TITLE: The Model Prayer
TEXT: Matthew 6:9-14, Luke 11:2-4
THEME: Jesus teaches us to bring all our requests to God the Father.
OPENING
SENTENCE: I can remember years ago when my younger sister watched a movie on TV that
would have a romantic scene where a man would tell his lover of his great love for her, her
beauty and all her marvelous attributes.
INTRODUCTION: My sister would watch with wanting eyes and occasionally sigh with
longing- wanting to have someone to love her the same way.
Like my sister for many younger females romances stir within them desires to have someone
love them and say to them things that they see and hear on the movies. That is why they are so
popular. Most young girls want to be loved and adored by a handsome man who values and
cherishes her?
The problem is most of us guys are bumbling idiots when it comes to showing love. It seems
that the desire of young woman for love and the inability of young men to show authentic love
are often at odds and we find something far short of the romance novels. Reality, it seems,
seldom matches up to the romance novels.
Yet something within young women, and for that matter young men, craves for that idealized
vision of romance.
TRANSITION
SENTENCE: The Bible demonstrates that God has created within us the desire for an even
greater love than what can exist between a man and a woman- the desire to love and adore Him.
TRANSITION: It is no wonder the love between a man and woman is often used in the Bible as
an illustration of the kind of love God has for us and we should have for Him. Yet, like a
man/woman romance, the reality of our love for Him often falls short of the ideal that we should
crave. But we love the ideal. It makes us long for something better in our own lives. When we
see it in front of us it makes the longing all that much greater.
This morning I want us to look at a passage where the disciples of Jesus had seen in Him the
kind of love for God that we should all crave. They were so moved by His relationship with the
Father, which was evident through His prayer life, that they asked Him to teach them how to
pray like that. They could see through His prayers something lacking in their own.
Notice in Luke 11:1-2: “One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of
his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” This is the
only thing recorded in scripture that the disciples specifically asked Jesus to teach them.
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SAY WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO SAY: This morning I want us to look at His response to
their question. He provides for us an outline for how we should pray. It is often referred to as,
“The Lord’s Prayer” but it could just as well be called, “The Model Prayer.” Matthew records
another occasion where the Lord gave what is essentially the same prayer. Let us look at the
Matthew account in that it that gives us more details and ask, “What does Jesus teach us about
how to pray?”
TEXT: Matthew 6:9-14
THEME: Jesus teaches us to bring all our requests to God the Father.
What does Jesus teach us about how to pray?
I.
When we pray we are to address the Father. (9)
9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
Notice who our prayers should be addressed to. This is an important point. We do not pray to
the dear lord baby Jesus, as we find in the movie Talledega Nights. In fact we do not pray to
Jesus directly at all. For that matter we do not pray to the Holy Spirit. While they are both
members of the Godhead they have different roles.
For instance in Ephesians 1:3-14 the role of all three involved in God’s divine plan.
1. The role of the Father, “3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has
blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him
before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us
for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—6 to the
praise of his glorious grace…”
2. The role of Jesus, “7 In him (Jesus) we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us.”
3. The role of the Holy Spirit, “13 …when you believed, you were marked in him with a seal,
the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption
of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.”
ILLUSTRATE: To imperfectly illustrate the three roles we can think of a building. A building
must have an architect who determines the purpose of the building and creates a design with
plans and blueprints as to what it will look like. That would be the Father. A building must also
have a contractor who takes the designs and builds them. This would be the role of Jesus who
implements Gods plan as creator and redeemer. Once built, the building must include a person
to maintain and oversee it. That would be the Holy Spirit who resides within us and empowers
us to do what God desires.
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APPLY: It is God to whom we direct our petitions. It is His will and plan that is being realized.
In prayer we are participating in this divine communion to insure His will is being realized.
THEME: Jesus teaches us to bring all our requests to God the Father.
What does Jesus teach us about how to pray?
II.
When we pray we should make petitions that the Fathers will be done on earth (9-10)
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Notice how our prayers should start off. We should address the God the Father and ask that His
name would be hallowed. The word for hallowed (agiadzso) means to make holy, consecrate,
dedicate, sanctify.” It has more than the idea of just honoring God but also, as we will see in the
next verse, it means to glorify Him by obedience to His commands. There is an ancient Jesus
prayer that Jesus would have known that says, “Exalted and hallowed be his great name in the
world he created according to his will. May he let his kingdom rule in your lifetime and in your
days and in the lifetime of the whole house of Israel, speedily and so on.” (Dictionary of the New
Testament, Vol. 2, p. 229).
The point is that Jesus is teaching His disciples is that their petitions are not a cry of hopelessness
or distress in a world enslaved by evil, death and Satan. They are to lift their eyes up to the
Father and cry out for the revelation of His glory, knowing in faith that He will grant it. The
ultimate end of things is not our glorification but His. Our prayers must reflect that. We are
appealing to the powerful sovereign God of the universe.
Notice we are to start our prayers with God- not us or our problems. Jesus is teaching us that we
must first get things into perspective. One key aspect of prayer is us coming into agreement with
and obedience to God divine plan. Therefore, we must recognize the holy and supreme nature of
God and His divine plan prior to bringing are personal petitions before Him. Notice the three
petitions we should make in regard to the Father.
A. That His name will be hallowed (holy or distinct). We start by petitioning God that He
would make His name holy. We are agreeing with God and participating in the ultimate plan
of God and asking for what He desires first and foremost. Instead of making our desires and
needs the primary focus we need to make direct the focus where it belongs- His glory. This
is the framework for the next two petitions.
B. That His Kingdom will come to earth. Several months ago I did a sermon series titled,
“Citizens of the Realm” in which we looked at what it means to be a citizen of the Kingdom
of God. The petition here is to ask God that His rule on earth be realized just as it is in
heaven. In prayer we recognize His right to rule and understand that we are called to submit
to His sovereign authority.
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C. That His will be done. There are two words for “will” in the New Testament. One is his
determined will that refers to things that will happened because He has determined them to
be so. The other is his desirous will which are the things that He desires to happen. The
word “will” used here is the second word. This means that we are asking God that His
desirous will which is presently being realized in heaven will also be realized on earth. That
“desirous will” has been thwarted by sin which is the propensity to place our wills and
desires before the will of God. Sin is choosing to act in defiance of God’s will.
ILLUSTRATE: One of our key problems in regard to prayer is that when we approach God we
are overwhelmed with our weaknesses and powerlessness. We often come to Him as a last
resort.
Show a PowerPoint of a dot. What do you see? Almost all of us say we see the dot. But the
reality is we are looking at a white screen that just happens to have a dot on it. This problem we
have in regard to prayer. When we approach God we only see the dot. The dot is our sin or our
problem that obsesses us and may even be the thing that drives us to Him. Yet when we see
things from the perspective of God it begins to appear as small and inconsequential. Jesus is
teaching us to focus first on God and His greatness to put our needs and concerns in perspective.
APPLY: What dot are you obsessed with in your life that is hindering you from seeing God in all
his majesty, holiness and glory. We should start our prayers by trying to get our focus off the dot
and focus on how big, powerful and great God is.
THEME: Jesus teaches us to bring all our requests to God the Father.
What does Jesus teach us about how to pray?
III.
When we pray we should make petitions on behalf of ourselves (11-14)
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’
14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also
forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
A. We ask Him to supply our daily physical needs. It is noteworthy that this implies that God is
concerned for your daily needs. This means He is not a remote deity somewhere in the
universe who does not care for your physical well-being. It means that even in cases where
we do go hungry, or face a serious illness, or experience pain, etc., God still cares and wants
us to bring those things to Him. There may be times His answer will be no. There may be
times His answer will be wait. There may be times His answer will be I have something yet
to teach you. Yet, He usually says, “Yes.” Remember He is in charge and He cares and
wants us to ask.
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B. We ask Him to forgive us our sins and that we in turn forgive others. One of my major
concerns about our contemporary world-view is that we have lost the idea of sin altogether.
Sin can be defined as the supreme choice of self. It is us saying that God does not have our
best interest in mind, that He is reasonable and restrictive and that we know what is best for
us. We deny that we are measured by God’s holiness and are not accountable to it. It brings
to mind Satan’s deception of Eve as he posed to her the question, “did God really say?”
Jesus is teaching us that in asking for forgiveness we are acknowledging that we are sinners
incapable of making ourselves right before God. We understand that apart from God’s
forgiveness we stand condemned before Him. We understand that we were in error when we
decided to defy God and His will thinking we knew better than Him what was good for us and
that He did not have our best interest in mind.
Jesus is also saying that just as God forgives us when we acknowledge our sin and ask for it- so
we are to forgive others. We are to forgive others not just for their benefit- but for ours as well.
C. We ask Him to enable us to avoid temptation and Satan’s influence. Notice these last two
petitions are spiritual in nature. Jesus knows that most of our issues in life are spiritual in
nature and require divine intervention. We are spiritual beings subject to deception and we
need God to reveal to us what sin looks like and how to avoid it.
I wonder if the apostle James did not have this model prayer in mind when he wrote in James
chapter 1, “13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be
tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged
away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to
sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. 16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers
and sisters. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the
heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 18 He chose to give us birth through
the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
Notice James recognition that temptation moves us toward sin and away from the notion that
every good gift comes from our unchanging God. Good comes from God not temptation.
Jesus also teaches us to ask God to protect us from Satan- the evil one. Satan is deceptive and
does all he can to render us spiritually powerless and useless. He will use depression, fear,
anxiety, anger, resentment, etc. to keep us from recognizing the goodness and greatness of God
and honoring Him.
ILLUSTRATE: A journalist was assigned to the Jerusalem bureau of his newspaper. He gets an
apartment overlooking the Wailing Wall. After several weeks he realizes that whenever he looks
at the wall he sees an old Jewish man praying vigorously.
The journalist wondered whether there was a publishable story here. He goes down to the
wall, introduces himself and says: "You come every day to the wall. What are you praying for?"
The old man replies: "What am I praying for? In the morning I pray for world peace, then I
pray for the brotherhood of man. I go home, have a glass of tea, and I come back to the wall to
pray for the eradication of illness and disease from the earth."
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The journalist is taken by the old man's sincerity and persistence. "You mean you have been
coming to the wall to pray every day for these things?" The old man nods.
"How long have you been coming to the wall to pray for these things?"
The old man becomes reflective and then replies: "How long? Maybe twenty, twenty-five years."
The amazed journalist finally asks: "How does it feel to come and pray every day for over 20
years for these things?" "How does it feel?" the old man replies. "It feels like I'm talking to a
wall."
APPLY: Unfortunately, this is how we sometimes feel about prayer. It feels like we are talking
to a wall.
SAY WHAT YOU HAVE SAID: This morning we learned that Jesus is teaching us that we are
not talking to a wall. He demonstrated to us through His own prayers and teachings that prayer
is talking with the God of the universe in an intimate way in which we acknowledge His
greatness and glory and our need for Him to provide for our physical and spiritual needs.
TIE INTO OPENING SENTENCE: When the disciples saw Jesus pray they saw a man who
shared a loving, life impacting relationship with God the Father than they longed for in their own
lives. Like a young woman craving the kind of love they see in a romance movie so the disciples
craved the kind of love Jesus had for the Father. So it should be for us.
APPLY TO SPECIFIC AUDIENCE:
1. We live in a world that says, “I alone know what is best for me.” But Jesus says God
created you and He alone knows and wants what is best for you. What is best for you is
to know and do His will. When we pray we should start by focusing on God’s greatness,
His goodness and ask that His will be done in your life and of those around you.
2. We must see our concerns in light of God’s bigger plan that may include suffering. But, if
we make fulfilling His will the supreme end of life we not only participate in His plan but
also enjoy a quality of life that helps us endure our suffering with purpose.
3. When we pray God may say “no, not now, use this to grow or yes”. But, He cares for us
and wants us to ask Him for these things.
4. God wants us to enjoy Him, as and a result enjoy life itself, but we often find we are too
distracted with our concerns and doubts that we miss out.
HAYMAKER: The satirical site The Onion ran the following fictitious story titled "Man On
Cusp Of Having Fun Suddenly Remembers Every Single One Of His Responsibilities." The
humorous story read:
Marshall Platt, 34, came tantalizingly close to kicking back and having a good time while
attending a friend's barbeque last night before remembering each and every one of his
professional and personal obligations, backyard sources confirmed. While he chatted with
friends over a relaxed outdoor meal, Platt was reportedly seconds away from letting go and
enjoying himself when he was suddenly crushed by the full weight of work emails that still
needed to be dealt with … an upcoming wedding he had yet to buy airfare for because of an
unresolved issue with his Southwest Rapid Rewards account, and phone calls that needed to be
returned.
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Platt, who reportedly sunk into a distracted haze after coming to the razor's edge of experiencing
genuine joy, fully intended to go through the motions of talking with friends and appearing to
have a good time, all while he mentally shopped for a birthday present for his mother … and
made a silent note to call his bank about a mysterious recurring $19 monthly fee that he had
recently discovered on his credit card statement.
"Everything's fine," said the tense, mentally absent man whose girlfriend asked him what was
wrong after his near-giddy buzz vanished and he remembered that he hadn't called his aunt yet to
check up on her after her surgery. "I'm having fun."
According to sources, Platt tried to put his responsibility-laden thoughts out of his mind and
loosen up … but suddenly remembered a magazine subscription that needed to be renewed by
Friday, a medical bill he thought might now be overdue, and the fact that he needed to do
laundry by tonight or he would run out of clean socks and underwear. (Adapted from The Onion,
"Man On Cusp Of Having Fun Suddenly Remembers Every Single One Of His Responsibilities,"
(5-30-13)
Jesus reveals to us that God invites us into His presence through prayer to enjoy Him and share
in the goodness of His will for us. But, like Marshall we are distracted with too many concerns
and responsibilities that we miss out on something great.
THEME: Jesus teaches us to bring all our requests to God the Father.
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