Teach Us To Pray – Part 3
Luke 11:1-13 (4)
April 7, 2019
As you know we have begun a lengthy section of Luke’s gospel
Where we will begin to learn something of the theology of Jesus.
Luke will record Jesus’ teaching on a variety of subjects,
And to begin, Luke includes Jesus’ teaching on prayer.
(1) “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.”
It is clear that the disciples saw something in the prayer life of Jesus
That must have been revolutionary to their understanding of prayer.
So in great humility they come to the Lord and simply ask Him,
“teach us to pray”
What they are really asking is that He would
Teach us to pray correctly or teach us to pray effectively.
And that is what we get.
We’ve spent the last two weeks on the first point of the passage.
#1 A PATTERN TO FOLLOW
Luke 11:1-4
Commonly referred to as the Lord’s Prayer, but really the Model Prayer.
• And here, more than just a magical prayer to memorize and regurgitate
• We get from Jesus a wonderful piece of instruction that opens our eyes to the very basics of what effective prayer should be.
There are 6 basic issues at hand here in this pattern.
We’ve seen the first 4
1) THE FOUNDATION OF PRAYER (2a)
“When you pray, say: ‘Father’”
At the very foundation is the fact that we appeal to One who is our Father.
And it is the intimate term like we would say, “Daddy”
When you pray you are appealing to One
• Who formed you in the womb,
• Who is intimately acquainted with all your ways,
• Who knows your thoughts from afar,
• Who knows a word before you speak it,
• Who has ordained your days before you,
• Who has sovereignly willed that all things work for your good,
• Who knows the plans He has for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope.
That is who you are praying to.
And that is good to remember because some of what we learn about prayer would be a little scary if we forget that.
• We are called to pray for His will and His glory, even if it means suffering
• We are called to pray only for daily bread, not a storehouse
But we are ok with those prayers because we know
We are entrusting ourselves to One who is our Father.
That’s the foundation, remember that.
2) THE CHIEF MOTIVATION OF PRAYER (2b)
“hallowed be Your name”
This is why we pray.
• This is ultimately our main goal in prayer, that God’s name be hallowed or set apart or sanctified or glorified.
Our goal in our prayers is not to request what satisfies the flesh,
But what glorifies our God.
3) THE FOCUS OF PRAYER (2c)
“Your kingdom come”
And you will remember that this isn’t so much a request for Jesus to return and reign (though we do desire that)
But it is more about the spreading and growth of His kingdom.
It is our desire to see the lost saved and the saved sanctified.
It is our desire that Christ would rule in hearts by faith.
In short, our focus in prayer is not about our kingdom,
But about His kingdom.
It is not all about what we can do for the betterment of our little world,
But ultimately for His kingdom.
When we pray we focus on that.
4) THE DISCERNMENT OF PRAYER (3)
“Give us each day our daily bread”
The reason we called this an issue of discernment
Is because it is against human nature to only pray for “daily bread”
We would prefer to be set for life.
The reason we pray for daily bread is because
This was the manner in which God revealed He would provide it
AND WE LEARN TO PRAY ACCORDING TO HIS WILL.
This spans far beyond the issue of bread.
We read His word and seek His will and pray accordingly in all things.
This encompasses things like:
• Praying for our enemies
• Praying for leaders and those in authority
• Praying for the lost
• Praying for missionaries and mission opportunities
We discern God’s will as revealed in Scripture
And then we pray according to His will.
That is discernment in prayer.
We don’t use prayer as some sort of mystical means of obtaining our will.
We pray according to God’s will in all things,
And as we do our hearts are moved into alignment with His.
But those are the first for aspects of prayer we see modeled here.
• The Foundation for Prayer
• The Chief Motivation for Prayer
• The Focus of Prayer
• The Discernment of Prayer
This morning we move forward.
5) THE HUMILITY OF PRAYER (4a)
“And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.”
Clearly we learn here of humility in prayer.
There is in fact nothing that a person may do on a daily basis
That is more humbling than when they ask for forgiveness.
• It is to admit failure and admit wrong.
• It is to throw oneself at the mercy of another.
• It is to request removal of a debt at the expense another.
Asking for forgiveness is most humbling thing we do.
• When we recognize that we have fallen short of the divine expectation.
• When we realize that we have missed the mark.
• When we realize that we have not walked as we ought to have walked.
We come to God in humility and ask for His forgiveness.
And there is a reason we must.
GOD IS HOLY
This is where we see great balance in the prayer Jesus taught us to pray.
Earlier in the prayer Jesus reveals God as our Father.
And He most certainly is.
• This speaks of His intimate love for us.
• It speaks of His unfailing care and compassion.
• He is our Father.
But you must also remember that He is a Holy Father.
John 17:11 “I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are.”
John 17:25 “O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me;”
He is our Father, and He cares for us,
But that does not mean He does not have
A divine standard of expectation.
In fact, the writer of Hebrews reminds us that God is a Father who is ever at work to produce righteousness in us.
Hebrews 12:7-11 “It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”
So we certainly see God there as a Father,
And as a Father who is passionate about righteousness.
And certainly this is consistent with how God is revealed in Scripture.
Consider the Psalmist as he contemplates the holy perfection and righteous standard of God.
Psalms 15 “O LORD, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill? He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, And speaks truth in his heart. He does not slander with his tongue, Nor does evil to his neighbor, Nor takes up a reproach against his friend; In whose eyes a reprobate is despised, But who honors those who fear the LORD; He swears to his own hurt and does not change; He does not put out his money at interest, Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.”
Psalms 24:3-4 “Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? And who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood And has not sworn deceitfully.”
Righteousness has always been important to God.
And it would be absurd to seek to approach Him in arrogance.
In fact we also read that GOD REJECTS the prayer of the wicked.
Isaiah 1:15 “So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.”
Psalms 66:18 “If I regard wickedness in my heart, The Lord will not hear;”
This sentiment is echoed in the New Testament.
Luke 18:9-14 “And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. “The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ “But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ “I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
It is a familiar parable, and it clearly makes the point that God is holy
And humility is expected if you are going to approach Him in prayer.
James makes the same observation.
James 4:6-10 “But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.” Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.”
Because God responds to the humble we approach Him in humility.
• We come repenting of sin.
• We come mourning over iniquity
• We come bowing in submission
We humble ourselves before God and then He exalts us.
God is a Father who cares for you deeply.
But He is also a righteous Father; a Holy Father
Who also demands that we come before Him in humility.
I do think there is a prayer in Scripture
Where this is so BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED
TURN TO: DANIEL 9
While you turn to Daniel 9,
I want to read to you a passage out of the book of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 29:10-14 “For thus says the LORD, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. ‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. ‘Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. ‘You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. ‘I will be found by you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’”
You’re likely familiar with at least part of that passage.
29:11 is often quoted, because it holds so much hope and reminds us of God’s good plans for us.
And in that passage Jeremiah revealed a couple of important truths.
• He spoke of the length of the exile, namely seventy years.
• He spoke of the outcome of the exile, namely that Israel would seek Him with
all their heart.
With that as a backdrop you approach Daniel 9.
You read those first 2 verses.
(1-2) “In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of Median descent, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans — in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years which was revealed as the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.”
So obviously Daniel was reading that passage we just read
• And he observed the length of the exile which Jeremiah revealed.
• And he read about how the result God was looking for was that His people would seek Him.
Now the other interesting thing here I would tell you is that we find that this event occurred “In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of Median descent”
• That was 539BC
• The exile began in 605BC
• Which means that Daniel is reading this in the 67th year of the exile.
So Daniel realizes that the end is close and that seeking God is the goal.
And we read: (3) “So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.”
That all makes perfect sense doesn’t.
But what I want you to see here in Daniel’s prayer is
One of the finest prayers of humility that you can find in Scripture.
This is the very epitome of what it means to approach God in humility.
Let me show you.
(and I’ll give you an outline of sorts as we work through it if you want to jot it down in your margins)
The first thing you get from Daniel is: AN ADMISSION OF GUILT (4-8)
Do you notice how humble and open he is about the sin of his people?
There is one word there that Daniel does not use.
He never says, “but”
• “we have sinned, but don’t You think 70 years was a little much?”
• “we have acted wickedly, but you know God it really wasn’t our fault”
There are no excuses offered here.
He owns it.
“We sinned, we didn’t listen,
And we broke every command there was to break.”
And not only that, Daniel also says that WE ALL were in this together.
You see that in verses 7-8 where Daniel reveals the scope of the problem.
(7) “to the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those who are nearby and those who are far away in all the countries to which You have driven them”
In verse 8 he lists “our kings, our princes, our fathers”
In short, we all sinned in every way possible.
We are guilty, no doubt about it.
Now that is how you admit guilt when you go before God.
You don’t go before Him making excuses.
• You don’t go before Him like Adam did: “I sinned God, but it was really because You gave me this woman”
• You don’t go before Him like our culture blaming it on parents or siblings or friends or circumstances.
Daniel here cuts a big ole piece of humble pie and eats it down.
We blew it, all of us, in every way possible.
That’s his admission of guilt and it drips with humility.
From there he moves into an even greater display of humility, it is
AN AGREEMENT WITH THE CONSEQUENCES (9-14)
He starts in vs 9 indicating that the Lord is compassionate and forgiving.
In short, “We aren’t in this mess because God is some sort of mean-spirited overbearing deity.”
The reason we are here is because we blew it.
We are getting exactly what we deserve.
In fact, he lists again in verse 10 that we didn’t listen,
And again in verse 11 that we transgressed God’s Law.
And then he says an important word, “so”
• Because we sinned and didn’t listen and transgressed “so the curse has been poured out on us, along with the oath which is written in the law of Moses”
In other words, it was spelled out clearly in the initial agreement that if we broke the covenant we would be exiled.
Well, we did break the covenant, and so we got exiled.
We deserved this.
That’s humility isn’t.
To go before God admitting your sin and acknowledging to Him that His discipline was perfectly fitting and right.
WELL DANIEL ISN’T FINISHED.
It’s not just that we deserve this punishment,
But Daniel also owns up to the fact that we deserve
THE DEGREE of the punishment we have received.
I mean think about it,
Being starved out by Babylon and ultimately watching your city and temple burned with fire is pretty severe.
It was, as Daniel puts it in verse 12, “great calamity”
And yet, Daniel said that this calamity
Was nothing more than God confirming His words.
He told us that if we broke His commands He would do this, and He did it.
He said it would be bad, and it was bad.
BUT WE EARNED IT.
So not only was God right to punish us,
But He was right to punish us to the degree that He punished us.
In other words, He was right to spank us, and He was right to spank us as hard as He spanked us.
And that’s still not all.
Daniel also agrees with the DURATION of the punishment.
How long did Jeremiah say it would last? 70 years!
OK, it’s one thing to be kicked out of the land.
It’s one thing to be severely punished.
But 70 years?
Surely at this point Daniel is going to say,
“But God enough is enough, let us come home.”
And yet in verses 13-14 Daniel admits that up to this point,
Despite the punishment, Israel still hasn’t learned their lesson.
Did you catch what he said?
(13b) “all this calamity has come upon us; yet we have not sought the favor of the LORD our God by turning from our iniquity and giving attention to Your truth. Therefore the LORD has kept the calamity in store”
What was the purpose for the 70 years?
To cause Israel to seek God with all their heart.
Daniel said, “We still aren’t seeking so You are right to keep on afflicting.”
That is humility isn’t it?
• We sinned
• We all sinned
• We deserve this punishment.
• We deserve the degree of punishment
• We deserve the duration of punishment
That’s called humbling yourself before God.
That’s that tax collector that won’t even lift his eyes to heaven
But just keeps beating his breast.
Well that is how Daniel comes.
AND THEN WE SEE DANIEL’S REQUEST.
And even that is interesting, because
HE DOESN’T just break right in to asking for forgiveness.
He FIRST hallows the name of God.
He first exalts God.
We HIS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF THE SAVIOR (READ 15-16)
He exalts God as the perpetual Savior of Israel.
• You saved us from Egypt.
• But we blew it.
But we are asking now “in accordance with all Your righteous acts, let now Your anger and Your wrath turn away”
He is coming in humility and he is coming exalting God.
• He doesn’t claim to be unjustly punished.
• He doesn’t accuse God of being too cruel.
• He doesn’t grow bitter against God for being too hard to please.
He lifts high that God is righteous.
And then comes the request.
THE APPEAL FOR FORGIVENESS (READ 17-19)
And we read this a couple of weeks ago.
Now Lord, please forgive “For Your sake”
“O lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action!”
Now that is how you come before God in humility,
And I think that is A WORTHWHILE EXAMPLE to store in your mind
As we CONTEMPLATE THIS MODEL PRAYER that Jesus gave us.
When we go to God we need to realize that though He is a Father, He is a righteous and holy Father.
He is a Father who disciplines His children.
And we don’t go before Him in arrogance, we go before Him in humility.
NOW IT IS ALSO TRUE THAT
We are free to come before Him, even though we are unworthy.
Hebrews 4:16 “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
The writer of Hebrews said that even though He is holy and we are not,
We can still come before Him confidently.
What is this confidence?
1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
BECAUSE HE IS A LOVING FATHER
Isn’t that good?
Isn’t that encouraging?
But the main point of course is that one of the aspects of prayer
Is that when we come, we come in humility.
We come seeking forgiveness of our sin.
We come humbly before Him because He is opposed to the proud.
We say, “And forgive us our sins”
And if you’ll notice, our Lord QUALIFIED THIS ONE a little.
We come in humility and we come seeking mercy.
But according to Jesus there is a LITMUS TEST
That will accurately indicate whether or not our humility is real.
There is an indicator by which it shows
Whether or not we are really humble like Daniel was.
WHAT IS THAT TEST?
Whether we are willing to forgive others.
“For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.”
A person who willingly forgives those who have sinned against him
Is a person who demonstrates a love for mercy.
That is a person who has realized
How badly they themselves need forgiveness.
It is a humbling thing to ask for forgiveness,
And it is a demonstration of humility to offer it.
And of course this one is easily illustrated by the Lord as well.
TURN TO: MATTHEW 18:21-35
Well, we all love the question of Peter there.
“how often..?” Peter says.
Surely sooner or later I can tell my brother to get lost
I’m not going to forgive him anymore.
Now someone might ask, “What’s the problem with that?”
• Surely some people just abuse the system.
• Surely some people just need to be written off.
• Surely some people have taken such advantage that we just need to move them aside.
Some people have certainly lost the privilege of forgiveness.
WHAT’S THE PROBLEM WITH THAT?
Here it is:
A person with this mindset is a person who has not yet reached the humility that God requires.
A person who can refuse forgiveness to another
Based on too many abuses
Is a person who has failed to actually see
How many abuses they have committed against God.
They are a person NOT LIKE DANIEL who can confess sin and say we deserve it.
And that is what Jesus illustrates here.
(READ 23-27)
And just so you know, “ten thousand talents”
Now my side margin says that “a talent was worth more than fifteen years wages”
So let’s be modest today and say
• A common laborer today can make $24,000 in a year.
• Multiply that by 15 and you get $360,000.
• That’s 1 talent.
Multiply that by 10,000 and you get: 3.6 billion dollars.
That’s an absurd debt to have racked up.
What is more, it is not reimbursable.
This man said, “Have patience with me and I will repay you everything”
But that was a lie. He couldn’t possibly do it.
It was an insurmountable debt.
We would call it a debt he couldn’t pay.
And yet the king felt compassion and forgave him.
And then the story moves forward.
(READ 28-30)
Now this man goes out and finds someone who owes him money.
Here the price is “a hundred denarii”
A denarii was a day’s wage.
• Now let’s say a man makes $100 a day.
• That would be a debt of $10,000
It’s not a small amount, but it certainly isn’t insurmountable.
People pay off debts that small all the time.
This man might actually be able to repay.
But the slave has no mercy, no compassion, and throws him in prison.
And then the point.
(READ 31-35)
Now, THE TEMPTATION IS TO SAY that
This man got thrown to the torturers
Because he wouldn’t forgive his brother.
But that is only partially true.
The REAL REASON he got thrown to the torturers
Is because he owed the king 3.6 billion dollars that he did not repay.
And yet people say, “But wait a minute, the king forgave him that debt.”
True, but the man’s forgiveness was contingent upon his humility,
But when the man went and choked his own slave
HE REVEALED THAT HIS HUMILITY WAS A SHAM
And so his debt was reinstated.
See verse 34 “And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him.”
THE POINT OF THE STORY IS THAT
A lack of forgiveness indicates a lack of genuine humility.
And a lack of humility will bring no forgiveness
For God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble.
And in this we learn something very important about prayer.
• You CAN confidently approach God as Your Father.
• You CAN run to Him as One who loves you and cares for you and is
intimately acquainted with all your ways.
BUT YOU DO NOT GO TO HIM IN ARROGANCE
• You go to Him in humility.
• You go to Him acknowledging that you do not deserve to be there.
• You go before Him as a sinful son into the presence of a Holy Father.
Can we go? Yes
Are we welcome? Yes
But don’t fail to remember exactly who it is you are approaching.
He is still the Holy God of the universe.
We come before Him and we come before Him humbly.
For even though we are welcome, we do not deserve to be there.
So:
• The Foundation of Prayer – God is Father
• The Chief Motive of Prayer – the glory of God
• The Focus of Prayer – the growth of His kingdom
• The Discernment of Prayer – for His revealed will
• The Humility of Prayer – seeking forgiveness
We’ll move forward next time.
