How Disciples Should Pray, Part 2

[0:00] You can be turning to Luke chapter 11. Last week we began to look at the Lord's Prayer, what people call the Lord's Prayer.

[0:17] ! We talked about what Christ has done for His people. We talked about what Christ has done for His people. We talked about how what He's done for His people causes them to be in the kind of relationship that we can call God the Father, Father.

[0:36] We've talked this morning in our call to worship about the holiness of God, the awe His presence strikes, the silence His holiness causes people to have.

[0:48] And that is very true, and it is very important, and I think there's such an intricate balance, or maybe just such an awesome balance in this prayer.

[1:01] There's this calling God Father, this intimacy that we can have in prayer. And yet, even as we've talked about in our call to worship, or as we've gone, went last week into the first petition, we're saying, holy or hallowed be your name.

[1:20] And we're seeing this contrast, this amazing holiness of God that causes the creatures that God has created in His presence to cry one word or one phrase for all eternity.

[1:34] And yet, because of Christ, we can call Him Father. And though we didn't get into it, and really won't deal with it a lot, except to mention it here, Scripture speaks of, it's our responsibility, it's our privilege, it's our responsibility, it's our lifeblood to pray without ceasing.

[1:57] And so this contrast of who God is, and yet how He wants us to know our relationship to Him, and He calls us to pray constantly.

[2:11] It's just amazing the situation that we have here. And so we've seen that we're in this beautiful relationship, a relationship of intimacy, a relationship of privileged relationship.

[2:28] And we've so far dealt with two of the five petitions of this prayer. The first, as I mentioned, was that we hallow God's name, and it is a prayer for God to hallow His name.

[2:41] We're asking for Him to work in us, that we would see His holiness, that we would react to His holiness, both in our demeanor towards Him, but also in our desire to be holy like Him.

[2:55] So hallowed be your name. And we're also asking in that, that God's name be glorified and hallowed throughout, throughout the nations.

[3:09] When we're praying that, we're praying that others see that God is holy, that others know Him as this supreme being before all the heavens.

[3:20] And that others see that they fall quiet, and yet that they also know that He can be their Father. And we could go into more that we talked about.

[3:37] But the second petition, we were, Christ instructs us to pray that God's kingdom would come, that His kingdom would come. He's saying that we should ask that God would rule us by His word and spirit in such a way that more and more people would submit to God.

[3:57] We're praying for people to be saved. This is part of the prayer where we can add our, Lord, my young person, or my grand young person, or my neighbor doesn't know you.

[4:11] Lord, take the gospel out. Work in people's hearts. Thy kingdom come. We're asking that God would preserve His church and make it grow.

[4:25] We're asking that God would destroy the devil's work. And every force which revolts against God. And do this until your kingdom fully comes, when you will be all in all.

[4:39] And so, so far, we've seen how to address God. And then we've seen these two petitions that deal with prayers that we should pray to God for God to do.

[4:53] They're things that only God can do. Now, what we get to now are not things that we can do. They're still things that only God can do. But we can see how these first two petitions center on the work of God for His namesake, for His kingdom's sake.

[5:10] And now in the second half of what is typically called the Lord's Prayer, we turn to looking at petitions in which God is meeting our needs and working in us.

[5:23] The others do also. But these, we would see them much more easily as being directly related to us. I'd like to read verses 1 through 4 at this time.

[5:34] Luke 11, 1 through 4. 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 taught his disciples.

[5:49] And He said to them, When you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.

[6:00] 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.

[6:14] Let's pray together. Father, I thank you for your word. And I thank you that you have a burden and desire that your disciples know how to pray.

[6:26] So, Father, I pray that you would be with us and teach us to pray today. Teach us how we should pray. I pray that you would be with us. That we would hearken to this.

[6:37] And we would love to go to you in prayer. And I pray that you would make us to be those who pray as you teach us here. In Jesus' name. Amen.

[6:50] So, where we will begin looking at today is from verse, we'll look at verses 3 and 4. Give us each day our daily bread. Reading verse 3, we'll look at verse 4 in a little bit.

[7:03] And so, these are requests that are more centered on our needs. On what we need to make it through life. And so, our Father teaches us, or our Lord teaches us, that we're to ask our Father to provide each day our daily bread.

[7:23] Now, I don't know about you, I've seen movies. I'm sort of surprised they lasted. I've seen movies where it comes to Thanksgiving in the movie, and the whole family gathers around, and they sit at the table, and the dad says, let's pray.

[7:42] I worked for this food. I planted this food. I harvested this food. I brought this food in. So, I'm not giving you thanks. Because they thought they had done everything.

[7:54] And, of course, I didn't quote it accurately, but these people would boast in their ability to have provided for themselves, and figured that there was no God, and that they didn't need to give thanks to anybody, because I sweat.

[8:10] I worked. I accomplished. And here I have the fruit of my toils. And yet, God calls us to pray to him that he would provide our daily bread.

[8:25] Our daily bread. And this is the idea that we're to look to God to provide our daily needs. The word bread here certainly means food, but it means our daily provisions, our daily needs, that which we need to survive.

[8:42] When we think about the idea of bread, we certainly can think of food for this day. But we can also think of money to pay our bills and meet our obligations.

[8:56] We can certainly think of things that may be necessary for us to have happen or be provided around the house. It's more than just the idea of our daily bread.

[9:07] Bread stands in for all of our needs. And so we're to come to the Lord daily, asking for God to provide our daily bread.

[9:19] And one of the things that we need to keep in mind here, first of all, is that we are to be people who realize we can't provide our own.

[9:34] We can't provide for ourself. You say, but pastor, I work. They give me money. I go to the grocery store. Or you say maybe even, oh, back up, pastor. I plant.

[9:46] I cultivate. I harvest. What do you mean I can't provide for my own? Well, it just amazes me how quickly forget, how quickly we forget, how much God's grace is involved in meeting our daily needs.

[10:07] 1972, I was 10. I remember, well, there's a whole backstory that I don't want to...

[10:18] I remember that we had corn planted in a certain low area of our farm. And we thought we were doing pretty good.

[10:28] We had, I want to say 40 acres, I don't know. About 40 or so acres of corn planted. And it was planted in good season. And it was looking good.

[10:40] You could, you know, have you ever heard the term, row the corn? The corn's up high enough. You can see where the rows are. And it looked good. Do you remember Agnes?

[10:54] Agnes took it all away. All the work that my family had done to put that corn in. All the work that, and as good as it looked, it didn't come.

[11:08] We ended up replanting it. We still got a little bit, but we didn't get what we thought we were going to get. We can boast of who we are and what we do.

[11:22] But we can't be sure that we're going to harvest what we think we're going to harvest. Keep your place here in terms of Matthew chapter 6.

[11:33] This is a parable that Jesus told. Of course, it's a parable. And it's meant to illustrate a lesson. And it's easy to see the lesson. Matthew chapter 6, verse 25.

[11:46] And he's talking about worry. But what he does here, Oh, this is not the...

[12:01] Let me tell the story. This man... Well, let me read this and then I'll go from there. Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life. What you will eat or what you will drink nor about your body what you will put on is not life more than food and the body more than clothing.

[12:21] Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns. Yet your Father, your Heavenly Father, feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

[12:35] And which of you, by being anxious, could add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.

[12:47] They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

[13:08] Therefore do not be anxious, saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after these things. And your Heavenly Father knows that you need them all, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

[13:26] Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. And so, here, Matthew is using this as an illustration of how God provides for our needs.

[13:44] The parable I thought I was referencing and written down the wrong reference was the idea of this rich man who is sitting there saying, look at all that I've grown and I don't have enough room in my barns.

[14:01] What am I going to do? Oh, I'll just pull down my barns and I'll build bigger barns. And so, he does that and he fills those barns with all those things and Jesus in that parable goes on to say he's a fool because that night he died.

[14:18] Well, the same thing could have happened to him. Agnes could have come through and wiped out all that he had in his barns. How things go, the weather in a year, the finances to be able to have money to plant or even how we take care of ourselves.

[14:37] We just never know. We never know if we have a job from this day to the next. It all can be taken away from the richest to the poorest. None of us can guarantee that we can provide for ourselves.

[14:53] It all depends on what God, how God is gracious and what God is graciously doing. And so, Jesus tells his disciples that we need to be people who are daily asking for our bread.

[15:10] We need to seek today's bread today. And even if you have a pantry full of food, even if you have barns that are overflowing, even if you have bank accounts that are topped up and you have to open up new bank accounts because that account won't hold any more money because it is only by God's grace that we're fed.

[15:39] It is only by God's grace that our needs are met. We need to be people who are praying daily. Lord, provide for my need. I trust you. God is the one who provides.

[15:54] All we have in store can be taken away in a moment. R. Scott Clark in his commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism gives, I'm going to quote what he says.

[16:09] I thought this was very interesting. If we stop looking to God, our needs are not going away.

[16:21] If we stop looking to God, our needs are not going away. We will look to someone or something. That one thing is necessary, that one, that one thing is necessary and I, necessarily, there, I'm getting it right, that one thing is necessarily an idol.

[16:42] To refuse to look to the Heavenly Father for our needs is a quick route to idolatry. So, what R. Scott Clark is saying is, if you don't look to God for your needs, if you're not asking daily for God to provide, you're going to look to something.

[16:58] And it may be that bank account, or it may be your ability to plant seeds in the ground, or it may be your feeling secure in your job. Oh, I'm okay.

[17:10] I don't have to worry about that. What you've done is you've replaced trust in God with trust in you. You've now made something else your idol.

[17:23] We need to be people who have a mindset, no matter what God provides, no matter how big our bank account, or how small our bank account, God will provide our food if we trust him, if we ask him.

[17:36] And again, food here stands for all of our needs. Now, I think one other thing we ought to be mindful of here, as Jesus instructs these disciples to pray, and tells them to pray for their daily food, he's talking about being satisfied with what he provides.

[18:02] God doesn't promise that you have a big house. God doesn't promise that you have a pantry full of two weeks worth of groceries.

[18:14] God doesn't promise that you have the best car. God promises to meet your needs. And we as Christians need to be people that are careful to say, God, what you provide, I'm going to be satisfied with.

[18:33] God is being gracious whether he provides just enough or a lot more. We all like a lot more.

[18:44] We all like being able to just kind of relax and say, I don't have to worry about, it looks like I can pay my bills. We all want that. And there's nothing wrong with asking God to meet our needs, and even to prosper business, and even maybe to give us better jobs.

[19:03] But even in those requests, we need to be people who are content with what God gives, asking for our daily needs to be met, where he gives us opportunity to prosper, then we're to take that as scripture says and use that for his glory, whether it be investing it and using it for the church or for others, but we're to have this mindset that what I have is from God and I need to trust him for what I need, the things that I need.

[19:33] And so we need to be careful not to be worshiping ourselves or our job or whatever. We need to be trusting God for our daily needs.

[19:45] And so as we look at that, let me just ask Christian, who do you trust to meet your daily needs? Have you even thought about that for a while?

[19:58] Have you thought, God, I almost hate saying this, but some of the dearest times in our walk with the Lord are where there are times where we literally felt God feeding us literally day by day.

[20:17] Lord, there's not much in the pantry today. And he provided. And we saw some of the most glorious things in our life. we are able to know God, his blessing in rich ways.

[20:30] Sometimes when his provision was the closest, when it was, Lord, it's supper time and God has been very good.

[20:41] Christian, you can trust God for your daily needs, do you? And even if God has provided much, do you trust him for your daily needs?

[20:54] Well, as we go on in the prayer, in chapter 11, verse 4, the next phrase, the next petition is, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

[21:09] Try to make sure that in the pastoral prayer, we emphasize this every week, to remind ourselves that we are sinners, sinners, even though we're Christians, we're sinners, and we sin still.

[21:26] And Jesus wants us to remember that and recognize that. God didn't save us and flip a switch and all of a sudden we stop sinning and never have a struggle with sin ever again.

[21:40] We're people who are constantly, much more often than we even imagine or think, constantly are going against principles of God's word and standards of his holiness.

[21:56] We're sinners and we still sin. And when we do sin, even as Christians, we don't lose our standing before God.

[22:07] That's such an important thing to remember. We don't lose our standing before God, but we do hinder our fellowship with God. sin. And Jesus is saying here, forgive us our sins because we need to be people who recognize we are sinners, confess those sins so that we don't hinder our relationship with God.

[22:38] We are to be people who are acknowledging our sin. Now, I'm going to say it in this way. I think we need to be people who are acknowledging that we're sinners. We still struggle with that which we inherited from Adam, that sin nature.

[22:51] It's still there. God has redeemed us and it will be gone. We are redeemed. So we acknowledge our sin nature, but we also acknowledge the sin that we're conscious of.

[23:07] And I want you to, Martin Luther, you've heard of him and his confessions. confessions, I'm not talking about a book. Before he was a Christian, Martin Luther, as a Catholic monk, he would go to confessions as a monk.

[23:23] It was supposed to be daily. But he would go all the time. I can't remember the guy he called his confessor, the priest he went to to confess his sins.

[23:37] His confessor became wore out because Martin Luther was, oh, I was prideful here. And you know, he just self-examined himself and realized there was sin everywhere.

[23:54] And so I want, this is not an excuse, but I want you to realize there's more sin in your life than you'll ever know. We're far worse than we think we ever could be.

[24:07] And so you're never going to confess everything. I want you to know that up front. You'll never be able to mention everything.

[24:20] But we as sinners who are redeemed need to be people who, when we're conscious of sin, we confess sin. when we realize, oh, I spoke to my wife wrong.

[24:35] And we make it right with her, but we make it right with the Lord. Or, ah, I know that thought wasn't right. I shouldn't have gone there. We need to be people who are confessing that.

[24:46] And 1 John 1 9 talks about confessing is the idea of saying the same thing as God says about our sin. We acknowledge it, but we acknowledge that we're sinners.

[24:59] And so I'm not saying that we make this blanket thing, but to torture ourselves to try to be like Luther and know every sin.

[25:10] In a sense, we don't have time for that. I'm not making light. It's important for us to confess that which we know to be sin and what God convicts us of. But when we confess that we're a sinner, that's part of recognizing that that which flows out of us.

[25:25] There's just so much more than we know. But we need to be people who acknowledge our sin and our sin nature and then be people who stand on the promise of forgiveness and restoration of our relationship.

[25:39] 1 John 1 9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You and I know we're sinners. We say the same thing about God as our sin and God reestablishes that relationship.

[25:54] He cleanses us. We're in that freshness of relationship with him. And so we're to be people who are asking God for forgiveness. Forgive us our sins.

[26:08] forgiveness. And then he goes on and says, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. We're to have a forgiving attitude towards those who wrong us on account of what God has done for us.

[26:29] Matthew 18. It's the account of this unfaithful servant. Remember this unfaithful servant who owed his master like 10 years worth of money.

[26:46] And when the master found out, he knew he couldn't pay it, so he forgave him. This huge debt. And this unfaithful servant walks out of there so thankful and sees a guy that owes him 10 bucks.

[27:03] Grabs him by the throat and says, pay me what you owe. He says, oh, have patience and I'll pay you everything. No, no. And he throws him into debtor's prison. And the master comes back and says, you wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt.

[27:22] You should have been merciful to this one who has wronged you. That's exactly the kind of thinking that's here.

[27:36] You and I have been forgiven a debt that will never, ever, ever compare to anything that someone does to you.

[27:50] We are to be people who are forgiving towards others who offend us. We're to have this forgiving attitude.

[28:03] Now, I want you to note something important here, though. This is not saying we are forgiven by God because we forgive other people.

[28:16] What this verse is saying is we're forgiven. forgiven. We are to be forgiving because we have been forgiven. If we're unwilling, just like that parable, it is so easy to see, just like that unfaithful servant, when we fail to forgive, we are the epitome of hypocrisy.

[28:43] if we had any sense of how much we have offended God, anything that anyone would do is nothing.

[28:57] And for us to say, oh, I don't forgive you, I can't forgive you, is to be just the epitome of a hypocrite. And so Jesus is teaching those who are his disciples, he's teaching us that we need to be people who ask for God's forgiveness, but also offer forgiveness to others in our relationship.

[29:23] D.A. Carson makes this note, a little bit is not relevant, but you'll get the part that's relevant at the end. Neither Matthew's version, which says, forgive as we also have forgiven, nor Luke's forgive, for we also forgive, considers human forgiveness to be the basis of God's forgiveness.

[29:46] Instead, human forgiveness demonstrates true repentance and allows one to receive God's forgiveness. And so it demonstrates your true repentance.

[29:59] Christians, do you confess your sin regularly? sin to God's hope that's a part of a daily pattern for you.

[30:12] In fact, I think, tying this with this verse I mentioned earlier, that we're to pray without ceasing, I think, you know, barring that you're in a situation where you get in an accident, if you even thought, aside from where you are, if you can at all, in the moment that you know that you've sinned, take time to ask for forgiveness.

[30:36] I think that's what he's pointing to here. We need to be people whose heart is tender towards the Lord, wanting to keep our relationship with him fresh and clear.

[30:48] So do you, Christian, confess your sin regularly? Or are you hypocritical, wanting God to forgive you, but being unwilling to forgive others?

[31:04] And then the last petition here in the end of verse four is to lead us not into temptation. I would have to say, in, in, now, let me just say it this way.

[31:20] This is an easy petition to not think about. And I would strongly urge you, since Jesus is teaching his disciples to pray, that this is something we really need to take note of and ask God regularly concerning.

[31:37] It says, lead us not into temptation. And this petition is simply what it is, what it sounds like. It's asking God to protect us from temptation.

[31:50] Now, the word lead here acknowledges that God is sovereign over all. Okay? God is in control of everything.

[32:02] He has his plan that he has set down from before the foundation of the world. All will go according to his plan. But don't accuse God of evil or of sin based on this verse.

[32:22] There are other verses that some might say. James 1.13 says, God does not tempt to evil. And yet, at the same time, the working out of God's sovereign plan does bring us at times into the path of true temptation.

[32:43] Job 1. Job 2. Job 2. Job 2. God is sovereign and all his plan is laid out from before the foundation of the world.

[33:01] God is God is God God doesn't tempt anyone to evil. And yet, God is sovereign and all his plan is laid out from before the foundation of the world.

[33:15] And his plan sometimes brings us into the path of temptation. How do we reconcile those? We don't. God is operating on a plane far above us.

[33:31] We trust scripture when it says God doesn't tempt us to evil. And yet, we trust scripture when it says that God is working his plan out. And it includes all these kind of things.

[33:44] Things like Herod being the one used in the crucifixion of Christ. Can God be blamed with evil? No, God cannot be blamed with evil. But yet, Herod was that chosen one to do what he did.

[34:00] Judas betrayed Christ. Can God be blamed with evil? No, God cannot be blamed with evil. And yet, Herod was that one that the gospels record from the moment he's mentioned.

[34:13] He's the one who's going to betray. He's the one who's going to betray. God is sovereign. His will will be carried out. And yet, he doesn't tempt to sin.

[34:25] Both statements are true. We must believe both. God is without sin. And he does not tempt us to sin. But at times, we are in the path of temptation.

[34:38] temptation. I want to read something from the Heidelberg here. Since we are so weak in ourselves that we cannot stand a moment while our deadly enemies, the devil, the world, and our own flesh assail us without ceasing, be pleased to preserve and strengthen us by the power of thy Holy Spirit that we may make firm stand against them and not sink in this spiritual war until we come off at last with complete victory.

[35:16] What's he getting at? Heidelberg is talking about praying that God would help us in the situation. And that's what Jesus is getting here. This petition is acknowledging our weakness, first of all.

[35:30] You and I, we are so, even as Christians, we have the flesh that screams to be fulfilled. This petition is acknowledging that weakness.

[35:42] It is saying, I am weak enough, I know, I need your help to lead me not into temptation. So it's acknowledging our weakness.

[35:55] It is in this petition we are calling on God to protect us from temptation lest we fall. And it's doing it in, I think, two different ways. It's the idea of I'm in the temptation.

[36:08] We're praying that God help us be people in the midst of temptations that he does send our way, our trials that he sends our way. We're asking God to help us not to succumb to the temptation.

[36:24] But at the same time, we're asking that God would graciously be with us and help us not to even be led into those temptations. Not even be put in those situations.

[36:38] You think of Joseph. Remember, Joseph in the Old Testament had those dreams. His brothers hated him. And they sold him to the traders who were going down into Egypt.

[36:53] He was put into prison or put into slavery and sold. and Potiphar bought him, made him the chief slave in his house.

[37:06] In that course of time, Joseph was in the path of temptation and Potiphar's wife set her sights upon him. God delivered him.

[37:19] Of course, time went on, things happened. He ended up being as the second in second place ruler in Egypt.

[37:30] God had his purpose and God was working these things out and God protected him in temptation. One might say if Joseph had any thought of what's coming, he could have said, Lord, please don't let me be put in a situation where I would fall.

[37:51] that would have been an appropriate prayer. He didn't know what was coming. We need to be people who because we don't know what's coming, Lord, be with us.

[38:02] Help us to be people who don't fall when temptation comes. If you would be pleased, be gracious not to let us even be in positions of temptation, lest we fall.

[38:13] I think this is something that should be very much part of our regular prayer life. If you have some temptation you know you struggle with and you know you're going to be in a place where that temptation is going to be near and strong, Lord, lead me not into temptation.

[38:42] Matthew says but deliver us from the evil one. I think that ought to be part of our wanting to live holy life for Christ is taking advantage of what Jesus said we should be praying, asking God to help us not to fall when it comes to temptation.

[39:05] Maybe at work you know there's a specific situation. Maybe every time you open the break room refrigerator you're tempted to eat your co-workers dessert.

[39:18] Well, that's Lord, help me not to yield to temptation. But there are things that happen so quickly.

[39:33] You catch that image or you see that person or someone talks about something snaps in your head and you're thinking if I dwell on this for just a second I'm going down that rabbit trail and I'm going to be having to be confessing sins all over the place.

[39:54] Lord, protect me from temptation. Deliver me from temptation. So we should be people who are coming to the Lord and asking for help.

[40:04] Jesus said pray this way. So Christian, do you see your need to seek God's help in resisting and being delivered from temptation?

[40:19] Be proactive. You won't get them all. You probably won't get a lot of them as far as avoiding temptations or even making it so you don't fall because we're sinners.

[40:36] But seek the Lord's help to keep from them. And if you're here and don't know Christ, these petitions point to the need for people to depend on God for the supply of all things, for the seriousness of sin in God's eyes.

[40:52] If these things are serious issues for a child of God, where do you stand as one who does not know God? Who will meet your need? Who will forgive your sin?

[41:06] Jesus commands you to come to him. You who are weary and heavy laden, and he will give you rest. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word. I pray that you would be with us.

[41:19] Lord, help us to be people who set in place things that we've learned here from this prayer that you've taught. I pray that we would be people who are asking your name to be hallowed, who are wanting your kingdom to come, who are seeking our needs from you, who are confessing and standing on your forgiveness and giving forgiveness to others, and then seeking your help to be protected from temptation.

[41:55] I pray that you would be with us. Draw us to yourself. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.