Teach Us to PraySermon Text: Luke 11:1-13
6 Truths About Prayer
1. God is our Father (11:2)
“Father....”
he's not everyone's father
he is our father because of Jesus
“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are” -John 3:1
“As God’s adopted children we are loved no less than is the one whom God called his “beloved Son.” -Packer
2. God is holy (11:2)
"hallowed be your name"
we should have a desire God for God’s name to be hallowed
God should be approached and treated as holy
This petition “is that God should so work inwardly upon the one who prays, and upon all others, that they shall recognize Him in His self-revelation and serve Him as the Holy One – that they should render to Him, the divine Father, all honor and adoration and should love Him with their whole heart.” -Norval Geldenhuys
3. God is King (11:2)
“Your kingdom come”
we want God’s divine rule and reign to come
we desire God’s rule and reign to expand over our lives, over our church, over our city.
4. We are needy and dependent (11:3)
“Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.”
Provision: Give us all that we need in the physical sense one day at a time and teach us to enjoy it but never more than you, O God.
Pardon: Forgive us our sins. We acknowledge every day that we are unworthy sinners before a holy God. One of the strongest signs we’ve been forgiven is that we forgive others.
“By forgiving our debtors, therefore, we show our family resemblance to our Father in heaven… The forgiven forgive” -Philip Graham Ryken
Protection: We know we have trouble resisting sin, so we pray “lead me not into temptation.” When we’re not in church on Sunday morning singing worship songs, we need help to hallow his name!
5. Ask with sanctified persistence (11:5-13)
Jesus tells a story about a man who wouldn’t give up asking his neighbor for bread. Even though the man was turned down by his neighbor at first, because of the man’s persistence, he eventually gets what he wanted and needed. God is nothing like the neighbor who at first refused to give the man what he wanted. God is is our good and kind Father! How much more is God eager to answer us and give us his Spirit.
“Impudence” (v.8)=shamelessly presumptuous.
we should ask without a sense of shame or disgrace.
God assures us he will hear us:
ask: it will be given
seek: you will find
knock: it will be opened to you
“Prayer is not a way of getting God to do what we want, or of persuading him to do something that he does not want to do. But prayer is an audaciously bold request for God to do what he has promised to do.” -Philip Ryken
“We must not play at prayer, but must show persistence if we do not receive the answer immediately. It is not that God is unwilling and must be pressed to answering. The whole context makes it clear that he is eager to give. But if we do not want what we are asking for enough to be persistent, we do not want it very much.” -Leon Morris
6. God gives the Spirit
Praying makes no sense without the Spirit
we won't pray the way Jesus instructs us unless the Holy Spirit helps us.
we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit so we can pray this way.
“The Holy Spirit is beyond doubt the greatest gift which God can bestow upon man. Having this gift, we have all things, life, light, hope, and heaven. Having this gift, we have God the Father’s boundless love, God the Son’s atoning blood, and full communion with all three persons of the blessed Trinity. Having this gift, we have grace and peace in the world that now is, glory and honor in the world to come.” -J.C. Ryle
Summary:
-God is Father.
-God is Holy.
-God is King.
-We are needy and dependent on him.
-Ask with sanctified dependence.
-God gives the Spirit
Questions for Application:
1. Which of the 6 truths will affect your prayer life the most? Why?
2. What does it look like to ask God for something with “sanctified persistence?”
3. What is something you are persistent in asking God to do at this time in your life?
4. Jesus encourages us to pray “your Kingdom come, your will be done...” What does this mean?
5. What aspect of your life are you eager to see come more under the reign and influence of God?
6. What does it mean to our prayer life that God is Father? King? Holy? Eager to give his Spirit?
7. We must be persistent in prayer. If we’re not persistent, we must not want it very much. Question: what do you think God want to do in Greenville with people who “want it very much?”
