WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.320 Amen. 00:00:04.280 --> 00:00:09.400 Please have a seat, and perhaps you can turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter 11, 00:00:09.560 --> 00:00:18.960 where Jesus teaches us to pray. And as you're turning there, let me begin by saying that Jesus 00:00:18.960 --> 00:00:27.940 wants you and me to enjoy our prayer life. Our personal experience of prayer will be different. 00:00:27.940 --> 00:00:33.200 Some will find it easy and natural. For others, perhaps there are times when it's a real struggle. 00:00:34.120 --> 00:00:38.400 Some people have a very disciplined, regular prayer life. For others, it's occasional. 00:00:39.679 --> 00:00:44.040 For some, it feels strange. Maybe you've only just started. Maybe you've never prayed before. 00:00:44.240 --> 00:00:53.060 For others, it feels like home. Wherever we are today, Jesus wants to teach us how to pray so that 00:00:53.060 --> 00:01:01.520 we might enjoy our prayer life. And this matters hugely. Robert Murray McShane, who was a church 00:01:01.520 --> 00:01:09.300 minister in the 19th century in Dundee, once said this, what a man is on his knees before God, 00:01:09.780 --> 00:01:17.300 that he is, and nothing more. And he could say that because you and I, whoever we are, 00:01:17.299 --> 00:01:25.700 wherever we're from, we were made to know God. We were made to enjoy relationship with our God, 00:01:25.780 --> 00:01:33.099 and for that, prayer is vital. We're going to discover that Jesus, the only perfect man who ever 00:01:33.099 --> 00:01:40.539 lived, he enjoyed his prayer life, and he wants the same for his followers today. 00:01:40.540 --> 00:01:47.480 Where this passage fits, a couple of weeks ago, we were back at the end of Luke chapter 10, 00:01:48.719 --> 00:01:54.219 and Jesus was teaching his followers there the importance of listening to God in his word. 00:01:54.960 --> 00:02:01.780 So we need for God to speak truth to us. But now, he teaches his followers to pray. 00:02:02.780 --> 00:02:09.319 It's a conversation. God speaks, and we speak. And as we think about what Jesus teaches, 00:02:09.319 --> 00:02:14.459 we're going to see four things together. We're going to see the priority of prayer, 00:02:15.079 --> 00:02:18.219 and we're going to spend a lot of time thinking about the pattern of prayer. 00:02:19.099 --> 00:02:23.759 We're going to think a little bit about the practice and the promise that we find in this 00:02:23.759 --> 00:02:30.219 section so that we might know God, so that we might walk with our God, that we might talk with 00:02:30.219 --> 00:02:37.699 our God, that we might love him and enjoy him. So let's get into the first lesson, the priority of 00:02:37.699 --> 00:02:44.599 prayer. It's there in the first couple of verses. So Jesus, we've been seeing as a church, is on a 00:02:44.599 --> 00:02:50.399 journey. He's on the way to Jerusalem, and Jerusalem is the place where he's going to die on the cross 00:02:50.399 --> 00:02:55.339 to save his people from their sin. And then he's going to rise again, and he's going to return 00:02:55.339 --> 00:03:03.679 to glory. So Jesus is on this journey, and as he walks, he takes time to pray. One day, 00:03:03.680 --> 00:03:12.300 Jesus was praying in a certain place. Luke loves to highlight this fact. Jesus, the God-man, 00:03:13.219 --> 00:03:20.000 prayed and prayed often when there were important moments in his life, when there were decisions to 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:29.340 take simply to enjoy the presence of his Father, to keep himself doing the Father's will as he faced 00:03:29.340 --> 00:03:36.840 the prospect of the cross. Indeed, even as Jesus hangs on the cross to die, he is praying. 00:03:38.099 --> 00:03:49.060 Prayer is as natural and as vital as breathing for Jesus. Think about that. Jesus lived the perfect life, 00:03:49.300 --> 00:03:57.199 and the perfect life was a praying life. That tells us something for our own life. And the disciples get 00:03:57.199 --> 00:04:02.439 that. Because the disciples, they have the privilege as they spend time with Jesus to hear him and to see 00:04:02.439 --> 00:04:07.419 him. And so as he finishes praying, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray. 00:04:09.119 --> 00:04:15.819 They know that they can learn from Jesus, the one who knows his Father in a unique way. And it's a 00:04:15.819 --> 00:04:22.500 really wise question that they ask, Lord, teach us to pray. Because the journey of Jesus is one on which 00:04:22.500 --> 00:04:30.759 they are also journeying. In their journey of faith, they're going to know opposition. They're going to 00:04:30.759 --> 00:04:39.980 face suffering. They're going to be really busy. They're going to need wisdom. They're on God's mission. 00:04:40.139 --> 00:04:49.500 They're representing their master, Jesus. And so they know they need to pray. And notice Jesus' response. 00:04:49.500 --> 00:04:57.959 He's glad to teach them. Verse 2, he said to them, when you pray, notice not if you pray, but when you pray. 00:04:58.839 --> 00:05:06.600 So for followers of Jesus, we're being reminded that we have this privilege of knowing our God. 00:05:07.439 --> 00:05:14.759 And we grow in our relationship with God as we get to pray. We are called to be disciples, 00:05:14.759 --> 00:05:20.879 to be followers, to be learners of Jesus, and to be on his mission. And so because of that as well, 00:05:21.519 --> 00:05:28.219 prayer must be a top priority for a Christian and for a church. So that's something that we could be 00:05:28.219 --> 00:05:34.039 praying for ourselves and for our church. The priority of prayer, very briefly. Now, let's think about the 00:05:34.039 --> 00:05:40.159 pattern of prayer in verses 2 to 4. What we have here in these short few sentences 00:05:40.160 --> 00:05:49.560 are some of the most famous words in history. If we had the privilege to travel across the globe today 00:05:49.560 --> 00:05:59.000 and to visit churches in huge cathedrals and in homes and out in the deserts, we would hear these 00:05:59.000 --> 00:06:06.379 words being repeated by tens of millions of people. Indeed, it's a prayer that unites the global church. 00:06:06.379 --> 00:06:14.399 It's a real privilege for us. We call this the Lord's Prayer, that wasn't actually a prayer that 00:06:14.399 --> 00:06:19.680 the Lord Jesus would have made himself. And we can say that because we know he never had to ask 00:06:19.680 --> 00:06:27.639 forgiveness. But we should think of it as a model prayer. And it's such a gift. You know, many of us 00:06:27.639 --> 00:06:34.939 perhaps grew up with it. So what we have in our heads is we have Scripture that we are carrying around 00:06:34.939 --> 00:06:40.959 God's Word. We have this pattern for prayer that we always have with us. John Calvin, the Reformer, 00:06:41.019 --> 00:06:47.459 said that this prayer contains all that we can and all that we ought to ask God for. So it's a huge 00:06:47.459 --> 00:06:53.459 privilege what Jesus has given you. But I think if you're anything like me, perhaps you're aware of 00:06:53.459 --> 00:07:00.620 this danger that we can be so familiar with these words that we kind of overlook them. Perhaps we miss 00:07:00.620 --> 00:07:10.540 them as the wonderful resource that they are. Because these words come to us as a gift. To pray the Lord's 00:07:10.540 --> 00:07:23.040 prayer is to reorder our love so that God comes first. To pray the Lord's prayer is the key to a less 00:07:23.040 --> 00:07:31.700 busy and divided heart as we learn to take all of our life to God, knowing that we can trust him, that 00:07:31.700 --> 00:07:39.439 he cares for us. So I want to focus on the six words that Luke focuses our attention on. You'll probably 00:07:39.439 --> 00:07:45.040 have noticed this is a shorter version of the Lord's prayer than the one we find in Matthew's gospel. 00:07:45.040 --> 00:07:54.540 And I want to say that these six words could literally change your life and mine. They could be a revolution 00:07:54.540 --> 00:08:05.220 in our praying. They could be our first steps of growing to know God or to know him in a deeper way. 00:08:05.220 --> 00:08:18.820 The first word is the word Father. Jesus' praying was recognized as unique. The people in his day did not 00:08:18.820 --> 00:08:29.200 dare to use the name of God. Jesus called God Father. And the wonderful thing that we discover here is that 00:08:29.199 --> 00:08:37.799 when our faith is in Jesus, we are invited to call God Father too. By faith in Jesus, we thought about 00:08:37.799 --> 00:08:48.159 this together as a church, we become children of God. And so the way is open and we are welcomed in by a 00:08:48.159 --> 00:08:57.539 Father in heaven. And when we believe that and when we embrace the fatherhood of God, it changes everything. 00:08:57.539 --> 00:09:04.519 Now we have confidence to pray in all situations because we know we have a powerful father who loves us. 00:09:05.919 --> 00:09:12.399 Now we come with a sense of security to enjoy our father's love personally. This isn't just, 00:09:12.819 --> 00:09:21.959 oh, I know God is love. This is to say, God loves me. And this is an invitation to live trusting him, 00:09:21.960 --> 00:09:31.180 to put our hands in the hand of our great loving father in heaven. There's a really powerful biography 00:09:31.180 --> 00:09:37.680 of a woman converted from Islam, I think in the 70s, with the title, I dared to call him father. 00:09:38.580 --> 00:09:45.940 What drew her to faith in the Lord Jesus was watching a Christian family and especially paying 00:09:45.940 --> 00:09:51.880 attention as they prayed to notice the intimacy, the love, the friendship they enjoyed with God. And that 00:09:51.880 --> 00:09:54.900 drew her to the Lord Jesus. 00:09:56.980 --> 00:10:02.900 I have up on the screen, I don't know if you can see it, a famous picture. There's a series of pictures taken 00:10:02.900 --> 00:10:11.000 of JFK in 1963. So this picture here takes us to the Oval Office of the White House, perhaps the most, 00:10:11.000 --> 00:10:16.820 powerful room, the most powerful man in the world at the time, surrounded by very important people, 00:10:17.159 --> 00:10:25.440 having a very important meeting. But under the desk is little John F. Kennedy Jr., who's playing quite 00:10:25.440 --> 00:10:38.460 happily at his father's feet. Children of God have full access to a throne of grace. We have full access 00:10:38.460 --> 00:10:47.660 to a father in heaven. The king of the universe has invited us to call on him. How is that possible? 00:10:49.560 --> 00:10:58.200 It's possible through Jesus' death on the cross. That Jesus came to die for us, to deal with our sin, 00:10:58.280 --> 00:11:05.840 to cleanse us, to remove what separates us from our God. It's possible through Jesus returning to the 00:11:05.840 --> 00:11:12.280 glory of heaven where he right now is praying for us and he's pleading our cause. And it's because of 00:11:12.280 --> 00:11:19.660 Jesus that just like the prodigal son in Luke chapter 15 that we'll meet in a while in Luke's gospel, 00:11:19.660 --> 00:11:29.399 when we come to a father, we enjoy his generous welcome. He loves us. He honors us. He throws a feast 00:11:29.399 --> 00:11:38.879 over us. He is our father. The second word is a far less common word. It's the word hallowed. That's a 00:11:38.879 --> 00:11:44.600 very unusual name. It's an unusual name nowadays in the English language. What does it mean? Well, 00:11:44.659 --> 00:11:51.299 when we pray, hallowed be your name, we are praying, in the first instance personally, for a desire that we 00:11:51.299 --> 00:12:02.120 would hold our holy God in highest honor, that we are praying that we would give him glory in our lives, 00:12:02.359 --> 00:12:11.139 that we are praying with a concern for the honor of our father. The last thing that we would want to do 00:12:11.139 --> 00:12:21.919 is to dishonor him in our lives. Martin Luther reminds us that at baptism, the name of God is put on us as 00:12:21.919 --> 00:12:27.539 his people. Baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And so personally, we are 00:12:27.539 --> 00:12:36.019 praying that we would drag the name of our Father through the name. Hallowed be your name. But it's also 00:12:36.019 --> 00:12:43.179 a mission prayer. It's a prayer that, again, we as Christians, that we as a church, that the people of 00:12:43.179 --> 00:12:51.919 God would be spreading his glory. As we would love in Jesus' name, as we would bring the good news of 00:12:51.919 --> 00:12:58.159 Jesus, we are praying so that others would come to worship God, to see him as glorious too. 00:12:58.159 --> 00:13:06.659 Perhaps one of the greatest gifts that we could give to our neighbors is this, that we might live 00:13:06.659 --> 00:13:14.919 and act in such a way that the people around us could see the glory of Jesus in us. That we would 00:13:14.919 --> 00:13:21.079 be able to share our stories. Do you know I couldn't have got through this moment were it not for Jesus? 00:13:21.080 --> 00:13:31.520 Jesus. Hallowed be your name. The third word is the word kingdom. Your kingdom come. 00:13:33.040 --> 00:13:41.280 Again, when we pray this and as we begin praying personally, what are we asking? We're asking that 00:13:41.280 --> 00:13:49.280 God would teach us to submit to his agenda, that we wouldn't live according to our own agenda, 00:13:49.279 --> 00:13:57.799 that we would accept the rule of God over all of our lives, not just put God in a box and say, 00:13:58.019 --> 00:14:04.799 this part's for you, this part's for me. Here's one of the reasons why we need to read the Bible 00:14:04.799 --> 00:14:10.339 and to pray the Bible. Because in the Bible we find the promises of God and the warnings. 00:14:10.980 --> 00:14:18.240 We find commands and invitations, and they're all directing us. How are we to live under the rule of 00:14:18.240 --> 00:14:25.379 God as King? So to pray this makes a difference personally, but it's also again a mission prayer. 00:14:26.980 --> 00:14:34.240 Because to pray your kingdom come is to seek that people and nations would bow to Jesus as King. 00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:43.080 It's also a prayer that looks ahead to that promise that Jesus will come again, 00:14:43.080 --> 00:14:52.060 and he will gather his people to himself, and he will renew creation, and that people from all nations 00:14:52.060 --> 00:14:59.040 would spend eternity giving praise and glory to God the King. And so we're looking forward to that day. 00:15:01.060 --> 00:15:06.440 When we think about the Lord's Prayer, and maybe this kingdom come is a helpful place to think about it, 00:15:06.440 --> 00:15:13.200 it's like throwing a stone in a pond. We throw a stone in a pond, the ripples move out. 00:15:14.060 --> 00:15:18.960 As we pray the Lord's Prayer, it makes sense that we begin with ourselves. Your kingdom come, 00:15:19.080 --> 00:15:24.760 well how does that impact on me? But then it's really helpful to let it ripple out. So we begin 00:15:24.760 --> 00:15:29.420 with ourselves. Then we think about our circle, our family and our friends. What does it look like 00:15:29.419 --> 00:15:35.679 for them to live under the rule of King Jesus? Then we pray for our church. What difference would 00:15:35.679 --> 00:15:41.259 it make for Edinburgh if Becluia was living seeking God's kingdom? We pray for our country. We pray 00:15:41.259 --> 00:15:50.419 for the nations of the world. In this wonderful pattern of prayer that Jesus gives us, we're reminded 00:15:50.419 --> 00:15:57.480 that we are invited to know the King of the universe as our Father, to seek his honour and his kingdom, 00:15:57.480 --> 00:16:05.279 to live in his joy, and to ask that others would know it too. The fourth word brings with it a change 00:16:05.279 --> 00:16:12.620 of focus. It's the word bread. Give us each day our daily bread. Notice the balance of Jesus' model 00:16:12.620 --> 00:16:20.039 prayer. He turns us first to God and his glory, only then to us and to our needs. Give us each day 00:16:20.039 --> 00:16:29.339 our daily bread. Why bread. Bread is a great picture of daily needs. Old Testament Israel was fed by bread 00:16:29.339 --> 00:16:36.959 from heaven each day for 40 years. In Jesus' day, many people lived that kind of hand-to-mouth, 00:16:37.319 --> 00:16:44.799 need to make bread every single day. So it's a great picture of daily needs. But as we pray it, 00:16:44.799 --> 00:16:49.319 it's important for us to recognise that this has wide application. This isn't just, 00:16:49.740 --> 00:16:54.699 please give me enough food for today, though it does certainly include that, one of the reasons why 00:16:54.699 --> 00:17:02.740 it's good to give thanks before every meal. But Jesus is inviting us to ask for whatever it is that we 00:17:02.740 --> 00:17:13.079 need this day to accomplish whatever task we have this day. And that will vary hugely from person to 00:17:13.079 --> 00:17:20.159 person and from day to day. Again, to just speak practically about prayer, I think this is one of 00:17:20.159 --> 00:17:27.179 the great benefits of praying in the morning. Because if you have time in the morning, you can lay out 00:17:27.179 --> 00:17:34.399 your schedule for the day before God in prayer. It helps you to recognise, here perhaps are the pressure 00:17:34.399 --> 00:17:39.779 points, here are the parts where I'm going to need help. I think it's also the benefit of where it's 00:17:39.779 --> 00:17:45.779 possible to have margins within our day. Before you send that email, before you go on to your next 00:17:45.779 --> 00:17:51.440 task where you have that next meeting, can we take a moment to pray, to ask God for what we need in that 00:17:51.440 --> 00:17:59.039 task to come? Because the needs that we will face are many. Physical, emotional, spiritual need. 00:17:59.980 --> 00:18:05.339 Sometimes we'll need patience when we're dealing with people. Sometimes we'll need courage when we need to 00:18:05.339 --> 00:18:11.799 stand up for truth. Sometimes we'll need discipline in the workplace or in our homes. Sometimes we'll need 00:18:11.799 --> 00:18:18.179 to be praying for compassion as we're confronted by needs but our own sense of exhaustion. Sometimes and 00:18:18.179 --> 00:18:24.159 often we'll need to pray for the gift of faith. And remember, as we pray for ourselves, we're also being 00:18:24.159 --> 00:18:29.619 told to pray for the needs of others. The needs of our Christian family are many. 00:18:29.619 --> 00:18:40.619 even just to recognize that globally, while we are incredibly well off, hundreds of millions today, 00:18:40.819 --> 00:18:48.099 our brothers and sisters in Christ, do lack their daily bread. And so we pray for compassion and for 00:18:48.099 --> 00:18:57.699 mercy and for justice. Word number five is the word forgiveness. Forgive us our sins, 00:18:57.700 --> 00:19:04.840 for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. So having just thought about our daily needs, 00:19:05.620 --> 00:19:11.920 Jesus then draws our attention to what's our greatest need. And our greatest need is our need 00:19:11.920 --> 00:19:22.620 of forgiveness. It's our need to be right with our God. Now, the Bible uses all kinds of language to speak 00:19:22.619 --> 00:19:38.119 our sin. The language of guilt, the language of debt, the language of debt, to remind us how serious a 00:19:38.119 --> 00:19:47.539 problem our sin is before a perfectly holy God. And so our greatest need is that we might be right with 00:19:47.539 --> 00:19:53.960 God, that our guilt might be removed, that that moral and spiritual debt might be cancelled, that we 00:19:53.960 --> 00:20:01.839 might have an answer to the shame and to the fear that we experience. And again, the good news is that 00:20:01.839 --> 00:20:09.799 one who teaches us to pray for forgiveness is the one who will go to the cross to secure our forgiveness. 00:20:09.799 --> 00:20:19.180 And so we pray that the benefits of Christ would be applied to us, that the work that he has completed 00:20:19.180 --> 00:20:29.240 would be applied to us today. Luther, writing on the Lord's Prayer, he wrote on this, he said, 00:20:30.319 --> 00:20:31.579 and I like this imagery, he said, 00:20:31.579 --> 00:20:41.799 everyone must duck their head and come into the joy of forgiveness only through the low door of humility. 00:20:43.559 --> 00:20:50.159 So we must duck and be humble if we are to enjoy the great expanse and the great joy of forgiveness. 00:20:50.159 --> 00:20:59.379 What does he mean by that? To humble ourselves is surely to see that we are sinful, that we don't love 00:20:59.380 --> 00:21:07.160 God perfectly, we don't love our neighbor perfectly. To humble ourselves is to see that we cannot save 00:21:07.160 --> 00:21:13.660 ourselves, we cannot make ourselves right before God. To humble ourselves is to then look at Jesus and 00:21:13.660 --> 00:21:19.180 to see that Jesus gives grace. Jesus, though we don't deserve it, is ready to show kindness to us and 00:21:19.180 --> 00:21:27.420 forgive us all our sins and to cleanse us and to make us new. And that's something we need to begin 00:21:27.420 --> 00:21:31.400 in the Christian life, but we also need to be praying for forgiveness all through the Christian 00:21:31.400 --> 00:21:41.779 life because we still sin. And so Jesus would have us to slow down and to think deeply. Where have I 00:21:41.779 --> 00:21:52.240 wandered today? Where have I broken God's law today? And notice too that social dimension, forgive us our sins 00:21:52.240 --> 00:22:02.160 for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. It's God's grace that makes the forgiveness of others 00:22:02.160 --> 00:22:09.680 possible. Forgiving others is always difficult, but when we understand that God has graciously forgiven 00:22:09.680 --> 00:22:16.660 us, it makes our forgiving others possible. And again, to think about that humility, when we understand 00:22:16.660 --> 00:22:24.720 that our debt before God is massive, to be a money term on it, be billions of pounds in debt. 00:22:25.360 --> 00:22:33.040 So whenever someone wrongs us, that debt is tiny compared to what we have done before God. 00:22:33.259 --> 00:22:38.759 And as we understand that, and as we understand the grace of forgiveness, then it makes it possible 00:22:38.759 --> 00:22:45.940 that we pass it forward. We need to pray about it because it's hard. Word six is the word temptation. 00:22:45.940 --> 00:22:55.980 And lead us not into temptation. Again, humble Christians understand, sometimes we understand by 00:22:55.980 --> 00:23:05.420 hard experience that without Jesus and without living by God's grace, we will so quickly go wrong, 00:23:06.019 --> 00:23:14.220 give in to sin, and we will drift away from the love of God. Just like perhaps if you've ever had this 00:23:14.220 --> 00:23:19.660 experience in Edinburgh, probably many of us have, if we're drivers, you hit enough potholes and 00:23:19.660 --> 00:23:25.779 eventually your tires become misaligned. So if you ever take your hands off the steering wheel, 00:23:25.860 --> 00:23:32.500 you discover that your car begins to drift off course really quickly. What that looks like spiritually? 00:23:33.980 --> 00:23:37.880 Perhaps it's us thinking, do you know what, in this moment I feel like I have enough resources, 00:23:37.880 --> 00:23:45.760 so I don't really need God, I don't really need to pray. Perhaps the drift looks like ignoring God's 00:23:45.760 --> 00:23:49.720 Word is no big deal. Lots of other people seem to be doing it, so it can't be a problem. 00:23:51.120 --> 00:23:58.280 Drift might look like allowing our circumstances to lead us into despair or into bitterness towards 00:23:58.280 --> 00:24:06.520 our God. And so we pray, lead us not into temptation. It's a reminder that we pray in a spiritual 00:24:06.519 --> 00:24:14.400 battleground, that Christian life has not lived on a playground, and so we need to keep alert to attack 00:24:14.400 --> 00:24:22.339 that come from the world and the flesh and the devil. Again, we see this through Scripture. We often talk 00:24:22.339 --> 00:24:29.059 about using arrow prayers, those quick, brief prayers that we offer up to God in a moment. When we face 00:24:29.059 --> 00:24:36.139 temptation, then we would learn to pray and to pray quickly. God, help me to say no to sin in this moment. 00:24:36.519 --> 00:24:43.279 As my heart is tempted in this direction, help me to see that Jesus and what He offers is so much 00:24:43.279 --> 00:24:56.000 better. We pray, help me seek Your glory in this moment. So that's the pattern of prayer. Just six words. 00:24:56.000 --> 00:25:03.579 Father, hallowed, kingdom, bread, forgiveness, temptation, but they are a gift from Jesus, 00:25:04.259 --> 00:25:11.359 so you and I might enjoy our prayer life. Let me give three suggestions. I found it really helpful 00:25:11.359 --> 00:25:15.720 to be using the Lord's Prayer this week. Three suggestions on how you might use it, how we might 00:25:15.720 --> 00:25:20.420 use it each day and through the day. Perhaps you could simply pray the Lord's Prayer each day. 00:25:20.420 --> 00:25:26.080 It's going to take maybe 30 seconds, probably not even that great way to refocus. 00:25:27.500 --> 00:25:35.660 We could take time to pause on each of those ideas and expand them with our personal prayer. 00:25:37.560 --> 00:25:41.100 Perhaps you'll pray the Lord's Prayer and one phrase will stick out and you think, 00:25:41.300 --> 00:25:47.440 that's what I need to focus on this night, and you can use that for your praying life. But Jesus gives 00:25:47.440 --> 00:25:53.779 us this pattern for our good so that we might enjoy our prayer life. So let's take it as a gift. 00:25:54.799 --> 00:26:01.519 Now far, far more briefly, the last two things. Let's look at the practice of prayer in verses 5 to 10. 00:26:02.100 --> 00:26:07.539 The next thing is Jesus teaches His disciples to pray, and He focuses on the point of view of the 00:26:07.539 --> 00:26:12.240 person who is asking. Okay, so we're going to see there's a switch that happens later, but for now, 00:26:12.240 --> 00:26:16.539 the point of view of the point of view of the person who is asking. So it's the focus on the prayer. So 00:26:16.539 --> 00:26:28.140 it's on our side. How should we practice prayer? And in a word, verses 5 to 10 encourage us to 00:26:28.140 --> 00:26:38.039 persistence. Okay, so there's that story that Jesus tells of the friend who comes for bread. Let's 00:26:38.039 --> 00:26:47.639 picture this story together. So imagine it's three o'clock in the morning, and you have a knock on 00:26:47.639 --> 00:26:55.819 your door. A visitor who comes, they need a bed, they need some food, they've been on a long journey, 00:26:56.099 --> 00:27:02.119 but your cupboards are empty. They're starving. Cupboards are empty. What are you going to do? 00:27:02.119 --> 00:27:14.919 So you walk across the road to your friend. It's a family with four kids and a dog, and both parents 00:27:14.919 --> 00:27:20.599 work nightshed, and they have one of those doorbell security systems that's bound to wake the whole 00:27:20.599 --> 00:27:31.979 household. What do you do? What does Jesus say? He says, push the button. He says, ask boldly. 00:27:32.879 --> 00:27:42.779 Jesus encourages us to persistence, because this persistence is rewarded. Even though he won't 00:27:42.779 --> 00:27:48.639 get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity or your 00:27:48.639 --> 00:27:54.619 persistence, he will surely get up and give you as much as you need. It's the same point in those 00:27:54.619 --> 00:28:01.679 sayings in verses 9 and 10. These are all continuous. Ask and keep on asking, and it'll be given to you. 00:28:02.119 --> 00:28:09.679 Seek and keep on seeking, and you will find. Knock and keep on knocking, and the door will be open to 00:28:09.679 --> 00:28:17.959 you. Jesus invites us to pray boldly and persistently. Here, I think, is where we can learn from our 00:28:17.960 --> 00:28:25.480 children. You know, if a child wants something, well, unless the answer is yes first time, they don't 00:28:25.480 --> 00:28:31.480 typically stop with the first request, especially if they really, really, really want something. You 00:28:31.480 --> 00:28:36.400 will hear about it again and again and again, and that's a wonderful thing when it comes to teaching 00:28:36.400 --> 00:28:45.720 us how to pray. If we don't want what we're asking for enough to persevere, then perhaps we don't want 00:28:45.720 --> 00:28:51.840 it very much, and we need to examine our own heart. Calvin, the reformer, said the only prayer that's 00:28:51.840 --> 00:29:00.480 acceptable to God springs from the presumption of faith. There is a boldness. Maybe because we know 00:29:00.480 --> 00:29:08.579 that we're children of a loving Father, we are called to bring our heart's desires to our Father. 00:29:09.339 --> 00:29:15.779 And again, doesn't this matter for mission? This calls us to pray boldly and persistently 00:29:15.779 --> 00:29:24.940 for our family members to come to faith, for our friends and our colleagues to have spiritual 00:29:24.940 --> 00:29:31.940 interest that would lead them to faith in Jesus, to pray persistently for renewal in the church in 00:29:31.940 --> 00:29:38.539 Edinburgh and in Scotland, to pray persistently for God's work in the world, remembering God is pleased 00:29:38.539 --> 00:29:48.440 to work through the prayers of His people. Lesson four, the promise of prayer, in verses 11 to 13. 00:29:48.920 --> 00:29:55.339 So the question, I guess, that we might ask as we hear the parable that Jesus told is to ask the 00:29:55.339 --> 00:30:03.539 question, is that what God's like? Is God the reluctant giver in the story? Does God have to be dragged 00:30:03.539 --> 00:30:10.200 to hear, to hear, to respond? That's why it was important to recognize Jesus was focusing on our 00:30:10.200 --> 00:30:16.420 point of view as the people who pray. But now we need to hear the shift in focus. Now we come to the 00:30:16.420 --> 00:30:25.119 receiving end of our prayers to think about what is God like? And God is like a generous Father who is 00:30:25.119 --> 00:30:37.439 eager to give the best of answers. He is the one who gives. He is the one who meets the needs of those 00:30:37.439 --> 00:30:45.059 who are seeking. He is the one who opens the door. And then think about these pictures in verse 11 and 12. 00:30:46.099 --> 00:30:55.039 You know, Jesus can say, you know, if imperfect fathers can give good gifts, you know, if a son asks for a fish, 00:30:55.119 --> 00:31:02.359 no father says, hey, do you know what's better? Here's a nice cuddly boa constrictor. Nobody does that. 00:31:03.319 --> 00:31:08.439 Dad, I'm hungry. Can I have an egg? Do you know what? I've just seen on Instagram a live scorpion salad. 00:31:08.519 --> 00:31:15.199 You're going to love it. No father does that. And so if imperfect fathers know how to care and to give 00:31:15.199 --> 00:31:24.139 good gifts, how much more are perfect father in heaven? So we seek, we ask, we knock, 00:31:24.140 --> 00:31:30.240 boldly, boldly, because we know our Father is good. Our Father is generous. 00:31:31.960 --> 00:31:34.960 And isn't it lovely the way Jesus finishes this section on prayer? 00:31:36.640 --> 00:31:40.940 Because it shows us that God cares to give us the very best. 00:31:40.940 --> 00:31:49.779 God's grace. How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? 00:31:50.880 --> 00:31:58.940 Because the greatest gift that God can give is himself. And the gift of the Spirit is say that 00:31:58.940 --> 00:32:07.340 God's Spirit works in the hearts and lives of his people. Is God generous? Yes, he is. How do we know it? 00:32:07.339 --> 00:32:15.220 Because it's the Father who gives us the gift of new birth. He makes us new. Is our Father good and kind? 00:32:15.559 --> 00:32:22.980 Yes, he is. Because in love he adopts us into his family. Does God care for us? Yes, he does. Because 00:32:22.980 --> 00:32:31.379 by the Spirit he comes to live in our hearts. Is God good and kind? Yes, because he unites us to the 00:32:31.380 --> 00:32:41.420 Lord Jesus. So, the promise of prayer is that the one who we pray to is a Father who loves to answer, 00:32:41.820 --> 00:32:50.380 far and above our asking for our greatest good and for his great glory. A Father who loves his children 00:32:50.380 --> 00:33:01.900 and who gives what's best. Jesus teaches us to pray so that we can enjoy our prayer life. So, that it 00:33:01.900 --> 00:33:10.320 would be a vital part of our life of faith as we seek to live as followers of Jesus. It would be a 00:33:10.320 --> 00:33:19.020 priority. Jesus teaches us what we ought to pray for. And he tells us to ask boldly and to not give up. 00:33:19.019 --> 00:33:27.980 And he gives us the promise of a loving Father who delights to hear and to answer. What a wonderful 00:33:27.980 --> 00:33:37.059 privilege we have. So, as we finish, let's pray together. This isn't the familiar Lord's Prayer that 00:33:37.059 --> 00:33:47.680 we use, but since we're in Luke's Gospel, let's use this as we close. Let me lead us as Jesus teaches us 00:33:47.680 --> 00:33:57.779 to pray. Father, Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. 00:33:58.500 --> 00:34:08.440 Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation. 00:34:08.440 --> 00:34:20.380 Amen. Amen. Now, let's close our time with the hymn, What a Friend We Have in Jesus, which reminds us of