Well, good morning, and we're
continuing our study in Luke this morning. And today we're
going to begin chapter 11. And we'll begin by just reading
the first bit of Luke chapter 11. And it came to pass, verse 1
of chapter 11, it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain
place, that's Jesus, 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 you
pray, Say, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy
name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in heaven, so on
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, because of
his persistence, 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 open unto you. For everyone
that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to
him that knocketh it shall be open. If a son shall ask bread
of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or
if he asks 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? Boy, quite a lot of information
in this block of Scripture. And I was talking to our pastor
this morning and I said, you know, I just felt totally inadequate
to talk about this today because I'm like the worst prayer that
there is, you know. So a lot of things came to me
as we were looking at this block of scripture. There's just so
much in it. And we talk about this quite
a bit because prayer often comes up in the scriptures. In the
Old Testament, the New Testament, wherever we're at, the subject
of prayer comes up. And, you know, our pastor just
says, you know, enter into your closet. It's a private time of
communication with you and God. And that's where we do our serious
praying and not so much in a more formal setting. So I always appreciate
that here. It seems like if I get called
on to pray in a public thing, it's like a vacuum cleaner comes
and sucks everything out of my mind. So I struggle with that, and
I know that many do. So as we look at this subject
of prayer, and this same, kind of the same thing is brought
out in Matthew chapter 6 in the Sermon on the Mount in a little
bit different terms, pretty much the same example or pattern we'll
call it. It's not a, here are the words
to say, kind of a thing. It's, when you pray to God, say
these words. It's more the, here's a pattern,
here's the context of what you should be thinking about. And
we get that in Matthew chapter 6 too, and along with that we
get admonitions about here's what not to do. Which is oftentimes
when the Lord says, don't do this, it's as valuable to us
as what to do. Because when the Lord says, don't
do that, because it's distasteful to Him. It takes no pleasure
in it, gets no good out of it, and He doesn't like it. So He
gives us admonitions on how not to do something we should pay
attention. The text here notes that Jesus was praying, which
He oftentimes did. And I think, boy, you know, we
have some really great examples of the Lord's prayer in Scripture.
John 17, probably the one that comes to most people's mind.
It's such a wonderful prayer. His concern is about His sheep
there and the redemption of the sheep. You've given Me power
over all things that I can give eternal life to as many as You
have given Me. And He says, I'm here doing that. Then He goes on and talks about
He's praying for them. I pray not for the world, but
I pray for them whom Thou has given Me. All those wonderful
things that He brings out in the Scriptures. regarding His
care and love and communication with the Father
about those that the Father gave Him before the foundation of
the world and the covenant of grace. What a wonderful thing. And I just see these disciples,
they hear Him pray, and I probably would feel like them. I'd say, oh man, how wonderful. I wish I could do that, you know. So we have those examples, and
when we see them in Scripture, it's good to pay attention to
them and learn from them. You know, when the disciples
requested there in the first part of the verse there in verse
1, teach us to pray. Well, the Lord's people, They
have an innate knowledge within themselves that they're like
all of us. I don't know how to do this. I need instruction. I need help. Just like we need help from the
Lord in every single aspect of everything we do. So teach us to pray, as John
also taught his disciples. So there's that fundamental acknowledgement
from believers that we need instruction there. I was thinking about I
was telling Norm this morning that I had like the worst example
of prayer where we used to go up in Alaska. It's like, this
is the most awful prayer service ever in existence. So I learned
a lot of, well, here's how not to do it. was thinking that I could pretty
much say, well, this person's going to, here's exactly the
words he's going to say, and this person goes, here's what
he's going to say, and so on down the road. But I think that When we take a deeper look at
prayer and when we take a deeper look at the purpose of it and
the aspect of it, Robert Haldane said there's kind of two aspects
of prayer. One is the prayer itself, and
the other is the things we ask for, and we don't know how to
do either one. So that's a quote from his commentary
in Romans 8, 25, I think verse 25, where he says, we know not
how to pray even. We don't even know how to pray.
And that's, Paul wrote that. And he wasn't saying those people
out there, they don't know how to pray. He says, we collectively
don't know how to pray as we ought. And thank God the Spirit
helps our infirmities and kind of translates things that we
have on our hearts and minds. And so I kind of wanted to look
at some things that really are more introspectful, I guess,
about prayer. And one of the things that kind
of came to me is that, you know, everybody prays differently or
has a different prayer or different take on things. But collectively,
it's kind of a blend if we think about it in that way. In Revelation
chapter 5, verse 8, if you want to turn over there
for just a second. In Revelation 5-8, when he had
taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell
down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden
vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints. And I
was just thinking of all the the different smells. From over
here, this aroma of this prayer. And over here, this odor of this
prayer. And collectively, they kind of
come together and intermingle and form a pleasant odor to the
Lord It's pleasing to Him because people are communicating with
Him from all of His people. It kind of reminded me, in Ephesians
chapter 4 and 1 Corinthians chapter 12, it talks about the different
parts of the body. And it's kind of representative
of the church. We have the finger and we have
the thumb and we have the eye and the ear and all the different
components. And it says they all fit together
to form a whole. And they each form a function. They each perform a part. And like I'll say, boy, I wish I
could pray like that guy. But he's the thumb. And I'm like the little toe or
something, not so useful, I think, you know, but the toe is necessary
for you to balance and the knee is necessary for you to stand
up and turn and walk. And, you know, each part supplies
a piece that's necessary and that's pleasing to the Lord.
And so I think if we look at prayer kind of in that way, they
don't, All of our prayers don't have to be the same. I like Craig. He's so methodical, and he remembers
everything. And somebody says, we need to
pray for this. Well, he writes that down, and
he remembers it. And me, it's like, phew. I'll
be lucky if I can remember what I had for breakfast. And we always talk about Calvin.
His prayer was, Lord, we just love you. And that just kind
of said it all. And so from there, We look at many of the things
in our prayers are not expressed verbally so much as within our
hearts. And that's what it talks about
in Romans 8.25. We have these groanings, these things that
really aren't verbalized, but they're just heart groanings
that we have an earnest, serious, burden about or something
we want the Lord to address. And so, thank the Lord that the
Spirit translates those into what's in accordance with God. So, I want to look at that today
too. So, in this prayer that we have here today, it's only
58 words long, and it's not a here's exactly what you say prayer. Kind of a compilation, contextual
view of prayer. Simplicity. It's not complicated. It's like the gospel. It's not
complex. And right off the bat, we look
at who it's addressed to, you know, and our relationship with
whom it is. And I think it helps our prayer
if we always remember that He causes us to cry, Abba, Father. He causes us to remember that
We are His children. We're in a kinship relationship
to Him. And that's why it goes on to
say here in the latter part of the block of Scripture that we
wrote today, which one of you that asks something of his father,
if you ask a loaf of bread, are you going to get a stone? And
it has that father-child relationship that it brings to us as an example. We know that we have that relationship
with Him, and it tells us that, and we'll look at some Scriptures
here in the New Testament that describe that relationship. But anyway, we recognize whom
we're addressing. We're addressing God Almighty,
but He's also God our Father. and through Christ our Lord. So it causes us to kind of recognize
who and what God is. It just says a couple of words
about Him. Just the very name in the Greek,
that Theos, that God, that supreme almightiness. But it says He's
in heaven. And His name is hallowed. So we'll
look at that a little bit. And then we look at subordinating
our will to comport with the will and purpose of God. And
that's what a lot of what the Holy Spirit does because as Paul
wrote, we don't know what to pray for as we ought. And many
times the things that we would pray for just are not in compliance with
the will of the Father, and always remembering that the purpose
of God is the redemption of the church. And that's why we're
here. That's the reason the earth is here. That's why all things
are happening. Everything is working for good
to them that love God, that were called according to His purpose.
So we know that every single thing that goes on is according
to His will and purpose. as Thou hast given Him power
over all things, that He might give eternal life to as many
as Thou hast given Him." And that going out through the Gospel.
So, subordinating our will to comport with the will and purpose
of God. Recognizing the sovereignty of God in all things. Boy, we
have trouble with that. making our requests or needs
known unto God, always acknowledging our need for forgiveness by grace. Boy, we just have that every
day. And expressing forgiveness to
others, just as we have been forgiven. And then he says, lead
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. So those are the
things we'll kind of briefly touch on in our amount of time
that we have today. Romans chapter 8 seems to sum
up our abilities and understanding in this world, which is so adversely
affected by sin in the fall. In Romans 8, 26 is likewise. The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. So this is just one of those
blocks of scriptures you should go all the way back to verse
one where it says, therefore, there's no condemnation. Well,
the therefore makes you go back and read chapter seven. So there's
kind of no quitting or ending place there. But when we leap
into the middle here, it says, Likewise, the Spirit helpeth
our infirmities, as he helpeth us in a lot of other things,
for we know not what we should pray for as we ought. But the
Spirit itself maketh the intercession for us with groanings which cannot
be uttered, and he that searches the hearts knows what's in the
mind of the Spirit, because He makes intercession for the saints
according to the will of God. I think Haldane said, you know,
Jesus makes intercession for us in heaven, and the Spirit
makes intercession in our prayers here on earth. And what a combination
we have there that gets us according to the will of God. So our view
of things, the God, the Father's eternal
purposes. Our view of all that's just so
limited. Like Paul said, we see through a glass darkly. We can't
see all of the implications and we can only see from here to
there. Last week when we were sitting
there in the office, Norm says, well, Rachel can't come to church
because she had a flat tire on I-205. So he said, probably saved her
from a terrible wreck further on down the road or some catastrophe
or something. You just don't know what the
providence of God intervened there and caused that to happen
according to His purpose. So we don't know. And I'm sure
many of you have seen instances like that in your own lives where
something seemed to intervene. I remember this one time where
we were going to Anchorage. We were on this windy road and
you couldn't pass anybody. I got behind this pokey old guy
and he was just going like 40. And I couldn't pass him and I
was gritting my teeth and cursing him. We were on our way to see
a missionary I think. We just couldn't get around that
guy. And we were a long ways, you know, and then finally we
come upon this horrendous wreck. And I thought, oh man, if we'd
have got around that guy, we'd probably been right in the middle
of that, you know? So we just don't know what to pray for as
we ought. I was praying that that guy would have to take a
break or something, get off the road. Providentially, it didn't
work out that way. You know, that's just how we,
we just don't know. And things happen through time. You know, we look at God's providence
and things. And I think one of our previous
lessons, we mentioned that, I'll bet you that Daniel and Shadrach
and all those guys said, well, I don't see anything good coming
out of us going to Babylon. But the Lord worked it for good.
And Joseph down in Egypt, you meant it for evil, but God worked
it for good that saved much people. All those kinds of things that
we see recorded in the Scriptures. And in the case of Saul of Tarsus,
on his way to Damascus. I bet you all those people in
Damascus were saying, I heard Paul's coming. I hope he gets
run over by a camel or something. Run down by a wagon or something
on the way here and struck by lightning or something. you know,
you just don't know what to pray for as you ought. And the Lord
had to kind of say, hey, he's a chosen vessel unto me and here's
what I want you to do. And they said, okay, what you said we will do. And
you know, the rest of that story. So, you know, we just don't have
enough clairvoyance to know what to
pray for as we ought. we just need to kind of minimize
that part of prayer and maximize the part of Thy will be done,
whatever that is, Lord. And it's not wrong to say, you
know, I'm really concerned about this or I'm really concerned
about that, but we should always accompany it with, Lord, we pray
that Your will would be done in this manner and in this matter. So often, prayers are trying
to subjugate God's will to our will. Lord, I want you to get
rid of Paul, or Saul at that time. I want you to take him
out and destroy him before he kills any more of us. That can be applied in a broad
range of just anything we think about. So we need to comport
our will with the will and purpose of God, and to always be thinking
about that, and to always be thinking that what's the purpose of God? It's
the redemption of the church, and that ought to always be,
you know, getting the gospel out, preaching the gospel, because that's the purpose of
God is the redemption of the church. My wife, she's so smart. She always says wise stuff all
the time. We were watching the news and
she's, well, I wonder how many of them Afghanis are going to
hear the gospel now because they probably would never have heard
it where they were. And, you know, a hundred and
some thousand of them are now in America. And, you know, maybe
three of them will hear the gospel that they never would have. We
had to go through all this other stuff to create the conditions
where that would happen. I probably wouldn't have prayed
for that, you know, and all the bad things that went on with
that. So, you know, everything is working for good for them
who are called according to His purpose, so to them that love
God. So, you know, we see and we understand
with limited scope, who might be called by the gospel
and who might have Christ revealed to them according to His purpose. Not the Ninevites. So, why do things happen? And nothing happens that's outside
of the scope and purpose of God and His sovereignty. And in time,
you know, we think, well, why did this happen to me? Or why
did that happen to me? And you know, Paul said, Well,
a lot of bad stuff happened to me. I was shipwrecked here, nearly
drowned, stoned, whipped, thrown in prison, stoned again. Thrice I was beaten with rods. That was quite unpleasant. Now I'm on my way to prison in
Rome." Kind of what came to understand
that it was all for the furtherance of the Gospel. Then later on
we learned that, hey, I'm sending this letter from Rome and those
of the household of Caesar that are among the brethren greet
you as well. So there were some people in
the household of Caesar that probably never would have heard
the Gospel had not Paul gone through all the things that he
went through. So sometimes we pray, well, Lord, I hope I have
a safe journey with no adverse effects or problems or something. And, you know, he got shipwrecked
on the way down there and he spent a long time on this island
and here and there. And who knows how many people
heard the gospel. because of the things that happened
there. So we look at that trying to comport our will with God's
will and try to keep everything in this. in perspective with
that, in context with that, and match up our wills with His will,
Thy will be done. Not my will be done, but Thy
will. And pray that the Spirit takes
our groanings from our heart and our concerns and says, somehow
make that compatible with your will, Lord, and may it achieve
your purpose. And as we look at this, one of the aspects of prayer
in It says prayer and supplication. We'll read that verse here in
a minute. It talks about prayer and supplication.
I thought, well, I'll look up that word and see. And it really
talks about the earnestness of prayer. And so the kind of the
opposite of earnestness and prayer is kind of a frivolous nature. And oftentimes I think that we
get caught up in that, that we just turn our prayers into some
kind of a frivolous we just do it because it's perfunctory or
it's that time of day when we say this or we say that. And
we kind of lose the meaning and the depth and the perspective
of it because we're supposed to say this at this time and
so we do. But It really gives us the idea of
earnestness. When we think about who we're
praying to, and the context of it, comporting it with the will of
thy will be done. Earnestness is important. And I think that's what the Spirit
helps us with because we're pretty frail, feeble beings, you know,
and we're subject to these things. Otherwise, we'd just be charcoal
lumps laying about. Because we just don't know how
to pray as we ought, and so the Spirit helps us out. You know,
I know what he said, but here's what was really in his heart. So supplication, it talks about
that in Zechariah 12, verse 10. We'll read that. And you know,
we find out that this is just another
one of those things that whatever God demands, He supplies. By grace are you saved through
faith in that and not of yourselves. It's a gift of God. Well, we
have that same thing in prayer. In Zechariah 12, it says, and
I will. Here's another one of those I
wills of God that we always try to underline and highlight. I
will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem
the spirit of grace and of supplications. And they shall look upon Me whom
they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him as one mourneth
for his only Son, and shall be in bitterness for Him as one
that is in bitterness for his firstborn." He pours on us the Spirit of
grace and supplications. Grace to know that we've been
saved by grace. Grace to have supplication, to
have earnest prayer with the Lord. In Ephesians 6, verse 18,
it says, Praying always with all prayer and supplication in
the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication
for all saints." That word supplication there is used a couple of times,
and it just means earnestness, seriousness. And it ought to be in that vein. Earnestness in prayer gives us
that sense of seriousness, the importantness, the intensity
of that prayer, Which is why in Matthew there's so much said
in counsel about the prayer of the unregenerate which is described
as repetitious and perfunctory and vain. You think for your
vain repetitions that you'll be much heard if you just keep
saying it over and over and over again, or you say it loud enough,
or you say it just because I pray
three times a day, or I do this and I do that. Just because you're
doing it doesn't necessarily mean it's pleasing. to God, especially
in the case of the unregenerate. And that's why it's so important
that the Spirit undertakes for the Lord's people to help them
in this matter of prayer. In Matthew 6, we mentioned that
earlier. And when thou prayest, And I always love what our pastor
says. He talks about entering into
your closet for prayer. And that doesn't necessarily
mean you have to have a closet at home that you go into and
close the door, and you have a little stool there that you
sit on or whatever, and then, okay, I'm going to do my prayer.
It's just a metaphor for whatever time that you choose to be alone
in heartfelt communication with God your Father. That could be
going down the road or, you know, wherever. It doesn't have to
be in a certain place at a certain time. And most often we find
that it's a lot more often than we think it is. If we really
stop and consider it, a lot of times we're communicating with
God informally, maybe in our mind. It doesn't always have to start
with a certain set of words at a certain time and contain a
certain vocabulary. Religion has changed these prayers
into, oh, you have to repeat this. Our Father which art in
heaven, hallowed be thy name, blah, blah, blah. pack of Nabisco's, I'm good. So, when you pray, don't be like
the hypocrites are that love to pray standing in the synagogues
and in the corners of the streets that they might be seen of men.
Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But when you pray,
Use not vain repetitions. Useless. That word vain means
useless, just of no value. As the heathen do, for they think
they shall be heard for their much speaking. And Matthew 23
says, for a pretense they make a long prayer. Because I'm so
spiritual, I'm going to pray for like eight days here, and
everybody will know that I am spiritual. I'm not like that
man over there who just said, Lord, he just said like six words,
have mercy on me a sinner. Simple. He recognized the Lord,
he recognized his plight, and he recognized the only place
where there was relief from it. In just those few words, Lord
have mercy on me, a sinner. All those contexts of who can
provide mercy, what mercy is, and he understood that he needed
that, just in a few words. Earnest prayer recognizes God
Almighty as the Creator, Owner, Source, Controller, the Sovereign
of all things. We know that. But sometimes we
just sort of take it for granted and don't really pay attention
to it. And we get caught up in all the
minutia of day-to-day things. Colossians said that whom we
have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, who
is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.
For by Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are
on earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers. All things were created by Him
and for Him, and He is before all things, and by Him all things
consist. So that certainly ought to be
in our thinking when we're praying, that in comporting our will with
the will of Him that created all things for Him and by Him
were all things created for His purpose. And you know, this supplication,
this earnest seriousness of prayer recognizes the holy and righteous
nature of our unchangeable, our immutable God. Hallowed be thy
name. You know, it's not just word
salad. Hallowed means some serious business about God. He sent redemption unto His people. He hath commanded His covenant
forever. Holy and reverend is His name. Reverend means revered. Held
in reverence means to regard with deep respect and love. It's just not a fake religious
name that we give someone, the Reverend so-and-so. It's a much
more deeper thing that really only applies to God. Ernest Prayer recognizes that
the purpose of God in Christ is His coming for the redemption
of the church. Thy kingdom come. That's what
he sent those disciples to preach in Luke, the previous chapters. Go out and preach that the kingdom
of God has come nigh unto you. And this kingdom is in the very
person of Christ the Lord who came and laid down His life for
ransom for many, making atonement for them by His blood and presenting
them spotless before God the Father. And so we have a prayer
when you pray with everything, give by prayer and thanksgiving. give thanks for Him laying down
His life for you. Earnest prayer acknowledges God's
will shall be accomplished on earth and in heaven, and none
can stay His hand or say unto Him, What doest Thou? One of
the most famous prayers of the Bible is Daniel. He prayed all
the time. You can go and read about them
in just about every chapter of the book of Daniel. When my prayer
was heard and I came right away. And he said, I, Daniel, fasted
for like a month. Fasted and prayed for a month
about something that was a burden on his heart. He didn't know what he ought to pray for. So
my countenance was confused and dazed. He says a lot of things
about himself that I don't know what this is all about, but Lord
help me. So earnest prayer acknowledges
that God's will shall be accomplished. The main trouble we have is making
our will and prayer align with that will and purpose of God
and not the other way around. So He says, give us this day
our daily bread, or day by day, give us day by day our daily
bread. Well, in prayer, it's not wrong to pray for necessities. But you know, the Scripture says,
Jesus said, He knows what you need before you even ask. But
He's pleased that you ask. because you recognize that He
is the source of all things, like we read in that Scripture.
By Him, all things consist. Whatever we have, it's by His
grace that we have it. Be careful for nothing and everything
by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your requests
be made known unto God. And then we have the Spirit that
maketh intercession for us. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace and help in time of need. So scriptures, those scriptures
tell us about our access to our Father, which art in heaven.
that we can communicate with and that He makes provision for
us through the Spirit to line up our needs and our wants and
all of our spiritual desires according to His will. So mostly
it says, forgive us our sins. Sometimes we leave that out.
I do it all the time. I don't want to be reminded of
those. But every day I say in my heart, oh man, how could I
have done that? Forgive me. Forgive me. It's
like I'm tired of saying that almost. I have to do it so often. But forgive us our sins. And
then we ought to apply that to others because whatever length
of crimes we've been forgiven, we should be equally applicable
to others that we have contact with. So we've exhausted our
time for today, and we've by no means exhausted this department
of prayer, we'll call it, for today. Kind of keep those things in
mind. Everybody's prayer is different. Everybody's prayer is part of
the sweet odor of the prayers of the saints that rises up to
God. It's what's in the heart more
than the things that come out of the mouth that are important
to God. He knows our hearts. He knows
the hearts. Hope that was of value to you, so until our next
time, be free.