Luke 11:1-4

Let me read Luke 11, 1 to 4. 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 bread, 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. And God bless to us His sacred and holy word this morning. Now there are many home improvement books available. Even in today’s day and age, you can go to YouTube, and actually they have videos online on how to repair anything, whether you’re talking about fixing a leaky faucet or whether you’re talking about electrical repairs or laying flooring or patching holes in the wall or doing roof repairs or cement work or whatever it is. There’s somebody or some means by which we can learn how to improve our homes. Step-by-step instructions are provided. And if you carefully follow those procedures, you should come out well. and you’re improving your home. We have here a lesson on how to pray in our text. The disciples, after listening to Jesus Christ praying, realized how woefully inadequate their prayer life was and said, teach us to pray. They wanted to have spiritual improvement. And so Christ, what we’ll call a model prayer, a pattern of prayer. Pray in this manner. After this manner, pray ye, Matthew’s gospel says, with regard to this prayer. I know it’s called the Lord’s prayer, but I really think John 17 is the Lord’s Prayer. So we should think this is the model prayer on how we should pray. You can improve your prayer life if you follow. His step-by-step instructions provided here in our text. I think we can learn how to pray in a manner that’s pleasing to God from this passage. Now, he’s already directed you to pray to God as your Heavenly Father. That is the framework from which you’re going to approach the Lord. But now he lays before us the petitions. What kind of? of things should you pray about? Now, in general, let me mention a couple of things. I think we can make two important points as we look in general at these four verses. And the first is this. You’re going to give God’s interest priority in your prayers. That’s what Jesus emphasizes here. You were taught that God’s interest come first. Have you noticed the order of the petitions here? The first half of this model prayer is concerned with God’s honor. God’s name, God’s kingdom, God’s will. This comes before addressing your interest, before he gets to our daily breath and forgiveness of sins and deliver us from evil. You see how he lays. this out for us. And the lesson is this. God takes preeminence even above the most necessary needs of your life, like daily bread. For man shall not live by bread alone. The Bible tells us. So what Christ is emphasizing here, forget yourself for a moment when you go to prayer and think about God and honoring Him. and your prayer life will be much richer if you do that. The second thing we see is this. You learn that prayer is not just requesting God to do something for you. It’s actually an act of worship whereby you seek the glorify God. Many people think of prayer as, well, this is the way I obtain the things I need. Well, you may. in that manner. But my friends, God is not to be portrayed as some magic genie that when we rub the lamp of prayer, we get what we want from him. That would be a very poor way to look at our prayer life. In reality, prayer is something which should bring you in line with the will of God. If you follow Christ’s pattern here, our focus is to be thinking after God’s thoughts, not just pouring out our own interest. You’re asking for God’s will and purpose to be done. Remember Christ’s prayer in the garden, not my will be done, but thine be done. That’s what the prayer should be for us. Prayer is not merely then presenting, well, here I have a personal quick question. for this and that and the other. Yes, prayer is laying our request before God. But if we’re just thinking in terms of a want list, we’re certainly not giving God the honor and glory he deserves. Notice that God’s interest should take up a good portion of your prayers. Half of this model prayer is connected with honoring God in his interest. This is similar to the Ten Command which when you think about it. The first table of the law has to do with God. The second table has to do with man. The first half of this prayer has to do with God and his interest. The second half has to do with your interest as a human being. I wonder if we consider how much in our prayer life we actually give to the honor and glory of God. And maybe it would be very very very very very. very humbling experience if we compared it with what Christ lays out before us here. I’m not saying we have to count up the request and meet that with how much we glorified God, but let’s realize that’s not get out of balance. Let’s try to balance that out somewhat so that we’re not just making requests, but we’re also honoring the Lord God. So that’s just some general information as we look at this without even getting in any detail of the petitions, those things I think stand out right away. Well, let me begin tonight by dealing with this petition. When you pray, you must hollow God’s name. And the first question we would probably need to ask is this, what is meant by God’s name here? Then how do we hollow it? In the Bible, your name is not just a way to design. you and differentiate you from someone else. It’s an expression of your very nature, of the person himself. A good example of this is Jacob. His name meant subplanter, cheater, uprooter. Why was he called this? You remember when he was born, he had a twin brother, Esau. he saw was born first but what did jacob do was he was coming out of the womb he had the hold of esau’s heel they say oh he’s trying to trip up his twin brother so they called him jacob now that stuck with him and when you think about it jacob was kind of a shrewd guy tripping up people from birth he was somewhat of a cheater if you would his name revealed something about him as someone who had a scheming character he stole esau’s birthright remember how he sold the way he traded it for a pottyge give me your birthright i’ll give you the the pottyge and then he went in and deceived his father saying that he was really esau when he wasn’t had the goat hair on his neck and his arms and so forth and then he was a match for laban when it comes to scheming you know leban was trying to cheat him and he was trying to figure out a way to get all laban sheep from him so he was scheming too interesting enough in the bible is when a person’s character is changed their name gets changed you remember when jacob wrestled all night with the lord who came in human form he wrestled all night with him and i believe was christ in in a pre-incarnate state there when he wrestled with him in the morning he changed his name he said i won’t let you go till you bless me he says i’ll change your name it will no longer be cheater Jacob it’ll be Israel a prince with God because you have prevailed with the Lord and from then on he’s known as Israel and that’s we have the tribes of Israel not the tribes of Jacob so you can see how strongly the character of a person can be attached to the name now this is especially true when it comes to God’s name. Now as you read through the Bible, especially as you read through the Old Testament, you find God revealing himself under a whole variety of names. Have you ever noticed how many different names God has? Each name reveals to you something about God’s character. It tells you something about him. In his attributes, it tells you something about Him. The word thy name then stand for everything that God has revealed about himself in scripture. Consider these examples and what they teach you about the Lord God. Jehovah Jira, the Lord will provide. Remember Abraham is taking his son Isaac up on Mount Moriah to sacrifice unto the Lord. and Isaac’s looking at his dad and say, I see the wood and I see the fire. You got the torch. Where’s the sacrifice? The Lord will provide himself a sacrifice. And he does. I mean, at first it seems like Isaac’s going to get sacrificed, but the Lord was just testing Abraham and he provided a ram caught in a thicket for the sacrifice. A portrayal, really, of Christ that would come and be our sacrifice. But he is the Lord who will provide. And he does provide for us. And so when we think of Jehovah Jira, is God our provider, especially with regard to our redemption. Jehovah Nishi. Jehovah is my banner. Exodus 1715. God fought on Israel’s behalf when Moses and the Israelites were going through the wilderness because they were being attacked by the Ammonites and they were able to defeat the Ammonites or the, excuse me, the Amlicites, I should say. It’s a military flag. And it says God was on our side. Jehovah Shalom. God, my peace. When the angel of the Lord appeared unto Gideon and was very frightened and didn’t know what was going to happen. God says to him, you’re not going to die. And he proclaimed peace be unto thee. Fear not. Thou shalt not die. And so Gideon called him Jehovah Shalom. God, my peace. Jehovah to Sid Canoo. The Lord our righteousness in the book of Jeremiah, 23, 6. There’s the promise of the Messiah coming and providing righteousness for his people. We can look at El Shadai, Almighty God. El El Elyon, Most High God. L. O’am. The everlasting God. And on and on we could go. Not to wear you this morning. And God is therefore known by his name, because his name represents all these things. about him. So when the scriptures declare the name of the God of Jacob defend thee, what does that mean? The God defend you? The God of Jacob shall defend it. And all that he has revealed himself to be. So this is what is meant by God’s name. So we see all his character, all his attributes, flowing through the names that we have in the scripture. Now I’ve just touched the surface. There’s many more. What is meant by hallowing his name? Hallow is not a word that’s used today. It’s evidently an older name. Most people don’t know its meaning. However, it’s from the word hallowed that we get the English word holy. The Greek word for hallowed literally means to sanctify or to set apart. You remember the cups and dishes of the temple were hallowed. They were set apart for God’s use and the sacrifices and the worship and so forth of God. They weren’t supposed to be used for common purposes. So when King Bel Shazer and his arrogance decided he was going to use the cups and things from the temple of God that were caesar. for a drunken party. God took exception to that, punished him for it. So to hallow God’s name needs to hold it in reverence, to honor it, to consider it holy. Hallowed and reverend is his name. Psalm 1119, or 9, excuse me. Father, glorify thy name. John 1228. Thou shalt not take the name. of the Lord thy God in vain. We see in the law of God. So scripture command you to sanctify the Lord in your hearts. To have God in reverence, to hold Him in reverence in your heart. So when you speak about Him or speak to Him, you do so realizing who he is and you’re careful about speaking. about the Lord God because he’s holy and he’s special. So we carefully use his name. So when you pray, you must hallow God’s name. Now, how God’s name may be hallowed in your prayers is something we should consider. The first thing I suggest to you is this. You must speak of God with the highest reverence. When we pray, we don’t speak of God lightly. We don’t talk about the man upstairs or the big guy or something like that. That would be non-reverent toward the Lord God. Your God is holy, a God to be feared, a God to be considered precious. Think about the various names by which he defines himself. Use those names when you address him. He’s telling you who he is. Use those names, such as Almighty God, or the most high God, or the everlasting God, or the God of peace, or the God of righteousness, or the God who provides, or Heavenly Father, even as we see in this text of Scripture. There are plenty of names to choose from, and all of them will give honor to the Lord God. Now, do these divine names describe the way you speak of God? When you pray, do you speak in these kind of terms? I think it would be good for us to use these terms when we pray. Is that how we think about our God? That he’s the most high God. Or is the God of peace? Or is the God our banner? And so forth. Look with me in the book of Daniel, if you would. Chapter 9 in verses 3 and 4. we’re just going to look at the very first part of this prayer. You recall that Daniel has read in the book of Jeremiah after 70 years, they’re going to be brought back from captivity. And he realizes that time has drawn close to where those 70 years should come to an end. And he expects the people to come back. And so he prays this very long prayer that’s very, reverent, very confessing of their sins. Very thankful that God is a faithful God that he keeps His Word and so forth in his covenant. But let’s look at verses 3 and 4. He says here this. And I set my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. And I prayed to the Lord, my God, and made my confession and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him and to them that keep his commandments. When he talks about the Lord here, he’s talking about God as he is revealed, this is Adonai, as the Lord of all the earth, as a king, or ruler, if you would, of all the earth. Everyone and everything is subject to this Lord God. Adonai means that God gives man his breath, his life, his being, so that your life is sustained by this God. Do you honor God as the majestic king over all the universe? This is what Daniel is saying here when he uses this phrase. He calls him the great God. For great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of the Isaiah 12. 6. God is great in his being. He is great in his perfections. He’s great in all his works. Whether we talk about creation, whether we talk about providence, or whether we talk about grace. He’s the dreadful God. He says in Malachi 114, I am a great king, says the Lord of Hall’s and my name is dreadful among the heathen. They fear him because he brings judgment upon them. He’s dreadful in his threatenings and his judgments. He’s dreadful in his wrath and his vengeance. He is a God to be feared in reverence by all men but especially his saints. Keeping covenant and mercy. He’s the covenant keeping God. What does this mean? mean. A covenant is a bond of friendship. And so he’s saying that God always is faithful to his covenant promises. And thus he sees this here. You’re going to bring us back. You’re going to bring us back because you said you would and you always keep your promises. And we are your covenant people. He sees that. So we must speak of God with the highest reverence. And we can see that in this passage of scripture. You are to pray also with a heartful of faith. It’s another way we hallow God’s name. David declares in Psalm 3321, we have trusted in thy holy name. You hallow God’s name when you lift up a prayer of faith. We don’t just mouth words. we actually believe that God hears us and he will answer our prayers. When you pray in faith, it honors God’s name. It honors it. Unbelief stains God’s honor. God’s honor. It shows a lack of respect for his name. Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering, James says, when we pray. So you need to have confidence in God when you make your request. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 21, 22. things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer believing he shall receive. In faith. Now, Russell read from Nehemiah Chapter 1, verses 5 through 11 this morning. I’m just going to read verse 11 for you. Part of it. O Lord, I beseech thee. Let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant and the prayer of thy servants who desire to fear thy servants, who desire to fear thy and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day and grant him mercy in the sight of this man because he was the cup bear of Artaxerxes it seems, the king of the Medes and the Persians. My friends, that was prayed in faith. He believed that the king’s heart was in God’s hand and God could move the king’s heart any way he wished, and he could find favor in the king’s heart, and he did. and remember how Nehemiah was sent back to rebuild the walls of the city of Jerusalem that had been torn down many years ago by the Babylonians. He hallowed God’s name by praying in faith. This is the way we should pray. So you pray with a heartful faith. Thirdly, you give God the honor for all the godly things he enables you to do. Now look with me at 1st Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15 and verses 9 and 10. Paul writes here, for I am the least of the apostles. I’m not worthy be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace was bestowed upon me. But, excuse me, and his grace, which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain. And I labored, but I labored more abundantly than they all. Yet not I, but the grace of God, which was in me. The Bible says, give under the Lord the glory, do his name when you pray. You remember King Herod did not hallow God’s name when they said, well, you’re a God. You’re not a man. He took the praise himself. He accepted that praise. He assumed praise which only belonged to God and God struck him dead with had an eaten of worms. We should acknowledge before God that he is the one who enables us to advance his cause on this earth. It is God who works within us both to will and the do of his good pleasure. You should confess that without him you can do nothing. It would be pleasing in his sight. Look at Paul here. Now he does claim, I labored more abundantly than they all. All the other apostles, he labored more abundantly. Now that could lead to a pride of accomplishment. But the apostle quickly deflects here, does he not? To God’s glory. Yet not I. Yet not I. but the grace of God which was in me. It was God that did it. Yeah, I labored more abundantly because God enabled me to do so. If you have any victory over sin or temptation, confess hitherto had the Lord helped me. It’s God that gave you that victory. If you accomplish anything, if you advance his kingdom of God in any way, pray, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but under thy name. Give God. That’s what we should do. You give God the honor for all the godly things you are unable to do. And lastly, let me mention one other thought here. There are many more probably we could come up with, but let me suggest one more. You ascribe your salvation to his sovereign grace. Now look with me at 2nd Thessalonians, chapter 2 in verses 13 and 14. Paul writes here, but we are bound to give thanks all the way to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through the sanctification of the spirit, setting a part of the spirit, and belief of the truth. Whereunto, he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus. Christ. Let God’s people ever be mindful that it was the Lord who bared his arm to bring us to salvation. Who hath believed our report and to whom have the arm of the Lord been revealed? Isaiah 53 1. We have to confess that salvation belongeth under the Lord by blessing is upon thy people, Psalm 3.8. We have to confess. We addressed the Lord as the psalmist of old. O Lord God of my salvation, Psalm 88.1. Remember, it was the Lord who rescued you when you were in the pit, so to speak, because of the fall, in a hopelessly lost state. In Psalm 40, we read, he brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings, and he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God. Many shall see it in fear and shall trust in the Lord. Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust. Remember it was the Lord who chose you in Christ. It was the Lord who gave you spiritual life when you were dead in trespasses and sins. It was the Lord who drew you to himself. Blessed is the man. whom thou choosest and causes to approach under thee that he may dwell on my courts. Psalm 65 and verse 4. You should humbly acknowledge all this in your prayers. Remember how Jesus prayed. We talked about this a little while back, that He God, the Father, had hid these things from the wise and prudent. He revealed them on the babes. It wasn’t you and I that made the difference. It was God that made the difference in our life. I was once told by a pastor who seemed to resent my emphasis on the doctrines of grace, something startling. Here was a man who claimed to be reformed, who said to me at one point, we’ve grown past these doctrines now, there is no need to dwell upon them and constantly emphasize them. This was a reformed man, supposedly. Then why do the scriptures emphasize them from Genesis to revelation? Why is it that every epistle Paul writes there’s something about the sovereignty of God in it and the salvation that he grants? My friends, we should so emphasize that salvation is of the Lord that it permeates our prayer life. We should never grow past these truths. These are fundamental gospel truths. As long as we live, we should be honoring the Lord God for salvation of our soul. Well, just as there are home improvement books and YouTube videos on how to improve your home, fix it up, so forth. Jesus, the great teacher, talks about prayer improvement and how to hallow God’s need. He instructs us here. This is an important aspect of praying. Let’s close with prayer this morning. Heavenly Father, we rejoice in the fact that you are a good God to us and you have taken the time through your son to teach us how to pray in a manner pleasing before you. We pray that we can do justice to this model prayer, knowing, Father, our weakness and frailty to fully understand all that you have revealed. But pray, Lord, that in some way we could be benefited as we have pondered this passage this morning that it may enrich our prayer lives to follow this example that you’ve laid before us. In the name of Christ, we ask these things with Thanksgiving. Amen. Now, this morning, we’re going to observe the Lord’s Supper. To that end, I invite you to turn with me to the book of the Song of Solomon once more. Chapter 2 and verse 4. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. Now, Christ and his bride here are expressing mutual love for one another in this passage of scripture. God is, Christ has expressed his divine love for the church, and the church is now expressing her love toward the Savior. Now, the first part of verse 4 that we looked at last week, the people of God rejoice because they’re brought into Christ’s banqueting house, which we believe refers to the assembly of God’s people where they’re fed a feast of spiritual food that nourishes them. The second part of verse 4 speaks about the Lord setting his banner of love over you. Now, a banner is a flag. We sing about this, you know, this horse, bangor, banner. It’s our flag. It’s a piece of cloth bearing a design on a pole. Attached to a pole somehow. Now, what does this mean that he erect some type of flag over us that speaks of his love? I suggest three thoughts briefly this morning. First is this. It speaks here that it’s a banner of conquest. We have that. iconic picture of the U.S. Marines during World War II, when they lift the U.S. flag on Mount Sarabachi on island of Iwo Jima in 1945, everybody knows that picture. It’s an iconic picture. That was the highest point on this island. And when they conquered it, when they went up that mountainside and took it, they planted that mountainside and they planted that mountainside. They planted that flag on top, you could see it from the whole island, from one end to the other. It’s been conquered. It’s been taken. My friends, Christ has wooed us and has won us. Has he not? By his all-conquering love. Once you were in a state of hostility, rebellion against the Lord. But Christ’s love called you in this rebellious flight that you were in this rebellious flight that you were in. And he turned. you back to himself. Christ’s tender love disarmed you. He declared his love for you and irresistibly drew you to himself. You believed in his love. You were overcome by his love. You were brought to love him because he first loved you. Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. There with loving kindness, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. Jeremiah 31.3. It was a banner of conquest. We’ve been conned. He’s won us. He’s wooed us and won us. Secondly, we see here a banner of protection. Now, the British used to say that wherever their flag flew, no matter how far it was from their homeland, that was a little piece of England. Part of England, they were defended. And Christ, banner of love. flies over you. It is a sign that our enemies should tremble if they touch us. For the Almighty Christ is our protector and our defender. He who touches you, touches the apple of my eye. When Moses built an alder, he called it Jehovah Nisi. The Lord is my banner. Because the Lord defended him and the people of Israel from the Amalekites that attack. them. The Lord will defend us. When the enemy comes in like a flood to disturb our peace and our joy and our comfort in Christ, the Spirit of the Lord lifts up a standard, a banner against him. Isaiah 5919. Let us, therefore, say in our heart, the Lord is on my side. I will not fear what can man do unto me. We have a banner of protection about us. The third thought is this. We have a banner of enlistment. When you roll in the military, you fight under the flag of your country. The Church of Christ on earth is militant. It is represented, the bride of Christ is represented as an army with banners. In Song of Solomon chapter 6, verse 4 and 10. With flags. As if. each regiment is marked out in the army. Christ has chosen you to be a soldier. And the banner under which he has enrolled you to serve is love. You know, the Christ’s best soldier is the one who loves best. The Lord enables you through this love to suffer all things, to become all things, to adore all things, to believe all things for his sick. You have many enemies, sin and Satan in the world, and yet you have the greatest encouragement to fight because you are under the banner of the invincible Lord of hosts. Christ is your commander-in-chief. He can overcome all. There’s nothing that is stronger. He that is within you is stronger than anybody who is outside of you. So he has provided you with the whole armor of God, giving you the sword. of the spirit that you may wage battle. Well, let me close. When you come to the Lord’s Supper this morning, let’s marvel once again at how much Christ loves us. It’s pictured forth in the elements of his sacrifice on the cross. I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. He has wooed you and he is woody you. and he’s won you. Secondly, consider how carefully Christ is going to watch over and protect you if he has redeemed you. My friends, if he has bought you by his precious blood, he’s not going to lose you. Remember what he said in John 639. This is the Father’s will which has sent me that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing. He is your shield and he is your defender. Lastly, if Christ loved you enough to die for you, surely, out of deep gratitude toward him, you ought to faithfully serve him to the best of your ability. You ought to be a good soldier in the Christian army. And as you go through this life, use all your abilities and talents to that end. Let us go to the Lord in prayer now as we will. come to the table.