Teach Us To Pray

This morning, we're going to be returning to the Gospel of Luke. We took a break from the Gospel of Luke for an eight-week series on what anti-abortion ministry should look like, how we can engage as a church in that work. That work is still going on. I'm thankful for the fruit that God's brought about through that sermon series. But now we're going to be going back to Luke. And we're going to be picking up in the beginning of chapter 11. and we're going to be studying Luke's account of the Lord's Prayer. Now, many of you may know the Lord's Prayer and have memorized it. You've probably memorized it, if you know it, in the King James, and you've probably memorized the account in Matthew, not in Luke. And so we're going to be studying Luke's account this morning. As we study this passage, I don't want us simply to say, yeah, I should learn to pray like that, or I should memorize that. Both of those things are true. We do need to learn to pray.

As Jesus instructs his disciples to pray, it would also be good for us to memorize the Lord's Prayer so that we have a formula or an outline of how we ought to pray. And we'll get into why that's more important as we go on into the text. But neither of those things, memorizing it or praying like that, are going to help us if we don't understand what the disciples were actually being taught. They weren't just being taught, here's a rote prayer that you should pray. Should you pray that way? Yes. Is that the sum of Jesus' teaching when he gave them the Lord's Prayer? No. And so this morning, what I want us to do is dig into the Lord's Prayer and pull out what he's actually teaching, the principles of what he's actually communicating as he teaches them to pray.

Each petition in the Lord's Prayer stands as a placeholder to teach us what is important to God. And as Christians, we ought to want to know what's important to God. And it ought to be important to us as well. And so we're going to be taught and instructed about what's important to the Lord. And as we study the Lord's Prayer, we're going to be answering this question. What must I learn to make this request? What do I have to learn to make this request? Because we could all just memorize it and be done with it. But there should be much, much more to our prayer life than simply reciting the Lord's Prayer. And so we're going to dig in and say, what do I have to understand? What do I have to believe to make this request or this petition? Would you please stand now for the reading of God's Word from Luke chapter 11, verses 1 through 4. This is the Word of the Lord, and it is eternally true. It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place,

After he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples. 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 also forgive everyone who is indebted to us and lead us not into temptation. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. I want to get us back in the flow of Luke. So what has immediately preceded this is Luke has sent out his disciples, 70 of them, two by two, out into the hillside, the countryside, go out, proclaim the gospel. He's given them authority to cast out demons, and they've all come back with a happy report, a good report. It worked. It's amazing. There's been some...

Some questions. There was a man who was possessed of a demon such that the disciples couldn't cast it out and the crowds were making fun of them. And Jesus had to explain how that all fits together. And he says that that sort of demon only comes out through prayer. And then we find that Jesus is off praying. And it says that as he was off praying, when he had finished, his disciples came to him and said, Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples. And the first thing I want us to learn from this text is that everybody, everybody, not just Christians, absolutely everybody, prays. What is prayer? Well, you could say, well, it's communication with God. It's me talking to God. It's me having a relationship with God. And that stuff's true. But what prayer is in its essence, what it acknowledges, is two things. One, there's stuff that goes on in our lives, and that stuff's out of our control.

We can't fix it. We can't manage it. We can't control it. And so we pray. And we ask God, we as Christians pray and ask God to work in various ways in that situation. And it depends on the situation, what we're praying for in that situation. But through prayer, we acknowledge that there is a problem or a difficulty or a hardship or a praise. And we acknowledge through prayer that God has something to do with it. that he's the sovereign one, that he's able to affect that situation, and so we pray. Now, we as Christians understand who to pray to, and we're going to learn how to pray. But everyone has this desire. When this was most real to me, I was a senior in high school, and I was into sports. That's what I did. I was into sports, and I lifted weights. And so I was at my sectional track meet to qualify for state. I wasn't a believer at all.

I wanted to go to state. Well, I made it to the finals, but I was in like fifth place and only the top two go. And so I'm in the finals and there's pressure, right? And I've got to throw farther than I've ever thrown a shot put in my life to make it to state. So what do I feel in that situation? I feel I'm excited. I'm anxious. I'm full of all kinds of things going on, but I'm also nervous. And so what do I do? I pray. That's what I did. I prayed. As a complete unbeliever, I had never even been in a church. And I prayed. And what I prayed was, God, listen, I know you don't deserve me anything. I don't do anything you say. I don't even know who you are. But I'd really like to go to state. Would you help me throw that chocolate farther than I ever have before? Okay? Am I weird for having that desire or that inclination? I'm not weird. It was strange that as an unbeliever, I prayed.

And I didn't pray in Jesus' name, and I didn't know anything about prayer. I just knew there was a situation that I wanted help with, and something in me said, you should pray. And so I prayed. And everyone has this desire now. We still have it. People still do it, but we don't call it prayer anymore. Because we understand that prayer is associated with Christianity. It was associated with Jesus Christ and his father and sin and righteousness and all the rest. And so we don't pray anymore. The world doesn't, they don't talk about prayer. What do they talk about instead? Well, we have good thoughts. Someone has something going on in their life and they put it on Facebook. My life's terrible right now. Things are hard. What do the Christians say? Praying for you, dear brother and dear sister. What do the unbelievers say? Thinking about you.

It's not helpful. Says Luis, it's not helpful that they're thinking about you. Okay, we're going to get into why it's not helpful, but you're right. So they're having good thoughts for you. They're hoping good things for you. They send their well wishes. I hope you get better soon. They're hoping for the best. All of these things are stand-ins for prayer. There's a problem. There's a difficulty. And what are we going to do? We're going to appeal to something outside of ourselves that says, Help them somehow. Help them. Each of these things, whether they're good thoughts or hopes for the best or I'll be thinking about you today or sending our well wishes along, each of them acknowledges that there's some sort of hardship and it seeks a happy resolution for that person, for that situation. The only difference is that those who do these things, they don't have a clue what they're doing. They don't know what's actually going on here. Who are they sending their good thoughts to?

What good is it for me to send my good thoughts to you? I mean, it might make you feel like, well, he loves me and that's nice. But it doesn't fix your problem, does it? Pastor Dave's thinking about me today. Isn't that nice? He wished me the best. It's not helpful. And it's not helpful because I'm your peer. I can't fix what's wrong. And yet this is what we do. We interact. We send our best wishes along. And yet if we send our best wishes to God, And we appeal to him in Jesus' name and we say, my brother Luis has a problem. I can't fix Luis' problem, but you made him and you love him and you know what's going on and what's good for him now and in the future. Would you please help him? Now we're doing something, right? If we say to someone, I hope that things get better for you. I have to ask, who's going to make them better? Who can make it better?

Who can fix what's wrong? It's just random chance. I'm just hoping, because I hope things, that it gets better for you. It's not helpful. That doesn't help me, and it doesn't appeal to God and say, do you see, can you hear, will you act? It just says, man, life's a roll of the dice, and I hope that it turns out okay for you. What I want you to see from the very beginning of this text is that every person has a desire. And it knows that God exists. And in one way or another, they acknowledge it when there's hardship. And what they need, what we need, what they need, is to learn how to pray to our Father in heaven. That's what we need. And so it's commendable that the disciples come to Jesus Christ and they say, Lord, teach us to pray. Because in that simple request, which is a prayer, The only thing that makes that not a prayer is that Jesus is right in front of them. But they are talking to God and saying, would you teach us something, please? Is there behaving as Christians ought to behave? They're acknowledging God's sovereignty. They're acknowledging his love and his care for his people. They recognize his power and his mercy. Why would we ask someone who couldn't help?

David had his water heater go out this last week. You know who he asked? He asked me, and I think he asked Dan. He asked Taylor. Why didn't he ask John? Klug is the one I'm looking at. Because he doesn't know anything about hot water heaters. He can't help other than to say, man, I'm sorry. We'll be praying for you. Right? So David calls upon the one who can help. And so we come over and we fix it. When we ask someone for help, we're mindful of whether they can help us. If James needs help with the soundboard, he would be an utter fool to ask me. I don't know anything about it. Anything at all. It would be stupid for him. Well, you're the pastor and you know everything, don't you? I'll ask you about the soundboard. No, idiot, I don't know anything about the soundboard. David does. Ask David.

And so when we ask for help, even when we ask help of one another, we ask for help from people that we know can actually help us. We acknowledge their wisdom in a particular area. And so when the disciples go to Jesus and they say, teach us to pray, they're acknowledging his infinite wisdom, his power, his sovereignty over all things, because why would they ask someone who was incapable of teaching them? Lord, teach us to pray even as John taught his disciples. It's very good for the disciples to want to learn how to pray. Matthew 10.25 says it's enough for the disciple to become like his teacher and a slave like his master. It's good for us to learn from Jesus. Okay? It's really simple. You should not learn how to pray all on your own. You should learn how to pray From Jesus. Because sometimes you have questions and you go, I don't know if the Bible addresses my question. Should I take this job or not that job? Should I wear this or that? We all have these kinds, should I buy that car or not? Or this house or that? Should I marry this person or not? We have important questions that the Bible doesn't say, and you should do this. But when it comes to prayer, that question was asked. Lord,

Teach us to pray. We don't know how to pray. You're God incarnate. Teach us, please. So each of us needs to learn to pray. If you have children, you should teach them how to pray. It's very sweet when children want to pray. I love it when they do, when our children do. But we need to teach them how to pray because they don't know how. They say silly things. They repeat themselves. They giggle and laugh and make jokes while they pray. If a kid's left to himself, that's what they'll do. They need to be instructed. And so if you have children, it's your obligation to teach them how to pray. And you say, well, I thought you just said Jesus was the one who's supposed to teach them how to pray. And I say, the disciples say you teach us Jesus because John taught his disciples. We're to teach the people under our care how to pray, how to approach God so that they're not irreverent, so that they don't sin in the way that they go to him, so that they understand who they're talking to.

and what he's like and what he's able to do. In the same way that David would have no confidence in asking John about a hot water heater, if you don't know and understand who God is and what his character is like, you won't want to pray to him because you'll just go, well, he's inept, he's impotent, he's incapable of working in this situation. And so there's lots of stuff to teach with regard to prayer. So if we're going to pray, it only makes sense that we learn how to do it. So Jesus replies to them and he says, when you pray, say, Father, okay? This is, I think in our culture, I think this is the most important part of the Lord's Prayer for you to learn. If you don't know any other part of the Lord's Prayer, you need to learn this part. You need to learn to pray to God as your Father. Not as Lord, not as God, not Jesus, not Holy Spirit, but Father. Why?

Because he sent his son into this world who was perfect to live a holy life and to die on the cross. Why? So that we could have our sins forgiven. So that we could become his children. We don't become his slaves through Jesus Christ. We don't become his servants through Jesus Christ. We don't become his soldiers or his ambassadors. Through Jesus Christ. Now you should be going, wait, no, the scripture says we do become all of those things. And you're right. We do. But the thing that supersedes all of those is that we become his sons. And he becomes our father. We are his children. If you're a parent, you think, how do I want my children to view me? How do I want my children to speak to me? How do I want my children to behave? Who do I want them to be as my children?

You have those desires for them because they're your children. You have those general desires for other people's children, for other kids, but you have a particular love and care and attention for your children because you are their father. And you expect certain things of them with regard to how they behave and how they speak and how they treat you because they're your children. Much more so, if you were to compare this to a similar relationship, to an employer and an employee, you have a similar sort of structure, right? You've got an authority and you've got a subordinate and you've got expectations of the authority for the subordinate and you've got thankfulness from the subordinate to the authority for various things. But it's not nearly as close. It's not nearly as close. Have you heard in business where people, this idea, they try to get buy-in with their employees and what they say is, we want you, this is a think like an owner business.

You guys heard of people talking, you know, we hear advertisements about, this is a think like an owner. What do they want? They want your investment. They want your buy-in. They want you to be close. They want you to own it. They want you to be a part of it. And what do they do? They give you cups with their logos and they give you shirts with their logos and they give you mouse pads with their logos and they give you all kinds of stuff to help you identify with them because they're trying to cultivate buy-in from you. And when God sent his son into this world, he made you his child. He made you closer and more intimately involved with him than you ever will be with your business. And so when we pray to him, we pray to him as father. It's one of the sweetest things to me, who grew up without a father, to have a father now that I can pray to and I can talk to. And I can bring my cares to who I know loves me and I don't deserve it.

And so when Jesus tells us we're to pray to him as father, that means that we can come to him as his children. We can come to him vulnerably. We can come to him humbly. We don't have to be afraid of being sinned against by God because he never will. He'll care for us. He'll protect us and guide us and shepherd us through life's storms. And he'll bring us safely into his harbor. That's what a father does. And so when we pray, we pray to him as father. And the reason it's the most important thing for us to learn right now is because of the way Satan's attacking the church and running roughshod on our culture. Fathers can't be fathers anymore. Men can't be men, and therefore women can't be women. And is that little child a boy or a girl? What's under attack with all this transgender stuff? What's under attack? The question, the thing that's under attack is the fatherhood of God. His ability to command boy,

or girl. Mine. I made them that and they can't change it if they feel like it because I made them. That's how a father cares for his children. He takes ownership of them and says, you're not free to do whatever you want. You're not free to do things that harm you because I'm your father and I love you and I won't let you do it. But that's what's under attack in our culture today. We're not allowed to say that. We're not allowed to do that. We're told that we're bigots or that we're hateful or that we're unloving if we care for people the way a father cares for their children.

No other religion has the God become a father, become a parent. In no other system of belief do the adherents become the children of their God. It's the closest, most intimate relationship that can be. In Islam, I was reading about this yesterday, and they say, one of the things I was reading, the guy says, no, we don't view Allah as our father. Because that would make him less than what he is. He's way more powerful and supreme and all of these things. But what they're saying is, actually, he's way more distant. He's way farther off. We don't have access to him. Not like a child does to their father. And so when Jesus tells his disciples, when you pray, say, Father. In Matthew it says, Our Father. We are taught to claim our right.

as God's child when we speak to him. It's not disrespectful for a child to come to their father and to say, you're my daddy, will you help? You're the only one I've got. You're the only one who can help. And if you have an earthly father who is absent or who wasn't absent but was harmful, then he failed. He failed to reflect and to be what God calls him to be, which is a father to you. And we say, then that man didn't do his duty and his responsibility before God, but that does not change the fatherhood of God. That man failed, not God. You fathers, you do the same with your children. When you fail, you tell them, listen, I failed, and God the Father doesn't fail like I just failed, and I'm sorry. And please forgive me, and I'll try not to do it again. Because I love God and I love you. You may not lose, you cannot lose the fatherhood of God. And you won't even notice it.

But it's under attack. When you pray, you pray to God as your father. And if you go, that seems, some of you may be saying, well, that seems arbitrary. Okay, I'll pray to God as father. And if you don't have some sort of buy-in to that, then you don't understand what a father is. Or what it means to be a child. But if you find that you're comforted by the fact that you can approach God as your father, then I say, you have some idea that you need a father. And that's good. If you find in your heart that you say, I don't want to approach God as a father because my father hurt me, then I say, we've got work to do because Jesus tells us we have to come to his father and our father calling him by his rightful name. Does that mean you can never say, Lord? That's not what I'm saying. Does it mean you can never say, pray to Jesus? That's not what I'm saying. But I am saying to you that when you address God in your prayers,

you should address them to your father. Because that carries with it a whole bunch of truths that you need to remember. That you've been saved by grace. That he will hear your prayers. That he will care for you. That he won't cast you out. That he'll protect you. That he loves you. A father loves his child. Does an employer love his employee? Does a master love his slave? You're like, well, maybe. I mean, they kind of, I think they should. Okay, fine, maybe they should, but do they love them the way a father loves his son? And the answer is no, they don't. And so when we come to our father in heaven, we come to him praying in his name, petitioning him as his child. It comes with truth about him. It also comes with truth about us. I'm your son. I want to talk. Father's much more likely to listen to his child than he is a boss to his employer.

You want to get a meeting with your teacher? You want to get a meeting with your boss? We get it on the calendar. But when the kid wants to talk at 11 o'clock to daddy because he's upset, guess what? We don't sleep tonight. We talk. That's what a father does. And it's exclusive. And so when you pray, you pray to God as your father. Second, Father, hallowed be your name. Hallowed means set apart as holy. Father, hallowed be your name. Holy is your name. God's name is not ordinary or common. Even when we speak about him or when we speak to him, we're to speak with reverence. We're to speak with love and with affection and with honor. It's interesting if you listen to people pray. If you want to know how someone's doing spiritually, just listen to them pray. It's one of the clearest windows into their soul.

Do they pray? And when they pray, how do they speak? How do they speak to God? How do they speak about God? Are their prayers manipulative? Are their prayers hopeless? Are their prayers rote and just ramble? They've got that prayer speak stuff that doesn't even make sense if you were to write it down. It's not even a proper sentence. Do they have their special prayer language that's all high and lofty that has nothing to do with... who they actually are or how they actually speak in real life. You can learn a lot about people through how they pray. Do they hallow his name? Do they see God as holy? Do they enter his presence with reverence and awe? His name is holy. It's high. It's lifted up. It's not something we should throw around carelessly.

Philippians 2, 9 and 10 says, That's why taking the Lord's name carries one of the heaviest penalties in the Ten Commandments. Have you ever thought about that in the Ten Commandments and you read the first table of the law? And you get to taking the Lord's name in vain and it's like, oh man, that's serious business there. It's because his name is holy. Even to speak it is to come into the presence of a holy God and we shouldn't just come in carelessly. You say, well, I can't come in. You're telling me he's my father and I'm supposed to come in and be all close to him and I'm supposed to be intimate and there's supposed to be this kind of relationship.

But now you're telling me he's holy and I can't get close to things that are holy. And I say, no, we have confidence to enter the holy place through Jesus Christ. We can come to God, our Father, through Jesus Christ. You can be reverent and vulnerable, reverent and intimate with God, your Father. And you should be, especially when you pray. The third petition that Jesus teaches them to pray is, your kingdom come. And if you are familiar with the Lord's Prayer in Matthew, it says, Your kingdom come, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. But here, Luke limits himself to just saying, Your kingdom comes. Your kingdom come. But we understand it to be a kingdom that was established through Jesus' death. He established his kingdom that exists in heaven. He established it. He planted the seed of it through his death and resurrection.

And so when we pray your kingdom come, we're praying for something to happen here on earth as it is in heaven. It's complete. It's perfect. It's holy. It's done in heaven. Make it that way here. So when we pray your kingdom come, we're praying for work. I want you to realize that. We're praying for work when we say your kingdom come. We're praying for things to do because the church... is God's primary means to establish and to build and to grow his kingdom here on earth. After his ascension, he goes to the disciples and he takes them away on the mountain and he says, all authority in heaven on earth has been given to me. Go therefore, make disciples of the nations, baptizing them and teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. And lo, I'll be with you always, even to the end of the age. What's he telling them to do? Build my kingdom. I started it. When he cried out on the cross and he said, it is finished. What was finished?

He's like a farmer planting. He said, it's done. It's planted. It's in the ground. Now it has to grow. That's what we're praying when we say your kingdom come. When we approach God, we should approach God knowing that we have work to do. God's not some little genie in a bottle. Our father is not someone that we only come to when we need things. Do we come to him when we need things? Yes, absolutely. But we come to him as children and a good father has work for his children to do. And God has work, our Father has work for us. And so we come to him and we say, your kingdom come. And we're saying, what would you have me do, Father? It would be foolish for us to pray your kingdom come and think that we can, we're spectators in this process. We're not. We're a part of that work. We're his children. Then he tells them to pray. And one thing I wanted you to note, there's a transition between the first three and the last three petitions. The first three have to do with the Lord.

Father, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. These all have to do with God. And that sort of thing is, if you were to read through the Psalms, it's interesting to see, if you were to read through the Psalms and see how do they approach God. This is our song book. This is our prayer book as Christians. The book of Psalms. There are other prayers in Scripture as well. But this is the most conclusive group of prayers in Scripture. And all of them have to do with God and his holiness and what he's done and his actions in the past and in history and what he promises to do in pleading. But they're general and they're sort of from afar off. The psalmist saw through a veil. But here, Jesus tells them to pray for something that you don't find much of in the Psalms. We pray for our daily bread. We pray for our needs.

What I don't want us to do is have our prayer life become this disengaged, praying for God's holiness kind of cold thing. A lot of our inclination nowadays is to pray only for our felt needs. Felt needs are just the things that are going on in your life. I got a test this week. I've got a project at work. I'm going to get married. Oh, kids are starting school. Kind of stuff. We're sick. Those kind of things. Should we pray for those things? Yes. Should those be the only things we pray for? No. And so we need to move in the direction of broadening the scope of our prayers to God. We ought to pray for his name to be hallowed. We ought to declare through calling him our father that we have a relationship with him that's intimate. We ought to pray for his kingdom to be done so that he'll be doing that work.

in us and through us. And then we come to him also and we ask for him to provide for and to sustain us and to care for our needs. Give us this day our daily bread. What do we learn from this? Well, we need food. We have daily things that we need. And we're to get them from the Lord. When they're taught, give us this day our daily bread, these guys would have known, they would have thought, oh yeah, the Israelites in the wilderness, their daily bread, they were given daily bread by God. It was called manna. God took them out of Egypt where they were becoming so strong and so powerful that the Egyptians were afraid of them. And they started to abuse them. And God calls his people out of Egypt and he calls them out into the wilderness. No food, no fields to cultivate. They became sojourners. They were traveling. And so what did they need? They needed food. There was tons of them. And they needed food. But they couldn't grow it because they were traveling. They were moving.

And so they start grumbling and saying, we don't have any food. Why couldn't we go back to Egypt where we sat next to pots of meat and we had our bread until we were full? Moses, why did you drag us out here to die? So they're mad at him. And so Moses goes to the Lord and he says, I can't bear the burden of these people. If it's going to be like this, would you please kill me quickly? That's what Moses said to the Lord. Please take me away. I can't do this. And the Lord answers his prayer and he says, I'll take care of them. Here's how it's going to work. In the morning they'll have bread and at night they'll have meat. And so the manna would come down from heaven. And every morning they'd get up. When the dew burned off, there it was. And it was good food. It was simple food, but it was good food. And then in the evening they had quail. They had meat. And God provided for them every day. And the Lord told Moses, he said, tell them they can't keep any extra because it'll go bad.

Now, do the Israelites listen? No. They're supposed to go out and gather a day's worth, as much as every man needs, is what it said. God wasn't stingy. He said, as much as every man needs. So they go out and they gather it. Well, they gather a little extra. And then what happened to it? It would rot. It would grow worms. It just got nasty overnight. Because God said, you need me to provide for you daily. Every single day. And I'm going to create an environment where you have to depend on me daily. Every single day. Because I'm going to make the food that you need every day to eat, I'm going to make it rot every night. I'm only going to give you what you need. Except on the sixth day. Because I'm God, because I'm sovereign, because I made this world and everything in it, I'll let you keep two days worth, just because I can. And I want you to honor me by resting on the Sabbath. So when Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, give us each our day, our daily bread, they're remembering.

The Israelites. And they're remembering, being told that they need to be content with the Lord's provision, daily provision, daily dependence, which means exposure or vulnerability for us. What do you want to do when you find a good deal at the store? Buy a bunch, don't you? Because it's a good deal. And it could be food, it could be clothes, I don't really care what it is. Why do you have to buy it right now? Somebody else might buy it and it might be gone. There might not be enough for me. And so our pantries are full of food that's expired and clothes that you've never worn because we don't depend on the Lord to provide. I know it's not in the budget, but it's such a good deal. I got to get it. No, you don't. No, you don't. Do you not think that the Lord will provide for you? Do you not think that he can provide for you daily? Each day, the things that you need, the grace and the strength.

and the food and the energy and the self-restraint to live that day for him? If you don't, you're going to try to store up as much as you can. You're going to hoard it. It's going to go bad. What happens when the food's about to go bad in the pantry? Oh, we've got to hurry up and eat it. Eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it. Because we're greedy. Because what would we do if we didn't have enough that we didn't have to trust God? It's significant also that Jesus teaches his disciples that both the Lord in the Old Testament, And Jesus here teaches them to be content with bread. Bread is simple food. Very simple. It's not extravagant, but it's enough to sustain them. And we're to learn to be content with simple provision and to not grumble like the Israelites did when we look around and we see that other people have things that we don't have. Why do I have to struggle? Why do I have to depend on the Lord daily? Why do things have to be hard for me? Why do I have to go without when they don't?

Philippians 4.12, Paul says, I know how to get along with humble means and I also know how to live in prosperity. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. And so what does it mean to pray to God, to give us our daily bread, to strengthen us, to provide for us, to equip us and sustain us for each day? It requires humility. You have to be humble before the Lord. And nothing in your flesh wants to be. We don't want to have to depend on the Lord. We don't want to have to look to him and go, I actually need a lot of stuff from you. I need a lot of care and a lot of help and a lot of patience and a lot of mercy every single day. Do your kids ever get tired of asking you for stuff? My kids haven't gotten tired of asking me for stuff yet. They ask and I say, sure, and they can have it. And then they come and they ask again and I say, no. And then they come back and can we have it now? No.

And they don't stop asking. Why don't they stop asking? Because they're my children, and I'm their father, and they have needs. And so they don't stop asking. Multiple times a day, whatever it is. If they have a need, they let me know about it. And we'll get into what that looks like next week. But there's no shame in depending upon the Lord daily to be sustained and to have the things that you need. There's no shame in it. There's nothing wrong with it. Am I saying that you should live your life in such a way that that the margins are so tight that if a day goes bad, you're going to crash into the wall. No, that's not what I'm saying. Paul said, I've learned to be content in every situation, in prosperity and in adversity. So if you have the opportunity to prosper, you should do it, and you should honor Jesus as you do it. But there are still things, even if you prosper in this life, there are still things you need from the Lord every single day. Then you ought to pray for them. Then he tells them,

To pray, forgive us our sins as we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. John tells us that we love because he first loved us. We also forgive because we are forgiven. If you were in Sunday school, we were talking about this at length. Forgiveness is the fruit of Christian faith. There's lots of other ways that the world or we will set out to deal with sin. What do you do when someone sins against you? Do you ignore it? Maybe you try to ignore it. Maybe you get angry about it and you nurse bitterness and anger. Maybe you break off the relationship with that person. You don't want to have anything to do with them anymore. What do you do when someone sins against you? Oh, it's cool. It's fine. Don't worry about it. That's not forgiveness. That's not forgiveness. Ignoring it, sweeping it under the rug, not dealing with it, that is not forgiveness. That's not what God does with us. I said in Sunday school, God doesn't forget our sin.

When we come to him, he doesn't go, oh yeah, yeah, don't worry about that. I forgot about it. He doesn't forget our sin. He forgives our sin. He deals with our sin. If all he did was forget our sin, then he could have kept his son in heaven. Our sin had to be dealt with. It had to be forgiven. There was a debt that had to be paid so that forgiveness could be done. And so he forgave us our sins. Forgive us our sins. Father, forgive us our sins. You say, well, how many times can I come and ask for forgiveness? And I say, it's funny. Here's another one of those questions that actually got asked in Scripture. How many times do I have to forgive my brother? And Jesus says, oh, 70 times 7. You say, oh, 490. And you get out your little chalkboard and start. That's not the point. The point is that as many times as your brother sins against you and comes to you and asks you for forgiveness, you're to forgive him. Because that's how God deals with you.

What kind of hell would it be to live in if you knew that God was keeping a tally and that you were getting close to the end of his mercy? That would be miserable. And so we're to pray, forgive us our sins as we ourselves also forgive everyone who's indebted to us. Forgiveness is a personal thing. Forgiveness is not a clinical thing. And we're to forgive everyone. This is what Scripture teaches us. We're to forgive everyone. We don't get to decide and choose and meet out who and under what circumstances we will offer forgiveness. We are to forgive everyone. Now, there's a can of worms there that I'm not going to open up right now because we don't have the time. But suffice it to say this. Generally speaking, forgiveness is the response to repentance. As often as someone is repenting of their sin towards you, it's your obligation to forgive them.

Does God forgive those who aren't repentant? Nope. He judges them. Those who don't come to his son and don't love him aren't forgiven of their sins. Now that can get into really dicey water when you talk about particular situations. I'm happy to talk about them more if you have a particular question where you're going, are you telling me I have to forgive someone who's not at all sorry for what they did? We can talk about that another time. But here Jesus teaches his disciples that we're to forgive everyone. If we don't forgive them, we'll become grudge holders. It'll lead to bitterness and it'll eat us up from the inside out. Bitterness and slander and gossip are all signs of unforgiveness, of someone who's not forgiving others as they've been forgiven. And finally, Jesus tells them to pray, lead us not into temptation, in Matthew, but deliver us from evil.

So why do we ask the Lord to lead us not into temptation? Well, Psalm 127.1 says, Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain. So the question posed to you is, can you resist sin on your own? What do you do when you are tempted? What is your inclination? Look around. Who's watching? You think, okay, what are the consequences of it if I do it? What's the fallout? What's the collateral damage? You make a decision. And many times, if we're honest, if we decide not to sin, it's because we don't want the damage that we've assessed. We say, I don't want that headache or that problem. The kid says, I don't want a spanking, so I'm not going to do it. But if there wasn't a spanking involved, what would that child's inclination be? Woo-hoo, here we go. Let's have some fun. Let's do it. Temptation. It's giving birth to sin.

carried away in their lusts, says James. Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless the Lord protects us and keeps us from temptation and sustains us and is our shield, we're going to go right headlong into it. We're too weak to stand against Satan's temptations in our own strength. Romans 13, 14 says, Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in regards to its lusts. We cannot fight Satan and his temptations. By ourselves. Jesus teaches his disciples to seek his help in fighting against their temptation. You're not to fight against sin by yourself. And you are to fight against temptation. Because temptation leads to sin. And so we come to the Lord and we ask him, will you help me? Will you help me? Protect me. Lead me not into temptation. Guard me. Take me by the hand and lead me like a shepherd and make me to lie down in green pastures.

Keep me on the straight and narrow path that leads to heaven. I want to go down the wide path that leads to destruction. My heart's just like one of the sheep that Isaiah describes, that's gone astray, seeking its own way. Protect me, Father, from dishonoring you by following my own lusts. So do we need to learn how to pray? Yes, we do. The Lord's Prayer is our outline. It gives us our categories. It points us in the proper direction. and tells us what the landmarks are along the way. So I'll end with this. Prayer ought to be something that you desire. In the same way that the disciples desired it to be taught, we ought to desire to pray. And if you get it into your head and down into your hearts that God's your Father, you'll want to pray. You'll want to converse with Him. You won't want to hide. You'll want to talk with Him. You'll want His protection. And when it comes to praying,

Don't be ashamed of praying. Don't think that you have to pray in this way or that way or you have to sound like this or like that and what will people think. These are the things Satan will tell you. You ever get nervous when you're out in a restaurant and you're going to pray? I hope not. It's something I've had to work through over time. It's hard. What are people going to think? Here you are already with all your kids and now you're going to pray. You're really those weird people. How short and quiet and quickly will we get this done? Don't be ashamed of praying. You're getting to talk to your Father in heaven. Everyone wants to pray. Very few people know how to pray. So pray and teach them. Can I pray for you? And someone's struggling. Can I pray for you? And pray for them. Pray for their salvation if that's what they need. Pray for their healing if that's what they need. Pray for their repentance if that's what they need. Pray for what's needed. Don't be ashamed of it. You're talking to your Father. He'll hear you. He'll answer. The last thing I'll say about prayer.

shortly, is pray in your vulgar tongue. And I mean vulgar, not in the dirty, foul sense. I mean pray with the same vocabulary that you talk with. Don't have some other way of talking when you pray. Just pray the way you talk. Use the same words, the same inflections. Pray that way. It's not more holy for you to pray with some crazy tone or with big words that you don't know what they mean, with sentences that don't make sense. Just pray. The way you talk. Be yourself. Your Father knows who you are. Pray to him. Trust him. He'll hear you and he'll answer. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we are humbled and thankful to be your children. We're thankful that we can come into your presence through the blood of Jesus Christ and we don't have to be fearful of being there. Father, we desire to be faithful servants, faithful children.

And we ask that you be merciful to us in building your kingdom. Make us a part of this work. Give us grace and victory in the work. We pray that you'd provide each day for the things that we need. I pray, Father, that you'd make us aware of the things that we need, the things that you provide that we don't even take note of because we're so used to your faithfulness to us. Father, I pray that you'd make us grateful for providing us life and breath and every good thing. Father, would you make us humble? satisfied with your provision, content with what we have and with what we don't have. Be merciful to us, Father, and forgive us of our sins and keep us from holding grudges against those that have sinned against us. Rather, help us to go to them and be reconciled to them. Help us to see Jesus Christ on the cross and his blood shed for the forgiveness of our sins and for the sins of those who've sinned against us. We pray, Father, that you'd be merciful and would you protect us as well and keep us from

following our lusts into sin. Help us to fear you, Father, as this child fears his father. Give us the fear of the Lord that we might not sin against you. Glorify yourself, Father, in our lives with our speech and our conduct. Help us to serve you with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.