Well then may the Lord help us
as we turn to his holy word and we read from the Gospel according
to Luke chapter 11 verses 1 to 13. The Gospel according to Luke chapter
11 verses 1 to 13. 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 how to pray. Teach us to pray,
as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, when you
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 this 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.' And he said unto them, Which of you
shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight? And
say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of
mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing set before
him. and he from within shall answer
and say trouble me not the door is now shut and my children are
with me in bed I cannot rise and give thee I say unto you
though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend
yet because of his impotunity he will rise, and give him as
many as he needeth. And I say unto you, ask, and
it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock,
and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth,
and he that seeketh findeth. And to him that knocketh it shall
be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any
of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he
ask a fish, Will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he
shall have an egg, ask for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your
children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the
Holy Spirit to them that ask of him? Well, before we turn
to this passage, I'll just say a brief prayer. Dear most gracious
and ever merciful Lord God, we do thank thee, Lord, for the
reading of thy word. We know, Lord, it is thy voice,
and we do pray, Lord, that thou would speak to each and every
one of our hearts. Help me, Lord, now as we go through
this passage, Lord, that thou would encourage us, Lord, and
help us. And Lord, that this service may
be a blessing to us. We do pray, Lord, we may each
feel thy presence. For Jesus Christ's sake, amen.
So for those of you who are note takers, the title of this study
is, Lord, teach us to pray. Well, if you wanted to know something
about sheep, you would probably go to our brother Edwin and ask
him. If you wanted to know about statistics, I'm sure you'd probably
go and speak to our brother Keith. If you wanted to know anything
about building, you'd probably go and speak to our pastor James.
Being a tree surgeon, many people come up to me and ask me questions
about trees. Because you go to the person
in what they specialize in, where you see their expertise or what
stands out about them. And what amazes me about Jesus'
disciples, they had witnessed many, many amazing things. They
had seen Jesus turning water into wine in the Cana of Galilee
at the wedding. They've seen Jesus healing the
sick. They saw Jesus casting out evil spirits in the temples
and the mad Gadarene. They even saw Jesus help them
catch many, many fish in abundance on their boats. They saw Jesus
healing people with leprosy, that incurable disease. They
also saw Jesus healing the paralyzed man who got lowered through the
roof. Not only did he heal him physically, he also healed him
spiritually. They saw Jesus calming the storm. When they were out in that boat,
he just uttered a word and the storm was calm. They saw Jesus
walking on the water. They saw Jesus feeding 5,000
people with just five loaves and two fish. They even saw Jesus
raising people from the dead. And so on, they saw the dumb
speak and the blind to see, and so on. But one thing you never
hear is the disciples saying, Jesus, teach us how to turn water
into wine. Jesus, help us to walk on water. Help us to cast out demons. Help
us to raise people from the dead. Because there was one thing which
must really have impressed the disciples about Jesus, and we
read it in verse 1 of our passage in Luke. And it came to pass
that as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased or stopped,
one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us how to pray,
as John also taught his disciples. Watching Jesus pray must have
been something special, something miraculous, seeing Him communicate
with His Father, seeing this man, the Son of God, seeking
help and guidance from above. We can often think that Jesus
can do all of these miracles we've gone through because He
was God. But we must remember when He
came to this earth, He came in humanity. He had a dependency
on the Spirit. We can look in Luke chapter 4
and verse 1. We read, And Jesus, being full
of the Holy Spirit, returned from Jordan, and he was led by
the Spirit into the wilderness. And in verse 14 we see, And Jesus
returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee. And there
went about him a fame of him throughout all the region and
round about. Jesus he was led by the Spirit
at time he obviously he did express his sovereign deity because he
was the son of God when we read about him calm in the storms
in Matthew 8 27 we read but the men marveled saying what manner
of man is this that even the work the winds and the sea obey
him well Jesus he is our example If we are one of his, we need
to be dependent upon the Holy Spirit. We never know where it
may lead us, and it made me think of James and Elsie. They arrived
at this chapel many years ago after they were married. Then
they were baptized. Then James was sent out to preach,
led by the Holy Spirit. Then as a family, they were led
out to Kenya, all by the Holy Spirit, being led by faith. And
then with all the work they've done out there, being led by
the Holy Spirit, they were then led back here, all by the Holy
Spirit, having faith and trust in Him, looking to Him as their
guide. And it's so important that we
are like this, because in Romans 8, 14, we need the Spirit present in
our lives. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they
are the sons of God. With the spirit of God, like
Jesus, we are led through the journey of life. Jesus, like
us, he experienced temptation, he experienced tiredness, sadness,
frustration, yet he never sinned. And we need help through prayer
to deal with each of these things, because we know each of these
things can cause things to escalate where we sin. One of my favorite
passages in the Bible is in Mark chapter one. In Mark chapter
1 we are given a snapshot into a day in the life of Jesus. And
at Mark he often uses this word immediately and it just shows
you the fast pacedness of Jesus' life and the busyness of his
day. So in Mark chapter one, in verses 21 to 22, they're in
the synagogue. And they went into Capernaum
and straight away on the Sabbath, he entered into the synagogue
and taught. And they were all astonished
at his doctrine for he taught them as one that had authority
and not of the scribes. Then a bit later on that day,
we then witnessed him doing a spiritual healing in verse 23 to 26. And there was in their synagogue
a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, saying, let
us alone. What have we to do with thee,
thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us?
I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked
him, saying, hold thy peace and come out of him. And when the
unclean spirit had torn him and cried with a loud voice, he came
out of him. Then later on in that day, they
then go to Peter's mother-in-law's house, verses 29 to 31. And forthwith, when they were
come out of the synagogue, they entered into the house of Simon
and Andrew, with James and John. And Simon's wife's mother lay
sick of a fever, and anon they tell him of her. And he came
and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and immediately
the fever left her. And he came back and took her
by the hands and lifted her up. And immediately the fever left
her and she ministered unto them. So there we have physical healings,
spiritual healings, physical healings. But the day did not
stop. Verse 32. And at evening, when
the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased,
and them that were possessed with devils. And all the city
was gathered together at the door. And he healed many that
were sick of diverse diseases, and cast out many devils, and
suffered not the devils to speak to them, because they knew him.
We hear, we read, it was the Sabbath day. So the people, they
wouldn't have been traveling around in the day. They would
have come in the night when the sun had set. And you can imagine
thousands of desperate people coming from all over the place.
They're piling at the door. and it wouldn't have been a quiet
scene sometimes we may see the picture of Jesus sitting there
on the door doorstep healing one by one you've got to remember
these are desperate people there was no hospital and I was watching
last night the scenes in Gaza as these aid trucks arrive into
that place you have men literally fighting for their lives and
their families And these would have been desperate people, and
Jesus would have been there healing their physical problems and dealing
with their spiritual problems. Naturally, after a day like this,
Jesus, he would have been worn out. Well, we certainly would
be. We would be looking forward to
bed, but Jesus, verse 46. Sorry, eight. He would have been naturally
worn out. In Luke 8, 46, we read about
a word called virtue. Luke 8 46. And Jesus said, somebody has
touched me for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. That
word virtue is an energy draining from him. Preachers will know
what it's like to be standing in the pulpit preaching. When
they're in the pulpit they often fill with energy and power. But
when they leave that pulpit, virtue has been drained from
them. I was with David the other Sunday in the Neaton, and there
he was full of energy, preaching morning and evening. But as soon
as he got in that car for the drive home, he was worn out,
and he slept all the way, well, most the way home. But Jesus,
as we say, we don't read of him sleeping, and the sun has not
even risen yet. And we see in verse 35 of Mark
1. And in the morning, rising up
a great while before day, he went out and departed into a
solitary place, and there he prayed. He had to depend on his
father for strength for the day. He had to depend upon him for
all energy and power. He needed the Holy Spirit present
in his life. But how often are we too tired
to pray? How often maybe we just try and
handle life by ourself. We are taught to be so independent,
but we need that dependency of Jesus. And if he is the spotless
lamb of God with sinless perfection, dependent upon prayer, then how
much more should we as human mere mortals depend on God through
prayer? We need free forgiveness of sin that comes through prayer.
We need guidance through life and that comes from prayer. in
our chapter, Luke 9, verses 9 and 10, the chapter we read, Luke
11, verses 9 and 10. And I say unto you, ask, and
it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock,
and it shall be opened to you. For everyone that asketh receiveth,
and he that seeketh findeth. And to him that knocketh, it
shall be opened. The other day in Sunday school,
I asked the children, have they witnessed a miracle? And it was
John who put his hand up and said, Liz. And we said, Liz. Liz, as we know, she was pretty
much on death's door. Her family were called to her
bedside and David said to me they didn't even expect her maybe
to live an hour. Yet prayer was made through the same power of
the Holy Spirit, which Jesus used, brought her back. And so
often we can take these things for granted, but they are miracles. And a young preacher once asked
Spurgeon, why is your ministry so successful? And he said to
the young man, come to the boiler room. And he took the young preacher
downstairs underneath his chapel. Myself and Peter were there the
other day, and there were 200 men praying. And that is the
power, prayer, what comes from our pulpit. The power is effectual
by the power of prayer in our pew. So how often we need to
remember to keep in prayer our pastor. So may that be our prayer. Lord, teach us how to pray. Amen.