (b) We pray because God wants to interact with us and prayer is the vehicle which he has given us to communicate with him; (c) We pray because God chose a partnership to run the world and prayer is the means he gave us to play a role in the partnership.
6. We will be successful in prayer when we (a) offer specific requests, (b) really feel helpless, (c) are really desperate, (d) are confident we are being heard and will prevail, (d) are really persistent (Luke 18).
7. Dealing with problems in prayer: (a) When we claim God’s promises it is best to claim them as a group of promises so that we don’t forget the qualifiers; (b) God, because He is love hears our prayers – God, because He is holy cannot answer all or our prayers; (c) God has called us to reign with Him, to partner with Him in governing the world. If He granted all of our prayer requests He would be abdicating and letting us run the world.
8. When we pray we need to remember that our Dear Heavenly Father is Omniscient, Omnipresent, Omnipotent and Omni-benevolent.
9. The key principles for performing the spiritual disciplines are so important: (a) calling God Father, (b) focusing on an audience of one, (c) avoiding show, (d) enjoying God’s presence and fellowship as the key reward that our Lord repeats them three times in Mt. 6:1-18.
10. One way to help us cultivate the life and growth of our soul is to develop a “Spiritual Life Statement” that focuses our attention on spiritual goals, goals that become a purpose/mission/vision statement for our spiritual life.
11. At the heart of the unhappiness of those who are ‘stalled’ and ‘dissatisfied’ with the church is generally their failure to realize that responsibility for their spiritual growth belongs to them.
12. One of the best ways to take responsibility for our spiritual growth is to have a consistent Quiet Time / Personal Devotions. There are good reasons to set aside an hour a day for the Quiet Time. By setting up a devotional program for each day we can make this time interesting, joyous and inspirational.
13. We suggested that our “Personal Devotional Program” could be divided into three main sections: Worship, Prayer, Bible Study.
ILLUSTRATION: Review Devotional Program.
OUTLINE FOR TODAY:
1. Praying Effectively is a Problem We All Face.
2. Verses 7-8 that lead up to “The Lord’s Prayer”
3. Overview of “The Lord’s Prayer”
INTRODUCTION TO “THE LORD’S PRAYER”
I. PRAYING EFFECTIVELY IS A PROBLEM WE ALL FACE
Prayer is not a modern problem. Why did Jesus talk about prayer so often if it was not a misused or neglected spiritual discipline? Why did he talk so often about persevering in prayer if people did not face that problem, e.g. the Parable of the Persistent Widow, the Parable of the Friend at Midnight.
“We take a week each year to focus on prayer because prayer is the breath of the Christian life and because almost nothing decays so fast in the fallen human heart as the desire to pray. In other words, nothing is more vital than prayer in Christian existence, and few things are more vulnerable to neglect.” (John Piper)
Alan Redpath sums up how many feel even when they have prayed, “When we have finished our praying we can scarcely bring ourselves to believe that our feeble words can have been heard, or that they can have made a difference in the things concerning which we have been praying. We’ve said our prayers but we have not prayed.” (Victorious Praying: Studies in the Lord’s Prayer)
ILL: Most of us are familiar with Ted Turner, the cable television millionaire. Turner, at the American Humanist Association banquet, where he received an award for his work on the environment and world peace, openly criticized fundamental Christianity.
He said, “Jesus would be sick to his stomach over the way his ideas have been twisted.” He went on to say, “I’ve been saved seven or eight times. But, I gave up on it, when, despite my prayers, my sister died. The more I strayed from my faith, the better I felt!”
Ted Turner is dead wrong, but he is reflecting the attitude many hold concerning God and the matter of prayer. Many people will pray about something for a while and when the answer doesn’t come when they think it should, they just throw up their hands in defeat and say, “What’s the use?” Many of us wouldn’t admit that tonight, but we have done the same thing!
II. RELATIONSHIP OF VSS. 7-8 TO “THE LORD’S PRAYER”
And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like
them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. This then is how you should pray: Our Father in heaven … (6:7-9b).
We need to avoid both the hypocrisy of the Pharisees (praying on the street corners to be seen by men) and the pagans (babbling, thinking they would be heard because of their many words).
Jesus is condemning verbosity, especially those who ‘speak’ without thinking.’ They heap up empty phrases. The word “babble” describes any prayer which is all words and no meaning, all lips and no mind and heart. (John Stott, 143-44)
ILL: Buddhist prayer wheel, prayer flags, mindless use of the rosary, mindless participation in liturgical forms of worship, empty phrases in extemporaneous prayer, mindless use of evangelical jargon in prayer. In short any kind of prayer is forbidden when the mouth is engaged and the mind is not!!!
They think “they will be heard because of their many words.” But John Stott writes, “What sort of God is this who is chiefly impressed by the mechanics and statistics of prayer, and whose response is determined by the volume of words we use and the number of hours we spend praying?” (Stott, 144)
So Jesus is teaching against both hypocrisy and meaninglessness in prayer!
III. OVERVIEW OF “THE LORD’S PRAYER”
QUESTION: Why is calling this “The Lord’s Prayer” not exactly correct?
First of all it is not “The Lord’s Prayer” in that it is not a prayer that the Lord would pray. He did not have to pray that his sins would be forgiven.
It is probably better called “The Disciples Prayer” or “The Model Prayer.”
On any given Sunday hundreds of millions of people pray this prayer and on any given Easter Sunday over 2 billion Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics and Protestants recite this prayer. This is certainly a prayer that unites all of Christendom!
ILL: The words in this prayer number 66. The Ten Commandments use 176 words. The Gettysburg Address given by President Lincoln used 286 words. The US regulation for selling cabbage uses 26,911 words.
This prayer is memorized, recited and sung, but what does it mean?
The first half talks about God; the second half is about us. It refers to the present (our daily bread); the past (forgive us our sins); the future (lead us not into temptation).
ATTITUDES IN THE PRAYER
QUESTION: What are some of the various attitudes that we see in this prayer?
ILL: The prayer talks about attitudes: An unselfish attitude (our); A filial attitude (Father); A reverent attitude (in heaven); A loyal attitude (hallowed be your name); A submissive attitude (Your will be done); A dependent attitude (Give us this day our daily bread); A penitent attitude (forgive us); A humble attitude (lead us not into temptation); A confident attitude (Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory.)
RELATIONSHIPS IN THE PRAYER
QUESTION: What are some of the relationships that are evident in the prayer?
ILL: The prayer talks about relationships: “Our Father” – showing the father/child relationship; “hallowed be Thy name” – showing the deity/worshiper relationship; “Thy Kingdom come” – showing the sovereign/subject relationship; “Thy will be done” – showing the master/servant relationship; “give us this day our daily bread” – showing the benefactor/beneficiary relationship; “Forgive us our debts” – showing the Savior/sinner relationship; “do not lead us into temptation” – showing the guide/pilgrim relationship. (MacArthur, 374)
SUGGESTED OUTLINES:
God’s Paternity – Our Father in heaven
God’s Priority – Hallowed be Your name
God’s Program – Your kingdom come
God’s Plan – Your will be done
God’s Provision – Give us this day our daily bread
God’s Pardon – Forgive us our debts
God’s Protection – Lead us not into temptation
God’s Preeminence – Yours is the kingdom, power, glory.
Another outline:
God’s Glory …. Three petitions
Man’s need ….. Three petitions
Comparing with the Ten Commandments – The first four commandments relate to God; the last six to man.
Comparing with the two greatest commandments – the first is to love God and is concerned with God; the second relates to our neighbor.
COMPARING THE PRAYER:
TABLE ACTIVITY: What are the differences between the Matthew Version and the Luke Version of “The Disciples Prayer?” What are the similarities between “The Disciples Prayer” and “Al-Fatiha?”
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” (Matthew 6:9-13)
“Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.” (Luke 11:2-4)
“In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful: Praise be to God, the Lord of the Universe. The Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, King of the Day of Judgment. You alone we worship, and You alone we ask for help. Guide us to the straight way; the way of those whom you have blessed, not of those who have deserved anger, nor of those who stray.” (Al-Fatiha)
USING MEMORIZED PRAYERS
The fact that the Matthew and Luke version vary as to content indicates that “The Disciples Prayer” is a model and outline for prayer and not specifically a prayer to memorized and recited. It is not a verbatim prayer formula!
QUESTION: Should we or should we not use memorized prayers? What are the advantages? The disadvantages?
Advantages: We make sure our prayers have better content; we are stocking up on the words of the Bible, using Bible prayers helps us to pray in the will of God.
Disadvantages: Tendency to become rote and said without heart or meaning, with our mind and heart disengaged.
C.S. Lewis preferred fixed prayers for his private devotions because they kept the focus on permanent things rather than contemporary problems. … He also felt uncomfortable with the casual, extemporaneous prayers common in evangelical churches. How can we mentally join in a prayer until we’ve heard it? he asked. The prayer may contain heresy. He preferred fixed prayer, the theology of which was honed by the church” (Prayer, Yancey, page. 179)
A FAMILY PRAYER:
“The Disciples Prayer” is often called a family prayer. Several weeks ago Art was talking with me outside the Worship Center and remarked on how the first person plural pronouns are used in the prayer. Our, us, we …. I, me and mine are not used!!! It is a prayer about the needs of the family of God.
This family prayer assumes a relationship between Father and children and children and children.
“The purest form of love is given with no expectation of return. Measured by this standard, earnest prayer for others is a magnificent act of love.” (David Hubbard).
ILL: It was a law among the Romans that no one should approach the Emperor’s tent at night, under penalty of death. One night, however, a soldier was found near the royal tent, holding in his hand a petition which he meant to present to his master and thereupon he was sentenced to death. But the Emperor, hearing voices, and asked what was amiss. Hearing that a soldier had intruded within the forbidden bounds to present a petition, and that they were about to deal with him according to the law, he said – “If the petition be for himself let him die; but if for another, spare his life.” It was found that it was for two of his fellow-soldiers that he had come to intercede, who had been taken asleep while they were posted on watch. The Emperor, well pleased, commanded that he should escape death, and that his two fellow soldiers should also escape punishment.”
God blesses and honor us when we pray for our family, the family of God!
When you prayer imagine yourself taking someone by the hand and presenting him to the Lord!
SO WHAT???
1. Our Heavenly Father has provided many spiritual disciplines as a means of grace in developing a vital relationship with him and growing in our spiritual lives.
2. Our consistent and correct practice of spiritual disciplines will enable us to progress in the growth of our soul.
3. We must always be careful that our heart and our mind are engaged when we pray!
4. “The Disciples Prayer” is a wonderful model for our daily prayer although it can be used as a memorized prayer too, if we keep our hearts and minds engaged when we pray.
5. “The Disciples Prayer” is “The Family Prayer” and reminds us of our need to pray for and with others!