Teach Us to Pray

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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August 25, 2019

00:03: A familiar passage? Verse 1, Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples.
00:16: And he said to them, When you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us, and lead us not into temptation.
00:35: And he said to them, Which of you has a friend, which of you has a friend, will go to him at midnight and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him.
00:50: And he will answer from within, Do not bother me, the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed.
00:58: I cannot get up and give you anything.
01:00: I tell you though, he will not get up and give him anything, because he is his friend.
01:05: Yet because of his impudence, he will rise and give him whatever he needs.
01:10: And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you.
01:13: Seek, and you will find.
01:15: Knock, and it will be opened to you.
01:17: For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds.
01:21: And to the one who knocks, it will be opened.
01:24: What father among you, if his son asked for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent? Or if he asked for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? Bow your heads with me, we'll pray.
01:56: Our Father and our God, we come to you now in Jesus' name.
02:01: Again asking for your mercy upon us as we go to your word together.
02:05: Father, I am encouraged to hear your people sing.
02:11: Now Lord, may we be even more encouraged by your people as we study the word together.
02:17: I pray Lord that you'll keep me from error.
02:21: I pray that you will give me focus in the message to focus on the truth.
02:28: And I pray that you would fill me with the Holy Spirit of God, for without him preaching, all preaching is in vain.
02:37: I pray Lord that you'll open up the ears of everyone who hears.
02:41: Lord, for the believer, that they would be convicted regarding the subject of prayer.
02:48: And Father, for those who may not know you, who do not yet have the Holy Spirit, who have not yet bowed the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ.
02:59: Father, may it be that in your infinite mercy that you would provide them the grace of regeneration which leads to life by the preaching of your word.
03:13: In Jesus' precious name we pray.
03:16: Amen.
03:17: Please be seated.
03:29: It is not often that I do a sermon which is not connected in any way to a larger series.
03:41: I tend to be a series preacher.
03:45: But today is unique.
03:49: This is not part of anything I was preaching before, neither is it part of what I'll be preaching in the weeks to come.
03:55: Starting next week, if the Lord so gives me breath to live another week, I will begin preaching the book of Genesis, a series that I've been preparing for for many months, both mentally and spiritually, because it is so rich and quite honestly frightening.
04:13: It is frightening to preach Genesis because there is so much, there's so much that is difficult.
04:22: And so I would ask for your prayers even now as I begin to pray or preach or prepare to preach that you would pray for me for that series.
04:32: So it is with that in mind that I have decided that for my one-time sermon, my one-off if you will, I'm going to do a sermon on the subject of prayer.
04:43: And so we are going to look at today, the title of the message is Teach Us to Pray, which comes directly from the words of Jesus' disciples.
04:56: We have a very interesting cultural landscape that we find ourselves in.
05:02: People tend to be less religious now than ever in history in the sense that they tend to identify with what they would call organized religion.
05:16: Less now than ever before, churches tend to be less filled and people tend to spend more time doing what they call the spiritual life.
05:27: And that's why I say people aren't less religious, they're just less organized in their religious thoughts.
05:34: And we see this especially in the cultural landscape of prayer.
05:40: Used to it was nothing if we had a tragedy for people to come out and say let us pray for these people who have been involved in this tragedy, whether it be some kind of a disease that has wiped out a people or whether it be some kind of a natural disaster that has come upon a people or if it may even be some kind of human disaster like some kind of a mass killing or something.
06:05: People would say let's pray! I preached my first sermon on the Sunday after 9-11.
06:15: Churches were filled.
06:17: The Wednesday night after 9-11 we sat in that fellowship hall and we just wept and prayed.
06:24: Didn't know what to say.
06:27: Then five days later I had to preach.
06:33: But in today's culture we see new language emerging.
06:42: Not often now do we hear for calls of just prayer but you'll hear people say thoughts and prayers.
06:49: Why thoughts? Well because some people don't want to pray but they want to send positive thoughts as if that has some kind of a value or even more so you've probably heard a popular phrase good vibes.
07:09: I'm not going to pray for you but I'll be happy to send good vibes your way.
07:17: Most of us don't even know what the closest we have to any type of context for that is the Beach Boys.
07:25: Good vibrations.
07:26: I mean really honestly do you know what it means when you say good vibes? It is actually tied to the Eastern mystical religions which believe that all things are held together and moved by energy forces called Chi and that Chi operates through a process of internal vibration.
07:52: Therefore you can have good positive vibration or you can have negative positive opposite of positive negative vibrations.
08:02: You can have good vibrations or bad vibrations and so if I want you to have something positive I'll send you good vibes.
08:15: So again this is just trading and that's in a lot of things.
08:19: You hear people talk about Feng Shui.
08:21: That's all about energy or Reiki.
08:25: It's all about energy fields and getting good vibrations eliminating bad vibrations and it's a substitute for going before the God of the universe broken and in need.
08:42: That's all it is.
08:44: It's a cultural substitute for prayer.
08:49: By the way don't send me good vibes.
08:52: Just pray for me.
08:56: Somebody said why are you preaching on prayer today? I want to tell you why I'm preaching on prayer and I actually talked to Mike Collier about this this week as we were talking about his message and I was telling him about mine and I said you know I don't know if I should share this and he and he encouraged me to share it so if this is not good then you can get on to him.
09:19: I almost titled this message My Biggest Struggle because if you want to be honest and I try to be as much as I can with you all sharing the things that I have the most struggle with prayer is my greatest struggle.
09:46: I struggle with and I'm confessing that as a pastor who would hope that I would receive some grace and it's fearful for pastors to be honest.
10:01: I struggle with personal discipline and prayer takes personal discipline.
10:05: It takes getting off your phone getting out of the the the world and going before God and that takes discipline.
10:13: I struggle with that.
10:17: I struggle with a wandering mind.
10:19: I wonder sometimes if I might not have adult ADHD.
10:23: People say why are you so busy all the time.
10:25: My mind doesn't know how to do anything other than that.
10:28: Ask my wife how we had a vacation.
10:32: I was thinking all the time.
10:33: I just don't, I can't shut it off and so I struggle with a wandering mind and I struggle with a busy schedule.
10:46: Can anyone relate to my struggles? Okay, so now we're even.
10:56: Now we know no one in here is the perfect prayer.
11:01: At least maybe you might feel much better than me and that's great but I'm telling you my greatest need and I imagine that some of you all as well.
11:11: And I want to say this, the other thing that really makes this tough and this is the real struggle for me is times of dedicated prayer.
11:21: And don't take this as a punch.
11:23: I'm not here to just, this is my first day back in weeks.
11:25: I didn't come here to punch in the gut.
11:27: But I'm going to tell you something straight.
11:28: Times of dedicated prayer are the least attended events at any church including this one.
11:34: If I said I was going to preach on Islam next week, everyone would show up.
11:39: If I said I'm going to get together for an hour of nothing but prayer, it'd be me and a few others.
11:48: Am I lying? I mean, am I exaggerating? If I said I was going to preach on end times, half of Jacksonville would show up.
12:00: If I said we're going to pray, just pray for an hour.
12:05: How many of you would find other things to do that night? And yet it's our greatest need.
12:15: And as I said when I was leading prayer earlier, this is the season where we start a lot of things.
12:21: September is the season of start.
12:23: Start school, start sports, start, I believe yesterday some kind of a football activity happened.
12:29: I saw everybody talking about it.
12:30: I don't know anything about it.
12:31: But I imagine that's something starting with that too.
12:33: Everything starts in September.
12:38: So my challenge to you today as we begin to look at this message is why don't we start everything bathed in prayer and start being more serious about our own prayer life, me included.
12:55: Why don't people pray? Why don't people pray? It was a question that sort of, as I was preparing this message, sort of came to me.
13:01: I was like, well, what is it that keeps us, and I already mentioned my own struggles of personal discipline and wandering mind and busyness, but I think there's some other reasons why people don't pray, and I wanted to mention those as well.
13:13: Some people say, well, people don't pray because they're unbelievers.
13:15: Not true.
13:17: Unbelievers pray all the time.
13:19: I have unbelieving family.
13:22: Every time I put a 99 degree fever, oh, we're praying for you to make it through, you know what I mean, whatever.
13:28: If I say I've got a sprained ankle, we're praying for you.
13:30: These are unbelieving people.
13:32: These are people who do not go to church.
13:35: These are people who do not have a desire to be in the Word.
13:39: These are people who have no desire for the cross of Christ or for the proclamation of the gospel, but they pray.
13:45: Who are they praying to? I would argue they're praying to idols because they're praying to the God of their imagination.
13:55: Everybody knows they should pray, and so they pray to sometimes themselves, sometimes the universe.
14:04: That's a big popular thing now.
14:05: I'm going to ask the universe to give you favor.
14:08: What in the world is the universe going to do? It ain't even got a brain.
14:12: It don't think, it do.
14:14: And it do because God tells it to do.
14:16: And if God told it to don't, it would don't, but it do.
14:21: That's the universe.
14:23: It ain't, it's not sentient or cognizant.
14:26: It just is.
14:32: But there's another reason, another thing I want to mention why people don't pray, talk about why that's unbelievers.
14:37: Of course, unbelievers do pray, they pray to idols, but why don't believers pray? I think a lot of believers are confused about prayer.
14:47: And I think this is true, especially in the Reformed church.
14:50: And I want to challenge you today.
14:52: If you're a person who understands Reformed theology, if you've been a part of this church for a while, you probably do.
14:58: You understand we believe very firmly in the sovereignty of God.
15:02: I mean, it's the name of the church.
15:04: Sovereign Grace, family church.
15:07: But I think sometimes a belief in sovereignty can, it shouldn't, but it can lead to a more anemic prayer life because we become, we become confused about how God operates and we begin to have a fatalistic attitude.
15:36: The attitude of K.
15:39: Sarah, Sarah.
15:41: Whatever will be, will be.
15:43: God has already decided what He's going to do.
15:46: He need not my input or influence.
15:49: He's going to do it.
15:51: So I need not intervene.
15:54: I need not participate with my pleadings.
15:58: God's going to do it His way, His timing, His will be done.
16:04: That's it.
16:05: I don't need to pray.
16:07: And I want to say first to that, let me just say this.
16:11: One, we don't pray to change God's mind.
16:16: So if that's your thought, then you're already wrong.
16:21: If you're thinking that you're going to God to change the mind of Him who knows all things and is infinitely wiser than you, that's not the purpose for prayer.
16:36: We pray.
16:36: People ask me sometimes, well if God is sovereign, why pray? That's why! You pray because God is sovereign.
16:45: And He has ordained your prayers as part of the means to the ends that He has established.
16:53: God uses your prayers in the same way that He uses your evangelism, in the same way that He uses your good works to bring about His holy purpose.
17:06: Your prayers are part of the plan.
17:10: Therefore, if you're neglecting prayer, you're neglecting the plan.
17:14: Does that make sense? We are not fatalists.
17:22: We believe we play a part in this.
17:25: God is sovereign over that part, and He's working all things out in accordance with His will, but we're still playing our part.
17:34: So if you're confused about the why of prayer, here's the why of prayer.
17:40: It's very simple.
17:42: God has called you to pray.
17:45: That's why.
17:48: You're not praying to change His mind.
17:50: You're not praying to change His will.
17:54: In fact, what should you pray? Thy will be done, not my will be done.
17:59: That's not the prayer we normally pray.
18:01: My will be done, thy will be second.
18:06: We go to God in submission, not in demand.
18:11: I heard a guy one time, he says, God sits up and takes notice when I put a demand on His will.
18:18: I was like, I'm going to step away before His will lights you up.
18:26: Craziest thing I've ever heard in my life.
18:33: People are confused about the purpose of prayer in the Reformed Church.
18:37: People are even more confused outside of the Reformed Church because those people do think they can change God's will.
18:42: That's even worse.
18:43: The dangers of believing that you can actually change the Almighty.
18:48: He who has determined the end from the beginning.
18:53: But here's the other one, and this is the one that I'm really going to work off of today, and this is all introduction.
18:58: I've got to kick it up a little.
19:01: Some people don't pray because they don't know how.
19:05: Not just confusing.
19:08: Some people just don't know how to pray.
19:10: And so that's what today is about.
19:15: Today I want to clear up confusion, which I hope I've cleared up some, but I also want to give you a model for prayer.
19:21: Not from me, but from Christ and from this text.
19:28: We see in this text two parts.
19:30: Brother Adam read it to us, verses 1 to 13.
19:32: Here's how it breaks up into two parts, and you can put the screen up for me if you would.
19:36: The first four verses are the example of prayer, and the last few verses, 5 to 13, are the exhortation to prayer.
19:45: So let's look first at the example of prayer.
19:47: We're here in verse 1.
19:51: It says, Now Jesus was praying.
19:55: Stop right there.
19:57: Just for a second.
19:58: It's like wow, I can't get through four words.
20:00: I can't.
20:00: I can't get through four words.
20:02: I've got to stop.
20:03: Jesus was praying.
20:06: That should sit on your chest like an elephant.
20:11: You say, Why? Because Jesus is not praying just as an example to you.
20:17: Jesus is praying because as a man, he needed to pray.
20:23: You say, Wait a minute.
20:24: Jesus is God.
20:25: Jesus is the God man, and in his humiliation, he took on the weaknesses of flesh with all of the needs that flesh has.
20:35: Water, shelter, food, and prayer.
20:41: He prayed because he needed to pray, and if Jesus Christ needs to pray, how much more do I need to finish that? If Jesus Christ needs to pray, how much more do I need to pray? You know, Martin Luther said this once, and I think it's a great quote.
21:08: He said, I have so much to accomplish today, I'm going to have to spend three hours in prayer just to get it all done.
21:18: I have so much to do, I'm going to have to spend three hours in prayer just to have the strength to get it all done.
21:28: You know, Jesus would pray all night long, and Jesus was praying in the garden, and he said to his disciples, Can you not even abide with me one hour in prayer? Jesus prayed, how much? Prayer is hydration to the soul, and we're dehydrated.
21:52: We can see our veins.
21:55: We are so in need of prayer.
22:03: And they go on to say, he was praying in a certain place.
22:09: It doesn't tell us where because it doesn't matter.
22:11: At this time, this is not focusing on where Jesus is, it's focusing on what he's doing.
22:16: It says he was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, let me stop there.
22:20: Note it says when he finished.
22:22: He said, well, what's the significance in that? I've heard people say this, and I want to challenge this for just a moment.
22:29: I've heard people say, well, I'm always praying.
22:31: No, you're not.
22:32: Well, the Bible tells me to pray without ceasing.
22:35: Yes, that means to continuously pray.
22:37: It doesn't mean you're always in prayer.
22:39: Now, you can always have a connection with God, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, and you do.
22:44: But there needs to be times where you start and stop praying.
22:48: That means you're stopping everything else.
22:51: You're putting away Facebook.
22:52: You're putting away the TV controller.
22:54: You're putting away the conversation, and you're going before the Lord in prayer.
23:00: In Matthew chapter 6, which we're going to look at in a minute, Jesus talks about going into your closet and praying.
23:05: Going away from everyone else and praying.
23:09: And that's why I just say it's interesting that it says he finished.
23:13: That means this was a dedicated time in his life that he was doing something.
23:18: When was the last time you remember starting and stopping a prayer where you didn't do anything else but pray? You weren't also on Facebook.
23:29: You weren't also on your phone.
23:31: You weren't also in the car driving.
23:35: Now, I'm not saying you can't pray when you're in the car.
23:37: I do that a lot.
23:38: Especially when I'm on the way to the hospital, somebody's sick, I'm praying on the way there.
23:42: So I'm not saying you can't do it, but I'm saying, when was the last time you just stopped and prayed and prayed and prayed? And that was it.
23:53: So Jesus, again, if I don't kick it up a little, we're not going to go anywhere.
23:56: Okay, so now Jesus was praying in a certain place, don't know where, doesn't matter.
24:00: And when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples.
24:07: Now, this is one thing that we know from history and from extra-biblical resources.
24:12: It was a model that disciplers, teachers, would teach their disciples prayers to memorize to help them with their prayer life.
24:21: And so apparently, John the Baptist had done that with his disciples.
24:24: And so the disciples come to Jesus and say, hey, John's disciples know how to pray, teach us to pray.
24:32: Notice, though, what they don't say.
24:35: They don't say, teach us how to pray.
24:37: Now, that's implied, but I do think the language is important.
24:40: Every word matters and we should notice every word.
24:42: And when he says, teach us to pray, that's different than teach us how to pray.
24:49: Think of it.
24:50: Think of it again.
24:50: Teach us to pray.
24:55: You say, well, what's the big difference in your mind, Pastor? The big difference is this.
24:59: They've seen Jesus pray and they want to pray like that.
25:06: Teach us to pray like you.
25:10: Teach us to pray like you.
25:15: And so Jesus responds with what I call the model prayer.
25:25: Some people call it the Lord's Prayer.
25:27: It is the Lord's Prayer in a historic sense.
25:31: Historically, it's been called the Lord's Prayer.
25:33: But technically, this isn't Jesus' prayer.
25:36: This is not a prayer Jesus would need to pray.
25:40: Because Jesus wouldn't need to say, forgive us of our sins.
25:44: And notice that the prayer is given in the plural.
25:50: Our Father, give us this day.
25:53: This prayer is a corporate prayer.
25:58: Now, can you pray it singularly? Sure, because we're going to see in a moment, it's a model.
26:04: It's modular.
26:06: But the point is, Jesus is teaching corporate prayer.
26:11: People say, should we come together to pray? Absolutely.
26:14: And this is the model.
26:16: And the reason why I call it modular is because if you think about a modular building, where things can be taken and moved around, I literally think that's the way this prayer is built.
26:26: I don't think that what you have to do is, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come.
26:31: I don't think you have to do it that way.
26:32: Number one, that becomes repetitious.
26:37: And in Matthew 6, which we had read to us by Brother Dale this morning, in Matthew 6, Jesus said, we should not pray in vain repetition.
26:48: How many times have you watched, as your Roman Catholic friends, brothers and sisters, have taken a rosary, and they have held the rosary, and they've walked down the beads, Our Father who art in heaven, Holy Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee, and then they go to Our Father.
27:06: They're doing that in repetition.
27:10: I don't think this prayer is intended for that type of rote repetition, because it becomes almost meaningless.
27:20: Now, having said that, you say, but wait a minute, Pastor, we just repeated it this morning.
27:23: It's a teaching tool.
27:26: Jesus gives it as a teaching tool.
27:28: I teach it to my children, my babies, they sit around me.
27:31: Our Father, Our Father, who art in heaven, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy, they don't even know what the words mean.
27:37: How many of you can tell me what hallowed means? Most people don't even know.
27:43: But we learn it, because I'm going to teach it to them, and I'm going to explain to them what it means, and then I'm going to show them later how that modular prayer can be taken apart and moved around, because it's not intended to be repeated.
27:59: It's intended to be exemplary.
28:04: Not repetitious, but exemplary.
28:07: You say, well, what's the example in the prayer? Well, here's the simple thing.
28:12: You want the first and easiest simple thing from this prayer? You write it down.
28:16: Begin with God before yourself.
28:20: That's the first thing.
28:24: Your prayers should begin with God.
28:28: Notice how the prayer starts.
28:30: Now, I do want to make a quick textual mention, and I easily get into the weeds.
28:36: I'm not going to do it, because I could go into a long textual explanation as to why the prayer in Luke is a little different than the prayer in Matthew, and the King James Bible reads a little bit different than the ESV.
28:46: If you want to know why, part of it has to do with textual variation, and part of it has to do with the fact that Matthew's version is in the Sermon on the Mount, and this is at a different time in a different place, and so we have two versions of the same prayer at two different times, Jesus giving to His disciples.
29:02: Why would Jesus preach the same thing twice? You never heard the same sermon twice? Because Jesus needed to preach.
29:06: How many times do you need to hear something before you got it? A lot.
29:10: I don't have a problem thinking Jesus gave them to this prayer 50 times, because they needed it.
29:17: And so there are some differences between Luke's account and Matthew's account.
29:22: It shouldn't bother us it's two different accounts, but it's the same model prayer.
29:27: It's a modular prayer.
29:29: So some things in Luke are different than what's in Matthew.
29:32: We're going to talk about those as we walk through it.
29:33: Very quickly we're going to walk through it.
29:35: Our Father, relationship, who art in heaven, position, hallowed be Thy name, that is related to His glory, His holiness.
29:51: By the way, the word hallowed, we get the word Halloween.
29:56: You say wait a minute, Halloween is a holiday for devilish, ghoulish things.
30:01: Well, yes, but the word comes from All Hallows Eve, because it was the day before All Saints Day, which is November 1st.
30:11: So they called it All Saints Eve, or All Hallowed Evening.
30:17: Thus it became called Hallowed Evening or Halloween as the years progressed.
30:23: So that word hallowed means holy.
30:26: What is the one attribute of God that is described three times and the only one that's described three times? Holy, holy, holy.
30:34: And so Jesus is telling us when you go before the Father, when you go before the Lord, and when you go to pray, remember who it is you're talking to.
30:43: You are talking to the Father.
30:46: That's the relationship, but He is the Holy Father.
30:51: He's not your buddy.
30:53: He's your Father.
30:55: You say wait a minute, the Bible says God was a friend of sinners, and He's my friend.
30:59: He's Abraham's friend.
31:00: Yes, He's your friend, in the fact that He loves you.
31:05: But do not mistake His friendliness for a condescension into some type of worldliness.
31:14: Remember who it is to whom you speak.
31:18: You are talking to the Almighty God.
31:23: Now we can call Him Abba, Dad, because that's what the Scripture says the Spirit bears witness.
31:29: And that's why I think Jesus said Our Father.
31:33: Later we're going to sing a song called Good, Good Father.
31:36: It's who you are, and I'm loved by you.
31:39: It's who I am.
31:40: That's a great reminder.
31:43: Because it reminds us where we are in this.
31:46: He's the Father.
31:47: We're the child.
31:48: Our Father in Heaven.
31:50: This can't go into two parts.
31:52: I've got to start Genesis.
31:53: Let me move on.
31:58: So then He moves to...
32:00: He talks about thy kingdom come, and in the King James Version He adds the phrase thy will be done on earth and heaven.
32:07: There's a textual variant there, but that is in the Matthew Version.
32:11: Ultimately, that's an act of submission.
32:13: Thy kingdom come, thy will be done is submission.
32:17: Your kingdom.
32:19: Your will.
32:20: Not my kingdom.
32:21: Not my will.
32:23: And then He goes on to move to self.
32:26: We've talked...
32:27: Start with God before you move to self.
32:30: Don't forget about yourself because you're coming to God for a reason, and you're coming to God not only to glorify Him, but you're bringing your petitions before your Father.
32:41: So what's the first petition? Confession of physical needs.
32:48: Give us this day.
32:50: Our daily bread.
32:52: Now, can you think of everything else you can pack into that? It's a confession of physical need.
32:58: God, I need daily sustenance from you.
33:06: See how it becomes modular? It's whatever I need for the day.
33:12: And the Bible says God gives me grace for the day, not grace for tomorrow.
33:16: I get my grace today, and His mercies are new every morning.
33:22: We need to pray that God gives me the grace for today, not the grace for tomorrow because that's when we get that grace.
33:28: So it's give us this day, our daily bread, and forgive us.
33:33: Here's the great thing about this part of the prayer.
33:36: And again, if I had six weeks, I'd love to just take this apart.
33:39: But where He says, give us this day, our daily bread, and forgive us.
33:45: And this is where the King James, I'm sorry, the Matthew and the Luke diverge.
33:49: Because in Luke's gospel, Hamartia, sin.
33:54: Forgive us our sin.
33:57: But in Matthew, this is why I believe it's two different accounts.
34:02: Forgive us our debt.
34:07: Now, that isn't necessarily talking about money debt.
34:11: Even though if you're heavy duty into money debt, you might be asking for Jesus to come in and help you with that.
34:16: That's not the point.
34:18: The point is the moral debt, which is sin.
34:23: So it's another way of saying sin.
34:26: Now, the modern language is trespass.
34:32: You say, well, why did we change to trespass? Well, it's a pretty modern extension.
34:37: It was because of modern translations and things.
34:40: I will say this about that though.
34:42: There is a difference between sin and trespass that we should recognize.
34:49: Sin means to miss the mark.
34:52: It means there's a standard and you've fallen short.
34:56: The word sin, Hamartia, it was from the archery.
35:01: When an archer would pull back his bow and would release, and the soaring missile of that arrow would fly, and it would fall short of the bullseye, they would say, Hamartia! Fallen short of the bullseye.
35:15: That's Hamartia, sin.
35:19: Trespass though, is there is a line that you go across.
35:23: You've gone further.
35:24: Not you've missed it, you've gone past it.
35:28: Remember when Moses went up onto the mountain? God said, do not let any person or any animal come upon this mountain lest he die.
35:40: That's the border.
35:42: That's the trespass.
35:44: And so we kind of think of it in both ways.
35:48: Forgive us of those things that we've fallen short of.
35:52: And forgive us of those things that we have gone past our allowed boundaries.
35:59: So we're going before God with a broken heart.
36:02: Like David, creating me a clean heart.
36:07: Oh God! And renew a right spirit within me.
36:13: I have broken Your law.
36:15: I have failed Your test.
36:17: I have gone past Your boundary.
36:23: Then we see the next, which is the hardest part of the prayer, if you want my opinion.
36:29: As we forgive those who are indebted to us.
36:39: Actually that's how it reads in Matthew.
36:41: In Luke it actually says, For we ourselves forgive as if we already have.
36:48: The Luke prayer is we already have forgiven.
36:52: As we have forgiven.
36:54: Forgive us as we have forgiven.
36:56: Let me ask you this.
36:57: If you only received the forgiveness of God that you gave to others, how would you fare today spiritually? And yet is that not the call? God, forgive us as we have forgiven others.
37:27: And lead us not into temptation.
37:31: Some people have problems with that because they would say, well God never leads us into temptation.
37:36: Why would we ask Him not to do those things that He's not going to do anyway? This is a language issue that has to be understood somewhat.
37:46: The leading into temptation here is a recognition of the sovereignty of God.
37:53: Many are the plans of a man's heart, but the Lord does what? Directs His steps.
38:00: This is submission to the understanding that God is ultimately in charge of where we go and what we do.
38:06: And we're asking God, please be merciful and don't put me in places where I would be tempted to sin.
38:11: God's not the tempter.
38:13: But He's in control.
38:14: So we're asking Him not to put us in positions where we would be tempted.
38:20: And lead us not into temptation, but do what? You have to go back to Matthew for this one.
38:26: Deliver us from evil.
38:30: Deliver us from evil.
38:33: Again, it all falls together.
38:36: God, I have sinned and I ask Your forgiveness.
38:39: And Lord, I pray that You would give me the strength to forgive those who have sinned against me.
38:43: And that's hard, but I want to do it because I know it's necessary.
38:47: Because how can I, who have been forgiven, not be forgiving to others? So God, I pray for the strength to forgive.
38:53: I pray that You would give me the grace of forgiveness and by Your mercy, deliver me from sin so that I don't keep having to come back and say this again.
39:07: You say, but wait a minute, we're always going to sin.
39:09: Well, yeah.
39:16: And that's why it's a daily prayer.
39:19: But we ask God for what? Deliverance.
39:23: Not just from the penalty of the sin, but from the opportunity to continue.
39:32: There's so much here that we could spend so much time on, but I want to give you something that's a little outline to help you.
39:40: This is me.
39:43: You say, Pastor, how do you pray? Well, I use this prayer modularly and I take it in four parts.
39:50: Number one, contemplate God.
39:55: Number two, communicate need.
40:00: Number three, confess sin.
40:03: And number four, commit self.
40:07: You say, where do you get that last one? Well, go back to the prayer.
40:13: Our Father who in heaven, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
40:17: Give us this day our daily bread.
40:19: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
40:22: Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
40:27: Here's my part.
40:29: God is going to deliver me and I'm going to submit to Him.
40:37: So again, contemplate God first.
40:41: Communicate need second.
40:44: Confess sin third.
40:47: Commit self fourth.
40:49: Now there is another way that you can outline and it's the acronym ACTS.
40:57: Some of you have probably heard of that.
40:59: A-C-T-S.
41:01: That is an acronym for prayer.
41:04: I used to actually have this written in my Bible, but I don't anymore.
41:10: Adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication.
41:15: Adore God, confess sin, thank God, supplicate, which means ask for what I need.
41:24: So there's two outlines for prayer.
41:26: If you need to know how to pray, there's two places.
41:29: Write it down.
41:30: Put it in your Bible.
41:31: Put it in your wallet.
41:32: Put it on your mirror where you brush your teeth.
41:35: Put it somewhere to put it in your mind.
41:38: Or just memorize the prayer Jesus gave you.
41:41: And as you pray through that prayer, stop at every point and think about what you're saying.
41:47: Our Father.
41:48: Father.
41:49: The One who created me.
41:50: The One who gave me life.
41:52: The One who breathed into me the breath of life.
41:54: The One who gives me all things.
41:55: The One who established me in my mother's womb and brought me out of my mother's womb into this world and has walked with me every step and gave me the gift of regeneration.
42:03: Father who loves me.
42:05: Father who cares for me.
42:06: Father who provides my every need.
42:08: Father who gives me everything.
42:10: Father in whom I have life and breath and all things.
42:12: And Father for whom I live and move and have my being.
42:15: Father.
42:15: Father.
42:16: That's just the first word.
42:19: And you pray that prayer and you look at every word and you think about every word and that walks you through a model of prayer.
42:27: Now for two seconds I'd like to do the rest of the verses.
42:32: Because off of this model we have the exhortation to prayer.
42:36: By the way, when you send me away for two weeks, I come back ready.
42:42: The exhortations to prayer.
42:43: We have a parable, a call to persistence, and then my very favorite part of the passage.
42:48: So let me just read these.
42:49: I'll make very quick comments.
42:53: Beginning at verse 5 he says, And he said to them, Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves.
43:00: For a friend of mine has arrived on a journey and I have nothing to set before him.
43:04: And he will answer him from within, Do not bother me.
43:06: The door is now shut and my children are with me in bed.
43:09: I cannot get up and give you anything.
43:11: I tell you though, he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend.
43:15: Yet because of his impudence, he will rise and give him whatever he needs.
43:20: Stop right there just for a second.
43:22: This is a parable.
43:23: And this is the story.
43:25: Man has a visitor come to him at night and he doesn't have anything to give him.
43:30: In the ancient world, that is an absolute shame.
43:33: If you don't have something to give to a visitor, that is a disrespectful, that is a sign of disregard.
43:40: And this is obviously somebody he cares enough about that that's going to be a great shame on him and his family.
43:45: So he says, I got to feed this guy something.
43:47: I got to give this guy a traveling mercy.
43:49: So he runs to his friend.
43:51: He beats on the door and he says, Hey, give me bread.
43:54: And the guy's like, I'm already in bed.
43:56: My kids are here with me.
43:57: By the way, that's where they slept in the first century.
43:58: Everybody had one bed.
43:59: It was up off the floor and they were all together.
44:01: Can you imagine? Everybody just sort of slept together.
44:03: And so he goes, I'm in bed with my children.
44:05: Leave me alone.
44:08: But he gets up and gives him the bread.
44:10: Why? The text says, because of his impudence.
44:15: You say, well, what in the world is impudence? Well, it's interesting because this is the only place in the Bible this word is used.
44:22: There is no other use of Ananida, which is the, or Anidea is the Greek here.
44:30: It's not used anywhere else, but it is used outside the Bible.
44:33: And so we can go outside the Bible, see how it's used in other literature and bring it back in and understand it.
44:37: Most people think it means persistent because he's persistent.
44:43: And that does fit the context because in a moment he's going to say, ask, seek, and knock.
44:48: But that's actually not what Anidea means.
44:52: Anidea does not mean persistent.
44:55: It means without shame.
45:01: It means, in a positive way, it means bold.
45:05: In a negative way, it means shameless.
45:08: And I think it's the negative because here's a guy who didn't have what he needed.
45:13: He sees his person coming and so in desperation, he runs to his friend and says, give me, I have a need.
45:23: And the guy, Jesus says the guy won't give it to him because he's his friend.
45:29: He gives it to him because he's shameless.
45:33: He gives it to him because he's bold enough to ask.
45:37: He gives it to him because he's on his knees pleading for help.
45:43: I have a need and I need it to be filled and you're the only one who can help me.
45:49: He said he didn't do it because he's his friend.
45:52: He did it because he was desperate.
45:55: When was the last time you came before God desperate? Often times we come once and then look elsewhere.
46:11: And that's why I think it goes into the next part.
46:14: Ask.
46:18: Seek.
46:20: And knock.
46:22: By the way, all of those are in the present active imperative which means keep on asking.
46:30: Keep on seeking.
46:33: Keep on knocking.
46:35: Be like the shameless neighbor.
46:41: God, help me.
46:48: Now I want to add to this very quickly.
46:50: This does not mean that God is always going to say yes to everything we ask.
46:57: You say, well why? Because God is not a servant.
47:02: He is a father.
47:05: A servant grants requests.
47:07: A father does what his child needs.
47:13: Therefore, James tells us we have not because we ask not and we do not get what we ask because we ask wrongly.
47:21: There are times when we are wrong.
47:25: Therefore, we need to know that sometimes God's no is better than your yes.
47:33: In fact, I would say God's no is always better than your yes.
47:37: That's hard to hear.
47:39: But God does say no.
47:41: But here's the beauty.
47:42: This is where we're going to end.
47:43: And please look at your Bibles with me for just a moment longer and then we'll close and we'll go to our song.
47:48: And I want to sing, Good, Good Father, and I want you to sing out with us.
47:51: But listen to what he says right here.
47:54: Go with me.
47:55: He says, verse 11, What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead give him a serpent? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? There's so much there.
48:33: That one verse is a sermon.
48:35: You are evil in your flesh and yet you fathers, every one of you fathers in here is a good father.
48:45: I watch you with your children.
48:46: You love your children.
48:47: You provide for your children.
48:49: You go to work and you bust your body down to the bone to provide the food and the shelter for your wife and kids.
48:56: And I thank God for you.
48:58: But you are evil because of this flesh.
49:03: And yet you still know how to do good to your children.
49:08: How much more? How much better is He who is abundantly good in all things able to do for you? Do you know this? Listen to me.
49:22: Men, God loves you more than you love your kids.
49:31: God loves you more than you love your kids.
49:40: Wives, God loves you more than you love your kids.
49:47: Kids, God loves you more than you love your parents.
49:55: He is a good father.
49:59: He can be trusted.
50:02: And our prayers are trust.
50:08: Our Father, hallowed be your name.
50:13: Your kingdom come.
50:16: Your will be done.
50:18: That's a prayer of trust.
50:21: Are you moved to pray today? Two things.
50:26: Two things from this message should move you to prayer.
50:28: One, Jesus prayed and so should you.
50:31: And two, your Father loves you and He wants to hear from you.
50:36: I tell you this, I learned something.
50:38: Cody, go on away, I learned this.
50:41: You never get more excited about a phone call than when you haven't heard from your son in a month.
50:49: And when he calls you and the phone rings and you see it's his name, that's a blessing.
51:03: When was the last time God heard from you? He's a good, good Father and you're loved by Him.
51:14: Let's pray.