Jesus on the Model Prayer
\Matthew 6:9-15 (ESV):
9Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.[a]
10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
11Give us this day our daily bread,[c]
12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.[d]
14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Prayer is one of the spiritual disciplines that we should not take for granted. Why? It is because pray er allows us to experience God’s awesome power personally. Just last month, we as a church saw this hap pen in the life of Blessing, the new baby girl of Pastor Saren and Mony. Pastor Saren is our main pastor in BCI Cambodia. Blessing was less than a month old when she started bleeding in her brain. She went straight to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit when she was brought to the hospital. While she was being treated, she developed pneumonia, a lung infection where both her lungs started filling up with water, so she struggled to breathe and had to be intubated. However, her parents did not stop believing that God could heal her. They sought prayers from our BCI churches, friends, and loved ones. Amazingly, after staying in the hospital for 31 days, Blessing is doing well at home. The Lord has answered all the prayers for her! In Cambodia, where Christianity is less than 5 percent, Blessing is a powerful testimony that our God is great and power ful, and that He answers the prayers of His people.
Is your prayer life vibrant and exciting because you can experience God answering your prayers personally? Or is it boring and monotonous, and so you are hardly praying? If it is the latter, perhaps one of the reasons is that you have fallen into what many refer to as the “Please God trap.” Are you familiar with this trap? This trap happens when all we say in prayer is:
♦ “Please God bless me.”
♦ “Please, God, help me.”
♦ “Please, God, give me.”
♦ “Please, God, cover me.”
Please don’t get me wrong. I firmly believe that God delights with us when we ask in our prayers. In fact, I totally agree with Dr. F.B. Meyer when he said, “The great tragedy of life is not unan swered prayer, but unoffered prayer.” However, we need to build a more balanced prayer life. What do I mean? You see, in our prayers, we all have the tendency to focus only on ourselves, our overwhelming needs, and our greatest wants. But there is more to prayer than just bringing our petitions to God. And Je sus wants us to learn in the Sermon on the Mount the other elements that we need to incorporate into our prayers.
On another occasion, Jesus repeated the same model of prayer to His disciples because He wanted them to learn how to pray:
Luke 11:1-4 (ESV):
1 Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”
2And he said to them, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. 3Give us each day our daily bread,[b]
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4and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.”
Today, with these two passages, many Bible scholars have observed that Jesus
never once taught His disciples to preach, counsel, or evangelize, but He spent two occa sions when He taught them to pray. What do these teachings tell us? It is not that preach ing, counseling, or evangelism is not important; it is the fact that you must prioritize learning how to pray first, even before you can take on other ministerial responsibilities.
So, as we examine our text, let’s identify the three critical parts of prayer. By the way, this prayer was never meant to be prayed for repeatedly. It is given simply as a pattern. How do I know this? If you go back to verse 7, part of what we covered last Sunday, it says, “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.” Notice, the phrase “empty phrases,” is translated as “vain repetitions” in the New King James Version. The Greek word used here is Battalogeo, which literally means repeating the same words over and over again without understanding. Therefore, if Jesus gave us this warning, it would be impossible for us to be instructed here to keep repeating this model prayer. In stead, let’s learn together the three parts of it.
I ACKNOWLEDGE THE PERSON OF GOD – ADORATION (vs. 9-10)
To set the right attitude in prayer, we must begin acknowledging the very person we are going to in prayer – “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
When we begin with adoration, we are instructed to acknowledge or recognize the person whom we are addressing in prayer. Here, there are three significant attributes of God that we are reminded to honor: A. He is Our Source of Life – (Our Father)
It is great to remind ourselves that whenever we pray, we will not go to a distant God who does not care about us. As Christians, we have the wonderful privilege of entering the presence of our loving Father, who made a covenant promise that He will care for us. Peter said: “casting all your anxieties on him, be cause he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7).
Before the time of Jesus Christ, God was often perceived as a stern judge who was always ready to punish His people who failed to obey Him. But after Jesus was punished for our sins, now, we have the bless ing of going straight to the Father without worrying whether we would be accepted by Him. Jesus opened the way for us to call Him our Father.
B. He is Holy – He is Holy in His Character (Hallowed be your name)
When we pray, we must also remember that we are entering the holy presence of God. With this con sciousness, we approach Him with all humility because we know how unworthy we are as sinful human be ings. Remember the parable that Jesus gave about prayer:
Luke 18:9-14 (ESV):
9He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collec tor. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed[a]thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, ex tortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
There is a sharp contrast here between the pride of the Pharisee when he prayed
and that of the tax collector's humility. The point is clear: we ought to be grateful be cause, despite our unworthiness, we can approach the throne of God, who is totally pure and holy. We should abandon any sense of entitlement as if God owes us anything when we pray to Him.
C. He is Sovereign – He Rules Our Universe (You Kingdom come. . .)
As we adore Him, we must also acknowledge that He is the sovereign ruler of the universe. It means He will always fulfill His plans and programs in the world, not ours. We must be willing to submit to His will and not try to change His will to cater to our whims and wishes. Listen to these words in 1 John 5:14-15: 14And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
An important aspect of our prayers is our readiness to put the interests of God and advance His caus es. His Kingdom is what I delight to establish on earth and not mine.
So, we must always begin our prayers with adoration, lifting up the characteristics or attributes of the God we have. There are only three that Jesus gave as examples, but we can be sensitive to other attrib utes of God like His love, grace, goodness and mercy, etc.
With adoration, we take the time to remind ourselves why God is worthy to be honored and wor ship. But there are also some theologians who make the distinction between adoration and thanksgiving. In adoration, we praise God for who he is, while in thanksgiving, we praise Him for what He has done for us. So, when we approach God in our prayers, we should also be sensitive to how He has been good and merci ful to us, like how He has protected us or how He has provided for our needs. I believe that God wants us to do this so we can be bolder whenever we come to Him. You see, He is worthy of our trust because of who He is and what He has been doing for us. Listen to King David declare these words:
Psalm 116:1-2 (ESV):
1 I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy.
2Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
Notice, David tells us in this passage that because the Lord has been faithful in answering his prayers, he will continue to love the Lord and will continue to pray to Him as long as he is alive. Again, our sensitivity to who God is and what He has done for us can continually inspire us to pray more.
II ASK FOR HELP – SUPPLICATIONS (vs. 11, 13)
The next line in our model prayer is: “Give us this day our daily bread.” This part introduces us to a very significant part of our prayers – we are privileged to ask for His help. After we have adored Him in our prayers, we can also go to Him presenting our requests. The apostle Paul reminded the Philippian believers about this truth:
Philippians 4:6 (ESV):
6do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Listen, you can make your request known to God. I know there are some believers who struggle with the idea that whenever they go to God, they are always asking. But the truth is that God gave us the permis sion to ask Him. I’m reminded of the words of the great evangelist, D.L. Moody, when he said:
“Some people think God does like to be troubled with our constant coming and asking. The way to trouble God is not to come at all.”
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If you are not asking, it means you are not willing to trust the good God to help
you. Jesus Himself said the very same truth in Matthew 7:9-11:
9Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
Jesus is quite straightforward here, saying, that if we, being evil or sinful, know how to give good gifts to our children - like if they ask us something that we are capable of giving, we will surely give it to them. How much more our good heavenly Father in heaven; He will surely give us what we are asking Him. As a father, I would feel bad if my children would go to other people first, asking for help without asking me first. I’m pretty sure, it’s the same with God.
In this model prayer, we can definitely go to Him and ask Him for two items:
A. Provisions - “Give us this day our daily bread.”
Since “bread” is their staple food. Jesus uses the word “bread” here to remind us that we can ask the Lord for our basic necessities. God may not give us everything we want, but He certainly promises to pro vide our needs. Allow me to give you two passages:
Matthew 6:31-33 (ESV):
31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Philippians 4:19 (ESV):
19And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Both of these passages speak of the same thing: if you seek Him first, He will provide all your needs. You might argue that it does not say this in Philippians, but if you examine the context of the verse, Paul was thanking the Philippian believers for how they have faithfully supported him financially in carrying out the work of the Lord, so Paul gave them this assurance that God will definitely take care of them. There fore, the promise to provide is there for those who faithfully live for God.
Also, in terms of provisions, God expects us to regularly depend on Him. Notice, He said, “daily bread.” It is not weekly or monthly bread, but daily bread because God wants us to go to Him daily, not weekly, monthly, or yearly. Do you still go to God daily? God enjoys meeting us in prayer on a daily ba sis.
B. Protection – “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
God is not only capable of providing for us; He is also capable of protecting us from the schemes of the Devil to entrap and destroy us through sin. We often wait until we have fallen into sin and pray for for giveness, rather than pray that we won’t fall into sin. The tragedy of this practice is that if we fall into sin, the consequence of the sin might be too costly. So, prevention from falling into sin is still a much better op tion. So, let me encourage you to follow this example so that God would keep us from falling into sin.
One more truth before the last point. Sometimes, we ask God for something, and His response is an other thing. When this happens, let me assure you that God knows what is best for us. Paul had experienced this truth in 2 Corinthians 12:7-9 (ESV):
7So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceit-
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ed. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weak ness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Clearly, the Lord gave Paul a thorn in the flesh or a physical disease to keep him
humble. He sincerely prayed for God to remove it, but God answered in a different way. God gave him suffi cient grace instead, and Paul recognized later that it was exactly what he needed. I found this beautiful prayer that conveys this truth:
A Soldier’s Prayer
I asked God for strength, that I might achieve,
I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked for health, that I might do great things,
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.
I asked for riches, that I might be happy,
I was given poverty, that I might be wise.
I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men,
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.
I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life,
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I had hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am among all men, most richly blessed.
III ADMIT YOUR SINS – CONFESSION (vs. 12, 14-15)
Lastly, Jesus said: “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors . . . For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
Since we are approaching our Father, who is holy, if we are to commune with Him, we must be pre pared to admit our sins before Him. Our sins can stand in the way of our fellowship with God. The Psalmist has declared this truth in Psalm 66:18:
18 If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
We don’t want our prayers to be hindered by our sins. So, the most practical thing we can do is con fess our sins to the Lord. So, we pray - “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. Asking the Lord for forgiveness should always come from our understanding that God will never withhold for giveness from anyone who humbly goes to Him admitting their sins. We’re all quite familiar with 1 John 1:9: 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteous ness.
What is very significant in this verse is the sense of assurance that God is giving us that as long as we confess our sins, He will be faithful to forgive and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Some people think
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God will distinguish between cardinal sins, which are the more serious offenses, and ve nial sins, or the less serious offenses, and He only offers forgiveness to the less serious ones. Absolutely not true! When we go to Him and ask for forgiveness. He promises to forgive all our sins (100% forgiveness).
However, there will be a condition on our forgiveness – we must be willing to for
give others. In other words, we should not have the boldness to ask for forgiveness, if we are unwilling to forgive those who sinned against us. You and I need to watch out for this instruction:
Luke 17:3-4 (ESV):
3Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, 4and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”
It is clear that we are obligated to forgive those who repent and ask for our forgiveness. Regardless of the number of times, they have offended us. Every time they come and ask for forgiveness, we cannot withhold forgiveness. Why? It is because God extends the same grace to us. We will be forgiven if we admit our guilt before the Lord.
As I close the sermon, I want to lead us to one more passage – Romans 8:26 (ESV): 26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
I recognize that even when we have been taught about the model prayer, often, we would still find ourselves struggling on what to say in our prayers. Don’t be stressing about it because God knows this weak ness of ours, so He gave us the Holy Spirit. He is able to effectively interpret even our groanings and inter cede on our behalf before the Lord. So, let me encourage you, please keep praying because God is always delighted when we go to Him in prayer. May the Lord continue to enrich our prayer lives.