#88 Lu. 11:1-4 THE MODEL PRAYER Introduction: In our text last Sunday Jesus visited the home of Martha in the village of Bethany near Jerusalem. From this dear Christian lady we learned that a Christian can become overly involved with the material things of life to the neglect of spiritual things. We learned especially that we need to study the word of God and mold our lives by the teachings of God's word. In our text today we come to another very important item in the Christian's life---prayer. I. The occasion V. 1, "And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place..." Luke does not tell us where the place was where Jesus was praying, but the location of the place is unimportant to us. The thing that is important is that this was not an isolated event in the life of Jesus. Luke and other writers of the gospels make it clear that Jesus frequently spent time in prayer to God, the Heavenly Father. In Luke 3:21 when Jesus was being baptized by John the Baptist Jesus prayed to God the Father. In Luke 5:16 Jesus withdrew Himself from the multitudes that almost daily gathered around Him and went off into the wilderness to spend time alone in prayer to God the Heavenly Father. In Luke 6:12 He spent all night alone in a mountain in prayer to God the Father. In Luke 9:18 He was alone in prayer with His disciples very nearby. In Luke 9:28-29 the transfiguration of Jesus took place when He went up into a mountain to pray. The prayer life of Jesus did set a good example for His disciples to follow. However, Jesus did not pray just to set a good example for others to follow. He prayed to God the Heavenly Father because as a man He needed to pray. It is true that Jesus is Deity God. But He is also a man. As a man, prayer filled a definite need in His own life. II. The request of the disciples (V. 1), "...when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him..." From this we learn that His disciples were with Him on this occasion. That is, they were at least near enough that they were aware when He had finished His prayer. They knew that He had stopped either because they heard Him stop or because He rejoined their group after He stopped. At any rate, they knew that He had stopped His prayer. (V. 1), "...Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples." The twelve apostles had been saved under the preaching of John the Baptist and, like Jesus, had been baptized by John. They were aware that John had taught at least some of his disciples how to pray. Perhaps some of this very group who were now followers of Jesus had once heard John teaching his disciples how to pray. So now they ask Jesus to teach them how to pray. They felt a need to pray. They felt a desire to pray. They felt a need to be taught how to pray. They wanted their prayers to be acceptable to God. They wanted their prayers to be answered. They knew that nobody was more capable of teaching them how to pray acceptably than Jesus. So they were very much in earnest when they asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. Jesus then taught them how to pray. The things that He taught them are very important to us in our own lives. We, too, ought to feel the need of prayer and we ought to want to pray acceptably before God. We should want to be able to pray and have a definite answer to our prayers. In order for us to be able to pray and to have a positive answer to our prayers, let us learn from the model prayer which Jesus used to teach those disciples. III. Eight steps in learning to pray V. 2, "And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven.." When we pray to God in heaven we who are Christians should not think of Him as being unconcerned about our problems, but we should think of Him as our Heavenly Father. A father is one who loves his children and we should think of God as One who loves us. At an earlier time in our lives Satan was our spiritual father, but when we were born again that was changed. God in Heaven is now spiritually our Father and we are His children. God loves His children and He loves us. We are to have a certain fear of God, but it is not to be a fear of terror. Rather it is to be a reverential fear much like we would have for our own earthly father. Only God is not limited in his strength and power as our earthly father would be. God is Almighty God, but never-the-less He is our Father. He loves us as much an any earthly father could love his children. He really loves us more than an earthly father could love us. As our Father He is our Provider. As our Father He is our Protector. As His children we are totally dependent on Him to watch over us and care for us. So when we pray let address God as our Heavenly Father. (V. 2), "..., Hallowed be thy name..." Jesus taught us that we are to pray, "...Hallowed be thy name..." The word, hallowed, means to be separated or set apart. The idea is that God's name is to be separate or set apart from all other names. It is to be a name that is highly revered and respected. It is not to be a name that we would use in profanity. It is not to be a name that is to used lightly in any way. We should ask God to use us in a way to exalt His name here on earth. Now I don't mean that we should always go around saying, "Praise the Lord." There is nothing wrong with saying "Praise the Lord" if we really mean it. But just saying, "Praise the Lord" is not necessarily praising the Lord. Whenever we say, "Praise the Lord" it should be from the heart. We should really mean it. What's more, we should live in a way that brings praises to His name. We should recognize that we are weak and are not naturally inclined to live in a way that would honor His name. We should ask God to help us and to give us the strength to live in a way that would bring honor to His name. We certainly ought not to do anything that would bring reproach on His name. (V. 2)"...Thy kingdom come..." This is a prayer for the return of Jesus to the earth to set up His millenniel kingdom. It is a request for God the Father to hasten the day when Jesus Christ, the Son of God, will be on the throne in Jerusalem and will rule the world. The world that we live in today is in a terrible, terrible mess. Just look at what happened in California with all of the rioting, looting, burning of other people's property, stealing of other people's goods and taking of other people's lives. Just look at all of the dope and hatred and murder that there is all around us, even right here in East Texas. We are going to have an election in November and each of the candidates will promise that if he is re-elected that he will try to make thing better. But let me tell you, my friend, that no president is going to be able to solve the problems of this world. No political party is going to be able to solve the problems of this world. Only Jesus is going to be able to solve the problems of this world. When He came the first time He solved the biggest problem that me face. He died on the cross to provide salvation and make it available for every man so that who-so-ever will may come to Him and be saved. When He comes back and sits on the throne in Jerusalem He is going to solve the other problems of the world. We ought to very sincerely be able to pray, "Thy kingdom come. Let come soon. Let Jesus come again and solve the problems of the world." (V. 2), "...Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth." In heaven every thing which the angels of God say is completely in His will. Every thing which the angels of God do is completely in the will of God. Here on earth it ought to be the same. Everything that everybody does and says ought to be 100% in keeping with the will of God the Father. But the fact is that the majority of things that are done on earth are not in His will. We are to pray for that to change and that all will be submissive to Him to do His will. Furthermore, we should pray for spiritual strength and wisdom so that right now in our own lives everything we do and say will be in keeping with the will of God. We should not want to wait until Jesus is on the throne in Jerusalem for our own lives to be conformed to His will. We should want to change our lives right now to conform completely to His will. V. 3. "Give us day by day our daily bread." It is not wrong to pray for God to supply our own needs. Jesus teaches us to pray and ask God to supply our needs. This acknowledges our dependence on Him and that honors God. But God does not want us to get greedy in making our requests. We are to pray and ask God to supply our daily needs. We are to ask Him only for what we need today. We are to pray again tomorrow and ask God for what we need tomorrow. We are to pray again the next day and ask God to supply what we need for that day. We are to pray every day asking God to supply our need for that day. This is not in keeping with our flesh nature. It is the nature of the flesh to pray and ask God to give us such an abundance today that we will never have to pray again to ask for anything else. We might not actually put it into words this way, but if we really expressed our fleshly desires we would pray and say, "Give us this day our life-time supply." God does not honor a prayer like that whether it is worded like that or not. V. 4, "And forgive us our sins..." This statement is one reason why we should call this prayer "The Model Prayer" and should never call it "The Lord's Prayer." The Lord never sinned. He never prayed such a prayer. He never needed to pray and ask for forgiveness of sins. He never had any sins. This is a model for us. It is a pattern for us to follow. It is a recipe of us to use. We are not required to pray these exact words, but we are to follow the pattern that Jesus has set forth for us to follow in our prayers. One of the great needs in our prayer life, as Christians, is to confess our sins and to ask God to forgive us our sins. This is not a request for the salvation of the soul. These are men who have already been saved. They are already His disciples. When we call on the Lord and ask Him to save us, He saves us from every sin. I John 1:7 says that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all unrighteousness. So as far as our destiny is concerned we are saved from every sin and there is not one sin left to cause us to go to hell. That settles our destiny once and for all---forever. But as far as our daily fellowship with God is concerned we need forgiveness everyday because we sin every day. Daily sins will not cause the Christian to lose His salvation and go to hell, but they will cause his fellowship with God to be broken unless they are forgiven. Therefore, we need to pray daily for forgiveness of our sins so that we can have fellowship with God in our lives and have His blessings on our lives. (V. 4), "...for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us..." Matthew says that Jesus said that we should pray and ask God to forgive us as we forgive others their sins against us. The idea is that we, as Christians, should forgive others their sins against us. Then just as we want God to forgive us, even so we should be willing to forgive others. The next time you ask God to forgive you of your sins, you stop and ask yourself the question, "Am I, likewise, willing to forgive those who have sinned against me?" In the first place, I am convinced that a large part of the time when we hold a grudge against someone, it is not actually for a sin that they have done against us, but we hold a grudge for some wrong that we have imagined that they have done against us. But whether the wrong is real or imaginary is not the point that Jesus is making. The point is that we should forgive them that sin whether it is real or not. Listen, brethren, if we want the blessings of God to be upon our lives, then it is high time that we stop holding grudges and start forgiving others their sin against us. (V. 4), "...and lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil." The idea is this: "Lord, do not let us be led into temptation to the point that we would be guilty of some heinous sin, but deliver us from the evil tempter and deliver us from the evil thing that we might otherwise do." Oh, how we are weak in the flesh! Oh, how we need God on a daily basis! Oh, how we need His strength to overcome sin in our lives! IV. The example that Jesus set So Jesus has taught those disciples to pray and so He has taught us to pray. This is our model prayer. But let me say to you, that for the most part, this same model served as a model for our Lord Himself in His own prayers. In all of the prayers that Jesus uttered He prayed especially for the name of God to be hallowed. He prayed for it to honored in His own life. He prayed for God's name to be honored in the lives of His disciples and in the lives of all men. He prayed for the kingdom to come. He had already come in keeping with the plan of the Father to provide salvation for men, but He prays for the kingdom to be established with the throne in Jerusalem as God the Father has planned it. He prayed for the will of God to be done in His own life. In the Garden of Gethsemene when He was facing the terrible horrors of the cross Jesus prayed, "If it be possible let this cup pass from me. Never-the-less, not my will but thine be done." He prayed for God's will to be done here on earth as it is in heaven. He prayed for His own daily bread. Jesus prayed for these things and He taught His disciples likewise to pray for these very same things. The one thing He never prayed which He taught His disciples to pray was, for forgiveness of sins. Jesus never sinned and so He never needed to pray for forgiveness. But His disciples have sinned. Those disciples had sinned and we have sinned and we all need to pray, "Forgive us our sins." V. A practice prayer session right now Let me remind you that this model prayer is a model for those who are already saved. It is not a model for the unsaved. If you are unsaved, then you need to pray for the salvation of your soul. What I am going to ask you to do is to pray that prayer right now. Right now, right where you are sitting, I am going to ask you to bow your head and lift your heart to God and ask Jesus Christ to save your soul and keep you out of hell-fire. You do not have to say any certain words, but you do have to call on the Lord and you do have to ask Him to save you. Will you do that right now? While your heads are bowed, I am going to ask every saved person here to put into practice right now the things that Jesus has taught in this passage of Scripture. First of all as you talk to God the Father, call Him your Father, your Heavenly Father. Isn't that great to be able to call Him your Father knowing that He loves you as a Father? I am going to ask you to ask God to hallow His name. Ask Him to bring honor to His name in this church and in this community and in your home and in your life and to bring honor once again to His name in these United States of America. Ask God to help you to live in a way that would bring honor to His name. While you are at it, ask God that if He can see fit, to send Jesus back to this world very soon. You will be praying that His kingdom come and for His will to be done in earth. Now, what do you need in the way of material things? Is it bread? Is it medicine? Is it a job so that you can earn your daily bread? Go ahead and ask God right now for those things. He wants to give them to you. He also wants you to ask for them before He gives them to you so that you will know that you have them as an to prayer. Now about your sins---confess your sins to God and ask God to forgive you of your sins. But before you do, why don't you pause and ask God to help you to forgive others their sins against you. Ask Him. Ask Him for His help in forgiving others and then ask Him to forgive you. Now about temptation---ask God to strengthen you so that you will be able to resist temptation and overcome temptation in your life. Oh, you will never live the perfect life as long as you are living in the flesh, but you can live a whole lot better than you are living. Now learn to pray this way every day. This is not all you should pray for, but it is a good way to learn to pray in such a way that you will have power with God in prayer. Conclusion: If there is someone here who has been saved this morning, I am going to ask you to come forward and confess Jesus before men as your Savior. If there is someone who yet needs to be saved and you are ready to get things right with God right now, then I am going to ask that you come forward at this time. If there are Christians who need to straighten up your lives and you want the people of this church to be in prayer for you then I am going to ask you to come forward at this time. If you are saved and you know it and you need a church home I am going to ask you to come forward at this time.