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Servant School - Prayer

Servant School

April 7, 2022

The Lord’s Prayer

Introduction

Welcome to our Servant School class on Prayer

This week, our lesson is about “The Lord’s Prayer”

When it comes to the subject of “The Lord’s Prayer”, people have some interesting ideas.

Some folks take this as a prayer that is meant to be repeated word for word whenever they think about praying. They take it as the exact words that believers are supposed to pray.

You see this reflected in some Christian movies like “Paul, the Apostle of Christ”. Here’s a clip of the church praying as they are facing persecution. Luke leads his fellow prisoners in prayer …

Video – Paul, The Apostle of Christ – Games Tomorrow

https://youtu.be/VOjC-1i5B-s

I believe that when Jesus mentions this prayer, it is meant to be a pattern or template, a list of the kinds of things that we ought to consider including in our prayers.

But I do not see this prayer being used over and over in the New Testament. We have quite a few examples of prayer in the New Testament, even with the actual words being prayed, and we never see them use this prayer.

The prayer is meant as a sort of “template” for us to learn to pray.

I find it interesting that the prayer that we call “The Lord’s Prayer” is only found in two slightly different passages in Scripture.

We’ll be we looking at the main passage in Matthew 6, which is a part of the Sermon on the Mount – when Jesus is teaching a multitude on a hillside in Galilee.

The prayer is also found in Luke 11, but the context is a bit different.

Jesus isn’t in the middle of a sermon, but He is responding to a question.

He’s not with the multitudes, but just with His disciples.

(Luke 11:1 NKJV) 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.”

I find it interesting that the disciple didn’t say “teach us how to pray”, but they want to be taught “to pray”.

I know that all of you in this class resonate with that request. We all want to grow in simply praying.

Here’s a video clip from “The Chosen”, based on that passage in Luke 11. The disciples had been worried about Jesus, wondering if He was in danger. When He finally shows up late at night, He tells Him that He had been praying…

Video: The Chosen 2.6 – “Teach Us To Pray”

https://youtu.be/SgC4BLyfeLQ

A few last comments before we dive into Matthew 6.

I don’t think this prayer is meant as some sort of “penance”, as if we should pray this prayer ten times to make up for some sin we’ve committed.

Prayer is not some sort of punishment, it’s a joy.

We’ll start our study in Matthew 6:5.

Keep in mind this is in the middle of Jesus’ famous “Sermon on the Mount”…

Matthew 6:5-13 The Lord’s Prayer

:5 “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

:6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

:5 that they may be seen by men

Jesus warns His followers to not be like the “hypocrites”.

Hypocrites are people pretending to be something they’re not.

The hypocrites want to be seen by people when they pray, but inside they know nothing about prayer.

Jesus wants us to be more concerned about being seen by the Father.

Does this mean we shouldn’t pray in front of others?

Not at all. We have lots of examples of prayer in the New Testament that were public prayers, or prayers in the church as a group.

Yet if you practice prayer in any way, it ought to start in a private place.

If you don’t learn how to pray while you are alone with God, then it might be good to keep silent when you are in front of others.

:7 And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.

:8 “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.

:7 heard for their many words

You’ve heard me say many times that God is not impressed by the amount of words that you speak.

You’ve also heard me say that we need to be careful about making our prayers into some sort of detailed “to do” list for God – as if we are the “teaching doctor” telling the intern how to operate on the patient. God is not your “intern” and He knows way more about what we need than we do.

Keep your prayers to the point.

Solomon wrote,

(Ecclesiastes 5:2 NKJV) Do not be rash with your mouth, And let not your heart utter anything hastily before God. For God is in heaven, and you on earth; Therefore let your words be few.

God is not impressed by the length of your prayers.

He is impressed by your heart and your faith in Him.

Illustration

This quote from Charles Spurgeon:

Fluency is a questionable endowment, especially when it is not accompanied with the weight of thought and depth of feeling. Some brethren pray by the yard, but true prayer is measured by weight – not by length. A single groan before God may have more fullness of prayer in it than a fine oration of great length.

- Spurgeon on Prayer, A 30-day devotional treasury, Day 15.

Then Jesus goes on to give us this “template” for prayer

(Matthew 6:9–13 NKJV) —9 In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. 13 And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

I know there are many ways to break down this template, but I’ll keep it simple and break it into six parts.

:9 Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name

Lesson #1

Correct Address

Whether it’s an email, a text message, or even old fashioned “snail mail”, if you don’t get the address correct, you message isn’t going to go through.

Here are a few nuggets in God’s “address”.

1. He is our “Father”.

This speaks of our connection to God.

Paul says that the Spirit has put a yearning in our hearts to even call God “Abba”, or “Daddy”, or “Papa”.

(Romans 8:15 NKJV) For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”

(Galatians 4:6 NKJV) And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”

Martin Lloyd Jones said, “Of all of the blessings of a Christian’s salvation, none is greater than this. We have access to God in prayer.”

2. He is in heaven

He sits on a throne. He is the maker of the heavens and the earth.

He is powerful. He knows everything.

3. He is holy (or, “hallowed”)

This means that He is “different” or “separate” from us.

He is “different” in that there is no sin in Him. This is represented in God’s “light”

John wrote,

(1 John 1:5 NKJV) …God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.

Paul wrote,

(1 Timothy 6:16 NKJV) …dwelling in unapproachable light…

His name is holy. His name is pure. Don’t abuse His name.

He also wants us to be holy.

Peter wrote,

(1 Peter 1:15–16 NKJV) —15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”

Make sure you are using the “correct address”.

:10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.

Lesson #2

God’s will

Whether we realize it or not, real prayer is intimately entwined with God’s will.

Prayer is not about getting God to change His will.

Some preachers give you the impression that if you have enough faith and you use the right words, that God’s arm is twisted and He has to do what you say.

That is completely bogus.

Prayer is about getting you aligned with God’s will.

(1 John 5:14–15 NKJV) —14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

Some have said that it lacks faith to add “if it be your will” to a prayer.

But Jesus Himself prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane –

(Luke 22:42 NKJV) saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”

We want God’s will done on earth like it is in heaven.

:11 Give us this day our daily bread.

Lesson #3

Needs

This is the request portion of prayer.

What are you asking God to do?

These requests are connected to “today”.

In first century Israel, life was not always easy and the common person lived day to day.

They may not always know where the next day’s meals were going to come from.

Ancient household flour mills didn’t grind a week’s worth of flour, but only one days’ worth.

Each day you baked the daily bread for the family.

So Jesus taught us to pray for today’s needs. Later on in the sermon, Jesus will say,

(Matthew 6:31–34 NKJV) —31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

I don’t think it’s wrong to be praying for things that you are concerned about in the future, but start with your concerns for today.

:12 And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.

Lesson #4

Forgiveness

Sin is a huge problem in our communication with God. Afterall, He is “holy”.

David wrote,

(Psalm 66:18 NKJV) If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear.

For this reason, it’s important that we learn to deal openly and quickly with our sin and find forgiveness.

John wrote,

(1 John 1:9 NKJV) If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we try to ignore or even hide our sin from God, we are only hurting ourselves.

Yet if we learn to admit our failures to God, we will find His forgiveness.

Yet Jesus doesn’t leave it there.

He teaches us in the prayer that we need to also forgive others.

Unforgiveness hinders prayer.

He will even say after this prayer that if we don’t forgive others, God won’t forgive us.

May our prayers have the flavor of forgiveness throughout them.

:13 And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.

Lesson #5

Ready for trouble

Whether we realize it or not, we are in a spiritual battle.

Paul wrote,

(Ephesians 6:12 NKJV) For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

This is not a battle that we can win on our own. We need God’s help to handle temptation and resist the devil.

James wrote,

(James 4:7 NKJV) Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Sometimes we need to realize that it’s our own sin nature that leads us into temptation. The problem isn’t always Satan as much as it is in us.

(James 1:14 NKJV) But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.

Illustration

A little boy always went next door to play even though his mom had warned him against doing so. This worried the mom so badly that she asked him why he was so disobedient. He replied that Satan tempted him and he did not know what to do. The mom then advised him to say ‘get thee behind me Satan’ whenever he was tempted. She then built a fence around the house. This worked for a week, then one sunny afternoon the mom looked out the window and there was her son playing on the neighbor’s lawn having cut a hole in the fence. “John”, she yelled, “Come here!” She then said “did I not tell you to say ‘get thee behind me Satan’ whenever he tempted you?” “Yes”, the boy replied, “I said, ‘get thee behind me Satan’, then he went behind me and pushed me through the hole in the fence.”

I need to pray because I am weak when it comes to temptation.

Pray to be ready for trouble.

:13 For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Lesson #6

Praise

Praise ought to be a part of our daily prayer time with God.

You’ll hear something similar when you get to heaven:

(Revelation 5:12 NKJV) …“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain To receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and honor and glory and blessing!”

We’ve talked about how praise and thanksgiving are an expression of our faith, of our trust that God will not only hear our prayers, but He will answer them in the way that is best, at the time that is best.

I want to end with a clip from the movie “War Room”. Notice how many things are in this prayer that we’ve talked about…

Video: War Room – Prayer Scene

I hope that helps

In Class

This is our last class.

Don’t Forget To Pray Together at the end

Any comments from tonight’s teaching video? Questions?

There were ??? main “lessons” in the message. Do you recall what they were?

Were you challenged by any of those ideas?

1. Correct Address

What have you learned about getting the “address” correct in your prayers?

2. God’s Will

How do you know that something is God’s will?

3. Needs

What kinds of things do you pray for as “daily needs”?

4. Forgiveness

Do you ever feel challenged by the “Forgiveness” lesson? Do you ever think about people you need to forgive, or do you mostly think about forgiveness for you?

5. Ready for Trouble

How do you pray to help yourself be “ready for trouble”?

6. Praise

What kinds of things do you praise God for on a regular basis?

How are you doing on your daily prayer time? How many days this week did you set time aside to pray?

Let’s see how we did on our homework. Can anyone recite the blessing from Numbers 6?

(Numbers 6:24–26 NKJV) —24 “The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; 26 The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.” ’

Can anyone recite Hebrews 13:20-21?

(Hebrews 13:20–21 NKJV) —20 Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.