Real Righteousness - Praying
Matthew 6: 5-15
Teach Us How to Pray?
Today we have reached the point where we arrive at what is popularly what is known as the Lord’s prayer, although some would say it more accurately should be entitled the disciples prayer. In the King James Version of this text this prayer is introduced with Jesus saying, “Your heavenly father knows what you have need of before you even ask, and in this manner pray” Did you notice, He didn’t say, in these words pray, he said “in this manner pray”. Well, this is what he said about how we should pray.
9b Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
13 And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
(Matthew (9b-13)
Let’s stop right there and notice this prayer falls into two parts. The first part of the prayer has to do all with Gods name being hallowed, and His Kingdom coming, and His will being done. Three petitions that all have to do with who God is. Now look at verse 11, give us.
The second part of the prayer has to do with us give us this day our Daily Bread, forgive us our debts, and lead us not into temptation. So, this prayer is divided into two parts and there are three petitions under each of the parts. The first part deals with God, the second part deals with us. Just like the 10 commandments are divided into 2 parts and the first part has to do with God, the second part has to do with man.
The Lord’s prayer as it’s commonly called is also divided into two parts, the first part deals with God, the second part deals with us. I’m going to give you a pattern of prayer, a model, an example that divides into two parts and I’m gonna give you 3 things to pray for as directed in each half. But before I do let me start out by saying notice how he begins by saying “Our father”. Nobody had ever prayed like that before in world history until Jesus introduced the idea of God as father in this teaching. That means this prayer is not for everybody, meaning that only if you call God father can you pray this way. And if God is you father that means what you’re God’s child.
How do you become a child of God. First John 1:12 says,” but as many as received him to them he gave the power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name”. You become a child of God by faith in Jesus Christ then you can call God your father. But look at that phrase again he says, “our father”. Somebody has suggested that by adding the little title our father into this prayer it prevents us from praying selfish prayers. We are praying as one of a community of believers. Before I get into the specific petitions that you have been recommended by Jesus, let me just point out we are talking to is our heavenly father on one hand, yet he is also declared to be the king of kings and Lord of Lords the sovereign of the universe. Yet on the other hand he is also our father.
In ancient times when the Romans conquered the country they came back and had a victory parade. It is written of one occasion there was a Roman emperor who had returned from a great victory and the street was lined with people and the Roman legions were marching and the Chariots passed by with all their decorations on. Massed ranks of horses also passed by and they came to the place where the family of the emperor was waiting and the emperor’s little son jumped out of the stands started running up the street in and out of the soldiers and trying to make it for the chariot where the emperor was. Fearing he’d get hurt one of the soldiers picked him up and said, “you can’t do this do you know who is in that chariot, that is the emperor. The little boy said he may be your emperor, but he’s my father”. So, the soldier took the boy and handed him safely over to the emperor.
Now God is God and that is not to be discredited or discounted in any way, but he has decided to be our father. So, this means our prayer can be like the prayer of a child coming to his father. Can I just say that in the book of Galatians Paul says from the Holy Spirit we cry ABBA father, which is Aramaic for daddy. So, we can address God as father, better than that, Daddy.
Alright when you do that what do you ask for, well normally we think we’re gonna go to daddy we’re going to ask for things. But notice we are first concerned not about us, but about him. Then there are three petitions, prayer we can offer.
Three Petitions Before God
1 Hallowed be your name.
The first thing we're gonna do is pray for his name be hallowed, the word hallowed means to make holy, consecrated, sanctified. To be set apart and held in reverence. We want to reverence God’s name. Martin Luther said God's name is hallowed among us when we, I quote, “When both our lives and doctrine are truly Christian. Someone else has said that God’s name is hallowed when our intellectual convictions and our practical actions are in full submission to the will of God. On the one hand we come to him as father and on the other hand we come with reverence and fear and venerate him. Next phrase, next prayer we offer he says in the next verse.
2. Thy Kingdom come.
The first petition had to do with Gods person, the second petition has to do with his program. This is very important if you’ve listened to me teach through the book of Matthew you know there are two views as to the Kingdom. Do you remember what they are? One view is that the Kingdom is now and its spiritual and it’s in our hearts. The second view is that there is a Kingdom which is coming that Jesus is going to set up when he gets here on the earth.
The Gospel of Matthew begins with John the Baptist and Jesus preaching the Kingdom of heaven is at hand, so Jesus didn’t say it was here, yet He said it was at hand. So, it is my contention that in the Gospel of Matthew as well as many other places in the Bible teach that the Kingdom is something in future when Jesus comes back. I believe the New Testament teaches that when Christ returns he is going to set up his kingdom and this is another one of the texts that suggest it is going to be in the future. If the Kingdom had already come, he wouldn’t have said, “pray thy kingdom come”. So note this and note it well this is one of the proofs in the New Testament that the Kingdom is still in the future. Which is why He tells us to pray, “thy Kingdom come”. In other words, we should be concerned about God’s future program and his future program is to set up a Kingdom. According to the New Testament we ought to be concerned about that and that we ought to be praying that, “Thy Kingdom come”.
There’s a third petition not only are we praying about his person and about his program but we’re praying about his purpose He says in verse 10 tha.
3. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
As far as I am concerned there is no more important statement in all the Bible pertaining to prayer than this. Most people have the idea that the purpose of prayer is to get our will done. But it is the exact opposite, the purpose of prayer is not to get my will done on earth up in heaven. It's to get God's will done on heaven and on earth and that's the purpose of prayer.
That’s why I will be consistent in approach all prayer as seen in the New Testament within the context of the audience that is supposed to receive the teaching on it. There will be other contexts, in future series of this podcast we will be looking at the other prayers in the Bible, especially the Epistles and we will see what Paul for. We will notice he prayed, for other people because sometimes to do that is also the will of God. Eventually we will look at other prayers like those found in Colossians chapter one, and Ephesians chapters one and three. We will also look at the opening prayer of Philippians chapter one and on occasions we will see that the main burden of prayer is, Lord I pray that the Church of Colossae, or whatever other city or town that is being talked about. Praying that they may have insight into Gods will and know God’s will for their situation. Praying that they would be strengthened in their inner being by the Spirit of God.
Philippians chapter one is a simple prayer that a community would increase in love for one another. By nature, of course these are all also prayers that our Lord s will may be done on earth as it is in heaven. That’s what he always wants us to pray. To pray for his purposes his program and his person, so that God’s name would be hallowed and reverenced in our life. So that’s the way you pray you start with the Lord. Start your prayer by praying that Gods name, His purpose, and his program and be raised up and done.
Getting Started.
Let me let me pause here for just a moment because over the years I have heard many times people tell me that they don’t know how to pray or don’t have the confidence to pray out loud. I just tell them they need to talk to God like they would talk to their father, Some of the sweetest prayers I’ve ever heard came from brand new Christians who just sounded like they were talking to their father. They haven’t any real theology yet but that doesn’t matter they were so obviously just trying from their heart to speak to their father God and that is the best kind of prayer.
The introduction to the Lord’s prayer really helps us in getting us started. But just speak to your father and for many once they have started speaking to God that’s way they take off and soar. So, get started by just calling Him your father.
How about the next thing comes out of your mouth ought to be praise. Praise and thanksgiving. As a matter of fact, by reading Paul’s epistles was where I learned to begin with thanksgiving. Before Paul asked for anything the pattern of his prayers was just to praise God as God. If you want to learn how to play here’s the way you go first words out of your mouth is father and the second words out of your mouth should be thank-you.
The way to start is what Jesus taught us and what Paul taught us. So, you want to learn how to pray, just say father thank you. Thank you for your grace, thank you for your mercy, thank you for your holiness, thank you for your blessing. Thank you, and that takes us to the second part of the prayer.
First is our father, the second is, thank you, the third part is about asking God for forgiveness. Give us this day Our Daily Bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from the evil.
The first half of this prayer is praying to God, the second part is praying for us, what do we pray for. There are three things we can pray for We pray for his person his program and his purpose and now there are three things that we can pray for. Ourselves, our provisions, and our Daily bread. So, let’s talk about those things for just a second. Our provision, “give us this day Our Daily Bread”, an authentic prayer should include all our necessary temporal needs. We don’t just pray for all of our physical needs, that’s a legitimate prayer. our father who art in heaven give us this day Our Daily Bread. By the way he didn’t say give me it says give us our daily bread, so again this that that takes it out of the realm of selfishness because you’re paying for other people as well. So, give us this day Our Daily Bread.
I once heard a Christian on tape speaking and he testified that he had prayed this way all of his life, and at the time the message was recorded he was over 90 years old. And he said, “I’ve never lacked for anything that I needed, because every day I’ve just said Lord provide my physical needs and then I go worry about his work and not my needs and he’s always managed to supply his part of the agreement.
So that is a perfectly legitimate biblical prayer to have you needs met. But secondly, he says in this passage, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. So we are to pray for our own forgiveness. But we shall look at that in the next episode.