Message for THE LORD S DAY MORNING, April 14, 2013 MESSAGE 14 IN SERIES: Living The Salt Life (A Study of Jesus Sermon on The Mount) Christian Hope Church of Christ, Plymouth, NC by Reggie A. Braziel, Minister THE MODEL PRAYER Message 14 in Living The Salt Life Sermon Series (A Study of Jesus Sermon On The Mount) Matthew 6:9-13 (NKJV) Today we come to the most familiar portion of Jesus Sermon On The Mount and that is The Model Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13. Please turn with me to that passage and let s read today s scripture text. Matthew 6:9-13 (NKJV) 9 In this manner, therefore, pray: 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 the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. P R A Y E R
Introduction Probably most all of us grew up knowing this prayer as, The Lord s Prayer. But actually it is more appropriately named The Model Prayer or The Disciples Prayer. In fact if you want to read the true Lord s prayer read all of John chapter seventeen, which is the longest recorded prayer of Jesus in the New Testament. No doubt most all of us have been at a public gathering where we were asked to join in unison in reciting The Lord s Prayer or The Model Prayer. There isn t a single verse of scripture in the New Testament that reveals that any of the early New Testament Churches practiced a recitation of The Model Prayer as part of their daily or weekly worship. Now there may not be anything inherently wrong with reciting The Lord s Prayer or Model Prayer, but it is very doubtful Jesus ever intended for this Model Prayer to be prayed verbatim as a recitation. For one thing, it would totally contradict what Jesus had just said in verse 7 about praying vain repetitions as the heathen do. The heathen would repeat the same prayers or prayer phrases over and over again believing repetition would gain them a hearing with God. In other words, their prayers were just empty, meaningless words void of sincerity or emotion. To simply recite The Model Prayer word for word can easily become a meaningless practice. Something else to consider is this: Notice how Jesus introduces The Model Prayer in verse 9, He says, In this manner, therefore pray. Notice Jesus didn t say, Pray these words or recite these words or repeat these words. He said, In this manner pray. In other words, When you pray, pray along these lines.
John Maxwell summarizes the purpose of The Model Prayer like this: This is not so much a prayer in itself as it is a skeleton which believers are to flesh out with their own words of praise, adoration, petitions and so on. It is not a substitute for our personal prayers, but rather a guide for them. Well as we examine The Model Prayer more closely we can see six distinct elements in this prayer that helps guide you and me in our own personal prayers. Let s look at these six elements. First of all, when we pray I. We Are To HONOR God s PERSON (verse 9) 9 In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 1. When you and I pray, God wants us to address Him as FATHER. In this Model Prayer Jesus is teaching us right from the very start that prayer isn t about WORDS, prayer is about building a close, personal RELATIONSHIP with God. In prayer, God desires that we see Him as our Heavenly FATHER and that we see ourselves as His CHILDREN.
2. Brothers and sisters, when we pray, we aren t praying to some cold, distant, detached being who hides behind a curtain like the Wizard in the Wizard of Oz. We are praying to Our Heavenly Father, who is very PERSONAL and APPROACHABLE. We are praying to Our Father who knows our every need, our every fear and our every tear. 3. When we pray Our Father it teaches us that we aren t to pray selfishly like some spoiled rotten single child as if we were the only one in the world who has needs and concerns; but rather we are just one of many of God s from all across the world who all have needs and requests and burdens and concerns just like we do. 4. Our Father in heaven, HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME. That means HOLY IS YOUR NAME or REVERED IS YOUR NAME! Oh brothers and sisters, when we pray, we aren t praying to The Man Upstairs or The Big Guy In the Sky we are praying to Our Heavenly Father, the Almighty God, the Creator of all that lives, the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe! 5. We are praying to the One Who can do the impossible! We are praying to the One Who can do far more than you and I could ever ask or imagine! 6. Do you know our prayers reveal whether we believe in a big God or a little God? How big is your God brother? How big is your God sister? 7. When we pray WE ARE TO HONOR GOD S NAME. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your Name!
Secondly, when we pray.. II. We Are To SUBMIT to God s PROGRAM (verse 10a) Jesus says in the first part of VERSE 10. YOUR KINGDOM COME. 1. The Old Testament repeatedly foretold the coming of a unique, everlasting KINGDOM. Both Jesus and John the Baptist preached that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. 2. In anticipation its coming, Jesus taught His disciples to pray, Your KINGDOM come. And in Acts 2, we see the answer to those prayers, when the kingdom. the Lord s CHURCH was established on the day of Pentecost. 3. Does this mean you and I no longer need to pray for the kingdom? Absolutely not! We should pray that the kingdom GROW and EXPAND through evangelism. We should pray that the kingdom STAND strong against Satan and the forces of evil and STAND FIRM against the immorality that is destroying our society. 4. The Lord wants us to pray outside the box. That means we not only need to pray for our local ministry here at Christian Hope Church of Christ, we need to pray for the Lord s CHURCH at LARGE all across the world! 5. When we pray for the kingdom at large it reminds us that we a part of a much bigger plan and program that what goes on here in our local congregation.
Thirdly, when we pray III. We Are To OBEY God s PURPOSE (verse 10b) Jesus says in the latter part of VERSE 10,, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 1. Let s think about what it means to pray Your will be done. -One thing that tells us is that God has a WILL for your life and mine. -It also tells us that you and I have a WILL for our lives and that often (not always) but often God s will and our will may conflict. -It also tells us that when God s will and our will conflict, only one can prevail. 2. So when you and I pray Your will be done we are asking that God s will prevail over our will. We are asking that our will be OVER-RULED. 3. To pray Your will be done is not an easy prayer to pray when you are standing by the beside of a loved-one who has been told they have just a short time to live. To pray Your will be done is not an easy prayer to pray when you in a miserable job and want to go work somewhere else. To pray Your will be done is not an easy prayer to pray when it involves making a drastic change in your life. 4. But here s the truth we must believe: God s will is SUPERIOR to my will. Surrendering to God s will always, I repeat ALWAYS results in a better outcome!
5. Jesus teaches us to pray, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Prayer is not a means for us to get our will done in HEAVEN, it is a means to have God s will done on EARTH. 6. How is God s will done in heaven? His will is done by the angels without HESITATION or RESERVATION! 7. That means God s will isn t done some of the time or most of the time, it means God s will is ALWAYS done in heaven. 8. That should be our prayer! May Your will ALWAYS be done here on earth as it is in heaven. May Your will ALWAYS be done without hesitation.reservation just as it is in heaven! 9. Brothers and sisters do you know we can never go wrong when we pray Your will be done? That is the right prayer to pray in every situation in life whether it relates to your health or the health of a loved one, or your job, your family, your finances, or your future! Our prayer should be Nothing more, nothing less, and nothing else, but Your will be done! E. Stanley Jones gives this simple analogy: Bro. Jones said, Let s say I m in a boat and I throw a boathook from the boat and catch hold of the shore and start pulling. Do I pull the shore to me? Or Do I pull myself towards the shore? Prayer is NOT about pulling God to my will, but pulling myself towards the will of God. When we pray WE ARE TO HONOR GOD S PERSON.WE ARE TO SUBMIT TO GOD S PROGRAM.WE ARE TO OBEY GOD S PURPOSE and
Fourthly, when we pray.. IV. We Are To ASK for God s PROVISION (verse 11) In VERSE 11, Jesus tells us to pray, Give us this day our daily bread. 1. This part of the prayer brings to remembrance the children of Israel when they depended on God to provide the manna every day. 2. Those three words OUR DAILY.BREAD.BREAD are loaded with meaning. *OUR means that when we pray we must be sensitive to the needs of others and not just our own needs. As Americans we live in a land of plenty where we seldom have to worry about where our next meal is coming from. But there are millions upon millions of people who are starving to death. And so we should pray that God will supply the needs of others as well as our own personal needs. *Then there s the word DAILY. Through prayer we are acknowledging that our daily existence is entirely DEPENDANT upon God. In fact, when we neglect to pray each day we are guilty of the sin of PRIDE. In essence our prayerlessness says, God, I have everything under control and I don t need you, but if I ever do need You I will call to You in prayer. How foolish is that?
* Then there s the word BREAD. Bread represents all of our most basic needs, not just food. The Lord doesn t want us to pray for luxury or excess, when there are many people in the world who lack the most basic needs for survival, like food, shelter, water and clothing. 3. God supplies the daily needs of a lot of evil people who never pray for it or thank God for it, so why should we pray for our daily bread? When we pray Two reasons: One, through prayer we acknowledge our dependence upon God. And two, through prayer we THANK GOD for supplying our daily needs. We are to HONOR God s PERSON. We are to SUBMIT to God s PROGRAM. We are to OBEY God s PURPOSE. We are to ASK for God s PROVISION And FIFTH, when we pray.. V. We Are To SEEK God s PARDON (verse 12) In VERSE 12 Jesus teaches us to pray, And FORGIVE us OUR DEBTS as we FORGIVE OUR DEBTORS. 1. This is difficult to understand and even harder to apply. We could understand this a whole lot easier if Jesus had just said, Forgive us our debts and just stopped!
2. We all know we are sinners and we need to confess our sins and repent of them. But what makes this part of the Model Prayer so difficult is that Jesus went on to add that clause, Forgive us our debts, AS WE FORGIVE OUR DEBTORS. 3. Then notice the post script to the Model Prayer in verses 14, 15. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive your trespasses. 4. Listen very carefully to what I m about to say, because it is critically important! If you or I ask God to forgive us of our sins while we are harboring an unforgiving spirit toward anyone, we are actually asking God NOT to forgive us of our sins. When we pray with an unforgiving spirit towards someone, in essence what we are praying is, Father, since I have NOT forgiven my brother, please don t forgive me either. Charles Spurgeon once said, When you pray with an unforgiving spirit, you have virtually signed your own death warrant. 5. Brothers and sisters, Jesus has made it crystal clear that our forgiveness of our sins is contingent upon our willingness to forgive those who have sinned against us. Pretty sobering thought, huh! When we pray We are to HONOR God s PERSON. We are to SUBMIT to God s PROGRAM. We are to OBEY God s PURPOSE. We are to ASK for God s PROVISION. We are to SEEK God s PARDON
And finally, when we pray. VI. We Are To PLEAD for God s PROTECTION (verse 13a) In VERSE 13 Jesus tells us to pray, And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. 1. Does God lead us into temptation? James 1:13 (NKJV) says, Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone. 2. If God doesn t tempt anyone, then what did Jesus mean when He told us to pray, And do not lead us into temptation. Let me try to explain. God will never solicit any of His children to do evil. God will never lure you and me into sin. God will never tempt you and me to do wrong. He will never lead us to a place where we are forced to do evil. In simple terms, God will never set you and me up for failure! 3. But does God allow you and me to be tempted? Absolutely! God allowed Satan to tempt and torment Job. God allowed Satan to tempt Jesus for forty days and nights in the wilderness. 4. So in essence what our prayer should be is this: Father, when you allow me to be tempted to prove my love and loyalty to you, help me to pass the test! Deliver me from the evil one! Help me to emerge victorious to Your honor and Your glory!
When we pray We are to HONOR God s PERSON. We are to SUBMIT to God s PROGRAM. We are to OBEY God s PURPOSE. We are to ASK for God s PROVISION. We are to SEEK God s PARDON. We are to PLEAD for God s PROTECTION. There s one final part of The Model Prayer called The Doxology. We see this doxology in the latter part of VERSE 13.. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. AMEN! This doxology, fittingly brings this Model Prayer to a close. The basic concerns of God and man have been dealt with in this prayer. Everything begins and ends with God, from the opening Our Father in Heaven to the final amen. C O N C L U S I O N When you put all the pieces of this Model Prayer together a very clear picture emerges. The Model Prayer teaches us that our prayers should be Godfocused not me-focused. Hallowed be YOUR NAME! YOUR kingdom come! YOUR will be done! YOURS is the kingdom, and the power and the glory. Give us OUR daily BREAD! Forgive us OUR DEBTS! Lead US not into temptation. Deliver US from the evil one. US The words ME.MYSELF.and I aren t mentioned a single time in the Model Prayer. Prayer is not a matter of trying to get God to agree with us or to go along with our plan or agenda. Prayer is affirming GOD S SOVEREIGN RIGHT TO RULE OVER EVERY AREA OF YOUR LIFE AND MINE!