The Prayers’ Prayer

Turn to the Gospel of Luke once
again. Or if you prefer, I have the passage there in the bulletin
with space for notes. The passage in front of us, you
know it. We have read it in the past. Many have studied it. Most
of us know it as what is called the Lord’s Prayer. I had occasion
to learn this little prayer early in my life, even before I was
a Christian. I’ll share that with you in a
moment. It’s known as the Lord’s Prayer,
typically, but really the last few years, many have begun to
refer to this as the Disciples Prayer. And that certainly is,
I think, a better title for it. Because I think it would be very
difficult of all the times that we’ve seen Jesus pray. And we’ve
seen Jesus pray many, many times throughout Scriptures. If I personally
were to say that there was one place in Scripture that is titled
the Lord’s Prayer, I might choose John 17. We’ve seen many of Jesus’
prayers already in the Gospel of Luke. praying to God, His
Father, communing with Him. And so to select one out and
say that this is the Lord’s prayer isn’t entirely accurate. And
so in that sense, the disciples prayer is more accurate. But
I would suggest to you the disciples prayer isn’t entirely accurate. In fact, it’s somewhat misleading
because for most of us, we might think or many might think that
when you say the disciples prayer that this prayer was issued for
and specifically for even exclusively for the twelve apostles or at
least those disciples that were within earshot. Is this the disciples prayer
in that limited sense? No. And that’s why I suggested
in my curious little title, this is the prayer’s prayer. This
is the prayer’s prayer. Those who would be prayers to
God, those who would effectively and efficiently, properly offer
up prayer to God, this is their prayer. And in that sense, it’s
your prayer and it’s my prayer. It’s our prayer. This isn’t the
Lord’s prayer per se. This isn’t even the disciples
prayer, unless you mean by that the broader scope of all who
proclaim Christ. This is their prayer. This prayer,
we know of its history already just by virtue of the title.
We know many throughout history have almost venerated these words. driven entire ministries and
for centuries, a central part of the church. One said it this
way, in essence, trying to gild the lily by describing this prayer,
he said, the transcendent beauty and value of the lessons learned
in the Lord’s Prayer arise from the tone of holy confidence that
is given in the prayer. It teaches us to approach God
as our father in love as well as holy fear. Secondly, it’s
absolutely unselfish. It’s offered in the plural, not
for yourselves only, but for all the brotherhood of man. Thirdly,
its entire spirituality of its seven petitions, only one is
an offer or is a request for any earthly boon and only that
for the simplest. He refers to the bread. And finally,
for its brevity, its absence of vain repetitions, its simplicity,
Many have seen these words. They know them to be profound.
They know them to be deep. We know that the occasion for
which these words were given was important, crucial, and we
know them to be repeated. One has called these words the
epitome of the gospel. that only a true Christian can
pray them. And it’s because of what Christ
has done that our prayer life blossoms. These words occurred on two occasions.
As you know, they occur in Matthew’s gospel, but not exactly the same
as they occur here in Luke, which is interesting. Jesus wasn’t looking to set forth
a formula prayer. I told you that I learned the
formula prayer because one day I did something wrong and my
parents decided it was time for me to go to my first communion,
my first confession, that whole deal. For those of you aren’t
familiar with the Roman Catholic Church, you go tell the priest
what you did and then he gives you what is called a penance.
Some way that you can earn your forgiveness before priest and
God. And I came out of there and I
had a number of prayers to say, one of which was the Lord’s Prayer.
And you’re allowed to read it, but the goal is to learn it,
and it’s in that context that I learned it. And I will tell
you, I don’t believe that Jesus here ever, ever intended for
these words to be used in that fashion, ever. It’s interesting that Jesus,
in repeating these words here in the Gospel of Luke, doesn’t
give them the same way that he does in Matthew. They’re not
the same. In fact, they’re substantially
different in a variety of different ways. In fact, Jesus, in the
context of Matthew, had just told his disciples not to use
vain and meaningless repetitions, not to do so. And I can tell
you, after you pray this prayer, as beautiful as it is after 25
times, it’s vain and meaningless. In fact, in Matthew’s gospel,
it says when you pray, say. It doesn’t mean here that this
was to be a formula. That on every occasion of prayer,
this is our prayer and that that’s enough. It was a pattern. It was a pattern
for our prayers. It was to give us give our prayers
influence. It was to tell us how to pray
in a general fashion. It was intended as a model. It goes on. Here, one pastor said if it was
to be used as a pattern, that it was to be used as a pattern
rather than a rigid form is proven by the fact That these prayers
are different. Matthew’s account is much different
than Luke’s. If Jesus wanted to set forth
a specific pattern. But there’s one last factor that
comes into the determination of whether we use this as a rote
and repeated prayer. In Matthew’s gospel, Matthew
says, pray like this. Jesus says, pray like this. And by that, I believe he indicates
that what is being presented there is a guide, an overview,
and if you will, a blueprint for how we pray. Not the specific
words, not a vain and meaningless repetition, but a pure and simple, a holy
guide to a substantial prayer life. Look at Luke 11, beginning
in verse one, if you would. where Luke records, it happened
that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after he
had finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to
pray, just as John also taught his disciples. And he said to
them, when you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom
come. Give us each day our daily bread
and forgive us our sins. For we ourselves also forgive
everyone who is indebted to us and lead us not into temptation.”
Those were the words, those were the pure and simple words that
Jesus gave in response to this appeal. We’ve seen Jesus in prayer on
many occasions here in the study of the Gospel of Luke. For us,
we saw the occasion when he prayed all night long, intensively. that Jesus of all people, if
there was anybody who could skip his quiet time, wouldn’t you
assume that it would be Jesus? But it was that communion that
he longed for. And here it says that while Jesus was praying
in a certain place, he was off by himself in more communion
with God. And it says that after he finished,
a disciple approached him. We don’t know which one. The
unfortunate thing is throughout church history, many have surmised
and come up with all kinds of fanciful reasons and additions
to this little account. A disciple approached him and
said, Lord, teach us to pray. Those words are important in
there. They’re pretty telling, aren’t they? Because they’re
telling not only about the disciples that were surrounding Jesus in
his day, they’re telling about us. And they’re telling in this
degree that we don’t know how to pray. Paul in Romans speaks
about how the Holy Spirit intercedes for us when we don’t know how
to pray. And might I suggest, I think the Holy Spirit prays
for us a lot more than we pray. We stumble in our prayers. Sometimes
the situation is so difficult, we don’t even know what to say
to God. Similar to the psalmist that we read this morning, we
stammer and we stumble over our words. Sometimes we fall silent
before God. Sometimes because of that, we
leave off praying. We get frustrated in it. We don’t
know what the purpose of it is and we don’t know how. And the disciple looked at Jesus
and he saw the Lord himself communing with the Father. And that provoked in him a desire,
a hunger, a longing deep within himself to be able to somehow
know this secret to how Jesus, who had an intimate relationship
with the Father, how he maintained that, how he longed for that
communion, how he made it a priority in his life. This disciple, whoever
he was, was so aware so conscious of his own inability, of the
other disciples, because he says, teach us. He could have looked
to one of them if one of them perhaps was an expert in this
field. But he didn’t. He said, Jesus, we don’t know
what to do. He was so aware of his own inability
to pray like his Master, to commune with the Father like his Master,
that he asked Jesus to teach him. One pastor from the early
church said it this way, one single person moved and edified
by the good example of our Lord, praying, conceives of a love
for prayer, desires to know how to pray, is sensible of that
of himself, that he’s not capable of doing it. He addresses himself
to Christ. He obtains from in this divine
pattern He procures this treasure for the rest of the disciples
and for the whole church and becomes the occasion of the infinite
good. Which prayer has produced and
will produce to the end of the world. That occasion for that
disciple to ask this question about prayer, when really think
of it, Jesus had already given this pattern in Matthew’s gospel,
Jesus gave it spontaneous. And here the disciple still claims
ignorance. And Jesus comes back to these
simple words. This is how you pray. I’ve told
you once already. Jesus doesn’t chide him for that,
but he doesn’t give him anything new. And he said to them, when you
pray, say, Father. And for us, doesn’t that just
appeal to us. That God, the Creator of the
world, the One who has done those mighty
deeds, the God of judgment, the God of glory, the overwhelming
God is to us, Father. Perhaps some of us have had damaged
relationships in an earthly sense. Damaged from our own earthly
fathers. We have this tendency to taint that image. But the image in Scripture is
pure and simple and beautiful. It’s the love of a loving father
who comes and cares for his child. It’s interesting, there is no
prayer as such addressed in the Old Testament. But the concept
of God as a father was there. The concept is clearly there. Even in the Old Testament, God
was recognized as the Father. Father, first of all, of the
nation, the nation of Israel, Isaiah 63, 16 and others, but
also of individual believers. And it was this image of holding
them, caressing them in a tender embrace, caring for them as a
loving father. Psalm 68, 5 speaks of God as
a father of the fatherless. A beautiful image that says that
here, for a family who has lost the provider of their home, the
head of their home, God steps in. God Himself steps in. Psalm
89 speaks of God in these terms. He says, He will cry to me, Thou
art my Father, my God, the rock of my salvation. There was a
fatherly relationship in the Old Testament. The idea of the
fatherhood in creation or pardon me, in relation to individuals
was implied in many places. Psalm 27 says that as a father
pities his children, so Jehovah pities those that fear him. What
a beautiful image. Fathers naturally would care
for their children and bend down and caress them and embrace them
if they’re injured. And it says that’s what God’s
like. And so really what Jesus does is take this Old Testament
concept of the fatherhood of God and He makes it even more
intimate. He says that any one of us can
go and cry out to God, the Holy God, the Almighty God. Father. My Father. Our Father. Everybody then This is every
person’s prayer, every person who names the name of Christ,
everyone who has accepted Christ as their Savior. This is their
prayer. And their cries to father. It indicates that attitude with
which we come to the throne of grace, not in cowering fear,
Not in some kind of trepidation that still fears Him as the evil
just that so many paint Him out to be. But coming to Him. Even in times of great confession,
coming to Him as our Father. That’s the attitude. If we come
in faith. Matthew adds a little clause
here. He says, Father who is in heaven. Oh Father, who is in heaven.
That’s who we’re to pray to. It’s our Father who is in heaven. And that takes away all this
nonsense of approaching to God flippantly and in some casual
way. I’ve even heard people refer
to Him as Big Daddy. The big guy in the sky. Haven’t
you? He is our King. He is our Sovereign. He is the Almighty One of all
creation. But He is our God who is in heaven.
He is our Father. And that is our blessing. But He is also our Father who
is in heaven. And in that sense, He is high and lifted up. He
is over all creation. He is Almighty. This shouldn’t
allow us to bring Him down into some impure level among us. One said it this way, He who
is King of the kingdom of heaven is at the same time the father
of its citizens.” What a beautiful image. Your father is the king. What a beautiful thought. The
citizens are the children. The kingdom is the father’s family.
They need not be afraid, for God, their father, loves them. Yet, he is the father in heaven.
Therefore, he should be approached in a spirit of devout and humble
reverence. And that’s what we come to our
Father as. He is our Father, but immediately
we realize that He’s not just this earthly image of a casual or a casual image
of an earth Father. He’s Almighty God. I wanted to present before you
this morning five vital features in this blueprint of prayer to
our Heavenly Father. Five vital features. And what
I would call the blueprint in the sense that this is meant
to be a pattern. And there are features on this
blueprint. And there is a right way to build it, and there’s
a wrong way to build your prayer life. And Jesus says if you’re
going to build an effective prayer life, this is it. This is the
blueprint. First of all, our fervent cries
to the Father are to be a yearning, first of all, for God’s glory.
A yearning for God’s glory. Look at the first little request
there, hallowed be your name. Now, this is old language and
we don’t much understand it anymore, but it’s simple language. The word literally means sanctified
or to be treated as holy, set apart as such. What he’s praying
is that let God be acknowledged by all as holy and treated as
holy and worshiped as holy. Let it change our hearts and
our lives. To hallow something means to
hold it in reverence and to hallow God’s name means to worship Him
in all that we do and all that we say. Everywhere that we go. Hallowed be Your name. Worshipped
and adored be Your name. And in order to do this, we need
a lot more than just a mental exercise. It’s a lot more in
our minds than just a mental decision. We hallow Your name. Because it requires activity.
It requires humility. Humility of heart. It requires
a gratitude in our heart for all that God’s done. It requires
an eager study of God’s Word and a devouring of it and a taking
in of all that God’s done through creation. And what it does is produce in
us awe. Awe and worship, hallowed be
your name. It acknowledges that the one
who has been brought into fellowship with his loving father, really
begins to proclaim to everyone that God is worthy of being worshipped. He’s worthy of being set apart
as holy. But he says, hallowed be your
name. It’s interesting, we’ve looked at this before. This is
perhaps for many of you review that the name signifies much
more than just a title. Remember the Shema, the prayer,
the name. They wouldn’t even pronounce
God’s name. They just referred to it as the name. They referred
to God and the deity as the name. And by that, they represented
all that God was, all that He is, all of His plans, His whole
character, all of His attributes were all rolled into that phrase,
the name. The name of God in the Bible,
said one, is the expression of His being, especially insofar
as He revealed Himself to us. Another said the name in antiquity
meant a good deal more than it does to us. We use it for a personal
designation and that’s about all. But in antiquity, the name
was held to be bound up with the person. It was Him. The name and the qualities associated
with the name went together. The prayer then means more than
we should just use the divine name with suitable reverence.
That we should. It includes that, and hence the
indictment in Scripture against taking the Lord’s name in vain
or flippantly. But it also means that we should
be reverent before all that God stands for. Before all that He
is. If God’s name is kept holy, it
is held in proper reverence. Everything that we do, everything
that we do is to be an active means of sanctifying God, hallowing
His name. So this prayer isn’t so much
a desire, a prayer request that God will do some great act and
show everybody who He is once and for all. As much as it is
a prayer that He will bring people to a proper attitude towards
Himself. That people will come to see
God, not set Him aside, that they will come to see God as
already having been set aside as holy. God is holy. It expresses that desire that
He who is holy will be seen to be holy throughout the whole
creation. Hallowed, worshipped, sanctified be your name. This thought isn’t occurring
just here in the prayers, it’s throughout Scripture. 1 Peter 3.15 says it this way,
sanctify Christ, set him apart as Lord in your hearts. Isaiah 29-23, when He sees His
children, the work of My hands in His midst, they will sanctify
My name. They will know who I am. They
will know My greatness. They will know of My holiness. We’re called, first and foremost,
if we would be those saints who cultivate a true and active
and hearty prayer life, the first means of doing so, Jesus says,
is setting aside the Lord’s name as holy, sanctifying the Lord,
hallowing the name. And we do that first and foremost
in our lives, in our private worship, in our prayer. But it’s
obviously intended to spill out into everything that we do in
our public worship, in our lives, in our devotion to Him, in our
work, in our thoughts. Sanctify the name of the Lord
your God in all that you do. There’s a second, second vital
feature on this blueprint. to the prayers, prayer or fervent
Christ to the father to be number one, a yearning for God’s glory,
but secondly, an appeal for God’s reign. An appeal for God’s reign,
does this mean that God isn’t reigning currently? No, not at
all. Just means that his reign, that
his kingdom would be extended in the hearts and lives of individuals
who now, at least in their mind, don’t believe they’re under his
reign. your kingdom come. That image
of the kingdom is replete throughout the gospels. But especially in
Luke’s gospel, at least as we’ve seen, and so much of this is
is again repetition. Luke talks about the kingdom
of God a great, great deal. As we’ve seen, he speaks about
entering the kingdom of God. He speaks about proclaiming the
kingdom of God in seeking the kingdom. He says, in one case,
the kingdom is at hand and in another place it belongs to the
future. The kingdom is essentially spirit
spiritual, but it also embraces the material realm. One described it this way in
its broadest connotation, the term kingdom of God indicates
God’s kingship, rule or sovereignty. It is recognized in the hearts
and operated operating in the lives of people, effecting their
complete salvation, their constitution as a church and finally a redeemed
people. That’s the kingdom of God, the
kingdom of God, as his people acknowledging him as such as
the sovereign. It doesn’t refer to some geographical
territory with God sitting on a little earthly stool. It’s talking about his dominion,
it’s talking about his sovereignty. And when we begin to pray, your
kingdom come, praying for God’s rule throughout through Christ’s
enthronement to come and to come in full. His glorious reign on
earth, the millennial kingdom, it’s not an indirect effort. He isn’t praying here for some
indirect effort on our collective parts to bring in the kingdom. He’s praying that God will bring
the kingdom. In essence, he says, may your
reign be extended from heaven to this world, ultimately to
encompass all. He’s praying for the extermination
of wickedness. praying for the extermination
of sin. He’s praying for the extension of God’s righteousness,
for God’s glory, for God’s kingdom. One said it this way, let your
divine rule come. The prayer is that the Father’s
divine sovereignty should more and more be fully attained its
rightful place in the heart and life of fallen mankind. You know
what he’s praying for is one by one. one by one, that hearts
and minds would be touched with the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ and that they would come, one by one, to know of God’s
sovereignty, of His rule in their lives. There is that sense where the
kingdom is here and now. But there is also that sense
where the kingdom is a long way off and something for which we
ought to pray, something for which we need to pray, This prayer looks for a time
when evil is going to be done away with and people will submit
to their sovereign God. The prayer looks for God to take
action, not for worshipers to bring in the kingdom through
their own efforts. It asks for the establishment of the kingdom
by God. By God for us, not by us for
God. When Jesus teaches us here, when
He says, your kingdom come, it is to pray for the program of
God’s to be fulfilled. God’s program. God’s ways. Matthew adds an insightful little
thing to Jesus’ prayer here. He records something that Luke
doesn’t. Matthew adds, your will be done. Not only your divine
sovereignty, your kingdom spreading itself throughout the whole earth,
throughout the whole universe, but your will as well on earth
as it is in heaven. And that prayer looks for that
perfect accomplishment of God’s design. This was essentially
Jesus’ prayer request on the earth. If you wanted to boil
it down to just a few words, thy will be done. Not my will,
but thine be done. If you wanted to call that the
Lord’s Prayer, that would be accurate. What does God want? He wants
people to be saved. He wants people to repent of
their sins. He wants them to come to Christ. He wants a right
relationship with them. He wants communion with people. And we need to pray for that.
That’s what Jesus says. It’s an appeal for God’s reign
and it’s an appeal here for God’s will to be done. What does God
want? He wants people to repent. We need to pray for people. We
need to pray for opportunities. We need to pray for situations.
To share the gospel, to proclaim Christ. For God’s kingdom to
advance itself in their lives. For God’s will to be done in
their lives. One Puritan said it this way.
Thy will be done on the earth as it is in heaven. And so saying,
we express our longing desire that the number of God’s converted
and obedient people on earth may greatly increase. That His
enemies who hate His laws may be diminished and brought low.
And that the time may speedily arrive when all men will do their
willing service to God on earth, even the angels. as the angels
do in heaven. People, we’re to pray. We are
to pray. That is to be a regular feature
in our prayer lives. To pray that God’s kingdom would
be advanced. To pray for our neighbors to
come to know Christ. To pray for that person that
works in our office to come to know Christ. To pray for an opportunity. To pray for that individual that
just irritates us. To pray that he Not because he
irritates us, but because he needs to know Christ. To pray
that God’s kingdom would be advanced by him. There’s a third feature of this blueprint. Our
fervent cries to the Father to be a yearning for God’s glory
and appealing for God’s reign and thirdly, a pleading for God’s
provision. Now, I don’t want to see a show
of hands, but I can promise you there aren’t many of us this
morning that woke up and said, Lord, please give me my my toast. There aren’t many are there?
Because in our DNA and in our day and age, give us our daily
bread. I mean, we have we have stores
practically on every corner. If we had something, we could
get it with a change in our pocket, probably within walking distance.
It’s so abundant, we take so much for granted. Give us our daily bread. This
is one that we might, in our modern day and age, think, well,
that was good for them. But I have it. I have everything.
Do we? The bread here doesn’t stand
literally for bread or bread only. What it means here is everything
that is necessary for sustaining life. Paul spoke of it. Life. That God gives life and breath
and all things. When was the last time you thanked
God or prayed for God for more air? Thanked God and prayed for more
rain. Give us this day our daily bread. He’s saying that we are to look
up to the God, the provider, the sustainer of the whole universe,
and to appeal to Him to continue to give, not to presumptuously
look up expecting. Bread stands for everything that
we need in our earthly existence. And it isn’t offered This prayer,
look at the form of it. It isn’t offered as something
that, you know, help us out, help us help ourselves kind of
a thing. That’s our, at the very best, that’s our attitude, isn’t
it? Help me work so I can earn my bread. Give me a job so I
can earn my bread. That’s not what Jesus says. Give
me bread. It’s for everything. Everything
that we need. It’s a reliance on an all giving
God, but it’s a total reliance. It’s a constant dependence upon
him. I’ve had a number of people say
they love the name of our church, Providence Bible Church, because
it constantly points us back to a God who is sustaining us.
Remember what we did on Y2K Sunday? The Sunday before Y2K. Remember
the world was going to come to an end? Do you remember what
we did? Psalm 104. We looked at the God
of creation. We looked at the creation of
God and that same God, that same God of creation is the sustainer
of his creation. God is going to feed us. God
will feed us. It’s interesting. that the immediately following
the prayer for a perfect establishment of the will of God. Remember,
we looked at that last week. We have a prayer for bread in
the here and now. Jesus was intensely practical. In fact, so many in the early
church found this so difficult that this little phrase was there
throughout history, this has been a hard thing to understand.
that many in the early church likened this bread to communion. They said what Jesus is referring
to here is communion. The bread of the word, perhaps. Both those miss the point that
Jesus takes seriously. The sustaining of human life,
the sustaining and provision of our needs, So he says, give
us our daily bread. There’s a blueprint for prayer.
Note the word that stands at the head, give. Give, it’s a
request. Just like your children. Just
like someone in need that comes to you, give. It’s a pleading
cry. It’s a plain and simple plea
to God. It’s urging God to provide. This isn’t pretentiousness. This
isn’t even obnoxiousness. This isn’t somebody demanding
of God. It recognizes that our food isn’t
the result of our unaided effort. Even the jobs that we have, the
grace to stand up and walk into them, the grace to do the work
put before us, that’s all part of God’s provision. And what
it urges, what this gift urges, is a day-to-day reliance upon
God. Everything that we have, life
and breath and all things. But notice one other feature
of this little clause. This prayer acknowledges that
we’re indebted to God, that we need God’s blessing on a day-to-day
basis. And that we’re to ask for them
on a day to day basis. We’re to ask them one day at
a time. God, give us our daily bread. Give us what we need. The word translated daily, literally
for the coming day. It means that the prayer in the
morning, if you pray this prayer in the morning, it’s for the
bread for the coming day. If you pray it at night, the
night before, it’s for bread the next day. But it’s looking
to God constantly day after day after day for the supply of our
needs. You’ve heard it said, you know,
there’s a tongue in cheek joke about the man at the altar, you
remember? He says 20 years into his marriage, I told you I loved
you at the altar. If anything changes, I’ll let
you know. This is similar to that. Well, I prayed that God
would provide for my needs a month ago. I prayed for God to provide
my needs when I first came to Christ, and I’m still writing
on that prayer. How many of us are writing on
that prayer? How many of us are writing on that presumptuous
kind of prayer? Well, we live on God’s blessings
as some kind of an expectation that we have for Him. Instead
of this gracious dependence, oh Lord, give. You know my need
to give. God isn’t against making provision
for the future. God isn’t against us saving.
God isn’t against us planning. But what he’s condemning here
is this uncomfortable anxiousness about the future that begins
to forget that there is an almighty God. One person characterized this,
a Puritan characterized it as, he said it this way, Christ’s
disciples must ask for bread, not luxuries. In other words,
we don’t need to pray for more than tomorrow. Tomorrow we’ll
pray for the next day’s provisions and so on and so forth. And that
cultivates that constant, ongoing dependence upon a holy God. Proverbs
30 said it this way. Keep deception and lies far from
me. Give me neither poverty nor riches.
Feed me with the food that is my portion. Give us this day our daily bread.
That’s what he says. That I not be in want. That I
pardon me that I not be full and deny you and say, who is
the Lord or that I not be in want and steal and profane the
name of my God? Give us each day our daily bread,
that’s what he prays for. And in this simple little prayer,
we see that moderation. We see a trust in a heavenly
father. We see an absolute dependence on who God is and what he can
do. We see humility. We see a willingness to work.
We see a generosity. I’m not going to be greedy and
take somebody else’s bread. Just give me my portion of bread,
all that I need. That’s what we’re to pray for. Those are just three of the features
on this blueprint. We’ll take up the last two next
week. But let’s be people. Let’s examine our hearts and
let’s be people that yearn for God’s glory, for God’s name to
be glorified. Let’s do so not only on knees
of prayer, but as we rise to do everything that we do to the
glory of God. Let’s be people that appeal for
God’s reign. Let’s pray for those that are
lost, who don’t think that they’re under Christ’s dominion now.
Let’s pray for them to come to know Christ. Let’s plead for
them on their behalf. Let’s present to them the Gospel.
Let’s live a life that adorns the Gospel. And finally, let’s
go before the Lord, not presumptuously, but trustingly, as to a father.
Let’s pray for our bread. Pray for provision. Pray that
God would provide what we need. Let’s bow. And our gracious God, our Father.
O God, we humble ourselves before You. And like this humble disciple,
we too would say, we do not know how to pray. Lord, teach us, we pray. We pray
that You would take these words and apply them to our hearts.
Change us. Change our pattern of prayer.
Change our priorities. for prayer. Father, make us to
be the praying people we ought to pray that indeed your kingdom
would come, that your name would be magnified and sanctified throughout
the whole earth. Father, provide what we need.
We humble ourselves before you. It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray.
Amen. If you would, We get to sing
one of my favorites this morning, Jesus Shall Reign. If you would stand in number
441.