God bless this word. As we read
it together this evening, we'll turn to the Gospel according
to Luke and read part of chapter 11. The Gospel according to Luke and
reading part of chapter 11. We'll begin reading at the first
verse. 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.' 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 to 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 importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. 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 everyone that asketh receiveth,
And to him 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 ask 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 him? We'll leave the reading of God's
Word there. I want to turn to this passage
at this point before we come to prayer, really as a way of
introduction and as a way to consider as we prepare to come
to the Lord together in prayer. And I want to consider the Lord's
Prayer as we read in verses 2 to 4 just briefly this evening. This prayer is well known of
course and is often taken as great encouragement, or it is
indeed great encouragement for us all to pray. It's a great
encouragement that our Lord himself gives to pray. It's his pattern
for prayer for his people. And when we come to the Lord
individually in our private devotions, it's good to remember this pattern
for prayer that the Lord has set down for us. And it's wonderful
to be able to come rightly to our Father. He tells us, doesn't
he, in another passage about coming to the Lord and praying
in the closet. And it's right, of course, that
as individuals we must seek to have a life of prayer. and at
those times to enter into our closet and pray unto him who
sees in secret. It's vital that we have a healthy
prayer life. But I found it striking when
I was thinking about this, the Lord's Prayer this week. It's
obvious, although perhaps I'd never noticed it quite so clearly
before, that when the Lord speaks here, he speaks in the plural. He says, Our Father which art
in heaven, Give us, day by day, our daily bread. Forgive us our
sins. Now it could of course, quite
rightly, we could say, we could read it, my Father which art
in heaven, give me, day by day, my daily bread. And that would
be perfectly right to pray as individuals like this. But the
Lord here speaks in the plural. And it's almost as if I feel
that he was encouraging his people in this prayer that they should
pray together. that the people would be together
and be able to say together, our Father, give us day by day
and so on. It's a prayer to encourage us
to pray together, not just alone and in our closet. And it's these
times, of course, particularly at prayer meetings, that we are
to pray together. The Lord has brought us together
this evening, given us the opportunity and the health and the strength
to come together to pray. And it's so vital that we come
to the Lord and prepare to pray, that there may have been preparation
even during the day that we're coming to a prayer meeting, and
that we're coming rightly unto the Lord, but also that we might
be united in prayer, that we might know that all of us are
praying together. And all of us are praying in
faith, and feel the unity, though one may be leading us in prayer. Feel unity with those desires,
unity in those prayers. And say, Our Father, as we pray
together. Well, let's just very briefly
look at this Lord's Prayer. He says, Our Father, which art
in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Now, of course, we would worship
the Lord when we come as individuals to the Lord in our closets, but
here we have, I believe, the encouragement also to worship
together. We address Him as our Father
and we worship Him as the Holy God together. And that's what
a prayer meeting, that's what a service should be in its outset,
a time of worship. a time to rejoice in the Lord,
a time to lift up his name, a time to worship him together as our
Father. And it's a wonderful blessing
to come together as a church, a congregation like this, and
have that time of worship in our prayers. And we should seek
to be like that as we both lead and as we pray in the seats quietly
to ourselves, to the Lord, our Father which art in heaven. Hallowed
be thy name. So there's a period, an encouragement
rather, of worship. He then says, thy kingdom come. Another element, I believe, of
joining in prayer, not just worship, but also praying for the Lord's
kingdom to come. Praying for prosperity, praying
for growth in the church, praying that the Lord's work might appear. Again, we pray for that as individuals,
we pray for that as families, but here, as we're together,
we especially pray for that as a church, that the Lord might
come and work among us, that the Lord might bring in those
whom he will call, that the Lord might use our endeavours to spread
and preach the Gospel in this area. We join together and say,
Our Father, We focus particularly at these times on these church
matters. Thy kingdom come. Then come thy
will be done as in heaven so in earth. So also we are to come
to Lord in this spirit of submission, in the spirit of desiring guidance
from the Lord. Again, as we pray together as
a church and congregation to commit our way together to the
Lord. Say, Lord, sometimes we don't
know what to do. Sometimes we don't know the best
way forward for us as a company of thy people. Sometimes we do
not know as we come what may seem a crossroads or what may
feel like a dead end. Lord, thy will be done for us. What a blessing when we can come
humbly and unitedly together and say, Lord, our Father, thy
will be done, as in heaven. so in earth. We then have the
prayer for daily bread. Give us day by day our daily
bread. Now, of course, this is again
a prayer we could pray as individuals, provide all of our need naturally,
give us our daily bread. But as a church, we should also
pray this week in, week out. Give us spiritual food together.
Give us feeding under the preaching. Give us the blessing from the
reading and exposition of the Word. Bless us together as we
speak to one another of the things of God. Bless us as we encourage
each other. Give us our daily bread. O Lord,
do not ever leave us to a time when we starve or we become wanting
of food when we meet together, or when other things have taken
the precedence of meeting to feed our souls. Give us day by
day our daily bread. May our meetings not be dry and
fruitless. Our Father, give us, see again
the plural, give us day by day our daily bread. It's a prayer
again for his blessing on the Church. Forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. Here
we have a prayer that the Lord would be merciful to us, a prayer
that the Lord would show us if we are wrong, again, as individuals
and as a church. Lord, forgive us our sins. We're
not perfect. We're not always all wise and
all knowing. If we have fallen, if we are
in error, if we are stumbling, forgive us our sins and give
us a spirit of humility, a loving, kind and forgiving spirit like
our Lord, that we might also Forgive them that are indebted
to us. The Lord might be merciful to
us. We need him to be merciful. Every church needs him to be
merciful. Every man, woman and child needs him to be merciful. Lord, forgive us our sins. Show
us if we are wrong and give us that humility to confess. Forgive us our sins and finally
lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Here we have a prayer to be kept,
a prayer to be delivered from temptation, a prayer that we
might be kept faithful, that we might be kept from error,
that we might be given that hand, as it were, upon us, that we
might not be left to fall. Every church that seeks to follow
in the Lord's ways, I believe, has the devil knocking on the
door and wants to drag us into temptation and wants to bring
us into evil. how much we need at a prayer
meeting to pray, Lord, lead us not into temptation, deliver
us from evil. So you see, I was so encouraged
in reading this really this week, to think of this as a prayer
together, that we might unite as one and pray for the Lord's
blessing, pray for the Lord's hand, pray for the Lord's guidance,
pray that he would appear, pray that he would keep, pray that
he would forgive us, because we can come together, and I hope
we all can, and say, Our Father. The psalmist says, doesn't he,
trust in him at all times, ye people, ye people, pour out your
heart before him. God is a refuge for us. It's true as individuals. Trust
in Him, ye person. God is a refuge for you. Yes.
May we take it together. He is a refuge for us.