Pray the Word

0:58We laugh about it now, you know. Dad, you can yell, hand me the wrench louder, but I still don't know what a wrench is. And so when Kendra and I got married 17 years ago and we had 415 showers, I didn't get anything. Nothing. No guys ever get anything. But my dad, he pulled me aside after one of the showers. He said, hey, I got something for you. And he gave me a DeWalt drill. And 17 years later, I'm still looking for anything. To drill, I'll drill it all.

1:36There's one time in Scripture that the disciples asked Jesus to teach them something. It wasn't how to preach, it wasn't even how to heal people, perform miracles. In Luke chapter 11, they listened to him talk to his heavenly father, and they said, Lord, teach us to pray. Teach us to pray. And we take it for granted that everybody knows how to pray. That seems like asking to be taught how to breathe. Why would anyone ask to be taught how to pray?

2:13But, friends, I think most of us pray far less than we want to pray. And I think from our prayer lives, we're often only praying for immediate physical needs. And so we do need to be taught how to pray. We need to learn how to pray both individually and together as a church. Last month we started a series called Back to the Basics. We're trying to get back to the brass tax, the basics of the Christian life together.

2:44So we've talked about God and His world. We've talked about God and His Word. We've talked about God's people, the church. Last week we started talking about Christian worship and we talked about the importance of preaching the word. And so today we're Going to continue talking about Christian worship as we talk about praying the word. We're going to learn this morning together from Jesus how to think about prayer and its role in the life of the church and how to do it together as the worshiping community of God's people.

3:16So let's take a look at the text here. We're going to actually pick up in verse 9. We started in verse 5 for the reading, just for the context. We're going to pick up with the prayer itself. In verse 9, Jesus says, Pray then like this. And so what he's doing is he's giving us a model. He's giving us a form that we can copy. We can use these exact words, of course. In fact, in Luke 11, Jesus says, say this when you pray. And so we can use these exact words, but what he's doing here is he's giving us a form, even though he himself often prayed in other ways at different times, a form that we can use to pray as God's people. So what do we learn about prayer from these verses?

3:59Well, the very first thing we learn is how we should address the Lord when we pray. And I want you to notice that Jesus doesn't begin with, my God. He begins with our Father in heaven. In the ancient Near East, people viewed themselves as persons in community. They didn't view themselves primarily as individuals. So you viewed yourself and how others. Viewed you, all of that was done through the lens of family and extended family and neighbors and community.

4:38In other words, no one viewed himself or herself as an isolated individual who needed to go and find or go and create their own identity. So praying our rather than my wouldn't have been strange to them. That would have seemed to them like the most natural thing in the world. It would have seemed unnatural if Jesus taught them to pray my instead of our, in fact. But friends, for us in 21st-century America, the fact that Jesus begins with our rather than my is nothing short of revolutionary.

5:19Because embedded in the American ethos is the concept of the rugged individual, the man or the woman who is self-sufficient and doesn't need anybody else. And American Christianity has been shaped by that ethos. So we talk about things in individualistic terms. My walk with Jesus, my spiritual life, my relationship with God. But the Bible simply doesn't present the Christian life in that way. When we read the New Testament, whether it's the Gospels or the book of Acts or any of the letters, what you find is that the Christian life is Always presented as life in community.

6:04And not just any community, but a spiritual family. So Jesus teaches us to address God how? As Father. We're not just a group united in a common cause like the Junior League or the Aggie Moms Club or something like that. No, we are a spiritual family, which is the closest kind of community that we can enjoy on this earth. God isn't just our creator and our sustainer. He's not just the holy and righteous judge of all the earth. He's also our father.

6:41And that's instructive for how we approach him in prayer together. We approach him with respect and honor as we would our earthly fathers. But we also approach him with confidence and warmth and love because he is Abba. He is Papa, our heavenly dad. And all of us understand those dynamics because all of us are children or fathers or both. So I want my kids to come to me with confidence. I want them to know that they can come and talk to me, that I will love them always and forever, that I'm here to teach them and to be with them, to spend time with them, to enjoy them.

7:27But because of the relationship that we have, I also want to preserve that dynamic of authority because I am their father. And we've had to have those conversations from time to time where I've had to say, hey, I want you to remember, I'm your father, I'm not your bro. And so there's that dynamic where we come to him as father, meaning both we come to him with confidence and warmth, but also with respect. And finally, Jesus reminds us that we are praying to our father in heaven.

7:58And so Scripture presents the Lord often as seated on his heavenly throne, but we're also told many times throughout the Bible that God is omnipresent, he's everywhere, he's not just in heaven. And so when Jesus teaches us to pray to our Father in heaven, he's not really talking about God's address, where he lives. It's a reminder of God's power. So consider Psalm 115 on the screen. Why should the nations say, where is their God? Our God is in the heavens. He does all that he pleases.

8:39When we address God as our Father in heaven, we are reminding each other that we're not praying to a powerless idol of our own creation, one that can't do anything about the requests that we're about to make. No, we are praying to the living Lord of the universe who reigns over all his creation. He is in control of all things, great and small, and we have access with confidence to speak with him about anything at any time.

9:12But this is probably a good time to pause and to say, not just anyone can approach God the king about anything at any time. Only his kids can do that. Scripture is clear that when we're born, we are not born with God as our Father. Take a look at Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 through 3. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

10:10You see, because of Adam and Eve's rebellion, all of us were born dead in sin. God was not our Father. Rather, as Ephesians talked about, we were following the prince of the power of the air, that is Satan. And when Jesus was talking to the crowds of religious leaders, This is why when they said that they would be saved because they had Abraham as their descendant, he said, no, no, no, no, no, Abraham is not your father. You are of your father, the devil.

10:42We were by nature children of wrath, meaning that God is going to hold us all accountable for our sin and rebellion against him. So to use the language of Jesus, we all must be born again. I want you to look at Ephesians 2, 4 through 10, the rest of that passage, and notice the plural language here, not me and my, but our and us. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. And raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

12:01Until you've been born again, God isn't your heavenly Father. He is your creator and your sustainer. He is the king, and one day he will be your judge. But until you have received his son, Jesus, through faith in his life, death, and resurrection, he's not yet your father. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. There are not many paths to heaven, there is exactly one, and Jesus is that path. If you want God as your Father, you first have to receive Jesus, the Son.

12:49So that's where Jesus teaches us to begin, our Father in heaven. We address God as persons in community, our, as a spiritual family, our Father, and as the all-powerful God of the universe, our Father in heaven. And now we come to the first request. Take a look. Hallowed be your name. That could be translated, may your name be kept holy, or let your name be treated with reverence. Because when we talk about someone's name, we're not just talking about what they're called, we're talking About their reputation, how people think about them.

13:35And so, in this request, Jesus is teaching us to pray that God's name would be kept holy and treated with reverence, that he would essentially have a good reputation in the world. And so, what that means is, we're really praying for two things. First, for our evangelistic efforts, because, of course, people can hardly be expected to treat God's name as holy if they've never heard of him or if they have heard of him, but they don't yet worship him.

14:05And so, when we pray, hallowed be your name, we're praying for our own efforts in evangelism, our own efforts and missions, so that the gospel goes forward and more people will treat God's name as holy because they become worshipers of him. So, we're praying essentially for our own evangelism, but secondly, we're praying for the church's holiness. We all know that one of the main complaints against the church and against the Christian faith is outsiders who say that the church is full of hypocrites.

14:42And so, when we pray, hallowed be your name, we're praying for our own holiness. Take a look at what Paul writes in Romans chapter 2. He's talking about the Jews here, and he says, For as it is written, the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. So, when we pray, hallowed be your name, we're remembering that people draw conclusions based on associations. And if we're associating ourselves with the name of God, then they are going to draw the conclusions that they draw based on the way that we live our lives. So, we're praying for our own holiness. This is why we spend time in our worship services praying for our gospel workers throughout the world, as well as our own evangelism and holiness. Because if our church's name or any church's name becomes famous, but God's name and reputation suffers, then we've not done our job as ambassadors for the gospel. So, we pray that God's name would be hallowed in our community and around the world.

15:50Next, verse 10: Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What does it mean when Jesus prays, Your kingdom come? Well, I appreciate the way that Greg Gilbert talks about the kingdom. Take a look at this quote from him. He says, Kingdom is a geographical word for most of us. That's not the case in the Bible, though. Biblically speaking, the kingdom of God is best understood as more of a kingship than a kingdom, as we usually use that word. As the Bible talks about, About it, God's kingdom is not just his rule and reign, it is his redemptive rule and reign. It's the loving sovereignty he exercises over his own people.

16:43So, there is a sense in which God's kingdom has already come. When Jesus began his public ministry, he preached, saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It's here now. So, there's a sense in which the kingdom of God has already arrived, it arrived with Jesus. But there's another sense in which the kingdom of God hasn't come yet, not fully, anyway. When Jesus returns in glory, not as the suffering servant, but as the conquering king, his kingdom will be consummated, and then everyone will submit to his rule and reign.

17:25But that's not the case now. And that's why we pray, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Now, you might have read this before or heard this before, and thinking to yourself, like, why do we pray for God's will to be done? I mean, isn't that going to happen anyway? Isn't God's will already done in heaven and on earth? Why would we pray for God's will to be done? Well, in heaven, God's will is done perfectly without any rebellion or opposition. And that's because all of The angels who rebelled and opposed God were cast out of heaven along with Satan. So now, currently in heaven, there is nothing but willing, joyful obedience.

18:15But on earth, things aren't that way, are they? The war that ended in heaven when God cast out Satan and the rest of the rebellious angels is still raging on this earth. For one thing, there's still rebellion among unbelievers. They lack both the ability and the desire to obey God, to do his will. But even believers don't always submit to God's will because we are not yet made perfect. Through faith in Christ, we've been declared righteous. But we won't be made completely righteous until Jesus returns to consummate his kingdom.

18:59So that's why we pray, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We're praying for Jesus to return because that's the only thing that will ultimately and permanently fix the situation. We're praying for God's will to be done among us, His people, as it is done perfectly in heaven by the angels. Because you see, friends, the church is supposed to be a picture, it's supposed to be a foretaste of what life is going to be. Going to be like in the kingdom when Jesus returns and everyone does his will.

19:36So, when people from the outside look at us, when they look at the church, we want them to see a compelling picture that draws them to faith in Christ and they say, I want to be a part of that kingdom. I've already put my hope in all of the kingdoms of this world, whether that's business and economics and making money, or that's the kingdom of politics, or the kingdom of influence, or whatever else. I've already tried all of that stuff. Those kingdoms aren't good. I want to be a part of that kingdom that those people are a part of. We want it to be that kind of compelling picture because we are submitted to Jesus Christ and to His will.

20:19Now, starting in the next verse in verse 11, there is a noticeable shift in the prayer. Because up to this point, what have we been doing? We've been praising God, we've been acknowledging who He is. We've been praying for His priorities to be accomplished. And now, only after all of that, does Jesus teach us to shift to focus on our needs and our requests? So, we begin by asking for provision. Give us this day our daily bread.

20:57We learn in Deuteronomy, and Jesus quotes this when He Tempted in the wilderness, that man does not live on bread alone. And friends, the word alone is very important because plenty of people, going back to the Greco-Roman times and still today, separate the physical and the spiritual. And they act as though we're not integrated beings, mind, body, soul, and spirit. But we are. So God says we don't live on bread alone. Not that we don't live on bread at all. Unless, of course, you're on a gluten-free diet like I've been on. And then there's another question: what are we even living for? Not sure.

21:46When we ask God to give us our daily bread, what we need to survive each day, we are acknowledging that He is our ultimate provider. He is the one who supplies everything we need, every heartbeat, every breath, and food for each day. But you see, we forget that. And we forget that because we've got pantries and refrigerators and freezers full of food. No matter where you live, you live less than a mile from some place that sells groceries. You have money and the ability to purchase what you need.

22:26So we forget this, but Then we get some reminders every once in a while, don't we? A hurricane comes through, or we get a freeze that knocks out all of the power for a week. We get reminders from time to time that we are not in control of our lives, that any sense of control that we have is actually an illusion. And so we're dependent on God for our daily bread. And at times, what that means is that we will be dependent on others for our daily bread because God is the one who meets our needs, but he often does it through others.

23:08And I think you see this in the passage that we studied two weeks ago in Acts chapter 2. Take a look again at the screen. Luke is describing life in the early church. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts.

23:40Our daily bread comes from God. But in His divine providence, sometimes what that means is it comes through the church. It comes through our spiritual family. And God provides for us through each other in times of need. Now we move on to spiritual. Needs, take a look at verse 12. And forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors. Now, what is a debt? Well, it refers to something, usually payment, that is owed to someone else.

24:23And our debt to God that we have incurred because of our sin and rebellion against Him is so large that it could never be repaid. So it would be appropriate and just for us to suffer eternal punishment because of this infinite debt that we all have to God. But thankfully, debtors don't have to be punished, they can be forgiven. But here's the thing: debt forgiveness doesn't mean that the cost simply vanishes, it's just absorbed by someone else.

25:13In other words, forgiveness isn't free, it is always costly because the one forgiving the cost, whether it's money or time or suffering or pain, the one forgiving that cost. Has to absorb it himself or herself. It's always costly. And that's what God did for us. He didn't simply wave our sins away as if they were no big deal. No, he chose to bear the cost by sending his only begotten son to pay for them in our place on the cross.

26:03That's the choice he made to absorb the cost of our sin. So when we gather as a church and we take the Lord's Supper, we spend time praying and confessing our sin and asking for forgiveness and reflecting on the work of Christ that's done on our behalf. We're remembering the cost that he absorbed to forgive us our debts. But I want you to notice in verse 12 that when we ask for forgiveness, how do we do it?

26:43We do it as we have also forgiven our debtors. Friends, Jesus assumes that if you are asking God for forgiveness, you have already forgiven those who have come to you and asked for forgiveness. Forgiveness as well. Asking God for forgiveness but withholding it from others who are repentant is not an option. Jesus makes that very clear in verses 14 and 15. Take a look down there. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

27:34So our forgiveness is conditional? Well, not exactly. God clearly reveals in His Word that there's nothing that we can do to earn forgiveness, and that includes forgiving others. His grace is a gift to us. But Jesus does teach both here and in the parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18 that we cannot expect to be forgiven by God if we refuse to forgive those who come to us and ask for forgiveness. Because you see, a willingness to forgive is a mark of anyone who knows how much they have been forgiven.

28:18This is one reason we examine ourselves before we take the Lord's Supper. Because taking communion is a reminder that our forgiveness came at the exorbitant price of Jesus' Broken body and shed blood. We cannot take the Lord's Supper while living in disunity or in unforgiveness towards our brothers and sisters in Christ. Forgiven people, forgive. And now let's take a look at this last request, verse 13. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

29:04Now, this is another part that can be confusing to us at first glance because we know from James chapter 1 that God cannot be tempted by evil and that He Himself doesn't tempt anyone. So here we're not praying that God wouldn't do something that He promises not to do. The word temptation could also be translated trial or testing. And in light of all that Scripture teaches about trials and temptations, it seems better to understand this not in terms of God dangling temptation in front of us to see whether or not we'll sin, but rather as a request, a prayer to God not to lead us into situations where we will be tempted to sin against Him.

29:54So think about Job's situation. God didn't tempt Job to sin. But he put him into this really, really difficult situation where he was tempted to sin against God. Even his own wife said that he should curse God and die. So we pray in this prayer for ourselves and for each other. We're praying, God, don't allow us to be put into situations where we will be tempted to sin against you. Deliver us from evil, and especially from the evil one, whom we know is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. I don't want to be devoured. I don't want any of my brothers and sisters in Christ to be devoured. So lead us not into temptation.

30:43And friends, in light of the context, the fact that this verse appears right in between asking for forgiveness and Jesus' warning about unforgiveness. Could it be that one of our greatest temptations in the church is to live in unforgiveness towards our brothers and sisters in Christ? What are we saying to each other and to the world when we live in unforgiveness? We are saying, I believe that God has forgiven my mountain of sin, but. I will not forgive others who sin against me. That is too much.

31:37So we quit talking. We quit being together. We ignore each other. We switch churches. That's why gathering to worship God together is so vital. It keeps us from falling prey to the temptation not to forgive our brothers and sisters sitting in the same room with us, worshiping the same God, our Father in heaven. Church family, as with nearly everything else in life, we aren't born knowing how to pray. We need to be taught. And thankfully, Jesus teaches us both how to pray and what to pray for.

32:25And so I want to encourage you this week to do an audit of your own prayer life. We are commanded to pray and we need to pray, but so many of us aren't praying as often as we want to pray, either by ourselves or with other people. And our prayers often aren't modeled after how Jesus teaches us to pray here in Matthew 6. So this week, plan to incorporate Jesus' model for prayer in your own life, privately, but also when you gather. With your life group. Also, when you meet with other Christians to disciple each other.

33:08As we're gathered here today and as we gather in other Sundays after this, I want to encourage you to pray along with the pastors as we pray for the things that Jesus commands and models for us to pray for here. Jesus wanted us to learn to pray, but the only way that we can truly learn something is by doing it ourselves. And if you're here today and you're not yet following Jesus Christ, I want to encourage you to consider the idea that you are in debt to God and you need His forgiveness.

33:51If you believe that God exists, do you believe that you need forgiveness from Him? And if you believe that you need forgiveness from God, do you believe that He owes it to you? Or do you believe it's something that you'll have to ask for in the hope that He will grant it? Take a look on the screen at 1 John chapter 1. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

34:36God is already your creator and your sustainer. He is the king, and one day he will be your judge. But he also wants to be your father. He wants to adopt you into his spiritual family. But for that to happen, you first have to confess your sin. You have to turn from it. And you have to receive the person and work of Jesus Christ in His sinless life and death and resurrection. We want you to enter God's family and become our brother or sister today. But you must receive God the Son for God to become your Father.

35:24Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for teaching us how to pray. I think there's probably so many of us, maybe even all of us. Who would agree that we don't pray as we ought to pray? We don't pray as often as we want to or as we should, and we don't pray for the things that you command us to pray for often enough. And so, God, we pray that you would transform us into a praying people, a people whose first inclination, whether we're alone or with other believers, is to go to you in prayer. It's not to try to figure it out on our own, to exhaust our own talents and resources and contacts and everything else, and then, if all else fails, to go to you in prayer, but to go to you first.

36:51God, we pray that our prayers would reflect your prayers. We do pray for your kingdom to come and your will to be done. Make us a holy church who is serious about your name being kept holy and respected in our own community and around the world. Thank you for this model prayer. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church. In College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.