Luke 11:1-4

Luke, the Gospel of Luke, chapter 11, and the first four verses for our text and study this morning. We’ll be spending several weeks on this prayer, and so we’ll be introducing it here this morning. and it came to pass that as he, Jesus, was praying in a certain place. When he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, When you pray, say, our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily breath, and forgive us our sins. For we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation. but deliver us from evil. May God bless to us, is sacred and holy word this morning. In 1997, the Russian Space Station Mir collided with a cargo ship and was damaged. The station’s, 11 gyroscopes which kept it oriented toward the sun for power, we find were damaged. Five shut down because of this collision. And the loss of those gyroscopes meant the loss of energy from the sun. They lost solar power, and it didn’t function properly. Prayer in your life is similar in purpose. to those gyroscopes on the space station. Without proper orientation toward God, you cannot have spiritual vitality in your life. You become spiritually drained and useless for the cause of Christ. And so our text this morning has to do with teach us to pray, which is the question, of course, or the thing that the disciples have asked here. Now, you need to be taught how to pray. And it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. Now, you should ponder the Lord’s example here. Our text opens with Christ praying in a certain place. We’re not told where he prayed. This is not important to the teaching. As God, people brought their petitions to him. But as man, he prayed to his heavenly father. Luke’s gospel, if you go through it, carefully you’ll notice how often he emphasizes that Christ prayed, that it was an important spiritual exercise in which our Lord engaged. We find him praying when he was baptized. We find him after he healed a leper and his fame began to grow, that he went aside. into the wilderness to pray. Before choosing his disciples, Christ prayed all night, before making that choice. Remember when he went up into the mountain and prayed, and the result of that was we find that he was transfigured up there on the mountain. And here again he’s praying through the words of the psalmist. You find Jesus Christ saying this in Psalm 109, I give myself to prayer and how true that is in the case of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, it appears that disciples were with Christ when he was praying on this occasion. It’s obvious that the disciples were impressed by Christ’s prayer. Perhaps is adoration of God. Is God on God? petition his spiritual mindset and so as soon as he’s done praying somebody says hey would you teach us how to pray whenever you hear someone praying exceptionally well it ought to stimulate you to follow their example you should want to pray well yourself and improve prayer is the highest activity in which your soul engages you’re communicating with the Lord God. Desire to pray well is an encouraging sign of your spiritual health. Even if you can’t pray well, the desire to pray well is important, I think, that we would always want to improve and be better at praying well. So you should ponder the Lord’s example here. They looked at Christ, they heard, him pray and they thought, boy, we would like to pray like that. You should request help to pray. Lord, teach us to pray. Now, it seems to me they waited until Christ ceased praying. They didn’t want to interrupt him in such a solemn exercise that he was engaged in at this point. So as soon as he’s done, though, they say, teach us to pray. One of his disciples, and we’re not told which, spoke up, and he seemed to be speaking for the rest of them when he says, you know, teach us all of us how to do this too. It became obvious to them upon hearing Christ pray that their prior life was woefully inadequate. Friends, it is extremely difficult to pray well. Such a high spiritual exercise does not come naturally to us as sinful fallen creatures. It’s not easy to pray well. Look with me at Romans chapter 8, if you would. Paul writes here some interesting things. Versus 26 and 27 about prayer. Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself or himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the spirit because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. Now, as we look at this text of scripture, the indication here is that in many ways we are so ignorant, we are so we don’t know what to ask for when we pray. That our prayers are often misguided because of that. You struggle to know what is best for you. What your true needs really are. And there are times we ask am this, not knowing what our best recourse is. You recall that Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 that he prayed diligently that his thorn in the flesh would be taken away from him. Three times he says he prayed about this. And the Lord gave him an answer which perhaps was surprising to him my grace is sufficient for you. And so the answer was I’m not going to remove this thorn and the flesh. And the reason why was it is essential that he not be exalted above measure. So here he is. He’s praying diligently. Lord, take this thorn away, but God said, no, I want it there for this reason. And so you see, he’s not sure at that point why he’s thinking, the best thing would be to get this thorn out of the way, and God’s saying, no, that’s not. not what’s best for you. The best thing is for it to remain for now. So even the apostle Paul, at times, you see, we’ll be praying and sometimes we’re not sure about what is best for us. We need Christ to instruct us today. And he’s doing so here in this text of Scripture. He’s telling us how to pray. And we also need the Spirit. to teach us. In Romans 8, we worry about the Spirit also. Now, the Spirit of God must prompt you regarding your prayer request. He works in you. He guides your thoughts. He brings to mind spiritual implications of various texts of Scripture so that we would pray according to what God has promised us in Scripture. He guides our thoughts. He causes us to seek what is spiritually good for our souls. Jesus Christ is your intercessor in heaven before the throne of God, if you’re a believer this morning. And yet the Holy Spirit, we’re told also in this passage, intercedes for the saints. Now, he doesn’t do it the same way that Jesus does it. He doesn’t intercede with the Father, as Christ does. But let me say this. He intercedes with you. He intercedes with your spirit to guide you in your prayers. He shows you what your true needs are. What you should really desire. He stirs you up to pray. He supplies you with biblical arguments. in prayer. He puts the words in your mouth from scripture itself. He provides strength of faith in your prayer. And he stirs up groanings that are unutterable. There have been some questions about this passage of scripture. It’s not that the Spirit of God groans. But he causes you to groan in spirit. He places a burden on your soul, which is very difficult to express so that we have unutterable groans. And it can overwhelm us. Do you remember the story of King Hezekiah in the Old Testament in Isaiah 38? He says here, like a crane or a crane, a swallow, so did I chatter. I did mourn as a dove. Mine eyes fail with looking upward. Oh Lord, I am oppressed. Undertake for me. He’s struggling. He’s groaning. In prayer. Or Asaph in Psalm 77. I remembered God and was troubled. I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed, Sela. I am so troubled that I cannot speak. We can have such groaning and struggles in our prayer life. When we come to this passage then, Lord, teach us to pray. It’s an excellent prayer for us to lift up in request of the Lord, just as the disciples did long ago. Who can attempt to pray when they’re feeling so inadequate? And then the the Lord of Host. It’s difficult. At a religious conference in England, a friend of Andrew Fuller was asked to lead in prayer before a group of men. He was a man of slender spiritual talents, let’s put it that way. And he didn’t feel qualified to pray in front of these other men who were more mature in the faith. And so he whispered to Fuller He says, I don’t know how to go on. Fuller replied in a whisper back to him, tell the Lord so. Now the rest of the company that was there didn’t hear what exchanged between these two men. But the man taking Fuller’s advice began to confess in his prayer is not knowing how to pray as he ought to pray and that, Lord, I need your help to enable me to pray well. And so he proceeded in this prayer to the satisfaction who were all who were there for they too could feel what he felt when it came to prayer. You should request help to pray. That’s what we see here. Thirdly, you find other believers have been taught how to pray. As John also taught his disciples, the scribes and the Pharisees you recall, complained earlier to Christ of his disciples’ shortcomings in the area of prayer. Not only fasting, but also prayer. We read this in Luke 533. Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees, but thine eat and drink? Now we’re not given any specifics about how John taught his disciples how to pray. The phrase, make prayers in that passage in Luke 533, seems to indicate something about formulating petitions before the Lord. In other words, what to ask for from God. Jesus provides his disciples here with what we will call a model I don’t call this the Lord’s Prayer because actually I think John 17 is the Lord’s Prayer but this is like a model prayer that he gives us here. It closely resembles the one he gave on the Sermon of the Mount. It shows you how often Christ would repeat some of the same important truths. You taught them on the sermon on the Mount how to pray in that passage. But here they ask and he reiterates some of the things. same themes that we find in Matthew chapter 6, which Russell kindly read before the sermon this morning. In the sermon in the Mount, Jesus said, after this manner, therefore, pray you. In other words, he’s suggesting a pattern. He’s not saying you have to say these exact words, but in this way, pray. This is the kind of pattern for you to follow in your prayers, to formulate your prayers. The point is this. We can be taught how to pray. We can follow the model prayer and we can learn to pray better. All the disciples need instruction in this area because we’re all deficient in this area. I would suggest to you that all the prayers of the Bible are meant for us to ponder to learn how to pray well. There are many prayers. The prayers of Paul and the epistles, we have many of the Old Testament prayers of men. They’re there. They’re all beneficial for a study and pondering on how to approach God. What kind of petitions to ask and so forth? But here we have in a very short manner, very concise manner, some basic elements with regard to how to pray. So if you want to improve your prayer life, then we’re going to pay attention to what Jesus says here in this passage of Scripture. So you need to be taught how to pray. Secondly, this morning, let’s talk about your approach to God in prayer. Before we actually get to the petitions of prayer, he also talks in this passage about how do you approach to Lord God? Now notice what he says here in verse 2 of chapter 11 of Luke. And he said unto them, when you pray, say, our father, which art in heaven. You should pray, to God as your Heavenly Father. That’s how he directs us to pray. To put things in that perspective. You should approach God with reverence and, of course, respect. We studied this in Ecclesiastes recently in Chapter 5. Keep thy foot when thou goes to the house of God, be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth. Let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God. For God is in heaven, and now upon earth, therefore let your words be few. Because he’s our father in heaven. Then we are on the earth. He’s saying here, be careful how you speak to God. You must remember, you are approaching. an absolutely just, holy, righteous God. And there we should approach him with reverence in godly fear. For our God, according to Hebrews 12, is a consuming fire. Now, you remember, in Exodus chapter 24, when God came down, indeed, it may have been Christ at that point, that came down on the Mount Sinai. The sight of the glory of God was like a deviring fire, the Bible tells us, on the top of that mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. God does not countenance fools. Therefore, when we come before him, we should not be provoking him to anger. For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath we are troubled. Psalm 90, verse 7. Remember Nadab in a bayou who offered strange fire, foreign fire, before God, and God struck them dead. Fire came out from the altar and burned them up. Our God is a consuming fire. It’s easy to be quick and rash in uttering things before God. Your cares, your anxieties, your troubles overwhelm you, and you can rattle off many foolish things. before God. You remember Job, as you go through the book of Job, think about all the anguish he had with the loss of his family, his property, his health, his friends, and he spoke rather harshly to God. You recall he kept demanding some type of audience with God in order to he might quit himself of any wrongdoing. He charged God in a sense with not dealing fairly or properly with him. Toward the end of the book, however, you remember the Lord appears in the whirlwind, and he speaks to Job. And he begins to question Job personally, and he says this in Job 40, verse 2. Shall he that contendeth to the Almighty instruct him? Who do you think you are, Job? That you can instruct me. And God begins to question Job and all those questions he asked him. But in effect, he’s saying, Who do you think you are that you can speak to me like that? God put Job in his place, and what does Job say then? Behold, I am vow, what shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth. I spoke in haste. There’s a good lesson here. Sometimes we need to put our hand over our mouth before we speak. Lest we speak rashly and be foolish in what we say. So you should approach God with reverence and respect. He’s a God in heaven. He’s a father in heaven. But you should approach God as a child to a father. Because we are to address him as our heavenly father. Now, he’s not a father for every human being upon the face of the earth. There’s no such thing as some type of universal fatherhood of God. Scripture teaches that God is a father to his elect people only. You remember, John 844, where Jesus says to the Jewish religious leaders, you are your father the devil and the lust of your father will you do? That doesn’t sound like that God is their heavenly father. Sounds like Satan is their father. John 112 says, as many has received him, the Lord Jesus Christ. To them gave He the power. to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. So that, as scripture says in Galatians 326, you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. And so it is those who have faith that can call God their Heavenly Father. 1 John 3. 10, in this the children of God are manifest and the children of the devil. whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God. He says, there are children of God, and they are children of the devil. Those who walk up rightly are to the children of God. It’s only those who have received the spirit of adoption that can cry out to God then as their father. Anyone can mouth the words our father. But the real question, question is this, do you actually know him as your father? See, an unbeliever can call God creator. They can call God their judge, but they can’t call God their fault, unless they have believed in Jesus Christ. They can’t do that. Can you say that, with confidence this morning, that God is your fault? Because now, if that is the case, you can come before him in prayer. Do you have any signs of sonship in your life? You know, a son is sensitive to disobeying his father. Do you mourn and weep when you’ve been disobedient to the Lord? When you disobeyed him? When you disobeyed Him. When Christ looked on Peter, the disciple remembered what Jesus said before he went on trial. How you’re going to deny me thrice. And then the cock crows several times, and sure enough, he found himself guilty, was a reminder. And what did we read? He went out and wept bitterly. You should have sorrow of a heart over the fact you have defied the will of your Heavenly Father. A son highly regards his father’s honor. My friend, you ought to be disturbed. You ought to be grieved. When others flagrantly break God’s law. You say with the psalmist, I beheld the transgressors and was grieved. Psalm 119, verse 158. You remember how we read about Lot. He was living in a very wicked society there in Sodom. and the Bible tells us that he was vexed with the filthy conversation, both the behavior and speech, of the wicked there, among whom he was living. It vexed his soul. It ought to vex us when God’s law is broken. A son also truly loves his father. That means respect and reverence. If I be a father, where is my honor? God says in Melachi chapter 1 and verse 6. It means we delight in the Lord’s Day. We want to honor our Father. Why wouldn’t we delight in the day that we know he has set aside for his worship? We love God’s people. We love His family. Everyone that loveth Him that begat, loveth Him also that has begotten of Him. 1. John 5.1. and we defend his truth because we love his word. And so these are the kinds of things that would indicate to us are sonship? Are these things true of you? Are they true of you? Now there’s a blessing in knowing that God is your heavenly father. Think about this. What a comfort it is. If God is your heavenly father, then he loves you, and he’s working all things for your ultimate good. That’s a positive, isn’t it? It means acceptance, if he’s our heavenly fog. It means we can go to him at any time, and his ear is open to our cry. It means discipline, for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteth, and scourgeteth every son whom he receiveth. So that God is concerned about. about how we walk, how we behave ourselves in this life. He’s watching over us. As a father would his own child. It means security. God doesn’t disinherit any of his sons. He never disowns any. I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them. Jeremiah 32.40. Thomas Watson said this, and I thought it was interesting. In the name Jehovah carries majesty in it, the name Father carries mercy. So you’d approach God as a child to a father. My last point is this. You should realize others are sons of God also. He doesn’t say here to call God my father, but our father, indicating to us here that God has a whole family of sons and daughters, so to speak. They’re called the family of God in Ephesians 315. It includes all the spiritual children. And therefore, Jesus is teaching us here. We should not merely pray for ourselves, but include the whole family, to include other believers in Christ when we pray. We’re not to be so self-centered that we pray. just about us and not about our brothers and sisters in Christ. All God’s children stand in equal relationship with Him. And so we should pray for all the saints, Ephesion 618, wherever they are in the world. Keep in mind as we go through this verses 3 and 4 also all the uses and ours that he includes in this model prayer because it teaches the very same thing I’m mentioning right now. So you should approach God in prayer, and this is how we should do so. With reverence and respect, as a child to a father, and realize that there are others who are also included in his sons and daughters. Well, I’ll conclude with this. The malfunction of the Russian mere space station caused it to lose power, energy from the sun because it was now not oriented toward the sun when those gyroscopes were off. My friends, prayer orients you properly toward God. And you’ll lose spiritual vitality if you’re not oriented properly toward God. Your prayer life, therefore, is essential. The problem is we don’t know how we ought to pray as we ought, as Paul tells us. So what need there is that? To pray along with disciples here, Lord, teach us how to pray. And let us learn from this passage this morning how to do so properly. Let’s close with the world.