Turn with me to Luke chapter 11. And we're going to read the first four verses. And it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, Teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, when ye pray, say, our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. This morning I want to look together at this prayer by which our Lord taught his disciples to pray. Now we're told in verse one that it was at the conclusion of Christ's prayer that one of his disciples, an unnamed disciple, asked him to teach them how to pray, how we are to pray. And so I wanna look as we begin, I just wanna give you a few observations about prayer. In Matthew's gospel, Our Lord taught this prayer, but there was a few differences from what is said here. It goes on a little further, I believe saying, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen. But here, and that was spoken in the midst of him teaching the sermon on the mountain. But here, he was asked by a disciple to teach them how to pray. And it is the desire of every child of God to want that fellowship with our God, to know Him, to be able to come to Him in prayer and to know that He hears us, that He hears us and receives us into His presence. where we may lay out our cares and our burdens and that which is concerning us. And so we desire this, but we know that by nature we're quite ignorant. And the longer you live and the more you talk to people or hear people, you discover that there's a great deal of ignorance that we have about prayer. how to pray, when to pray, what we are to say when we pray. I was speaking to my daughter the other day about this text here, letting her know that I was gonna be looking at this prayer which our Lord taught us. And she was telling me, she was remembering that she once was speaking to a man And they were talking about prayer and he was amazed. He was surprised to learn that she could just pray any time that she wanted. And he said, I don't know if he was amazed in a negative sense or just truly amazed because he said, I can't pray unless a man, unless a priest gives me permission to pray. And I would assume that means he told him, you know, say, you know, 20 Our Fathers and, you know, which he would have gotten out of confession when he went to the confession booth, he would say, well, you know, say 20 Our Fathers and 50 Hail Marys or something like that, you know, and Our Fathers would be this, this prayer here is what the Catholics say for example. And so he was amazed and it's true. We hear things and see things and wonder, like, where do people come up with this? But we even know our own hearts. What do we know? What do we know except God teach us? So I hope that today's message will be a help. Whether you have no idea how to pray or you've been praying for a long time and you just want to draw near to your God. Now, notice here that we're told that our Lord was praying. He was praying. He had just finished praying when the disciple asked him to teach them how to pray. And I don't think this is a coincidence at all, that the Lord had just finished praying. In fact, I believe that all our desires for the Lord. Anytime we desire to draw near to the Lord, it's because of the intercession of our God, first doing this for us. He's the first cause of all things. And just as this disciple was moved to petition his Lord to teach them to pray, it was when Christ concluded his prayer. I have no doubt Christ was praying about this when this disciple was burdened to ask him, Lord, teach us to pray. I'm certain Christ prayed for that, that he was the cause of that very desire in this disciple. And that's true of all things. We only have an interest and a desire of the true and living God because of Christ's intercession, because of Christ's redemption for us because of His life which He's accomplished. That's the only reason why we even care about God, have any desire or interest to know Him. Even in Providence, the things that He allows to come and permits to come in Providence that happen to us, that bring us to our knees, it's all because He's allowed that. He's brought that. He's purposed that. for our good. It's because of Him. It just reminds me of what our Lord said of other sheep. He said, other sheep I have to the Jews. Speaking of us Gentiles, which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear me, they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. In other words, He's going to bring to pass whatever is necessary to bring His sheep in to His fold and to feed you and to nourish you and to provide for you and protect you because you are His sheep. And though we wander and though we go astray, if you're His, you're not, praise God, not going to get away. You won't fall into a ditch and be lost forever. He'll find you and take you out of that ditch and bring you into his fold, carry you on his shoulder, bless you, bring you into good pastors. And so we're bought with the blood of Christ and we shall know him. It pleases God to make us to know him and what he's accomplished for us, to give us love and faith and hope in our hearts, to give us a burning and a yearning in our hearts to know the true and living God. Now all these verses, going down to verse 13, concerns the teaching of our Lord when he's teaching his disciples how to pray. But I just want to focus on the first four verses with you today. Now, Brother Gary mentioned to you in the middle of December, he noted that many, this is often called the Lord's Prayer, but it's not the Lord's Prayer. This is the disciples' prayer. This is what he taught us to pray. His prayer is in John 17. John 17 there, when he prayed. And, you know, many people memorize these words, the words of this scripture, and they come thinking that this is how they are to pray, right? That in the Catholic Church, they say, our fathers, meaning they pray this exact, these exact words. Now, I'm not opposed to you memorizing Scripture. I would never discourage you from memorizing Scripture. I think memorizing Scripture, remembering Scripture will serve you well in many times in your life when His Word is brought back to your remembrance. He does that. He lays things on your hearts. Perhaps you teach your children to memorize scripture. That's good. That's good to do that because in the day of His grace, He stirs up the heart, brings to your mind things that you have memorized. And to make you think, why do I say that? What does that word mean? What does this mean in this context? What does He mean there? And that's good to be stirred up and to think more deeply, to seek your God to know what are you saying? Why do you say that? And why do you use those words? What does this mean, Lord, and cause you to seek Him? And so if you've memorized this prayer, you've taught your children to say this prayer. I was taught this prayer. But it's good to then stir up the heart, stir up the mind to seek to know what it means, what it means. And that's why it is good to memorize scripture, because you dwell on it, you meditate on it, you think upon it on your bed, you think upon it during the day. And when it pleases the Lord, he stirs you up and brings that word to your remembrance again. And so it is good to memorize scripture. And additionally, Though understand that this is a model. It's a model of a prayer. It's how we are to pray. It brings out what we're seeking of the Lord, how we come to the Lord in prayer, and what's on our hearts and burdening us. Now you'll notice that this is a short prayer. It's a very simple prayer. It's not long and illustrious. It's not lots of words or repetition or anything like that. You know, there's no pitch or harmonic frequency that we have to find to come to God. He doesn't even talk about the position that we take in prayer. He doesn't tell us which way to face in prayer. He really doesn't add that much detail about it. Because when the heart is stirred and burdened, we may go to our God and lay our concern out to Him. We don't need to wait to get away to pray. If you're in the kitchen right there and something comes to your mind, you may pray to the Lord. Because I know by the time you get to the bedroom, you've already forgotten or your heart's been taken away with something else. And so we forget so quickly and willfully sometimes forget so quickly. You know, prayer is coming to our God with the outpouring of our hearts, believing that He is and that He hears us, that He rewards us. He's a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. It says, He hears us. That's the reward. And he's brought us into his presence. And we lay before him the needs we have, the cares we have, which are the burdens that we have and those things which concern us and cause us to fear him. And I know that we ought not to fear. or be afraid that we ought to trust God, but we do get fearful. We're lying if we say that we don't get afraid and worried about things. And God knows the heart. To pretend, I mean, if you can't be honest with God, then who are you going to be honest with? Because He knows the heart. I was thinking in Genesis 32, Jacob, we have one of Jacob's prayers recorded there for us, and it's so honest. In verse 9 it begins, Genesis 32, 9, Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which said unto me, return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee. Right, he's remembering God's God's word to him. And he confesses his sin, he's saying, I'm not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant. For with my staff I passed over this Jordan and now I'm become two bands, right? I went out alone with only my staff and now I've come back a troop, many people, all because of your blessings. And he says, deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him. He confessed, I'm afraid. I'm afraid of him, Lord, I fear him, lest he will come and smite me and the mother with the children. And thou saidst, he's leaning on the word of his God. This is why we memorize scripture, He's leaning on the word of his God. Thou said, I will surely do thee good and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. And so we see there's a prayer and we're to be honest with the Lord and come to him with our cares that we be careful for nothing, that we don't hold on to our cares and burdens and carry them about as though we're to do that. If the Lord is able, And he calls us to himself. And then lastly, before we look at what our Lord says in this prayer, I want you to understand that it's not the words of this prayer that have power. And that's why it's used as like our fathers. That's why it's memorized. And these words recited because people think that This is the magical word to open the door and to get me what I want with God. There's no power in these words. The power is in the one to whom we're coming, and by whom, and the one by whom we're coming, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where all the power, the glory, the honor, and the praise is. It's in Him. The power is of Him. And so, Remember Him, we're coming as beggars, and as beggars we come humbly before Him, to Him alone who's able to do justly that which is needed in heaven and in earth. All right now, so let's look at what He teaches us to pray, this form of the prayer, all right, this form. Verse two, when He said unto them, this is Luke 11 too, He said unto them, when ye pray, say, our Father which art in heaven. He's teaching us who we pray to. We're not praying to Mary. We're not praying to saints. We're not praying to some other deity. We're praying to the true and living God. Our Father, he says. Our Father which art in heaven. There's a great tenderness in that. There's a great tenderness, even familiarity, to call God your Father, to be brought that near to the true and living God through Christ. In Ephesians 1, verses 4 and 5, we're told that it's according as he hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world. He knew you. He loved you before the foundation of the world and chose you to this salvation, putting you in the hands of His darling Son because He could swear by no greater. He could do it by no greater but to put us in the care of Christ to accomplish our salvation, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will." We're in the family of God, and there's great familiarity. I would imagine when you come to your father's house, you don't knock and wait for him to come to the door. You probably have a key, or you can just enter right on in. He's family. All right? They just come in. You let your kids. Your kids have keys. They just come right on into your house. because they're family and they can come in whenever they want. They're family. Our adoption is through the redemption of our Lord Jesus Christ. Colossians 1, 20 through 22, who having made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself, by him I say whether they be things in earth or things in heaven. or you and you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. Therefore, brethren, we come boldly to the throne of our father through Jesus Christ our Lord. Next, he says, hallowed be thy name When this speaks, the name is how God reveals himself to us. He gives us his name, and it's not just one name, but many names in scriptures to describe to us the magnitude, the beauty, the awesomeness of our God. When he revealed himself, when he gave the promises to Abraham, he said to him, I am God Almighty. El Shaddai, I am God Almighty. In other words, I'm giving you this promise and I'm able to bring it to pass because I'm Almighty. No one can stop me. No one can say to me, what doest thou? I'm able to do it because I am God Almighty. You can rest on these promises. That's the name of God, El Shaddai. That's one of his names. we're told in the New Testament, thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. You can depend upon it that you for whom Christ has died and shed his blood, your sins are put away. And though we see ourselves, like Brother Joe read in Romans 7 this morning, as doing that which we would not do, because of sin in our members, yet we know that this wretched man, this old man of flesh, is freed and delivered and is not going to bear that punishment because Christ bore it in our place and put away our sin. He's the Lord our righteousness. The Lord our righteousness. That's the name whereby we are called. He's the Lord our righteousness. And we are called by His name, the Lord our righteousness. That's how we come into the presence of God. He's Jehovah God. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is Jehovah God. Our Father is how Christ now reveals God in heaven to us. We come to Him in worship, in praise, falling on our faces because He receives us for Christ's sake. We glory in the name and the names of our God. We give him thanks for Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Now, with God's glory, first and foremost, our second concern is for his kingdom, and this is what is meant by thy kingdom come. Lord, establish thy kingdom in my heart. Lord, establish thy kingdom in Nixa, Missouri. Lord, expand thy kingdom to all your people. Brother Joe and I were just talking about that this morning and how thankful we are for this body here. And pray that the Lord establish it, which he has done to gather his people here, to give us his word, to feed you and to nourish you. He's not forgotten you. He's not left you alone. He's brought you together. and giving you a pastor to declare this word, to proclaim this word to you, to feed you and nourish you in the green pastures where he leads you as our shepherd. Another example of this prayer is found in Psalm 122, verses six and seven. Psalm 122, six and seven. There it says, pray for the peace of Jerusalem. They shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls and prosperity within thy palaces." Sadly, many think that that's talking about a natural city over there in that area of the world, right? They think that that's the city that we're to pray for. We're children of God through Jesus Christ. Our interest is the church of God. It's the church that heavenly Jerusalem. Paul speaks of this. He tells us of which Jerusalem is here in view. He's not speaking of that Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children, right? We're not going back to the Pharisaical worship of God under the law with that priesthood, the Aaronic priesthood. We have a high priest which is Melchizedek, after Melchizedek, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. Spirit is life, and he gives us life and turns our focus on that Jerusalem which is above, which is free, which is the mother of us all. We're praying that the Lord bless his church. When we pray for Jerusalem as described there in Psalm 122.6, we're praying for the peace of God's church, of his church. and that peace be within thy walls." What does that mean? Isaiah 26, 1. Isaiah 26, 1. In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah. We have a strong city. Saying salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. Salvation. You that are saved by the blood of Christ are in those walls right now. In the walls of salvation. That's your protection. That's your bulwark. That's the Jerusalem we're praying for, brethren. And so we're asking the Lord, cause your light to shine upon this land, upon us here to bless us and search out your people that are here, Lord. Find them that are sitting in couches, in their living rooms, that are in goat barns and false churches and bring them, draw them out to hear your gospel and to be fed and nourished with your people in your flock here in Nixa, Missouri. So that's our great interest, brethren. Next he says, thy will be done as in heaven, so in earth. There's submission of our will in those words. Lord, you do your will. As you do in heaven, do it here on earth. Thy will be done. Prayer is not us saying the right sequence of words or figuring out how to twist God's sovereign arm to get him to do what we want him to do. It's not an art. Our prayer is our will submitting, consenting to the will of God. I mean, how often have we gone to prayer with something on our heart? I've gone to prayer many times with something on my heart only to lay it down and say, Lord, not my will, but thy will be done. My heart's changed in prayer. I'm not changing God's heart. It's not God's mind. It's me that needs to be corrected. And it's me that goes sometimes with the wrong attitude. and the Lord turns my heart and says, don't, no, no. And he resigns me to his will. Likewise, Paul said in Romans 8, 26, the spirit also helpeth our infirmities. When we go thinking we're gonna, with one thing on our mind that is not according to the will of God, the spirit helpeth our infirmities, our foolishness. For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. I'm thankful. It's just like a little child saying to their parent or grandparent, I want this. And they know what you need. And they give you what you need, not what you're asking for, but what you need. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are thee called according to his purpose. And so that's, we have the grace of God helping us in our prayers. And we even see Christ setting that example when he from Gethsemane cried, Father, Thou be willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but Thy will be done. Thank God that His will was done there. And I believe Christ prayed that not only to show us that our will is to be as His will, but also that there is no other way. He had to die. He had to lay down His life for our salvation. And so our prayers are first and foremost for the glory of God. Our prayers are then for his kingdom, for his people, to establish his word in our hearts. Now, following that, right, that model, now we have concerns and needs ourself. And that's what we come into here when he says, give us day by day our daily bread. God is the giver of all things that we need. We're told that every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights. Again, there's great humility and submission in this. And this thing has a depth of meanings. I mean, this whole prayer has a depth of meanings. We're just covering it lightly, but you can drill down even further, but there is great humility in trusting God for daily provisions, right? To trust Him. Now, most of us, I don't think, have to depend on Him from day to day, not knowing where our next meal is coming. If that's your situation, let me know, because I don't want you to have to be in that kind of fear. But if we are, there is an amazing comfort and power that God is able to do to provide for you. There's a great submission and humility in that. And so it's in that sense of our daily bread, just like he says, of our clothing, of our needs, of our job, whatever it is, the day by day, trust the Lord that we not become cocky and arrogant and thinking too highly of ourselves because it could all be taken away just like that. And then it also means our daily need, because you may not at this time need or worry about where your next meal's coming from, even though we never know when that's gonna change. But one thing is certain, day by day, we need that heavenly bread. We need fresh, fresh givings of His Spirit, of His grace, of His forgiveness, of His mercy for us day by day. Then he says here, pray forgive us of our sins. In other words, the true and living God makes us to confess our sins, to know, to acknowledge that we are sinners. There's a great reluctance in what is called Christendom, I guess, to admit that we're sinners. So they come up with, well, I made a mistake. I didn't sin, I made a mistake. Wasn't thinking at that moment. I made a mistake. No, you sinned. I sinned. We're sinners. We are. We see sin in our members. And so the Lord makes us to acknowledge our sin and to confess our sin and to ask him for forgiveness. We come seeking that forgiveness on the merit of Christ, not on our goodness, not because of how good we are or how good we've been. We come always on the merit of Christ's blood. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so we're freely forgiven, freely justified of all our sins in Christ. But it is the life of the believer. It is our blessing to come to God and to seek Him for fresh renewals of His grace, of His forgiveness to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us of our sins. It's not, we don't just live in presumption and just carelessness and say, well, you know, that's what Christ died for. No, we don't talk like that and we don't think like that. We come asking for His forgiveness humbly. It's as the washing of our feet. for you that are clean every way by Christ. It's as a washing of the feet, which get filthy in this world, as he told Peter. And so he ministers this, his grace to our hearts and keeps us looking to him. We are forgiven. We are cleansed. We are holy and unblameable, but he keeps us humble, ever looking to him for fresh renewals of his grace and forgiveness. And our Lord explains this, but this is the only one that he actually explained further. He said, forgive us of our sins for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. Now, he's not conditioning your forgiveness on whether or not you forgive another, right? The mercies of God are never a condition. Well, if you do this, then I'll do that. It's not a condition here. What he's teaching is that you, child of God, forgive because you've been forgiven. Those fruits of righteousness are wrought in the children of God. Think about faith. Faith is a manifestation of the spirit in you that you've been washed by the blood of Christ. It's because you are redeemed by the blood of Christ that you are called out of darkness and confess Christ with your mouth and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead. Faith is the evidence that God has redeemed you, purchased you with the blood of his son. So it is that forgiveness of your brethren and a desire and a willingness to forgive those who sin against you is an evidence that you have been forgiven. And it's a manifestation of that. That one who does not forgive and is unwilling to forgive and says, well, I ain't doing that. It's because they've not been forgiven. They've never been touched by the grace of God. They don't know what sinners they are. They haven't been forgiven. Just as one who believes not, you can't comfort that one. If someone says, I don't believe that, can you comfort them? Would you comfort them that they are a child of God? No, you keep declaring the truth until they tell you to be quiet, get lost, or until they confess. In the same way, that one who does not forgive, it's because they've not been forgiven. They've not yet experienced that grace in their hearts because where they've experienced that forgiveness in their soul, they're gracious and willing to forgive others. That doesn't mean you won't seek God for it. That doesn't mean that it's not hard and in the flesh that you don't struggle with it, but there's a willingness. Lord, help me to forgive them. Help me to move on from this. Lord, I don't want to hold this bitterness in my heart against them. I want to let that go. Lord, help me. We seek Him for that grace and mercy. One of the most tender verses in all of Scripture, I find, is in Ephesians 4.32. And it goes into Ephesians 5, 2, which says, and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children, and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. And so this is a blessing which he calls us to. He forgives us and he fills our hearts with the knowledge of his grace. He makes us to know what he's done for us and gives us a heart of love toward others and makes us willing to forgive and to seek him for that forgiveness when we don't want to let it go. and we want to hold something against somebody, but he has a way of softening the heart, of making us tender-hearted toward others and willing to forgive even as God has forgiven us for Christ's sake. If we cannot forgive, it's only because we've not been forgiven or experienced that, or he's going to break us if we're his and turn us from it. Furthermore, he says, and lead us not into temptation, right? we're made constantly aware from things going on outside and things going on inside our hearts of our weaknesses, of our helplessness, of our need of God. And so prayer really is a confession of my helplessness. And that's why we do often get cold and forgetful because we're not thinking of our helplessness. We're thinking we got this. And that tends to be when prayer begins to get hard and stiff and contrived and just cold and whatnot. When we're shown what we are, that's where prayer usually pours forth and is more real and living. I mean, there's only a few times probably most of us in our lives feel like we've ever really prayed. Just a few times. And we've prayed a lot, but there's just a few times where the Lord really breaks us and makes us to confess and pour out our hearts to Him. And so we're confessing to God our helplessness. A prudent man foreseeth evil and hideth himself. Right? And going to the Lord and asking him to deliver us from temptation is prudent and it's hiding yourself. Lord, deliver me from temptation before it even comes. That I don't even face it. Lord, you know. I don't want to face that and go through that. Lord, save me. And he says, but deliver us from evil. Believers acknowledge this, that evil is all about us, and it's in my own heart, too. We're the wretched man that must be saved, else we cannot be saved. We're the ones who need the blood of Christ. And so we go to Him because He's overcome the evil. He's our Savior. He's our God and Savior, our Lord, our Savior, our all. And whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith, which is the gift of God for us. And so we look to Him. We keep coming to Him. We're going to and praying to Him alone who is able to do exceedingly above all that we can ask or think. He's able. So Lord, teach us to pray is our prayer. And so go to Him. in prayer according to the spirit of his word. I pray that that be a help. And next time, Lord willing, we'll come back and look at the rest of his instruction, because it's beautiful. It's beautiful.