He led me, He led me, I did believe, He led me, His faithful follower
I would be, Born by His heavenly grace. Now turn with me to Luke's Gospel,
chapter 11. We are going to look at Matthew
6 in a minute, but Luke's Gospel, chapter 11. The disciples watched the Lord
and listened to the Lord pray often. Scripture says he would rise
a great way before dawn, before the sun
came up. He would rise a long time before
that. And it says he would often spend
all night in prayer. And the disciples observed this.
And they desired to be able to pray as he prayed. They, like us, I'm sure thought,
I have a hard time praying. I can pray for a short time and
then I run out of things to say. And they observed him pray. as
he did, often and for long periods of time. And they thought, what
does he say? What does he say to the Father?
I want to pray like that. I want to have such communion
with our God that I'm able to spend a long time in prayer with
Him. You know, our relationship with
God, or with anyone for that matter, Depends a great deal on our communication
with them. If you do not talk to someone,
you don't know them. And if you don't know them, you
don't talk to them. And the Lord, He and His Father were one. So
He communed with them for hours and days on end, without ceasing. And the disciples saw this, and
they said in verse 1, as he was praying in a certain place, it
came to pass he was praying, and when he ceased, one of his
disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray. We want to
know how to pray and what to pray. And as John taught his
disciples, go back now to Matthew 6, so evidently John taught his
disciples to pray. And the disciples asked the Lord,
teach us to pray. And he did. Like the Lord, he
did teach us to pray. Here he teaches us. I'm so glad
that he teaches us to pray because prayer is so vital. It is so,
for lack of a better word, frustrating, isn't it? Frustrating. So he
teaches us to pray, and the first thing he teaches us is the necessity
of it. The necessity of it. He gave
a parable, as you know, over Luke 18. He said that men ought
always to pray and not to think. Don't quit praying. He gave that
parable of the widow who cried day and night unto an unjust
judge who didn't want anything to do with her, and yet he said,
will not your heavenly Father avenge or let his answer or hear
his very elect who cry day and night unto him, though it seems
that he's not answering or he is. How much more is he? And so he teaches us the necessity
of it, to pray without ceasing. He teaches us by example. He taught us through the apostles
who, especially Paul, who said it over and over again, didn't
he? Always pray without ceasing.
Listen to this. The Apostle Paul said this. He said, pray in all ways with
all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto. That is, in prayer with all perseverance
and supplication for all to say, for me, That utterance may be
given me. You remember those verses, don't
you? Colossians, he said the exact same thing. So the Lord
teaches us to pray. That's the first time. The necessity
of it. You have not because you have
not. And if we ask, we often ask amiss
just for what we want. The Lord's going to tell us how
to pray. We don't ask importunately. So the Lord teaches us here.
Why is it necessary that we pray? Well, if the Lord prayed so much,
where does that leave us? He lived by faith. He asked the
Father to provide His needs, and He did. And He said, Take
my yoke upon you and learn of Me. I am meek and lowly. Well,
we are poor and needy, aren't we? And without Him, we can do
nothing. And we need all grace. We need
grace for every hour of our day. We need wisdom from above. No
less than Solomon. Not the same amount of it, but
the same type of it. Wisdom. He's the God of all grace. God's presence. He said, draw
nigh unto Me and I'll draw nigh unto you. The dangers we face, our adversary the devil, the
world, and the worst adversary of all is within us. And we need
to pray because of the effect it has upon us. Prayer does not
change anything. Men say that prayer changes things.
No, it doesn't. No one under God or all His works
from the beginning. Like Ezekiel 36 where He kept
saying, I will do this, I will do that, I will do this. And
He said, I will be inquired of you to do it. But prayer changes
us. Prayer has a real effect on us. Toward God, toward ourselves,
toward others. And then our Lord taught us Not
only to pray, but he taught us to do it in secret, didn't he? To do it in secret, literally.
Except when we do it together as a church. He said, when you
pray, don't be like the hypocrites are. They want to be seen. That's
why they're doing it publicly. He made that very plain, didn't
he? Don't do it. He said, don't do it. Pray in
secret, because that's who you're praying to. Your Father, that's
who you want to hear you and see you. And then he told us
about the, for lack of a better word, the uniqueness of it. That
is, don't use vain repetitions. We're all guilty of that, aren't
we? We know not what we should pray, so we often pray the same
things, especially when we do it publicly, right, men? We just
don't know. But he says, better have a... a heart without words than words
without heart. Better to say a few words from
the heart than several words repetitiously. He says, don't
do that. And then he gives us the content of it. He tells us how to pray. And now, because
he just said, don't use vain repetition, means, You don't
pray this prayer all the time exactly like He prayed it, like
He told us. He just told us not to do that.
How many times do people in the world, let's all pray, and everybody
starts quoting what they call the Lord's Prayer, huh? Everybody
in unison does it. Shout in heaven. And so, it means
nothing. The Lord just told us, don't
do that. But He gives us the message of
it, or the meaning of it, or what prayer is. Okay? You don't have to say these exact
words. He just told us not to do that
repetitiously. Alright, look at verse 9 in our
text. He says, After this manner, therefore pray ye, Our Father
which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Oh my, I'm not going to spend
my time right now talking about who's not God's children, but
I want to just address those who are. There's not enough time. He says to His disciples, those
who believe His Word and trust Him and follow Him, he said,
you call God your Father. He called Him my Father over
and over, didn't he? My Father, my Father. And he
said, I go to my Father and your Father. Our Father. That ought to give us great comfort
right there, shouldn't it? The great blessing and peace
and comfort of knowing that the great God and Creator of all
things, God in whose hands our breath is, is not only our God,
He's our Father. And our Lord in this same sermon
said, if you, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your
children, and that's what we desire, if you really love your
children, you want nothing but good for them. He said, how much
more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit? That's
interesting, the Holy Spirit to them that ask, our Father.
He's our Father by new birth. He's our Father by adoption.
And who are His children? Well, remember, He said, blessed
are the poor in spirit. Is this you? If it is, He's your
Father. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
I'm a nothing and a nobody. Blessed are they that mourn.
Bless the day that mourns. Oh, do you mourn over your sin?
Huh? Bless the day that hungers and thirsts after righteousness. That's crying. Do you hunger
and thirst after crying? God your Father. God your Father. Bless another peacemaker. Well,
our Father, He said, what a comforting, comforting thought that ought
to give us peace and great comfort. Your Father, He went on to say,
seeth. He said that beginning with,
your father seeth everything. Your father knoweth what things
you have. As a father pitieth his children,
so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. So pray, he said, father. I tell you, that's the sweetest
word today that I know of. One of the sweetest words I know
is when my daughter says, Daddy, And he says the Spirit has given
us, the Spirit has borne witness with our spirit, given us the
spirit of adoption whereby we can cry, Abba, Father. He has borne witness that we
are the sons of God. Say, Our Father, which art in
heaven? God is in heaven. That's why
I love that Psalm, Isaiah 66. He said, the heaven is my throne,
the earth is my footstool. God is high. And I tell you,
he says, to this man will I look. He is poor and contrite and tremble
at my word. God is high and we are low. He
hears the lowly. He condescends to the lowly.
He takes great pleasure in them that fear Him. Our Father, which
art in heaven. I remember bragging about my
father as a young boy. Still do. Still do. But I remember bragging as a
real small child, and we should think of our Father in this way.
I remember bragging about my father being bigger and stronger
than anybody. He could do anything. Well, he
wasn't. But I thought he did. I thought
he was. But let me tell you something, our Father is bigger, stronger,
greater. Where is He? In heaven. In heaven. And He says, pray this way, hallowed
be thy name. That means holy, sacred. His name is above all others,
worthy of praise and honor, praise and adoration and reverence.
Here's one way you may know that He's your Heavenly Father. What
do you think when you hear His name? How does it make you feel
when you hear the name of God? To say the name of God, are you cautious when you use that
name? When you think of God, do you think of Him with worship
and praise and adoration? Do you fear His name? All of
His children do. Hallowed be thy name. And this
is praise and adoration. That's one way you may know you're
a son of God. You fear His name. You love His
name. And you that know the Lord make
mention that His name is exalted. You hate to hear people take
it in vain. Does it bother you? That's how
you may know. So he tells us, call upon your
Holy Father and sanctify him, the Lord of hosts, let him be
your dread. And he says, pray this way, our Father which art
in heaven, hallowed holy be thy name, thy kingdom come. Thy kingdom come. What is his
kingdom? Well, it's everything that has
to do with him. Spiritual thing. It's His gospel. It's His Spirit.
It's His family. It's His people. It's His new
heaven and His new earth where He will indwell with righteousness.
It's everything that has to do with God and with the Lord Jesus
Christ, with His Word, with His people. It's His kingdom. It's
a spiritual kingdom. You have an earthly kingdom He's
given, set up over men, and then you have a heavenly kingdom,
spiritual kingdom that Christ reigns and rules and His people
are the subjects of that kingdom, His people. And nothing dwells
in that kingdom but righteousness, holiness, and goodness, and God
and His people. Does that interest you? So he
says, pray this way. Oh, God, Your kingdom come. I want Your kingdom to come.
Thy kingdom come. Come into our presence. Come
into my heart. Reign and rule over me. in my
heart. Reign and rule. Come, Lord, into
my son and daughter's hearts, my mother and father, Loved one,
Lord, come, thy kingdom come. Send your kingdom. Reign and
rule over us. Rule thou over us. Lord, let
your word, let your gospel come tonight. This is what it is to
pray, thy kingdom come. Let your gospel, the gospel of
your kingdom come in power of the Holy Spirit and with much
assurance. Come right now and reign over
my doubts and fears and my worries and all of it. Heal my unbelief. And Lord, may sinners be saved. Come! May sinners be saved. May people in this community
come to hear the gospel. May your church be strengthened.
May Satan's power be diminished. Come! Oh, Lord, please come. Come Thou into our midst. That's
what He said. Teach us to do that, Lord, to
pray that way. Thy Kingdom. Come. Come, Lord. Come quickly. Come quickly. Then he says, pray, thy will
be done. How may you know if you are a
child of God? Listen to what he tells us to
pray. Thy will be done. Forgive us. Lead us not into temptation.
Only his people ask for those things. Most people ask for things. But God's people ask for the
things of God that are not material things, but spiritual things.
Lord, come, reign over us. Not come and give me this or
give me that, but come and reign and rule over us. And Lord, forgive us. Forgive us. That's
what you prayed tonight. Our greatest need is forgiveness
of sins. Thy will be done. Now, who can
say that? People that are free willers
can't. No free will church, so-called,
can say that, do they? What do we say? What do God's
people say? Thy will be done. John, you pray
that every time you pray. I notice that. And so do all
these people, really, in spirit anyway. God's will is being done. It is being done. in heaven,
in earth, as it is in heaven. Yes, it is. God worketh all things
unto the counsel of his will. God will work. Who's going to
stop it? That's what the Scripture says.
His will is being done. We know it is. Nothing can stop
it. I'm so glad. He worketh all things. But what
he's telling us to do is confess to him, not my will, but thy will be
done. That's what he prayed. Not my will, but Thy will be
done. This is what all of God's people
say, Lord, don't let me have my will. Don't let me have my
will. Don't let me have my way. Lord,
don't leave us to our will and our way. Thy will be done in
me. In me. In us. Thy will in me,
in my life, in my family, in everything, Lord. Thy will be
done. Thy will be done. And then he
gives us petitions just like Paul told us with prayer, with
all supplication. He said, pray in all ways. Let
thy petitions, with thankfulness, let thy petitions be made known.
Petitions are asking him to give us things and do things for us.
And here are petitions that he tells us to ask our Father for. Now look at it. Verse 11, he
says, Give us this day our daily bread. And before we look at that, I
want you to notice the word us. You see that? How he tells us
throughout this prayer, pray, give us. Forgive us, lead us,
deliver us. See that? Our Father. Our Father. He is our Father. Since He's our Father, what does
that make us? Brethren. There's nothing the
Father delights more. I know. I'm a father. Nothing
a father delights more than for children to be Share with one
another. Love one another as brethren.
Isn't that what he said? Love as brethren. Love one another
as I love you. Our father. He's our elder brother. Oh, did he bless us and pray
for us. Oh, a brother is born for adversity. Brethren, pray for us, Paul said. Love as brethren. Love one another.
So the Lord taught us to pray for one another, and He did it
by example. If you'll remember His great
prayer in John 17, it wasn't for Himself, was it? He did ask
for some things. Father, glorify Thou me with
the glory I had with Thee from the beginning. He didn't. But
He mostly prayed, He said, I pray for them. I don't pray for the
world. But I pay from them which thou
hast given me." And he said, keep them. Sanctify them. Unite them. I will that they
all be with me where I am. Behold my glory. So he prayed
for us, didn't he? So he says to us, you pray for
us. Say, Our Father, give us. Give us. If anything, before
you ask for your own petitions, ask for your brethren. You know
what? I pretty much know what the Father will do. Do you remember
that time I told you about Amber and Clara? How Amber had a birthday
party and got all that money and she gave part of it to Clara?
Do you remember that? She gave money to her sister
and I watched it. I noticed it. And a little while
later, I went and got the exact amount of money that she had
given to her sister. And I gave it back to Amber because
I was so pleased with what she did for her sister. It pleases
the Father greatly. It pleases Him greatly. Pray
for us. And he says here, give us this
day our daily bread. That's necessity. He tells us
to pray for our necessity, daily bread. He tells us if we have food in
arraignment, be content. The Father knows what things
you have need of. When did He say that? In the
same sermon. When He talked about the people
of this world caring for what they shall eat and what they
shall drink, He said the Father knows you have need of those
things. He said the birds, they don't gather. Your Father feeds
them. They don't sow. Your Father feeds
them. Say unto Him, give us our daily bread this day. We need
to live more in the present. Do you know that? We all need
to live more in the present. He's going to go on to tell us
that. But take no thought for tomorrow. Don't worry about tomorrow. The worries for tomorrow are
sufficient for that day. You live in the present. Give us
this day. We need to be more conscious
of today and not worry about tomorrow. We are the worst and
most guilty. Those disciples were the ones
he was talking to and us. He was going to send them out
into the world without purse and without a dime. He was going
to send them out without a dollar in their pocket. And he said, just pray, give
us this day our daily bread. Did he? After three and a half
years, he said to them, while I was with you, did you lack
anything? Did you ever miss a meal? They
said, nothing, Lord. Give us this day our daily bread. You know the fact of the matter
is all of us live hand to mouth. We do. to our mouth. We do. We do. We just don't see
it. And so He says, pray, give us
this day. And surely that has reference
to His Word. Because man doesn't live by bread
alone. And the Lord is telling us, He's talking about our body.
Our bodies do have need. He knows that. He knows our frame.
He knows we have physical needs. He's talking about our body.
He talks about our soul. He talks about our spirit. Body, soul,
and spirit. The Lord is concerned with the
whole man. And He says, you need food, ask Him for it. He's going
to give it to you. He's going to give it to you, but ask Him.
And if you ask Him and He gives it to you, you thank Him for
giving it. The simplest of things. Bread. Bread. And certainly He's
talking about our need of daily bread. His Word, that's what
we live on truly. And He says in verse 12, pray
this way, forgive us our debts. as we forgive our debtors. Forgive
us our debts. Oh my, what do you owe? What do you owe to the Lord?
How good has the Lord been to you? And how much have you sinned
against Him? Daily. Daily. Debts of gratitude. We owe Him
a great debt of gratitude, don't we? Service. What has the Lord
done for us? What have we done for Him? What
have we done for Him? That's our reason to serve. Oh, how much I owe. Debt. Daily, I keep piling up debt. Day in, day out. Do you? Debt. Take, take, take, take, take. And give very little, very little,
very little back. Only sin, sin, sin. He says,
pray to your Father, forgive me. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Please forgive
me, Lord. Look at verse 14. He says, as
we forgive our debtors, If you forgive me of their trespasses,
your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. What I need more
than anything is forgiveness, don't you? Well, this is how
you get it. That's fair enough, isn't it?
You forgive the five cents that He owes you, and He'll forgive
the five trillion dollars that you owe Him. Fair enough. He's fair. He's more than that. He's merciful. He's gracious. Lord, forgive us as we forgive. If you forgive not men, they're
trespassing. The Father won't forgive you.
Lord, forgive us as we forgive our debtors. Oh, my. Look at verse 13. Lead us not
into temptation. After this matter, pray. Pray
this daily. He says, pray without ceasing, so this means pray in
this way every day, every time you pray. Let it be asking forgiveness. Let it be praise and honor, adoration
to Him. Let it be asking Him to come,
reign over you, save His people, asking Him for forgiveness, and
asking Him to keep you from evil. Oh, Lord, lead us not into temptation. We sang that song, He leadeth
me. Oh, blessed thought. Oh, words with heavenly comfort
thought. What e'er I do, where I be, still
tis God's hand that leadeth me. Huh? He does. He leads us. Any man be led not
by the Spirit, he's not a hymn. He leads his people. What a word
of great comfort that is, like a shepherd. He leads us. Like
a father, He leads us. But like sheep, we're prone to
wander. And like a prodigal, prone to
leave a God I love. And we do it. David, in his Psalm
119, the last verse, the last line of his wonderful psalm,
said this, Oh, seek thy servant, I've gone
astray. I've gone astray. He confessed.
I've gone astray. Seek me. Thankfully, we have
the Lord as our shepherd. But like sheep, we're prone to
wander. Like a prodigal, we're prone to leave. Our God and our
Father will sometime let us. He'll let us. He'll let us. And without Him, we can do nothing.
Without Him, we cannot resist one temptation. Simon Peter. Simon Peter wrote this. He said,
Satan, like a roaring lion, seeketh whom he may devour. Simon said,
I know. I know. I know by terrible experience. Simon, you remember, the Lord
said, all of you will forsake me this day. I had to accord
his will. And Simon Peter said, they all
may, not me. Don't ever say, I will never
do anything. Don't ever say, so-and-so did
that, I'd never do that. That means you're just about
to do it. You can just about guarantee you're going to do
it. And if you're one of the Lord's own, it'll be a horrible
experience. If you're one of the Lord's own,
you'll hear Him say later, after a long period of weeping bitterly,
you'll hear Him say, go tell my disciples and Peter. But don't ever say that. Simon
said, I learned. He said, I never will. He should have said, Lord, lead me not into temptation.
Don't leave me alone for one minute. I can't stand for one
minute. I can't resist my adversary.
He's stronger than me. I can't do it. Lord, don't leave
me. You said I'd fall. Hold me up
by Thy mighty power, by Thy arm. Be Thou my arm every morning. Lead us not into temptation.
We need to say that daily, don't we? Daily. The minute we wake
up, don't we? Daily. Don't let me go where
I'll be tempted. Where's that? As soon as you
walk out that door. The world has everything to appeal
to our old man. Everything. Lead us not into
temptation. Deliver us from evil. He said,
deliver us from evil. What evil? The evil want. Deliver
us from his captivity, Lord. Deliver us from
his dominion, Lord. Deliver us from this present
evil. world. Deliver us from the love
of it. Deliver us from covetousness.
Deliver us from pursuing it, Lord. Deliver us from fearing
it. Deliver us from this present
evil world, Lord. Deliver us from the worst evil
of all, is that evil man in here. Deliver me from me. Every day
pray this, Lord, let me deny myself. Deliver me from me. Deliver me from that. He's an evil man and I hate him.
Would you kill him? Kill him. Just kill him. Set
up thy reign. Come, you be in me. Christ in
me. And he says, close your prayer
in this way. Plead his power. Thine is the
kingdom. Lord, this is your kingdom. I'm
your servant. I belong to you. You bought me
with a price. It's your kingdom. Now your servant.
And the power. Lord, it's your power. Now has
to all power. All power is given unto you in
heaven and earth. Lord, exercise that power over
me. And the glory. For your glory. For your honor. And Lord, let
it be forever. What do you say to that? Amen. Okay, you're dismissed.