Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nyberg. With the Lord's help, I would
like for us to look at what is known as the Lord's Prayer. It's really not the Lord's Prayer,
that's found in John chapter 17, where the Lord prays for
his people. This would be more appropriately
called the Disciples Prayer, because this is where the Lord
teaches us how to pray. This is the disciple's prayer,
and if I am a true disciple, this is my prayer. Now, this
prayer is recorded twice, in the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew
chapter 6, and in Luke chapter 11. And in Luke chapter 11, it
begins like this, 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. He saw the Lord Jesus praying,
and I think in seeing and hearing, he probably had some understanding
of his own inability. And so he says, Lord, teach us
to pray. Now, when he makes this request,
he is saying I don't know how to pray, and the only way I can
truly pray is if you teach me." Lord, teach us to pray. Now, how much instruction and
encouragement every believer needs in this thing of The Lord
said in Luke chapter 18 verse 1, men ought always to pray and
not to faint, not to lose heart, not to be overcome with discouragement. And it's so easy to become overcome
with discouragement and think, what's the use? Are my prayers
even being heard? Are they getting any higher than
the ceiling? That's why we're instructed to watch unto prayer. and to continue instant in prayer
and to pray without ceasing, to always pray and not to faint. Now how and when the Lord answers
our prayer is up to Him. Now He answers the prayer of
His people. It may be no. And if he says no to what I request,
it's because what I'm asking for would be detrimental to me
and would not be good for me. But he knows exactly what I need. And he always hears and he always
answers the prayer of his people. He is even called the God who
hears prayer. As a matter of fact, everything
God does, he does through the prayers of his people. Now, there's
no merit in the prayers of his people, in and of himself, but
this is just the way the Lord does things. He says, I shall
yet be for this inquired of of the house of Israel to do it
for them. If he's going to save somebody, he's going to move
somebody else to pray for that person. If you're going to have
something, you're going to ask for it. Now, if you ask, truly,
he gave you the grace to do it. But anything you have, you're
going to ask for. If you have mercy, you're going
to ask for mercy. If you have forgiveness, you're going to
ask for forgiveness. What? He says, you have not because
you ask not. Ask and you shall receive. God
works through prayer. He's the God who hears prayer. Now, when the Lord gives this
disciple's prayer twice in the scripture, in the Sermon on the
Mount, he says, after this manner, therefore, pray ye in this spirit,
in this attitude. You see, prayer is an attitude
of the heart. Only a believer can pray. An
unbeliever cannot pray. He might go through the motions
of prayer. He might think he prays, but only a believer prays. I think of what the Lord said
of Saul of Tarsus when he was knocked off his high horse on
the road to Damascus, and the Lord said to Ananias, Behold,
he prayeth. Now, he'd gone through the form
of prayer many times before, but now, Behold, he prayeth. He never had before. This is
the language of the heart of the believer. And you know, you
can truly pray without saying a thing because it's the attitude
of the heart. A sigh is a prayer before God. A groan is a prayer before God
of His people. Now, Luke's account says, when
you pray, say. This is something to say. Now,
I realize that many men and women have this prayer memorized and
go through the motions of it and have no idea what it really
means, but this is what we actually pray about. When you pray, say.
Now, what I'd like to do first is look in Matthew's account
of what the Lord says not to do before he tells us what to
do in this thing of prayer. He says in verse 5 of Matthew
chapter 6, and when thou prayest, it's a given that a believer
will pray. When thou prayest, thou shalt
not be as the hypocrites are. You know what a hypocrite is? It was the Greek word for an
actor, a stage actor. And most people's religion is
a show. It's a show to be seen of men. Now, he says, when you
pray, don't be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing
in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they
may be seen of men. Notice they're praying out loud
where everybody can hear what they're saying and see what they're
doing. He says, Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.
What a miserable reward that is, being seen of men. What do
you have when you got it? He goes on to say, But thou,
when thou prayest, enter into thy closet where no man can see. And when you have shut your door,
pray to your Father which is in secret. And thy father would
seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. Now I remember when
I was a younger man, I used to think, I need to pray in restaurants
so everybody can see how committed I am. And I would bow my head
and pray and everybody would see me. And I didn't realize
I was just doing that to show people how spiritual I was. That's
not the way to pray. Our Lord tells us directly, enter
your closet, shut your door where no man can see, and thy father,
which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. And then
he says in verse 7, but when you pray, use not vain repetitions
as the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard for
their much speaking. Understand why you're heard.
You see, an understanding of the gospel is absolutely critical
in this thing of prayer. I know I'm heard, not because
of any goodness in me or righteousness in me. I'm not heard because
of some holiness in me or because of some work I perform. I'm not
heard because of the sincerity in my heart. The reason I'm heard
is because the Lord Jesus Christ, my Great High Priest, takes my
pathetic little prayer and presents it before the Father, and it's
a sweet-smelling savor to Him because of the intercession of
the Lord Jesus Christ, my Great High Priest. You see, my prayer
is bathed in Christ. His precious blood puts away
my sin. His righteousness makes me acceptable
before the Father. He presents my prayer before
the Father, and it's heard. You see, you can only understand
prayer if you understand the gospel. The reason you're heard
is because of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, he says
in verse 8 of Matthew chapter 6, Be not ye therefore like unto
them, the heathen, who are hypocrites, and they think they'll be heard
because of something in them or because of their much speaking.
For your Father knoweth what things you have need of before
you ask him." What a blessed thought that is. Now, he says
in verse 9, after this manner, therefore, pray ye. And then
he gives the disciples prayer. Now, this prayer is divided into
four parts. First, the God we worship. Second, our needs. Third, our fears. And fourth, our confidence. All of those elements are involved
in true prayer. Now, first, the God we worship. Our Father. which art in heaven."
Now, only the believer, the true believer, truly prays our Father. You see, God is not Father to
everybody. You know, the Lord Jesus said to the Pharisees,
the religious leaders of His day, you're of your father, the
devil. He says, your daddy's the devil,
and the lust of your father you'll do. God is not Father to everybody. He's only Father to believers. Our father, which art in heaven. Now, how is it that God can be
my father if he's not father to everybody? How can I have
some kind of hope that he's my father? Because, first of all,
if I'm a believer, I'm united to Christ. And if God the father
is the father of the Lord Jesus Christ, he's my father, too,
because I'm united to him. As He is in the world, as He
is before His Father, 1 John 4, 17, as He is, so are we in
this world. Is He the Son of God? He surely
is. I am, too, if I'm united to Him. He's my Father by virtue of union
with His blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and He's my Father
by adoption. He adopted me. I was by nature
a children of wrath, but He adopted me. If He's my Father, He's my
Father by regeneration. I've been birthed into the Kingdom. I'm a child by regeneration.
I was born again, born His child, birthed His child. And I'm a
child of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Paul said to the Galatians,
you are all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Now, do
I know God as my Father? Do I cry to Him, Abba, Father? This speaks of a relationship.
And notice, he says, our Father. We're not simply to pray, my
father, but our father. We can't be separated from our
brothers and sisters in Christ, our father. Now, he says, our
father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Now, in true prayer, when we're
praying to our father, we know him. We know who he is. His name is His attributes. His name is the person behind
the name. Not simply being able to audibly
say His name, or knowing how to spell His name, or knowing
His correct name, but it's knowing the person behind the name. Who is God? Well, He's revealed
in the Bible. He's made Himself known in this
book. The way we know Him is through
this book by His Spirit. God the Holy Spirit takes the
things of Christ in His Word and makes them known to us, and
we know who God is. His name is His attributes. God
is sovereign. That means He has a will. That
means he has the power to make sure his will comes to pass.
That means he does, in fact, make his will come to pass. God
is just. Justice and judgment are the
habitation of thy throne. God is righteous. He loves righteousness
and hates iniquity. God is All-wise, He's made a
way to be just and yet justify the ungodly. Only God can do
that. When we talk about His attributes,
we talk about who He is. His love, His mercy, His grace,
all of His glorious attributes, God is. He is as He reveals Himself
in His Word. And we say, our Father hallowed. Holy is thy name. You see, his chief attribute
is his holiness. Somebody says, what's holiness
mean? Somebody once said the best definition
of holiness is other. Other. To say that God is holy. That means He's altogether different
from you and I. He's holy. This is His moral
purity. This is His hatred of sin. Every one of His attributes is
holy. His sovereignty, His purpose
is a holy sovereignty. His love is a holy love. His
wrath is a holy wrath. His justice is a holy justice. Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed holy be thy name." And we pray from our hearts when
we pray to him, thy kingdom come. This is the kingdom that he has
promised will come. When every knee shall bow, where
every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus
Christ is to the glory of God the Father. Now, we are to pray
for the advancement of His kingdom. We pray that men might be made
willing subjects of His kingdom. We pray that men might believe
and be in His kingdom. Our prayer is, even so, come,
Lord Jesus. We pray for His kingdom. Thy kingdom come. That's the desire of our hearts.
Thy kingdom come. And then he tells us in this
prayer to pray, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We pray that his will will be
done right here on earth, just like it is in heaven. Now, let
me talk for a moment about the will of God. There is such a
thing as the will of God. And to understand the will of
God, I have to understand it in this respect, according to
the Scriptures. There's the will of God's decree,
and there's the will of God's command. The will of God's decree
is always done. No one can thwart God's will. If He purposed it to do something,
He does it. No man has the power to keep
his will from being done. He's God. David said, Our God
is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever He hath
pleased. You see, He doeth according to
His will, said Daniel, in the armies of heaven and among the
inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay His hand or say
unto Him, What doest thou? His will and decree is always
done. It cannot be thwarted. But His will of command is not
always done. Every time we break one of the
commandments, His will of command is not being done. Heaven is
the only place where God's will is done perfectly, constantly,
unhesitatingly, cheerfully, immediately, and without question. And we
pray here on earth, let your will be done just like it is
in heaven. This is the desire of my heart
if I'm a believer. Thy will be done. Take my will. and make it thine. It shall be
no longer mine. I don't want my will to be done. Listen to this. The absolute
worst thing that could happen to me is for God to leave me
to my own will. I dread that. I don't want it
to happen. And I pray, Lord, let thy will
be done, not my will, but thine be done. Aren't you thankful
that God's will will be done? But this is our prayer. Thy kingdom
come, thy will be done. Now that's the God we worship,
our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom
come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Now secondly,
in this prayer, we have the part with regard to our needs. And this can be divided into
two parts, our temporal needs and our spiritual needs. It goes like this in verse 11,
give us this day our daily bread. There is our temporal needs and
our spiritual needs is found in verse 12, and forgive us. our debts as we forgive our debtors. Now, first, temporal needs. That's under bread. And under the word bread, we
have everything that our bodies require. And we are encouraged
to ask for these things and pray about these things. Lord, give
us this day our daily bread. Paul said in Philippians 4, 6,
be careful for nothing, be anxious about nothing, but in everything,
by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests
be made known unto God. Cast your burden upon the Lord,
for he careth for you. And understand this. If you're
a believer, there's nothing that's insignificant to him. I don't
care what we're talking about, whatever need it is. It's important
to Him. Cast all your care upon Him,
for He careth for you, all of your physical, temporal needs.
And remember, He knows what you need better than you do. He knows
what you need before you even ask Him. Oh, what a glorious
God He is. And we're called upon to ask
Him to take care of our daily needs. Now, that doesn't mean
we're asking for riches. I, in my heart, despise this
preaching that actually makes it so that God's blessing if
you're rich or healthy and if you're sick or having financial
problems, God's hands against you. That's ridiculous. Our Lord
didn't have a penny. Our Lord was a man of poverty. Now, He owned everything. But
he didn't have a place to lay his head. He didn't even have
a home to call his own, as far as physical things. So all this
emphasis that these preachers put on prosperity and wealth
and so on, that's of the devil. That's all it is. There's no
truth to that. I'm not praying for riches, but
I'm praying for what I need. Lord, give me this day my daily
bread. Whatever it is that I need in
every physical aspect, I'm asking that you give to me. But not
only do we pray about our physical needs, we most especially pray
about our spiritual needs. You know what my spiritual need
is? Forgiveness. That's what I need. Forgive me
of my debts. I need forgiveness. I need everything
associated with forgiveness. I need His grace. I need His
mercy. I need Him to justify me. I need
Him to sanctify me. I need Him to give me a new heart.
I need Him to preserve me. Oh, the needs I have spiritually,
and they're all represented by this thing of forgive us of our
debts, our sins, as we forgive those who are Indebted to us. I've heard people say you don't
need to pray for forgiveness if you've already been forgiven,
but that's foolish. Does every day I need to pray for forgiveness?
I've already been forgiven, but I pray continually, Lord, forgive
me of my sins. There's never a time when that
prayer is not needed. I'm a sinner and I need forgiveness. So here we have our needs. Temporal. Daily bread and spiritual forgiveness. And third, he gives us some encouragement
to pray concerning our fears. Look what he says in verse 13. And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. Lead us not into temptation.
Now, that's trial. That's trouble. And I pray, Lord,
deliver me from trouble. I don't want to have trials come
my way. Now, if they come my way, I know
He sent them and I'll rejoice in them by His grace and know
that it's for my good and His glory. But I'm still instructed
to pray, don't let me be tried. Don't let trials come my way.
I'd rather not be tried. And this also is talking about
the temptation to sin. Now, I'm saying when I say, lead
me not into temptation, I'm saying, Lord, if I'm tempted, I know
I'll fall. So don't let me be tempted. Put
a hedge about me, make it to where I can't even be tempted
because I know myself and I know if I'm tempted, I'll fall. So
let me not be tempted. I think of that passage in Galatians
chapter six where Paul said, if a brother be overtaken. In
a fall, you, which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit
of meekness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. You
know that if I'm tempted like that brother is, I'll fall worse
than he did. So, Lord, let me not be tempted. That's my fear. Deliver us from
temptation and deliver us from evil. I admit this evil scares
me to death. You're the first evil that scares
me to death is my own evil. You know, the Lord said to his
disciples, if you then Being evil. Know how to give good gifts
to your children. How much more should your Heavenly
Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? You reckon
even the disciples said, well, who's he talking about? No. Every
believer knows that in and of themselves, they're evil. And
that's what I'm afraid of. Lord, keep me from myself. Deliver
me from the evil of this world. Deliver me from the evil of Satan,
the evil one. I'm no match. Lord, Keep me from
temptation, lead me not into temptation, and deliver me from
evil. I know that I can't defeat it
myself, and the only hope I have is that you keep me from it.
Now, here is how we pray with confidence regarding these things. He tells us to pray to our Father,
who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy
will be done. He teaches us to pray regarding
our needs. Give us this day our daily bread
and forgive us of our debts, temporal and spiritual needs.
He tells us to pray regarding our fears. Lead me not into temptation,
but deliver me from evil. But here is our confidence. He says, for thine is the kingdom,
and thine is the power, and thine is the glory forever. Amen. Thine is the kingdom. This kingdom we're praying for,
it's yours. This is your interest. Thine
is the power. It's of your power. All is of
your power. It's of your power to deliver
me from temptation. It's of your power to deliver
me from evil. It's of your authority to forgive
my sins. It's of your, all these things
of your authority. Thine is the kingdom. Thine is
the power. Thine is the glory forever. Amen. That's our confidence. He's a prayer-hearing, and he's
got a prayer-answering, and he's got the power to bless. He's
God. He's got the power to do whatever
he wills to do. Now, in Luke's account, he gives
us this encouragement after he teaches us. He says in verse
5 of Luke chapter 11, and he said unto them, Which of you,
and this is right after he had told them about how to pray,
He says, 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 is in his journey, and has come to me,
and I have nothing to say 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 can't rise and give. It's already
after midnight, and I'm in bed. I don't want to get up. I say
unto you, and this is what the Lord says, I say unto you, though
he will not rise and give him because he's a friend, yet because
of his importunity. That word importunity means shameless
persistence. He keeps asking. He keeps asking. He keeps asking. He will rise
and give him as many as he needeth. And I say unto you, ask, and
it shall be given unto you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock,
and it shall be opened to you. For everyone that asks, receives. And he that seeks finds, 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 for an egg, will he give him a scorpion? If you
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? Ask, and you shall receive."
Now, we have this message on cassette tape, CD, or DVD. If you call the church, email,
or write, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Beiler praying that
God will be pleased to make Himself known to you. That's our prayer. To request a copy of the sermon
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