Sermon Central
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The Lord's Prayer - Part 1 Series
Contributed by Stephen Belokur on Jun 24, 2014 (message contributor)
Summary: Is the Lord's Prayer from Matthew 6 really a prayer that Jesus intended us to memorize and repeat often? Is it just a pattern for prayer - This sermon investigates Matthew 6:9-10.
Please continue standing as we read what is most commonly known as “The Lord’s Prayer”
Matthew 6:9-13 (KJV)
“Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.
“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”
The Lord’s Prayer is amazing.
Some people repeat the Lord’s prayer every day.
Some churches believe in repeating the Lord’s prayer and other prayers over and over in order to have your sins removed.
And, you know, it seems as if there is anything that Christians can disagree over we will find a way to do so!
Some churches read prayers while other offer spontaneous prayers.
Some say Ah-men while other churches say AAA-men!
Some churches pray in the name of Jesus while others pray in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!
Some folks think we should kneel, some think we should stand
Some think we should fold our hands while other think we should raise them to heaven
Now, we don’t normally tend to read prayers, but we do sing them!
We bow our hearts we bend our knees
Oh Spirit come make us humble
We turn our eyes from evil things Oh LORD we cast down our idols
Give us clean hands give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another
Give us clean hands give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another
And oh God let us be a generation that seeks
That seeks Your face oh God of Jacob
And oh God let us be a generation that seeks
That seeks Your face oh God of Jacob
Give us clean hands give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another
Give us clean hands give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another
So, when it comes to the Lord’s prayer, what is it?
I did a search on Amazon.com for books about the Lord’s prayer and found literally dozens of them by many different and famous authors!
Anyway, let’s take a look at this awesome prayer and see what the Lord would say to us today!
First of all, Jesus did not teach this prayer for memorization and constant repetition:
In Matthew Jesus is teaching a great crowd in what is called the Sermon on the Mount and He simply says as a preface …
“This, then, is how you should pray …”
In the account found in Luke 11 Jesus has spent some time in prayer and the disciples ask Him to teach them how to pray as John the Baptist taught his disciples.
So, from the context we can see that Jesus is establishing a prayer pattern.
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“Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
First we need to know Who it is we’re praying to! We do NOT pray just for the sake of praying! We pray to "Our Father"
Show images of the following bumper stickers.
“Prayer Changes Things” and “Believe in the Power of Prayer”
Now, most Christians assume that we all know that we need to be praying to the God of the Bible, but, when the world sees it, what do they think?
If it is prayer that changes things, what about this image
(Photo of hundreds of muslims praying.)
This one is probably more specific but still would be misunderstood by most non-Christians
“I don’t believe in the power of prayer. I believe in the power of the One to whom I pray.”
We pray to God. Only to God. Enough said …
And, if you have any doubt I would encourage you to do a study of the Scriptures and see who the prophets and apostles and Jesus prayed to!
When we think about Our Father to whom we pray we need to remember that many people have had neglectful or absent or even horrible, evil fathers!
If that is the case with someone you are urging to find salvation in Christ it may take time for them to replace the image of their earthly father with the Heavenly Father. And, it may very well take time for them to build trust in Our Father who is in heaven.
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“Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
We are praying to our Father i"n Heaven"!
