Lord, Teach Us to Pray

Text: Matthew 6:9–13 ESV

We will spend our morning diving into the Lord’s prayer as a jumping off point to our own personal prayers. Prayer, we all know, is a healthy and vital part of our spiritual lives and diet (or at least it naturally should be). As we head into our fall, I would like us to consider a fresh pursuit of God through a refreshed and recharged prayer life. Now, I would like to put before us this morning that prayer fits with our August sermon series of “pursuits and promises” because it is the practice of pursuing God through His promises. But to be more specific, what type of practice and pursuit is it? I would like to put forward this definition: Prayer is the petitioning pursuit of God using His promises (i.e. asking God to answer His promises). Prayer is this petitioning pursuit of God - The pursuit of His kingdom, His forgiveness, His provision, the praise of His name.

But how do we pursue Him? We come to God through His promises. These are what drive and define our prayers. “Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.” As Spurgeon says, “The best argument against a man are His own words.” And there are no better words to use with God than His own. Let God’s prayer promises entice us and energize us. 

So, we come to God through a channel (or conduit) of promises. We come to God by means of promises. In fact, we base the entirety of our souls and lives on the promises in God’s Word. Even the gospel is referred to as a promise. To be clear, God’s promises first have to be unlocked. And these promises can only be unlocked by a person—this is the Person that God has promised. We access God’s promises through this person (not a priest, not a saint) And that person is His Son, Jesus Christ. He is the avenue by which we can ASK and how we avail ourselves to all these promises. Easter reminds us that only Christ could cut the curtain in two. So prayer is the petitioning pursuit of God (and all His gifts and glory) via/using/through His promises. And His promises are mediated to us through His Son. Because when you have the Son, you get all the promises. If you don’t have the Son, you get none of them. 

This is why Paul says, in 2 Corinthians 1:20, “For all the promises of God find there ‘Yes’ in Him. That is why it is through Him that we utter our Amen to God for His glory.” You see, Jesus is like this big file folder on the desktop of prayer and when you click on Him, He cascades with Yes after Yes after Yes to the magnificent and massive promises that are true for all Christians everywhere. And so in prayer we are pursuing God and we are pursuing God using His prescribed means of promises which come through the person of His Son! 

So we will pray now, being mindful of the YES’s in Christ and remembering Jesus’ words in John 16:24, “Until now you have asked for nothing in my name, ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be made full.” So let’s pray considering these truths!

We are going to unpack this more, but let me say what the Lord’s Prayer is not. The Lord’s Prayer is not in our Bibles to tell us the precise and prescribed lingo we must use if we want to pursue God's prayer. God is giving us some patterns, principles, and promises to remember. And we will do well to remember them!

But why is prayer in Jesus’ most famous sermon? Because Jesus is setting out the guiding principles, the new worldview, the traits and characteristics of the Blessed and Beloved of God. This sermon is the Christian’s constitution by how they will live and be governed. And what does Jesus lay down front and center, smackdown right in the middle of His sermon? None other than prayer. Have you thought about what gets the most attention during Jesus’ most famous sermon? Jesus devotes more lines and more Bible verses to prayer than he does any other topic in this Great Sermon. 

But what else does the Lord’s Prayer tell us? Verse 5, “And when you pray…” For Jesus, there is an expectation that you would pray. It is a natural trait of being a son or daughter of the kingdom. Just as a child grows and takes on the image/look of his parents, so do we grow and take on the appearance and begin to look like the one who births us. That if Jesus prayed, like the Word records He did, we ought to as well. 

In another gospel (Luke 11:1-4), Jesus teaches the foundations of this Lord’s Prayer that we see here in Matthew 6. But the context is a little different. This time, Jesus comes back from praying in a certain place and when he finishes one of his disciples said, “Lord, teach us to pray”. Of all the things that the disciples could have asked Jesus, they said, teach us to pray. Not teach us to read the Scripture like you do, or preach like you do, or heal like you do, or cast out demons like you do, or walk on water like you do, or multiply fish and loaves like you do. The disciples must have sensed that something supernaturally was happening when they overheard and watched Jesus pray—was it passion, was it peace, was it answers, was it lament, was it wrestling… we don’t know but we do know it was prolonged and it must have been attractive and needed by this disciple. So, what a straightforward answer on how to do something. We don’t get the same straightforwardness on how to read the Bible, how to do church, how to share our faith, but we do get it with prayer. But we do get it with prayer, so let’s jump in with what He said.

As we look to Christ’s teaching on prayer we realize two things:

1. Prayer is done in secret, not showmanship. We do not engage in to receive the accolades or applause of others, but to receive real reward from God. Are we after the reward from above or the reward from others? To take this a step further, are there things of God we use and abuse to elevate ourselves and are mainly an exercise in people pleasing when their intended purpose was to get us to God?

2. Prayer is to be intentional, not hollow and wordy. God knows what you need before you ask Him, but His will to accomplish what you need is obviously through your asking. As many have said, prayer is not the act of bending God’s will towards our will, but it’s the practice of molding ours to His. That when a man is at sea and in need of the shore, and He throws His anchor out and hooks the shore. His safety and solution is not in pulling the shore to Himself, but in pulling Himself to the shore. We see this most specifically in Jesus’ prayer with His Heavenly Father in Luke 22:42, “Let this cup pass from me, yet not my will, but Yours be Done.” We see Jesus being pulled ever closer to the shore of submission. 

As we lean into this prayer as a model to mimic, I want to give you 5 words to capture some, but not all of the sentiment contained in the prayer of our Lord. I would encourage you to use these 5 words as a grid or outline for your own prayer life, or consider which ones are lacking in your own prayer life and use a few of these to buttress it appropriately. Either way, the goal is to get us praying, and praying intentionally and biblically. The church will go where the prayers of her saints take it. 

#1 – The first line is: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” The first word I want to give you is, LOVED. You are loved. In prayer, the first thing we remember from the very first two words of this prayer is that I am loved. Why? Because Jesus tells me to address God as, “our Father…”. I enter into prayer a son or daughter, adopted into a heavenly family, by a Heavenly Father. Do you see? I am just replaying the gospel. I am reminding myself who I am based on who He is and what He has done for me. You are asking a Father, not some distant and unconcerned or unmoved deity. Our Father says, “address me and ask me…” He wants to say YES. But what are the answers to our prayers:

1. Now, He could say yes and directly answer it. 

2. Or he could say NO and Deny it.

3. He could say Yes later and delay the answer.

4. Or He could give you something entirely different and better. 

Jesus tells us a little later in His sermon that He gives better and more than we ask. See Matthew 6:7-11. Now, we are not told if the son gets bread or fish, he could have, but he could have gotten something a whole lot better. Why did Jesus use the objects of bread and fish, was it to make us recall what would happen later in the feeding of the 4,000 and 5,000? That God will take your small request and meet and multiply them beyond belief. I don’t entirely know, but it seems to be a fitting thought.

Now, let's take the most memorable verse in the Bible with one of the most precious promises in the Bible. John 3:16 and Romans 8:28 and pair them. If God is willing to move heaven and earth and extinguish the life of His Son for me, what can I not expect and what can I not request? What might he do if we only ask? And this brings us to another component of being Loved. You are loved by your Heavenly Father who is the Lord over all the Earth! And if He is Lord over all the Earth, then He can answer anything, hallowed Be His name. If He is Lord and wants to answer his loved ones, hallowed be His name. And if He is Lord then His answer is final and beyond contestation, hallowed be His name. And if He is Lord, then He is eternal and transcendent over all. If He is Lord, He’s all knowing, all powerful, and always present, hallowed be His name. And if He is Lord, His providences and purposes with his will and ways are perfect and flawless, hallowed by His name. And if He is Lord, His justice and righteousness are unquestionable, hallowed me His name. And if He is Lord, His mercy, compassion, love, and grace know no end. Hallowed be His name! 

You are loved and you are loved by the Lord of the EARTH. And the fact that this is true ought to make you come confidently and consistently. So, you are loved, by the king of all kings and the Lord of all Lords, hallowed be His name. 

#2 – Now, I love how this prayer progresses. I move from recalling His love for me and praising a Lordship attribute that exists over me. Then, I move to the next phrase with the word, SURRENDERED. I am Surrendered. Jesus says, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” So, we see after considering the holiness (or the otherness) of our Heavenly Father the appropriate posture is one of lowliness, surrender, bowing before His Lord of all the earth. And in light of who He is and His love for me, I am HIS. I am loyal to His cause. It is His kingdom, not my kingdom and His will, not my will. And why don’t I pray more? Because sadly I am just too okay and appeased by the way things are. As I was challenged years ago, “Andrew, pray against the status quo!”

Then you can pray His kingdom come in two ways (one proactive and one reactive):

First, be proactively submitted/surrendered to His kingdom rule and reign in all the roles you occupy. I am a husband, father, student worker, pastor, neighbor, friend, son… you can pray for your submissions to God’s will and Words in Bible in these roles would be ever-increasing and that His kingdom would expand by making me more intentionally gentle in my marriage, more self-aware in my friendships, more thoughtful with my neighbors, more attentive with my kids. So, I am praying for God’s will to rule in my life and have his kingdom take root in all those realms. So, those are the places where we can be submitted. 

Second, be reactively submitted/surrendered to His kingdom rule in your life when surprise, shock, pain, persecution, loss, interruption come into your life. This is receiving the reign of God in your life and not resisting it. So, I want God’s kingdom to come and replace the domain of darkness and take territory from the serpent, but I also want to be submitted to the hard, yet holy wills of God when death, disease, divorce, distrust, and discouragement sets in I can say Psalm 112:6-7. Whatever the Lord may bring my way, it is well, it is well with my soul! 

#3 – So, let’s get to this third phrase: “Give us this day our daily bread…”. So, we are loved. We are surrendered. And now, We are SUPPLIED. You see, as much of this is a prayer of asking, it is a prayer of acknowledging. Yes, we are acknowledging need, but we are acknowledging provision (physically and spiritually). I love what the commentator E.M. Bounds says about this passage, “The greatest evidence of having God’s bread tomorrow is the fact that he provided it for today.” It is God’s faithfulness for us today that is what we bank on to believe in His faithfulness for tomorrow. 

To recall what we have said in this prayer, God, I am loved in that I address you, “Father.” I am surrendered before you your kingdom and will as the Lord or heaven and earth. And this prayer of surrender is followed with our need for daily bread, Yes, but our acknowledgement that He is the needs-meeter. We are asking Him Because He is able to answer us. (We do not ask someone for something they cannot provide). Our asks are saying something about the One we are asking! So let’s put this prayer of supply in the context of this prayer of Surrender. I am loved. I am surrendered. I am supplied. I am so thankful to be supplied so I don’t have to surrender in my own self will and self-effort. This prayer, “give me this day my daily bread” takes me to the provision of the Great Provider—to the supply of the great Savior. 

Three Provisions that God Provides:

1. Grace and Mercy of God — I remember when we asked Dr. John what we should pray for when they were waiting on Karen’s diagnosis. He said pray for Grace and mercy. Paul says it like this, 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is sufficient, for my power is perfected in weakness.” If Grace is sufficient and Grace is supply, then that’s the daily bread I want and that God can and will provide. 

2. Promises in God’s Word — There is not one promise in God’s Word that you cannot claim. They are yours in Christ Jesus. And they are there to apply to the practical difficulties you are facing. Everything in Christianity is built upon the promise of God’s Word. Sara and I’s marriage is sustained on promise to one another. My relationship with God exists because of His pledge and promise to unconditionally love me. My life with God is lived on promise. One of the most reassuring promises of supply is his promise to sanctify me. I take great hope in Philippians 1:6, “I am confident of this very thing that He who began a good work in me will complete it to the day of Christ Jesus.” The daily bread of God’s Word is summed up in Jesus’ words to Satan, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” 

3. Spirit – and lastly, what is another Supply that God has given us? He has given us His Spirit! God, give me more measures of your Spirit. I want to leverage more of the Spirit’s control in my life. When I pray for the daily bread of spiritual sustenance I am not just saying, Help me, but Help me with your Helper! The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity abides in you to supply you! Jesus says in John 14:16, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, the spirit of Truth…” You have the presence of God reminding you of the truth of God. 

So, I am loved. I am surrendered. I am supplied (physically + spiritually) through His grace, Promises, and Spirit and now:

#4 – “forgive us of our sins (debts) as we have forgiven our debtors (or those who sin against us). So, I am loved. I am surrendered. I am supplied. And now, I am FORGIVEN. And it's this part of the prayer where I want to bend what I am receiving here (vertically) so freely, fully, completely and bend it out there (horizontally) so freely, fully, and completely. So, we have two parts to this. I want to start with the second part and the neglected part first:

1. God, help me to forgive. I am forgiven, I should be able to forgive. You see, in this prayer is the implied forgiveness that you give others (or to you). And if you are anything like me, it does not come easy, therefore, pray that God would give you a forgiving heart. This might be a long-standing person in which bitterness is entrenched or this might be the forgiveness needed for someone that will transgress you later that day. God, give me your heart, your patience and long-suffering posture. Forgiveness is not passive, but an active response to sin. It calls sin, sin and then it forgives it. Whether they ask for it, or if they are aware of it or not, it will forgive. 

2. God, forgive me. The forgiven say, “forgive me.” Though we have it, we don’t stop asking for it. We continue to reorient ourselves in right relationship with God. It is worth remembering that we are always in need of forgiveness and, through Christ, God is the forgiver and always willing to grant it. (James 5:16) Yes, when you are in Christ, you are forgiven of all it's done, but the heart of the believer humbly throws himself before a throne of grace persistently and regularly. Why does He do this? Because He is acquainted with two things: his sin and God’s Grace. Why are you not asking for forgiveness? Because you have either downplayed your sin or you have downplayed His grace and we need to UP-play repentance said the great reformer, Martin Luther. All of life is repentance. And we are in this constant recycling of the gospel message to our hearts and minds. And if you are not asking for forgiveness and receiving it, I don’t know how we can regularly preach the gospel to ourselves without it. A very easy way to keep repentance at the forefront of life is to keep daily Bible reading at the forefront of life. You cannot help but run into very convicting verses that way. Take this week: 1 Peter 4:7-9. 

#5 – We are loved by the Lord of heaven and earth. We are surrendered to His kingdom. We are supplied beyond belief by this Word, Spirit, and grace. We are forgiven and in need of forgiveness. And now, I am GUARDED. “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:13).

So, we end our prayers pleading that God might guard us from the world, our flesh, and specifically from this passage—the Evil one. We are not called in this prayer to pray that we might fight temptation or resist it, though other passages state that, but we are called to pray, “God, guard me from whatever may entangle me in that you don’t even lead me into it. Because if I get caught up around this crowd, this money opportunity, or having my phone on late at night, or in this anger-prone situation, or this thought that floods my mind, or this glimpse in a mirror I will fall.” We say in song, “Lord, I am prone to wander and prone to leave the God I love.” Therefore, God, don’t give me a long leash. Don’t let me go, but keep me close. 

When temptation has overtaken you, we recite 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man, and God will provide a way out that you may stand under it.” So, here is our pattern in prayer, before temptation. God, I will fall. There is a brokenness that says, “Guard me and don’t lead me there.” But in temptation, there is a boldness in our blood-bought salvation. We are told in James 4:7, “Submit to God, resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.” So we stand in Christ in the midst of sin with a Savior who has stiffened and double-platted your backbone with his powerful promises—not so you will slump to sin, but so that you will stand firm in your faith. He gives you posture! You see, the Christian falls first in prayer, “God don’t lead me into temptation…” so he can stand with His Savior when sin comes calling. It’s the poor souls who never fall in prayer, but stand in pride thinking they have beaten temptation and we know that right before 1 Corinthians 10:13 is verse 12, “if anyone thinks he stands, take heed, lest He fall.” The Lord’s Prayer teaches us to fall first, so that we may stand. Please don't stand in prayer, or else, you may fall.