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The Lord's Prayer
4-27-2011 Vol. 4 Part 3
Psalm 33:10-22 NKJV The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. The counsel of the LORD stands forever, The plans of His heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, The people He has chosen as His own inheritance. The LORD looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men. From the place of His dwelling He looks On all the inhabitants of the earth; He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works. No king is saved by the multitude of an army; A mighty man is not delivered by great strength. A horse is a vain hope for safety; Neither shall it deliver any by its great strength. Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, On those who hope in His mercy, To deliver their soul from death, And to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield. For our heart shall rejoice in Him, Because we have trusted in His holy name. Let Your mercy, O LORD, be upon us, Just as we hope in You. Father we pray that your will be done here on earth and in our lives. Without you in our lives we are lost in this world of darkness, but with you being a part of our lives there is always hope in all things we do. Thank You Jesus!
We left off last week covering the four points under “Do Not Pray Like The Hypocrites”, so I will cover points 2 and 3 this week.
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
Do not pray like the heathen: Matthew 6:7-8 NKJV And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 "Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.
In some religious sects, it is customary to repeat the same prayer over and over. It is their belief that if they say the prayer many times then their God will surely hear them.
O God, O God, O God, O God! O Lord, O Lord, O Lord, O Lord! O living, O immortal, O living, O immortal, O living, O immortal, O living, O immortal! O Creator of the heavens and the earth! O thou who art endowed with majesty and authority! O wonderful, etc.
1Kings 18:26-29 NLT So they prepared one of the bulls and placed it on the altar. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning until noontime, shouting, "O Baal, answer us!" But there was no reply of any kind. Then they danced, hobbling around the altar they had made. 27 About noontime Elijah began mocking them. "You'll have to shout louder," he scoffed, "for surely he is a god! Perhaps he is daydreaming, or is relieving himself. Or maybe he is away on a trip, or is asleep and needs to be wakened!" 28 So they shouted louder, and following their normal custom, they cut themselves with knives and swords until the blood gushed out. 29 They raved all afternoon until the time of the evening sacrifice, but still there was no sound, no reply, no response.
Acts 19:34 KJV But when they knew that he was a Jew, all with one voice about the space of two hours cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.
To put this in perspective a child can be very persistent at times when they want their mom or dad. Have you ever experienced a time when your child comes to you while you are on the phone or talking to someone in a store, and they start tapping you on the leg and saying dad…dad…dad or mom…mom…mom. They won’t quit sometimes. What eventually happens? After a while you get perturbed because little Johnny or Susie won’t leave you alone. I think God or Jesus get the same way when we pray with vain repetition, after all they have the same feelings we do because we are made in their likeness, Genesis 1:23 and Jesus walked this earth as a human being. Jesus wept, had compassion, got angry, etc. Since we are made in God’s likeness, do you think he wants us to pray in a fashion like we talk to each other or be annoying using script type prayers? Now don’t get me wrong I do think it is ok to use prayers that are written out. There are some wonderful prayers in the book of Psalms, and saying them from your heart when the situation dictates is fine. After all the Lord’s Prayer falls into that category, but don’t fall into the habit of always praying in that fashion, because God wants to have a conversation with you. I classify David as a prayer warrior. He would just sit down and start talking to God. Here is one of David’s prayers/conversations with God that was in my daily reading this morning 2 Samuel 7:18-29.
Here are a few other heathen customs that have influence Christian prayer. Lighting a candle so your prayers continuously rise up to God while you pray. Writing prayer on paper and having a machine turn the prayers hour after hour. Putting prayers on flags and letting the flags flap in the wind.
One simple sentence with the burdens of your heart is what God wants. Just a plain ordinary conversation that is sincere.
Pray in the Language of Heaven: The Lord’s Prayer is in the language of heaven, after all it was given to us by Jesus and there is no other worthy to teach us. It starts out all about God; Your name, Your kingdom, Your will. Then it turns the focus on us; our daily bread, our forgiveness, our protection from temptation, and our deliverance from evil. God has all the power, glory, and majesty and we have all the needs, wants, and poverty. Isn’t it wonderful to have someone we can go to that has all that we need? We can go to God with empty hands and He can fill our hands with our needs.
As we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we discover it portrays life.
A. Praise; Hallowed be Thy name.
B. Priorities; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
C. Provisions; Give us this day our daily bread.
D. Relationships; Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who have sinned against us.
E. Protection; Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil.
F. Promise; For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
God longs for us to communicate with him, not just on Sunday, but every day of the week. I’ve heard people say they only call upon God with difficult situations and they don’t want to bother him with the little things in life. God wants us to pray and share all things in our life. Philippians 4:6-7 NKJV Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. What if a friend always came to you with their problems seeking advice, but never included you in the happy times they have? After a while when you would see your friend coming or your caller ID on your phone tells you it is your friend, you might think to yourself, now what? Do you think maybe God might say the same thing when the only time you call upon Him it is when you are in trouble? Paul also told the Thessalonians the same thing. 1Thessalonians 5:16-18 NKJV Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. So pray and give thanks about all things whether good or bad.
The Lord’s Prayer is a prayer that is known around the world and a lot of people claim it to be their prayer, from their religion. They have prayed it all their lives, unfortunately, in many cases it is a prayer that has not changed their lives. Example being, can we say “our” if our religion has no room for others and their needs? Can we say “Father” if we do not demonstrate a Father-child relationship with God in our daily living? Can we say “Our Father in heaven” if all our interests and pursuits are on earth? Can we say “hallowed be Your name” if the One who is called by that name is not holy to us? Can we say “Your kingdom come” if we are unwilling to give up our own sovereignty and accept the righteous reign of God? Can we say “Your will be done” if we are unwilling of allowing God to rule our lives? Can we say “on earth as it is in heaven” unless we are truly ready to give ourselves to His service so life can be on earth as it is in heaven? Can we say “give us this day our daily bread” without submitting our life to Him? Can we say “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us” if we continue to hold a grudge? Can we say “do not lead us into temptation” if we deliberately choose to remain in a situation where we are going to be tempted? Can we say “deliver us from the evil one” if we are not prepared to fight in the spiritual realm with the weapon of prayer? Can we say “Yours is the kingdom” if we do not give the King the disciplined obedience of a loyal subject? Can we say “and the power” if we don’t submit ourselves so the Holy Spirit can work within us? Can we say “and the glory” if we are seeking our own glory first? Can we say “forever” if we are anxious about each day? Can someone honestly say it is their prayer if they don’t give it all to God?
If you pray the Lord’s Prayer and truly mean and live what it states, it will change your life. This prayer is at the very heart of God and what he truly wishes for you to be. There are two families in this world, the family of God and the family of Satan. To become a part of God’s family, you have to be spiritually born. Jesus states this in John 3:3 that you have to be born again to partake of God’s kingdom. Based on what Jesus says then, if you’re not spiritually born (Born Again), you can’t call God your Father. How then does he become your Father? By putting your faith and trust in His Son Jesus Christ. When you accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour of your life you become a child of God. You are then spiritually born into God’s family and he becomes your Father. The following prayer is the first step to being Born Again. Pray this with a sincere heart; “Lord Jesus I know I am a sinner. I confess my sins to you; I am sorry for my sins; I repent of all my sins, and I am asking for your forgiveness of all of my sins. I commit my life to you and ask you to come into my heart, direct, and take charge of my life. I believe that you died to set me free from my sins and you rose from the dead to give me eternal life, and right now you are seated at the Right Hand of God Almighty. I believe you, Jesus, are the Son of God; the only way, the only truth, the only life, and my Savior.” Because I believe this and have prayed this I am Born Again, and with your help, I can live a new life. In Jesus name I pray Amen.” (John 3:16, 17; Romans 3:23; 6:23; 5:8; 10:9-13; Ephesians 2:8-10; 1 John 5:11-14)
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: God struck down two of Aarons sons because they were mocking and not respecting God. Do you know of two other sons of an Israelite that God struck down?
Answer: Here is the scripture that give the answer. 1 Samuel 2:12-17; 2:22-25; 2:34; 1 Samuel 3:11-14; 1 Samuel 4:11.
This week’s Trivia: Did the presence of the Ark of God ever destroy false gods?
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