The word that I am concerned
about tonight is in Luke's Gospel chapter 11 and verse 1. And it's really a question that
the disciples ask of the Lord. Jesus had just been praying and
when he stopped one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us
to pray. The request from the disciples
was this, Lord, teach us to pray. When we think of all the concerns
we have, think of the things that we mentioned at the beginning
of this service, so many cares, so many concerns, so many situations
that we need to be prayerful about. Lord, teach us. to pray. That was what the disciples
asked the Lord Jesus. And interesting really, that
very sentence was a prayer itself, wasn't it? Lord, teach us to
pray. They were praying unto the Lord
to teach them to pray. And what a right place they came
to, to be taught how to pray, how to approach, how to speak,
how to intercede with the Lord God in heaven. Well, Jesus then
goes ahead and gives us this, what's often referred to as the
Lord's Prayer. Although some have pointed out
that really it's more the disciple's prayer. It's a prayer given for
the disciples to pray. For example, the Lord does not
have to ask for his sins to be forgiven. It is for us to ask
such a prayer, not for him. And it has been pointed out that
the Lord's Prayer is often really perhaps would be better named
John chapter 17, that high priestly prayer where he prays to his
father. But it's often referred to as
the Lord's Prayer and it appears these two times in the Bible
in Luke 11 and also in Matthew 6, those two places that we've
read. And it begins with these words,
Our Father. It is to be prayed to the God
who is in heaven, who art in heaven, but we are to remember
that he is a loving heavenly father. He is great and awesome
and yet he is to be pleaded with as a father. And we remember
those words, that as a father pitieth his children. So the
Lord pitieth them that fear him. We are to come to him. And also
we read where Jesus says, if ye then being evil know how to
give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father
which is in heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that are. So we
are to come to our Father. We are to come together with
this, ours, our Father, not just my Father but ours, all the Church
of God. He is the Father of all His people. So that's really the preface,
is our Father which art in heaven. We are to remember that though
we are encouraged to come to Him as
our Father, Yet we are to remember that he is in heaven, he is almighty,
he is powerful, therefore we are to come with reverence. We
are not to come disrespectfully, but we are to come to him with
that intimacy of father, but that respect that he is in heaven. So after the preface, as we could
call it, there are then six petitions in this prayer. Jesus has been
asked to teach them to pray and he teaches these disciples six
petitions, six requests. It's very interesting to notice
that the first three requests are not taken up with the person
themselves. It's not praying for our needs
to start with. It's putting first things first. Really, the Lord's Prayer is
such an outworking of that text that we read in Matthew. But
seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and
all these things shall be added unto you. You see, we are to
seek first the Kingdom of God. That's to come first. And the
first three requests in the Lord's Prayer are all about the exaltation
of our God, and the praising of our God, and the furtherance
of his kingdom. And then the next three requests
are to do with our personal needs. So, the first request, thy kingdom
come. We are to be concerned regarding
the kingdom of God. We are not to be indifferent.
We're not to be unconcerned how the church prosper or whether
they don't, whether the church is walking closely with God,
whether the church is as a bride adorned for her husband or no.
We are to pray that God's kingdom will come, that the whole earth
will be filled with his glory, hallowed Sorry, I've jumped one. The first request is, Hallowed
be thy name. Sorry. Hallowed be thy name. That's the first request. That
God's name will be exhorted and reverenced. But we can't add
to God's glory. But what this is a request is
that we, that God is acknowledged in the way he ought to be acknowledged
for his glory. The reason that we do not worship
God more than we do is not because he's not worthy of that worship.
It's because we don't appreciate his greatness. And therefore,
hallowed be thy name, thy name, the name of God needs to be set
up and to be exhorted as the only name whereby we must be
saved. Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom
come. We should be concerned therefore
about the kingdom of God, how it prospers, how it flourishes. Thy will be done in earth will
be done as in heaven, so in earth. We are to be concerned that the
will of God is done, that this people have I formed for myself,
they shall show forth my praise. This is the will of God. Are
we more praying for our will to be done, that we've got a
plan and we want God to work to it, or are we praying thy
will be done? as in heaven, so on earth, and
the angels perfectly fulfil God's orders and will in heaven, don't
they? And we're to pray that it might
be done so on earth as it is in heaven. So, these three requests, the
hallowing of his name, his kingdom to come, his will to be done,
all to do with the glory of God, all to do with his exaltation,
his kingdom, not selfish, not personal. And yet, then the next
three prayers are personal. So it's not that our prayers
should be impersonal, it's not that we shouldn't pray about
our daily needs. give us day by day our daily
bread. You say, well that's perhaps
if you've just been praying for the Kingdom of God to be coming.
Surely it is not praying for our daily bread. Too small. But
no, God says, the Lord is saying that we should be praying for
these great ends. But also, God knows that we have
needs. He knows that we have need of
these things. We need daily bread. We need
food. We need water, we need clothing,
we need so many things, but He knows what we have need of. So
we are to seek His Kingdom and we are to also seek that He may
provide for us. Then this next request, after
acknowledging that we need daily bread, acknowledging that we
are dependent upon Him for everything that we daily need, Then he says, and forgive us
our sins, for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to
us. It's interesting here, there is some thoughts in the so-called
Christian world, that once you become a believer, then you don't
sin, then you no longer sin anymore. and they twist Romans 7 so that
Paul is speaking about his past rather than his present with
his present struggles of sin and they pretend that a believer
can live a sinless life. Clearly the Lord Jesus would
not agree with that doctrine. He says here, he commands the
disciples daily to pray this and forgive us our sins. So when
Satan comes and hounds you and tries to discourage you because
once again you've fallen, once again you've come short of the
glory of God today, once again you've committed sins, we're
to be encouraged that the Lord has left this on record. Forgive
us our sins daily. That does not mean we sin lightly.
It does not mean we are careless about sin. but it does mean we
are to confess our sins and if we confess our sins he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins and as we forgive those who are
indebted to us so we must forgive those who have done wrong against
us and lead us not into temptation so there is a request that we
should not be led away into temptation of sin, realising this is a prayer
realising our weakness, realising our vulnerability, realising
how easily we could be turned aside from the right way, and
we are to pray daily that the Lord would lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. And then in Matthew's account,
when Jesus was on the Sermon on the Mount, he gave this ending
to the prayer which doesn't appear in Luke 11. For thine is the
kingdom. So there's this latter part.
So there was a first part, the preface, Our Father which art
in heaven. Then there was this three requests
regarding our relationship with God. And then these three requests
regarding our great need. And this is to be a pattern prayer,
after this manner to pray, but then at the end there is this
praise that comes forth. We are to praise God you see.
We read this, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the
glory. It's acclaiming the greatness
to our God, it's ascribing greatness to our God. forever and ever. Amen. See the Lord is to be praised. So as we join together this evening
for prayer, may we be encouraged. Teach us to pray. This is the way Jesus taught
his disciples to pray. To seek to speak to their father
in heaven as one that cares and loves for them, to seek petitions
for the furtherance of the gospel, for the increase of his kingdom,
and to seek then, after having prayed for that, putting first
things first, to pray for our daily needs. and then to praise
him for his greatness. Well, may the Lord give us that
breath of living prayer tonight as we gather together and as
we seek his face that we may be encouraged. May we know the
Lord's presence then as the Brethren are helped in prayer.