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Deuteronomy chapter five, verses
six to 21, which you can find on page 150 there in the Pew
Bible. So please give your attention
and read together with us. Let's read together God's 10
commandments. God said, I am the Lord, your God, who brought
you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make
for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that
is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that
is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them
or serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am
a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children.
to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing
steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my
commandments. You shall not take the name of
the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless
who takes his name in vain. Observe the Sabbath day to keep
it holy as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall
labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath
to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work,
you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your
female servant or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock
or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant
and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember
that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your
God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched
arm. Therefore, the Lord your God
commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. Honor your father and your
mother as the Lord your God commanded you. that your days may be long
and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord
your God is giving you. You shall not murder, and you
shall not commit adultery, and you shall not steal, and you
shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, and you
shall not covet your neighbor's wife, and you shall not desire
your neighbor's house, his field, or his male servant, or his female
servant, his ox or his donkey or anything that is your neighbors. So let's consider now verse 17. You shall not murder. All right,
obviously you shall not kill other people. Nor shall you kill
yourself. Suicide is included. Killing
yourself is not permitted either. Just as you don't own the other
person in order to kill them, you don't own yourself. God gave
you life. So you are steward also of your own life. So you're
not to harm ourselves either. Now as we look at this, we're
not to kill. What else are we not to do? We're
not to harm one another. So we have here an injunction
also on beating each other up, breaking each other's bones.
But what else? It goes on, Jesus makes it go on to words. You
shall not call your brother a fool. You shall not call your brother
an insult. It goes on to words, then it
goes on to the thoughts that are expressed by words. You shall
not covet, all right? Well, you shall not be attacking
your brother in your mind either. So we find the apostle speaking
of taking every thought captive to Christ. You find yourself
brooding angrily, raging against someone in your heart, well,
okay, we have a thought that needs to be taken captive to
Christ because you shall not be brooding angrily with your
brother. Now, some of them will say, well,
what do I do when he's done something wrong? Well, it's a very interesting
setting back in Leviticus 19 when we first get what's sometimes
called the golden rule. Listen to the lead in. Leviticus
19 verse 17. You shall not hate your brother
in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor,
lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance
or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but
you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Notice, the lead-in
to love your neighbor as yourself is not some sweet saccharine,
like, really nicey-nicey kind of situation. No, it's when you're
inclined to hate him. It's when, you know, you are
bearing a grudge, right? You're told, no, don't bear a
grudge. Instead, what do you do? Well, you know, you shall
reason frankly. Sometimes you need to go and
talk to somebody. And that is better than brooding and hating. So reason frankly with your neighbor,
so that you don't take vengeance, so that you don't bear a grudge.
But instead, in this way, you seek to love your neighbor as
yourself. So what is commanded? Something
is forbidden harming neighbors, so the flip side of that is,
all right, it's commanded that we have a loving concern for
our neighbor, that we want our neighbor's good as much as we
want our own. And so part of the spelling that
out that you get in the Torah is this, if you see your enemy's
ox wandering away, You shall not smirk and kick it and get
it. No, you shall bring your enemy's ox back to him. If you
see your enemy's donkey crushed by its heavy load lying in the
road, you will not smirk at him as being an idiot. No, you will
surely help your enemy's donkey back up again. And I think the
point is rather obvious. If you see your enemy's car being
driven down the road by a thief, you shall call 911 and report
the car theft of your enemy's car. All right, and so on and
so forth. We are to seek our enemy's good
and not just simply say, well, thank God he had that coming
to him. So it's a good commandment that
we have here. You shall not murder or do any of the things that
tend in that direction. Instead, reason with your neighbor
when you need to and love your neighbor as yourself. So please
listen now as I read to you from various passages in Luke. We'll
begin at 5, 15, and 16. Please give your attention to
the Word of God as we have it here in the Gospel according
to Luke. So in chapter 5, verse 15, we
get this. But now even more, the report
about Jesus went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear
Him and to be healed of their infirmities. But He would withdraw
to desolate places and pray. Next chapter, chapter 6, verse
12 and 13. In these days, Jesus went out
to the mountain to pray. And all night, he continued in
prayer to God. And when day came, he called
his disciples and chose from them 12, who he named apostles. Moving on to Luke 9, verse 16. And taking the five loaves and
the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing over
them. Then he broke the loaves and
gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And they
all ate and were satisfied. And what was left over was picked
up, 12 baskets of broken pieces. Now it happened that as he was
praying alone, the disciples were with him. And he asked them,
who did the crowd say that I am? And they answered John the Baptist,
but others say Elijah, and others that one of the prophets of old
has risen. Then he said to them, but who do you say? that I am."
And Peter answered the Christ of God, and he strictly charged
and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying, the Son of
Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders
and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third
day be raised. And skipping ahead to Luke chapter
22, verses 31 and 32. Simon, behold, Satan demanded
to have you all, that he might sift you all like wheat. But
I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when
you have turned again, strengthen your brothers." And on to verse
41. No, you know what? Verse 39. And he came out and
went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples
followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them,
pray. that you may not enter into temptation. And he withdrew
from them about a stone's throw and knelt down and prayed, saying,
Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless,
not my will, but yours be done. And there appeared to him an
angel from heaven strengthening him. And being in an agony, he
prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops
of blood falling down to the ground. And when he rose from
prayer, He came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow.
And he said to them, why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that
you may not enter into temptation. Let's stop our reading at that
point and pray. Heavenly Father, we pray now
that we would watch closely and hear all that you have to tell
us today. It would help us to be attentive
to your voice. Lord, we pray that you would
not allow us to enter in it now into temptation. We pray that
you would be near to us and guard us. We pray this in Christ's
name, amen. And now our main passage for
today is in Luke chapter 11. Luke chapter 11, verses one to
13. So please turn to Luke chapter
11, verses one to 13. Luke 11, 1 to 13, please give
your attention to the word of God. Now, Jesus was praying in
a certain place. And when he finished, one of
his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray. As John the
Baptist taught his disciples. And he said to them, when you
pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread. and forgive us our sins, for
we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead
us not into temptation. And he said to them, which of
you who has a friend, will go to him at midnight and say to
him, friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived
on a journey and I have nothing to set before him. And he will
answer from within, don't bother me. The door is now shut and
my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you
anything. I tell you, Though he will not get up and give him
anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence
he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, ask
and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock
and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives,
and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it
will be opened. What father among you If a son
asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent?
Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then,
who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to
those who ask Him? Well, I found this to be a humbling
week personally. because our key concept today
is prayer. So I had to read about prayer.
And I read this in the Heidelberg Catechism. Prayer is the most
important part of the thankfulness God requires of us. And the trouble
is that I know that in the Heidelberg Catechism, our thankfulness is
our whole Christian life, right? That means our whole Christian
response to God, that's our thankfulness. And it says it's the most important
part, prayer is, the most important part of our thankfulness. I say,
well, that's not the standards of this church, let's go somewhere
else. So I read John Calvin, and Calvin has a whole chapter
heading, prayer. the chief exercise of faith and
by which we daily receive God's benefits. And then he put his
money where his mouth is by writing a 70 page chapter on prayer in
the middle of his institutes of the Christian religion. Now
I do pray and I trust you pray, but I don't know. I don't know
if I can say that I am treating prayer as the chief exercise
of my faith, or as the most important part of the thankfulness that
I owe to God. And I'm confident of you that
you all pray. And I'm sure some of you pray a lot, but I at least
am not aware that we can collectively say that we're treating prayer
as the most important part of the thankfulness due to God.
So today we need to confess our sluggishness, if, like me, you
agree that you have been sluggish. Now, other Christian traditions
have no troubles. In no way, Calvin is not being an outlier.
The Heidelberg Catechism is not going out on a limb. Other Christian
traditions have no trouble labeling prayer as something big and important. I think it's American busyness
and self-reliance and egoism that leads us to think rather
instinctively that what's most important is what I am doing
and that I need to be busy and active. And indeed, this is not
a call for monasteries. We're still Protestants. I'm
not going over there. At the same time, who is most
important? And whose actions are most important? If we agree that God in fact
is sovereign and a merciful Heavenly Father, then we really ought
to spend more time on the phone with our Heavenly Father, which
we do in prayer. After all, how powerful are you?
Can you change a single heart? No. And the scary thing is you
probably could get farther on changing a heart for the worse
than you could on changing a heart for the better. But you cannot
change a heart. So if you cannot do, if I cannot
do such a simple thing as that, such a crucial thing as that,
let us be steadfast in prayer. Because you know, As I've told
you, T. David Gordon, author and current
preacher, says there's five ways of thinking about Christian decision-making,
five sort of models for thinking about what should I do, and they
all point to prayer. If you say, alright, my framework
is law, what has God told me to do, that's what I'm going
to do. Well, He's commanded us to pray. Now a quibble occurred
to me. You can look at verse 2 if you
want a quibble. It says, when you pray, say this. Yeah, when
you pray. Should you happen to want to
pray, pray this way. But it didn't say you had to. And that's a
stupid quibble, because verse 9 says, seek, ask, knock. And the other place we get the
Lord's Prayer, because we get it twice, if you're wondering why is this
one short, well, the way that we pray at the end of the service
is in Matthew 6. And over there, he doesn't say, when you pray.
Over there he says, pray like this. direct command. Of course, in the other parts
of the Bible, the epistles, we're told, pray without ceasing. And
James says, is anyone sad? Let him pray. Or the Psalms. The reason that we've chosen
these Psalms today is because there's verses in them. 50, call
on me in the day of trouble. I'll answer you and you'll glorify
me. Or as we just sang in 62, pour out your heart to God. We
have this exhortation in the book of Hebrews. Since we have
a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the
son of God, and since he is able to sympathize with our weaknesses,
having been tempted in every way as we are yet without sin,
let us therefore with confidence draw near to the throne of grace
so that we can find help and hope in time of need. And I always hear throne of grace
now in an African accent. Because our brother Matthew,
he came to prayer meeting. And he got that into his first
prayer every time. As we're coming before the throne
of grace. And I won't try to imitate his accent, but that's
how I hear it in my head. We're coming to the throne of
grace. That's how he would begin his prayers. That's what we're
doing. It's a throne. God has the power. It's a throne
of grace. Because God is compassionate
to us. God has commanded us to pray. That other way of thinking
about the Christian life is wisdom. I want to do what is wise. The
commandments don't always tell me what to do. We need to act
with wisdom. Well, God has showed us that
it is wise to pray. James 1.5, if anyone lacks wisdom,
let him pray and ask it of God. There you go. It's wise to pray. When you don't know what to do,
pray. Well, Proverbs repeats that the fear of the Lord is
the beginning of wisdom. How do we express our right fear
of God except by praying to Him, asking Him for forgiveness and
for help and for direction? This is how we show our prayer,
our fear of God. In the Bible, we have many examples
of people praying and then God helping them. In particular,
we have examples of kings, the most powerful people, kings being
in trouble and praying and God answering. We'll talk about one
of those tonight. Now think about the message there.
Here's the most powerful person in God's people, the king. All
these resources at his command, but he knows he can't do something.
He knows he's in trouble, so he prays and God answers him. Don't miss the point. If he needs
prayer, how much more do we? And if God hears him, how much
more will he hear us? Now that in Jesus Christ, we
can all call on God as Father. So when you're reading the Bible
and you see an example of somebody's praying and God is answering,
the point is, go thou and do likewise. Go and pray in your
time of need. But you know, you can also think
of this, of our life as a spiritual war. There's a spiritual war
on. You could say between good and
evil, that's too impersonal. It's between God and the devil.
between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world is
a spiritual war on. And in this war, there is one
goat. It occurred to me he's a goat
in both senses. All right, Jesus Christ is the
undefeated champion because he has been tempted in every way
as we are yet without sin. Now, what does the undefeated
champion give us for advice in our struggle? He says, pray like
this and lead us not to temptation, but deliver us from evil. That's
the champ's advice to you. Pray that way. And he didn't
just say it in the Lord's Prayer, he said it in Gethsemane. That's
why I read more than I was planning on. I said, oh, I have it right
here. What does he say to them? He says, watch and pray that
you may not enter into temptation. And as you know, they didn't
pray, they fell asleep, and then they were tempted, and then they
fell. Again, the point is being made to us. Pray like this, Lord,
lead us not into temptation. Or when it says put on the armor
of God, how do you do that? You know he doesn't mean go to
your closet and put on that armor. It's not in there. That's not
what he's talking about. So how do you put on, you have
to pray. Pray to put on that armor of God. And in faith, seek
the Spirit. But another way of thinking about
the Christian life is that we're seeking to commune with God. As for me,
it is good to be dear God. I thirst for you, as he's saying
in Psalm 42. And Jesus said, abide in me and
I in you. How do you do that? Well, like
any relationship, it takes a lot of communication. If you wanna
strengthen your relationship, communication will be key. And
so our communication with God is through prayer. Through prayer,
we pour out our hearts to him, And in prayer, often we hear
God speaking and guiding and instructing us. Also in our Bible
reading, we hear God instructing us. So we're to abide in Him
in prayer. And if you don't understand why
prayer is so important, consider this. We're only saved through
our union with Christ. And we have responsibility for
that union as well, because He says, abide in me. So we're to
abide in Him by prayer. So we have these five ways to
think about the Christian life and Christian decision making.
We've had law, we've had wisdom, we've had spiritual warfare,
we've had abiding in Christ. All of those point to the crucial
nature of prayer. And the fifth one is the imitation
of Christ. Jesus prayed a lot and he taught
his disciples to pray. Notice that he prayed a lot.
That was the point of the string of things that I read, right,
out of Luke. I read, he's praying again, he's
praying again, he's praying again. And it is possible to imitate
him and pray a lot. Martin Luther, the great Christian
leader, he was a monk in a monastery for a part of his life and even
when he became a protestant and said you shouldn't have monasteries
and I can get married and he got married and they had a whole
bunch of kids and life was busy but evidently he kept the habit
he would get up early and pray for an hour everyday which is
not easy but suppose it was going to be a really busy day because
boy that guy got more stuff done than anybody if it was going
to be a really really busy day what then surely he needed his
sleep Now, evidently the practice was to get up extra early so
you could pray for two hours. Because if it's going to be a really
busy day, an important day, yes, sleep's important, but to have
God, to be close to God, to ask God for help, that's even more
important. You saw that with Jesus. Before
he chose his 12 disciples, he spent all night in prayer, looking
for God's help. Now, Jesus prayed so much you
might be tempted to follow my college roomie into error. When
I first went to college, first I got a letter in the mail, the
name of my roommate. And then I got this little pamphlet
that was called a Facebook. because you sent in a picture
for yourself when they printed them up in this little booklet
so you could flip and see who you're gonna room with. And I
said, oh, big football player, big old neck on this guy. I was
like, uh-oh, hope I get along with him. So I go in, I move
in, he's not there, he's got a Bible on his desk. I said,
oh, it's gonna be okay. And it was, great guy, no problems.
But we're talking to him about the Christian faith, and this
was where he was hung up. He said, I know Jesus is not
God because he prayed to God. And I couldn't dislodge him from
that point, right? I know Jesus isn't God because
he prayed to God. Well, he did pray to God. How
do you answer that one? I think with reference to two
crucial concepts, the Trinity and the incarnation. The Trinity. Yes, there is one God, but there
are three persons from all eternity past. And while we can't understand
all the ways they relate to each other, they do relate to each
other. And what could be communicated more from the terms father and
son, that there should be some communication. And so of course,
when Jesus is on earth, he continues in communication with God, the
father. And so God, the son speaks to
God, the father, that's part of the term son and father. There
is no problem here because God is three persons and one eternal
God. But secondly, with the incarnation,
We say that God became man. Well, hang on with that one.
That doesn't mean God became man and stopped being God. Rather,
he took into union with his divine nature, a full human person.
He took on in union with his divine nature, he didn't lose
that, but he added a whole human nature, body, mind, and soul.
And he did that not just so that he could suffer in the same nature
that committed the sins, our nature, But he also did that
to complete everything a human is supposed to do, to keep the
covenant of works. Jesus kept the covenant of works.
He did what a human being is supposed to do. Now, what are
we supposed to do? Pray. So, in his mission of doing everything
that a human should do, he prayed, because we're supposed to pray.
So I think in these two ways, you should be able to answer
a person who's hung up on the idea that, well, I know Jesus
prayed, correct. He prayed to God, correct. So
therefore, he's not God, incorrect. He's both God and man. The Son
is speaking to the Father in the Trinity. And the man is doing
what a man should do. He is praying to God. So Jesus
prayed a lot. And he taught his disciples to
pray. And you'll notice, so did John. John the Baptist taught,
that's actually the jumping off point. You know, Jesus, John
the Baptist taught his disciples to pray. So let's get with the
program, Jesus. Shouldn't you teach us to pray?
Jesus didn't say, you're being fresh. No, he said, you're exactly
right. Let me teach you how to pray. So if we're Jesus' disciples,
let's take the lesson. How should we pray? He said,
pray like this. Pray for God's glory and God's
kingdom. That comes first. We tend to
rush on to our own concerns and in a crisis, that's fine. Go
ahead, quick pray, God save me. And your crisis do that. But
we're to pray not just when it's a crisis, but also pray, you
could say, when we are composed, when we have time, when we've
gotten up early, or we're praying before bed. There's a time also
for those composed when, you know, you have time, you're doing
it deliberately, it's not an immediate crisis. And so that's
when you have time to reckon with the fact that you're entering
before the king. Now, I dare say, if you entered
before a human king, You'd spend a little bit of time thinking
about how to do that and what you wanted to say. Now don't
let that dissuade you from going to God. He is also Heavenly Father,
but it's worth thinking a little bit. Okay, as I come before the
throne of grace, I should come with reverence and humility.
I should come in Christ's name and I should ask for what I really
want. I mean, it'd be trivial to go in before the king and
be like, oh, what should I give to you? Uh, M&Ms? Talk about
a wasted opportunity. I mean, you gotta be thinking
about something better than that, right? So as you come before
God, ask for what you really want, but that puts it on you. What do you really want? And of course, if what you really
want is something you can't ask God for, then you have a problem.
And you need to think again. You need to ask for forgiveness,
perhaps, if what you really want is not something you can ask
from God. Alright, so what should you really want? What you really want is this,
for everything to be set right. Obviously, you want your own
situation set right, but that's awfully small. You'll get to
that, but in the big picture, you'd like everything to be set
right. And as we said last week, Everything went wrong with sin.
Sin begins with not giving God thanks or the glory that's to
his name. So let's begin there. Instead, let's give God the glory
to his name. Let's give God thanks and praise and say, Lord, may
everyone live for you. May everyone honor you. Would
that not stop murder and jealousy and wars if everyone lived for
you. God, may your name be hallowed by me, by us, by everyone. Hallowed
be your name by all. Lord, take down all those rival
thoughts and kingdoms and notions and everything that stands in
opposition to you. Take them down so that you and
your kingdom can reign supreme. May humanity flood into your
kingdom, build up your church, may it thrive, protect it. May
nations obey you, O Lord. May the rulers bow down before
you, your kingdom come. May we entirely do your will
for them, Lord, it would be as it is in heaven here on earth. Yes, pray in the time of crisis
and pray for yourself quick. But when you come also to those
times of being composed and you're praying deliberately at a set
time. Begin with this prayer for everything to be set right.
And know that that means when God is put and treated as the
one who's in the rightful place. And then he says, pray for bread,
for forgiveness and for protection from temptation. How would you
summarize that? He's saying pray for your physical
needs and pray for your spiritual needs. So having begun with God,
proceed to yourself, pray for yourself. Not just yourself,
though, because it says us. Pray for our needs. Pray for
the us. The family us, the church us,
the national us. Pray for the us. But pray first
for the physical needs. Those are top of mind, aren't
they? If you're in pain, you know it. Either all the time,
or every time you move, or whatever it is, it's top of mind. It's
right there. You can't escape it. And we sympathize
with other people, so we rightly pray for those. who are needing
surgery or are sick or something. By the way, if we were all starving,
we wouldn't be praying for those surgeries, we'd be praying for
food. All right, so starting there with the most basic immediate
need, pray for food. And we're told the Heavenly Father
knows that we need all these things. That's meant as consolation. That's not meant to say so you
don't need to pray, no, the point is consolation. He's telling
us nonetheless to ask. Cause we need to learn to turn
to him. We need to learn when we get it to thank him. We need
to learn to appreciate it all the more because I asked for
this and God gave me this. So let me appreciate the gift
that I have received from the hand of God. And we can plead God's promises.
Father, you said to ask. So I'm here like you said, asking. You said that like a good father,
you would provide. So I am asking you as my good
father to provide. Give us this day our daily bread. You'll notice, of course, he
only said bread. He didn't say the fattened calf, which would
be the seven-course meal, which would be the amazing steak and
the chocolate mousse. He said, Lord, give me what I
need for today. Because we're not looking to
pray once and be set for life. Because then where is our communion
with God? It's why it says in Proverbs, God, give me the food
that is needful for me, lest I be rich and think I don't need
you. Or lest I be poor and steal and profane your name. So he
would have us pray daily. You see that because he says,
give me this day, give us this day our daily bread. Why can't
I get a week at a time? Well, because I want you praying
again tomorrow. And then remember, please, that
while we are indubitably physical beings and should not forget
it or pretend otherwise, we are also spiritual beings and should
not forget it or pretend otherwise. After all, the spirit is being
renewed day by day while the body wastes away. And you are
a spiritual being who has offended the Father of spirits by your
sin. So the greatest prayer request is always this, Father, forgive
me, the sinner. And Jesus tells that parable
of two men who went up to the temple to pray. The one who goes
down justified is the one who beats on his breath and says,
Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. Jesus says, that's a good prayer.
That's the one who went down justified. And since we're constantly
being pulled towards victimhood and self-pity and excuses, and
that says, okay, what I did, because he did that first, he
puts right into the prayer, you can say a sidebar notice. even
as we have forgiven others. Everyone knows the cycle. The
cycle that says, well, you punched me in the shoulder, so I punched
you in the head, so you hit me with a stick, so I hit you with
a bat, so you came at me with a knife, so I came at you with
a gun, so then your people came after my family. And you'll notice,
I haven't described the cycle of violence, I've described the
spiral of violence where it gets worse and worse, and Christians
are to be those who break those spirals of violence. We are to
forgive those who have sinned against us. Violence is to stop
with us. And so that's right, and that's
hard, and so we need to be in prayer to find the strength from
God to do that. And so that is a spiritual need
that we have, and we ought to pray intently in that spiritual
way. Lord, forgive us our debts, even
as we forgive. Oh Lord, help me to forgive others. And lead us not into temptation.
You know, we pray for protection in travel, and that's good. Travel
smooth and easy until there's a crash. So go ahead, pray for
protection and travel. But we don't pray nearly enough
for protection from temptation. Surely it's better to fall and
break your leg than to fall into temptation and sin and all of
its consequences. And so I wanna ask you all for
help. We don't have to subtract anything from our prayer requests
and prayer meeting or evening church or before church, but
we need to add some. We need to add some spiritual
prayers. We need to add some spiritual
prayers. Lord, pray for me not to be tempted this week when
I know I'm going into a difficult situation. Lord, help us to be
a forgiving community. Lord, help us with these spiritual
problems as well. Because very often, we stick
to the physical all the time, and we need that, and that is
fine, but we are also spiritual beings. And so he passed on from
the bread, yes, pray for the bread, but then pray for forgiveness,
and pray that you are forgiving, and pray that you may not be
led into temptation, but pray that you will be delivered from
evil. And it's in us, so we ought to be praying for each other
in this way. So let us have a change starting
today in the prayer request that we ask for and say, let's pray
for this. Yes, let's pray for Debbie's knee. Let's also pray
for one another's souls. May we not be led into temptation. This is how Jesus taught his
disciples to pray. Pray that everything would be
set right, that God would be glorified and honored and his
kingdom would prevail. And pray for your own concerns,
the physical, but definitely also, the spiritual, and not
your own individually, but the us, the hour that you are a part
of. Now, if you have not been praying
much lately, and you decide rightly that you will pray, go and do
it. But see if you do not discover
the following, that as you set out to pray, especially if you
are not in the habit, that you will practically feel the devil
trying to put his shoulder into you and steer you into another
course. It's almost palpable. He doesn't
want to make it totally palpable, because then you'd really believe
in Him, and then you'd really pray. Alright, so He doesn't quite show His
hand, but sometimes when you're going to pray, you can pretty
much feel the devil saying, yeah, after you check email, yeah,
after you check your phone, yeah, after you eat some chocolate,
yeah, after, you know what, you're awfully tired, why don't you
just go to sleep, James, and don't pray. Alright, you can practically
feel the devil steering you away, because he doesn't want you to
begin to cry out to your Heavenly Father. And one of the ways he
keeps us from praying is by offering plausible arguments. So let me
knock those down. If God knows all things, as you've
been saying all month, pastor, all right? If by his providence,
he directs everything. If he has a plan that will be
executed to a T, then why do I need to pray? That seems like
the most useless activity ever. If God is already gonna work
out his eternal plan. Answer, first he commanded it. And that's actually enough right
there. He told us to pray, and that's enough. Secondly, He's
shown it to be wise. Is that not useful to you? Thirdly,
by this, He equips us for battle, for the spiritual battle that
we are in, which is to say that we're moving towards this. He
told us to pray, not for His sake, He's got the information,
but for our sake, so that we would be equipped for the battle,
so that we would be unified with Him. We need that necessary refresher
course on being a creature. You know, kids ask their parents
for things. And you say, not when they grow
up. Oh, I don't know. I think when they're small, they want
cars. And when they're big, they want cars. I don't think it changes. And we are all small kids next
to God. So we ought to be praying. And
if you wanna work out the theological puzzle, here it is. God has ordained
not only the thing that's going to happen, the end, but also
the means, the way that it's going to happen. He has ordained
that we would pray and that He would answer. Calvin puts it
this way in that 70-page chapter. He says, it is as if you are
told there is treasure in the field. You may dig it up, then
it will be yours. Here is a shovel. Now, if you're
told there's treasure and you may take it and here is a shovel
and you only have to go dig it up, what is the rational thing
to do? It is to go dig it up. But that is what prayer is. Because
when God has promised he will do something for us, he is also
telling us to dig it up by prayer. Here's an example. when the prophet
Daniel, reading the earlier prophet Jeremiah, saw that after 70 years
the Babylonian exile would be over. And when Daniel saw it's
been 70 years, he didn't sit back and wait. He prayed, God,
make it happen as you said. And he prayed with confidence
because God had promised it. Or when King David was told,
God said, I will make your house an abiding house. You will always
have a king who reigns. David did not sit back and say,
thanks, that's cool. No, he went and he sat before
God and he prayed and he said, God, you are so gracious to me.
God, I do not deserve this. And God, make it happen just
the way you said. Make that promise come true.
God, that sounds like a great one. Make it come true. Prayer is necessary because God
is pleased to answer the prayers of His children. And the prayers
of His children are part of His plan. But why should God hear
me? This is the next objection. Why should God hear me, the sinner?
Why should God hear me, the repeat sinner? And so that brings us
back to Luke 11, because right after Jesus taught the Lord's
prayer, he addressed this one. He told the parable of the unprepared
neighbor, the guy who goes banging on his neighbor's door at midnight
for some food to give to his traveling friend. And Jesus says,
why will that work? Because if you can picture a
village life and these poor people in small houses that probably
don't lock very well, and if you can picture yourself in your
two-room house in bed with your children, but your next-door
neighbor who lives like right beyond, like the next house that
shares a wall with you, and if he's banging on your door asking
for bread, if he does it long enough, guess what? You'll get
up and give him some. Now, why does that work? Jesus says, well,
not because it's your friends, but because you want them to
shut up. And that's the only way. And so he says, look, if
you know that works on earth, and it would if you put yourself
in another village setting, well, how much more will it work with
God? Who doesn't need to get up? Who doesn't say, well, I
only have so much? How much more will that work
with God? And then he goes on to say, look, you know what fathers
are like? If the father has the food, he'll give it to his kid.
Well, God has more food and is a better father. He will give
it. Fear not. But, next objection,
is God really my father? I mean, Islam has 100 names for
God, 99, 101, something, and none of them are father. Islam
says, don't call God father. How dare you do that? Can I really
call God father? Well, Jesus, the son, said, if the son sets you free,
you shall be free indeed. Those who believe in Him, who
receive Him, are given the right to be called children of God.
And so if you have repented of your sins and believed in Jesus
Christ for salvation, among salvation's benefits are this, you are to
call on God as Father. You are to pray, because if you
are Christ's, then remember, you are in union with Christ.
He is the Son of God. And we get some of that. We can
cry out to God as Father. But I don't know the right words,
I don't know how to pray, next objection. Romans 8.26, the Holy
Spirit helps us to pray, because we don't know what to pray for,
or how to say it, or anything. But the Father knows the mind
of the Spirit. And as you see here at the end
of what will be read, the Heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit
to those who ask Him. That's a little hint for what
to ask for. What should I ask for? Well,
the Heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who
ask Him, and that is the greatest of all gifts. Ask for that. I remember one time I was, just
before we had kids, we're out visiting Nikki's family. We used
to see her cousins more back then. And so I think I was like
a brand new pastor at that point. And they're like, hey, John,
how about you pray before the meal? So I prayed before the
meal. And of course I am a pastor.
So you could tell by how I prayed that, yeah, he's prayed before.
the phrases come out kind of easily. And so afterwards, some
of her cousins are like, hey, did you ever pray before? Okay, because
it came out easily. You know what? That doesn't impress
God at all. That doesn't make it any more
impressive to God. And woe to me if I'm trying to
pray to impress you because you can't answer the prayer. We're to pray for God's ears.
And we're to pray for very basic elemental things. The small words
are better. Go ahead and pray. You know how to talk. You know
how to pray. Because prayer is talking to
God in the name of Jesus with the help of the spirit for what
we need, spiritual and physical. Ask for forgiveness. Give God
your thanks. It's the chief exercise of faith.
By it, we maintain and strengthen our union with Christ. So I'm
gonna conclude with an extended quotation now from maybe the
greatest Christian preacher, John Chrysostom. This is what
he wrote more than 1600 years ago. Prayer stands before God as an
honored ambassador. An honored ambassador. You know,
the king lets an honored ambassador in, and if he's an honored ambassador,
good to hear from you, ambassador. Prayer stands before God as an
honored ambassador. Prayer gives joy to the spirit
and peace to the heart. I warn you, though, do not imagine
that prayer is mere words. Prayer is a desire for God, an
indescribable devotion, not given by man, but brought about by
God's grace. As St. Paul says, for when we
cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the spirit
himself intercedes on our behalf in a way that could never be
put into words. When God gives to someone the
gift of such prayer, it is a gift of imperishable riches, a heavenly
food that satisfies the spirit. Whoever tastes that food, catches
fire, and his soul burns forever with desire for the Lord. To
begin on this path, start by adorning your house with modesty
and humility. Make it shine brightly with the
light of justice. Decorate it with the gold leaf of good works,
with the jewels of faithfulness and greatness of heart. Finally,
to make the house perfect, crown it with a pinnacle of prayer.
Thus you will have prepared a pure and sparkling house for the Lord. Receive the Lord into this royal
and splendid dwelling. In other words, receive by his
grace, his image into the temple of your soul. Let's pray. May Father help us to be renewed
after your image in righteousness and holiness. Lord, I pray for
us that we would love you and that you'd give us discernment,
that we would discern what is good and evil, and that, Lord,
we would pursue what is good and cast away what is evil. Lord,
give us this discernment, and help us, Lord, also to thirst
for you, the living God. We pray this in Jesus's name,
amen.
Prayer
Series Key Concepts in Christianity
Pray earnestly to the Sovereign Father for his glory, and our physical and spiritual needs.
| Sermon ID | 830251547302165 |
| Duration | 49:16 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Luke 11:1-13 |
| Language | English |
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