Pray Like Jesus

[podcast]http://www.revkwon.com/podcast/pray_like_jesus.mp3[/podcast] Over the last few weeks we’ve been talking about prayer. The reason we’ve been talking about prayer is so that we can all start doing more of it. I realized that I don’t pray enough, and therefore, you probably don’t pray enough either. I’m not saying that you’re a bad prayer, but I am saying that we can all take some more time praying. However, I realized that the reason we may not be praying as often as we should is because we may not really know how to pray. So this series was crafted to address some issues and questions that people have around prayer. In answering those questions and addressing those issues, I pray that you and I will learn to pray more. This morning we are looking to Jesus to teach us to pray. Let’s go to Matthew 6, verse 9.

⁹ “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, ¹⁰ your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. ¹¹ Give us today our daily bread. ¹² And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. ¹³ And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Matthew 6:9-13

If you didn’t know it, this is the Lord’s Prayer. The reason it is called the Lord’s Prayer is because “one day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1). What do you think Jesus said? He said, okay, that’s a good idea—let me teach you how to pray. If you have been a Christian for any number of years, then you will all be familiar with the Lord’s Prayer, if you’re not, that’s okay. But let me share with you how I learned this prayer and more important than learning the words to the prayer, I want to teach you the concept behind the prayer. I learned the Lord’s Prayer in Vacation Bible School when I was maybe nine or ten years old. The reason I remember learning the Lord’s Prayer was because if you didn’t know the Lord’s Prayer, you couldn’t eat. I remember not being able to eat for a few days during VBS. But the reason I remember that is not because I starved, it was because I had to put everything I had into the Lord’s Prayer and the words were so true and so powerful. Let me give you an example, when Jesus says “give us today our daily bread.” Literally, I needed God to give me food otherwise I couldn’t eat! I needed to pray to God to give me food—I was hungry. And for some reason, I understood what it meant to have debtors—the teachers at VBS owed me food! They were indebted to me. I had to forgive them for starving me during VBS when I didn’t know the Lord’s Prayer. Lastly, because I was hungry and these people were doing a huge injustice against me, I had to pray that God seriously lead me not into the temptation that is called being hamgry. If you don’t know what hamgry is, it is the anger that arises from a person when he or she is hungry. This is a true story. We don’t ever do that at our VBS events and there’s always more than enough food to eat, but the reason I’m telling you this story is because that event or those days in my life taught me that there is a reason we pray like Jesus teaches us to pray. That reason is because prayer in the way Jesus teaches us is so applicable and practical for our lives. Let me begin with my 5 P’s to seek in prayer. SEEK GOD’S PRESENCE WITH A WORSHIPFUL HEART. The first “P” stands for “presence.” When we pray, we should be looking for God, not the things God can do for us, but God Himself. The problem a lot of people have with prayer is the fact that when we pray, we are not looking for God, but we are looking for a way to get God to do something. Matthew 6:9 begins the prayer with “our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name…” We want to make God’s name “hallowed.” This means that we are looking to use our prayers as a form of worship. Look at what the definition of the word hallowed means: hagiazo (hag-ee-ad’-zo); to make holy, purify or consecrate. When we pray, we need to make our prayers about God’s holiness, not our wishlist. The second P: SEEK GOD’S PRIORITIES OVER YOUR OWN. We talked about this at length last week, but we are praying that God does what He needs to do. We are asking, we are begging, we are beseeching God to do what He was planning to do. “… your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matt. 6:10). If you want to pray effectively, try to pray about God’s priorities. What are God’s priorities anyways? Do you think you can pray about God’s priorities? Do you know what they are? That probably means that instead of praying for twenty cent taco Tuesdays, you’re praying for winning witnesses Wednesdays. It means that you are looking for God to do something awesome in your life that is not selfish or motivated by pats on the back. The third P: SEEK GOD’S PROVISION FOR YOUR DAILY NEEDS. Give us today our daily bread…(Matt 6:11). Have you stopped worrying about things like what you will eat and what you will do and instead started praying about it? I think you should. I could take this advice some more. Because my problem, and the problem most of us will have will be trying to fix things and do things without God and with our own strength. We need to stop that silliness. We need to pray about it and then go about working it out; not trying to work it out and then calling out to God in desperation. Look at what the Apostle Paul writes to the church in Philippa: And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus (Phil 4:19). Fourth P: SEEK GOD’S PARDON FOR YOUR SINS. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. (Matt 7:12) In the 21^st century, Christians do such a terrible job asking for forgiveness for our sins. We just blow up and then never go to seek forgiveness. It’s such a big problem. We think that God’s grace just covers all without our seeking of that grace. It’s not true. We need to be seeking God’s pardon for our sin. We can’t ignore the sin hoping God will forgive them. We need to confess them and in faith that our confessions of our sins will be forgiven, we approach God. Look at what the Apostle John writes, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Fifth P: SEEK GOD’S POWER TO OVERCOME TEMPTATION. We cannot beat temptation on our own. Here’s what I’m telling you: your will power is not enough to keep you from falling and making mistakes. Just ask somebody who made a mistake. They will tell you this story—I said I was only going to have one, but it ended up being more than one, then I lost control. I thought I could be around those people without ever being one of those people. Wrong! Your will power sucks. It’s why diets never work and don’t last. It’s true. In prayer, we need to seek God’s power. What good is prayer if we can’t ask God, who has infinite power to share with us, for power? Look at Jesus’ prayer in verse 13. “And don’t let us yield to temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” (Matt 6:13 NLT) Jesus is telling the disciples to ask God to NOT allow us to yield it. It doesn’t say “God give us the will power.” It says, “God don’t let it happen.” The reason is like I said before—because it will happen if it’s by our own power. If you don’t believe me, let’s look at 1^st Corinthians 10:13: No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. Not only is our failing not uncommon or unique to the set of circumstances, which is a lame excuse that you should never use for your failures and shortcomings, but moreover, the power of God is in his faithfulness—meaning that the showing of God’s power to overcome temptation may not necessarily be the type of “power” that comes in a hurricane. I want to summarize how we need to be praying to God like Jesus prays. Jesus summarizes it all up better than I can ever do. So here it is. Matthew 6:33. “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Our prayer lives, the way Jesus teaches us, should be seeking God’s kingdom and everything else that we may be worried about or concerned about will fall into place. We need to seek God’s presence, God’s priorities, God’s provisions, God’s pardon, and God’s power. When we do these things, our lives will fall into place. Let’s take some time right now to split into our small groups and discuss this question: Of the five things we covered about seeking God (Presence, Priorities, Provision, Pardon, Power), which do you need most and why?