The Lord’s Prayer
4-20-2011 Vol. 4 Part 2
Psalm 33:1-9 NKJV Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous! For praise from the upright is beautiful. Praise the LORD with the harp; Make melody to Him with an instrument of ten strings. Sing to Him a new song; Play skillfully with a shout of joy. For the word of the LORD is right, And all His work is done in truth. He loves righteousness and justice; The earth is full of the goodness of the LORD. By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deep in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. Father God we pray for the safety of Israel, your chosen people. We also ask that you hear our prayers for all leaders of the world that they lead according to your will. In Jesus name we pray. Amen!
Last weeks’ lesson is an example of how we pray and what we sound like to God, probably 90% of the time. All it is to God is a bunch of empty/vain words. Evidently the Apostles recognized this and then ask Jesus to teach them how to pray. (Luke 11:1 NKJV Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.")
If we want to learn how to pray, it is only fitting that we studying what Jesus taught his disciples. Who else is better qualified to teach us than God’s only begotten Son, our brother, our role model. There is no one else because God is Jesus Father and our Father, Jesus knows the Father better than any human being, because Jesus is God and God is Jesus 1 John 5:7. With that being said, why wouldn’t we follow what the Bible says? Unless of course you don’t believe what the Bible has in it and you view it as a history book or you only pick out what you want to believe in the Bible and disregard the rest. I for one believe all that is in the Bible and try to live by it, because the Bible is the Word, and the Word is Jesus. Okay, enough said, let’s see what we can harvest with this volume.
Part two will be teaching about the following:
I. Do Not Pray Like The Hypocrites
a. Position Instead of Piety; (Definition; Piety in principle, is a compound of veneration or reverence of the Supreme Being and love of his character, or veneration accompanied with love; and piety in practice, is the exercise of these affections in obedience to his will and devotion to his service. Piety is the only proper and adequate relief of decaying man.).
b. Recognition Instead of Reward.
c. Self-Centered Instead of God-Centered.
d. Pretentious or Personal?
II. Do Not Pray Like the Heathen
III. Pray in the Language of Heaven
The Lord’s Prayer is the most famous prayer known around the world. When it is recited during a Sunday service, baptism, wedding, funeral, etc. all attending join in. It doesn’t matter what religion you may be practicing, 90% of the people know it. This prayer should be used as an outline when we pray to God, not just a prayer. Whenever we talk to God we should use the bullet points that Jesus gave us in the prayer. This will be one of the things I hope all will be able to understand and utilize after this series.
The Lord’s Prayer is very unique in that it teaches the relationship of two principles, God and us.
Our Father who art in Heaven hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who have sinned against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory forever. Amen
We recite the Lord’s Prayer or pray to God many times without being in the right state of mind or our actions don’t dictate what we feel in our heart or what we want to say from our heart. In other words, it is an empty prayer and vain repetition, that does not honor God our Father. Jesus not only taught us the Lord’s Prayer, but he also taught us how to show reverence to God while we pray.
Matthew 6:5-8 NLT "When you pray, don't be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get. 6 But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. 7 "When you pray, don't babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. 8 Don't be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask Him!
Fasting is also prayer, so the following verses go hand in hand with the ones above.
Matthew 6:16-18 NLT "And when you fast, don't make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting. I tell you the truth, that is the only reward they will ever get. 17 But when you fast, comb your hair and wash your face. 18 Then no one will notice that you are fasting, except your Father, who knows what you do in private. And your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.
The Pharisees loved to stand somewhere in the synagogues, on street corners, or make a scene in public so they could be seen by others. Remember in one of the previous lessons I stated the Pharisees and Sadducees like places of prominence because they believed they were above everyone else. Jesus is calling them and anyone else that prays in that fashion hypocrites and he does not like it. There are four reasons why Jesus doesn’t like this type of prayer.
A. Position Instead of Piety: The Jewish culture in Jesus time was to pray every 3 hours. Many that focused on position instead of piety would time their trips to be in public places, markets, or just parading around in public so they could be seen praying when the three hours rang out. This would give them the appearance of being very spiritual. Jesus said, “don’t be like the hypocrites that do this”.
B. Recognition Instead of Reward: When you pray in a fashion that brings recognition to you, it is taking away from God and putting all the glory on yourself so you can puff out your chest to say how great you are. Jesus teaches that we should pray in private. Go someplace where only God and you are present. Jesus states in verse 6 above to pray to God our father, not to others. If it is ok to pray to other gods, people, graven images he would have told us that in the Bible someplace. It isn’t in the Bible anyplace and God warns us about idolatry. He hates it and idol, idols, and idolatry is talked about 318 times in 297 verses. Our God is a jealous God! When we pray we need to pray in a manner so that we give praise to God and will be rewarded what we pray for if it is God’s will.
C. Self-Centered Instead of God-Center: Is the Lord’s Prayer a self-centered prayer? No, in fact we don’t find anything about us until about half way through the prayer. Then it isn’t about you as a person it is in the plural form, “our and us” to keep the focus off of me, myself, and I. Read Luke 18:10-14, it is pretty clear what is in each person’s heart by what they pray. Luke 18:10-14 NLT "Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: 'I thank You, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else. For I don't cheat, I don't sin, and I don't commit adultery. I'm certainly not like that tax collector! 12 I fast twice a week, and I give You a tenth of my income.' 13 "But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, 'O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.' 14 I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."
D. Pretentious or Personal: What does this exactly mean? It means being genuine and not someone that you aren’t. Take an actor for instance, he is just acting and in real life isn’t like the character in the part he is playing. It also means saying prayers from your heart and not prayers that someone has written and put in a book for us to memorize. God wants a genuine relationship with us. We need to communicate with God in plain language and not from a list of memorized prayers that we say over and over and over. Don’t get me wrong there are wonderful prayers in books that people have written, take the book of Psalms. David was a prayer warrior and he had a way with words, but don’t think you need to have a wordy grand prayer for God to hear you. Just talk to God from your heart.
What about praying in public like in a restaurant before a meal? Is this out of place then? No, not unless you stand up and pray so loud that everyone in the restaurant hears you and you draw attention to yourself. Can a group of people pray in public? There again I would say yes, but if the group is praying in a fashion to draw attention to themselves, it’s wrong according to Jesus. There has been times when at a sporting event there has been a moment of silence for prayer and I think this is great and actually it is too bad it doesn’t happen more often.
The Lord’s Prayer can be used as an outline for your own prayers. I will explain what I mean at the end of this series.
This looks like a good place to stop for now. Next week I will cover points II and III above.
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God!
Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth,
Unless you are Born Again, you cannot enter into Heaven, the Kingdom of God."
Bill
Last Week’s Trivia: Have you ever thought about what life would be like if God appointed leaders instead of people electing leaders? What was God’s warning to the Israelites about Kings?
Answer: The answer is in 1 Samuel Chapter 8. When man is our king/governing body, things really get messed up. Look at the state the world is in now. What would the world be like if God ruled? What if everyone repented of their sins and asked Jesus to come and rule and reign in their lives? I don’t think we can even come close to imagine what it would be like.
This week’s Trivia: God struck down two of Aarons sons because they were mocking and not respecting God. Do you know of two other sons of a leader of the Israelites that God struck down?
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