Let me read Luke 11, 1 through 13 for us.
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.
And he said to them, when you pray, say,
Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread,
and forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us,
and lead us not into temptation.
And he said to them, which of you who has a friend
will go to him at midnight and say to him,
Friend, lend me three loaves,
for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey,
and I have nothing to set before him.
And he will answer from within, do not bother me.
The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed.
I cannot get up and give you anything.
I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything
because he is his friend,
yet because of his impudence,
he will rise and give him whatever he needs.
And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you.
Seek, and you will find.
Knock, and it will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives,
and the one who seeks, finds,
and to the one who knocks, it will be opened.
What father among you, if his son asks for a fish,
will instead of a fish, give him a serpent?
Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?
If you then, who are evil,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will the heavenly father
give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?
So this winter and spring,
we're walking through the Gospel of Luke,
and in particular, we're studying this middle section
of Luke's Gospel where Jesus is on his journey
from Galilee up to Jerusalem.
And in this middle section of Luke's Gospel,
this journey narrative,
one of the main themes over and over again
is the theme of discipleship.
What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus?
And we need that kind of instruction today.
We need to know what it looks like,
what shape it takes,
the heart of being a follower of Jesus.
So that's what we're gonna be considering together
over these coming weeks and few months
as we're looking at Luke's Gospel.
And the specific topic here in our passage today
is the topic of prayer.
Jesus himself has just finished praying,
and one of his disciples, Luke,
doesn't tell us who,
it could have been any of them,
says, Lord, teach us to pray.
Now, I wonder if you've ever found prayer to be hard,
something that doesn't come naturally.
Maybe for you, prayer is just the easiest thing
in the world.
You just have rich hours of prayer end on end.
You don't need any help.
If that's you, this sermon is not gonna be
very helpful for you.
But for the rest of us in the room,
this is gonna be for us.
So you can just zone out,
scribble in your bulletin,
whatever you wanna do.
But if you're like the rest of us,
maybe you found prayer to be frustrating.
Maybe you found prayer to be even boring at times.
Maybe you think of prayer as something
you wish you could do well,
but you struggle to do so.
And then, of course,
there seems to be so much out there about prayer.
I mean, how do you choose?
Where to go?
Who do you turn to for help?
In the first century,
there were various Jewish groups
and they all had their own distinctive prayers
that they used.
Apparently, as this first kind of references,
apparently John the Baptist
even taught his disciples specific prayers to say.
And you know, today too,
there's no shortage of options.
Every religion seems to have its own practices of prayer.
Even within Christianity,
there are hundreds of books about prayer
or collections of prayers.
Where do we start?
Have you ever wished that someone would just teach you
how to really pray?
Well, if that's you,
and I know that's often how I feel too,
you're in good company.
Every honest follower of Jesus at some point
is going to say,
Lord, teach me, teach us to pray.
And the beautiful thing about this passage
is that Jesus does just that.
He teaches us how to pray.
And He does so by addressing
the heart of two of our biggest problems
or two of our biggest difficulties
when it comes to prayer.
He's going to address one of those problems
in verses two through four,
and then He's going to address
the second deeper problem
in the rest of the passage.
And this first difficulty
that He addresses in verses two through four
is the very real difficulty
that oftentimes in prayer,
we just don't know what to say.
What are we actually supposed to be praying for?
How many times have you sat down to pray
and it feels like all that you can really come up with is,
oh Lord, would you bless this person?
And then you look down at your prayer list maybe
and you say, oh Lord,
would you bless that person?
And while you're at it,
would you bless my spouse and bless my kids
and bless my friends and bless my church
and bless that guy I met at the gas station
the other day?
And we don't even know what the word bless means.
What are we even praying about?
And yet we keep saying that
and that's all we say.
That's all we know what to do.
And pretty soon,
if we're brave enough to admit it,
we get pretty bored praying like that, right?
And our mind immediately wanders
to our to-do list for today
and our prayer life lacks all the depth
and profundity that real communion with God
ought to be.
But in these first few verses,
Jesus realizes what a real need that is.
And so rather than launch into a long discourse
about prayer,
it's nature, it's theology,
it's ins and outs.
Jesus says,
when you pray,
say this.
It's like when a child's learning
to write their letters for the first time
and the teacher sort of puts their hand
over the child's hand
and then helps them move the pencil across the page.
Jesus is here putting his hand over our hand
to help us begin forming the words of prayer.
It's an incredible picture of Jesus
as a good teacher
with kindness and tenderness.
When you pray,
say this.
And of course,
what we have in these verses
is what's come to be called
the Lord's Prayer.
There's another version of this same prayer
in Matthew chapter 6.
Matthew's version is a little longer
and it's probably the more familiar of the two,
but in substance,
they're really the same.
And you'll have to remember
that during his ministry,
Jesus was constantly traveling
from city to city,
teaching his disciples
and teaching various crowds.
And as like any traveling teacher of the day
or today,
he likely taught this prayer
on numerous occasions
with slight variations from time to time.
So it shouldn't throw us off
or surprise us too much
that we have at least two versions of this
recorded in the Gospels.
Jesus probably taught this on numerous occasions.
But when we come to the Lord's Prayer,
I think there are two dangers
that we want to avoid
as we approach this prayer
that Jesus teaches us.
On the one hand,
we want to avoid the danger
of just empty repetition.
You know,
even if you didn't grow up in the church,
you might be able to recite the Lord's Prayer
or at least parts of it will sound familiar.
You know,
even as I was reading the text,
you were probably like,
wait a second,
this kind of sounds familiar.
Where did I hear this before?
I know one guy
whose high school football team
would all recite it together
before their games.
I don't know what they thought
that was going to do
before a football game,
but they did it anyway.
It's just become sort of part
of our cultural wallpaper,
the Lord's Prayer.
So there's a danger
that the Lord's Prayer
just becomes something
that's sort of religiously sounding
that we just sort of repeat and recite
and we don't really pause
to make the prayer our own
or to say the words
with understanding
and with meaning
and with the kind of passion
and depth
that we're meant to pray it.
But the other danger
is that we swing the pendulum
all the way to the other side
and we never have any reference
to the Lord's Prayer at all
in our praying.
We just ignore it
or we avoid it.
As if Jesus had said,
when you pray,
say whatever comes to mind.
Well, that can't be
the right way either, right?
So rather,
putting both of these extremes aside,
what we see in the Lord's Prayer
is that Jesus is actually
giving us a rich pattern
to follow and to internalize,
a pattern that should deeply shape
and form our own praying.
Think of an athlete
learning their sport.
Some drills they will do
over and over and over
and over again
so that in a real game situation
it becomes second nature
so that when they need
to improvise,
the fundamentals are in place
to actually respond
to the new challenges
of the game
with grace and with skill.
Music is another good example.
A jazz musician
will spend a lot of time
learning every single note
in a Coltrane song,
playing it just like he played it.
Not because they're going to play
that exact same notes
in their own performance
but so that when they come
to play their own song,
they've deeply internalized
the principles
of how to improvise
from the best
and they actually have
the skill to do it.
And prayer is a lot like that.
It's a learned experience.
And it can be helpful
to actually pray
and repray
the Lord's Prayer
word for word
either together
when we gather
or individually
in our own times of prayer
so that it can sink
into our hearts
so that our times
then of spontaneous prayer
are formed
and fashioned
by the profundity
and the power
of what Jesus
is teaching us here.
So the Lord's Prayer
rather than something
we just mindlessly recite
or just we ignore
altogether
ought to be the scaffolding,
the structure,
the deep sort of pattern
of our praying.
So let's take a few moments
then and consider
this prayer together.
Of course,
it would take more
than just one sermon
to uncover all the riches
of the Lord's Prayer,
but I hope I can just highlight
some things this morning
that will help us
to kind of make this prayer
our own
in the coming weeks
and months.
The first thing to notice
is that the prayer
falls into two halves,
doesn't it?
And you see that
the first half,
the first part,
is centered on God.
It's about God's name
and God's kingdom.
And in Matthew's version,
he adds God's will.
And then the second part
considers our need.
Give us.
Forgive us.
Lead us.
So there's God
and then there's us.
And I think there's
a good lesson here.
Too often our prayers
simply begin and end
with our own
personal material needs.
But Jesus is teaching us here
that first and foremost,
prayer ought to be
God-centered.
We should pray
for God's name,
Jesus says.
God's name is
God's revealed character,
who he's revealed himself
to be,
his nature.
Jesus says we should pray
that God's name
would be hallowed,
which is a really strange word.
But it means to be set apart
or acknowledged as holy.
In other words,
we pray that God
would be seen
and known
and honored
and loved
as the God
he really is.
That he would get
all the praise
and glory
and reverence
he deserves.
That's what it means
to pray that God's name
would be hallowed.
And Jesus says
we should pray
for God's kingdom
to come.
That his reign
of justice and grace
would rule in our hearts
and our churches
and our communities
and our families
and our neighbors
that we would know him
and trust him
and serve him
as king overall.
You know,
if we spend more time
praying for God's name
to be exalted
and for God's kingdom
to come,
we'd probably
spend a lot less time
being upset
when it came to the status
of our own name
and our own kingdom,
wouldn't we?
Maybe I'm not getting
the credit
I think I deserve.
Maybe my plans
and dreams
and agendas
aren't working out
the way I planned.
But you know,
the more we pray
for God's name
to be exalted
and God's kingdom
to come,
the more and more
our hearts
will come to rest
in the fact
that my real good
and my real joy
and my real purpose
isn't ultimately found
in the exaltation
of my own reputation
or my own agenda,
but in the advance
of God's name.
And God's agenda.
So first,
the Lord's Prayer
teaches us
to be God-centered
in our prayers,
but second,
right along with that,
it teaches us
to bring all,
absolutely all
of our needs to God,
to hold nothing back.
Jesus teaches us
to pray openly
and honestly
for provision
and for pardon
and for protection here.
I actually stole that
from Pastor Greg
as we were talking
about this passage
earlier this week.
Isn't that nice?
Provision,
pardon,
and protection.
So let's look
at provision.
Give us each day
our daily bread,
Jesus says.
That is,
whatever is needful
for our physical
and material well-being.
God cares about those things
and he wants you
to ask him
to provide them
so that he can
demonstrate his goodness
and his all-sufficiency.
mercy.
But then Jesus also teaches us
to pray for pardon.
Forgive us our sins.
Now because of Jesus'
finished work on the cross,
everyone who places
their trust in Christ
is completely justified
before God.
So this request for pardon
isn't saying that
believers can lose
their salvation
along the track
so they have to keep
going back to God
to get their justification renewed.
No, that's not what Jesus is saying.
Jesus is saying,
rather,
he's showing us the need,
he's saying that
we need to be daily
going back
to his finished work
that has justified us.
Whatever sins
have been revealed
in our life that day,
we need to bring them anew,
put them under the cross
so that we can know
the assurance
and the power
of his forgiveness.
We go back
to an already
complete forgiveness
again and again,
which then flows out,
Jesus points here,
flows out into a life
of forgiving others.
He says,
for we ourselves
forgive everyone
who is indebted to us.
One writer put it this way,
believers are not simply
objects of forgiveness,
they're conduits
of forgiveness.
Jesus,
extending to others
what God in grace
has freely extended to them.
In other words,
as we pray for God
to forgive our sins
in the same breath,
we pray for our own hearts
that we would forgive others
in the same way.
So there's provision,
there's pardon,
and then there's protection.
Lead us not into temptation.
And with this request,
ultimately,
Jesus is teaching us
to be humble.
To acknowledge our need
for God every moment
to keep us free from sin.
We acknowledge with this prayer
that we are not
spiritual superstars.
That we can't make it
on our own.
That we need God's help
to live holy lives
and to withstand the tests
to our faith
that come every day.
So with these three requests,
we're really meant
to bring every area
of our lives
to God in prayer.
Now the last thing
I want to point out
about the Lord's Prayer
is not just that
it's very God-centered,
that it involves
all of our needs
and all of our requests,
but it's also
a corporate prayer.
And I think we overlook
this a lot.
Jesus says it's about us
and our.
Give us.
Forgive us.
Lead us.
This prayer isn't just
for our private,
personal requests.
It's meant to be prayed
together as the church.
This is the church's prayer
that Jesus taught us.
You know,
isn't it amazing
that though cultural practices
of prayer change
from place and place
and time to time,
you could go
to almost any Christian church
of any time
and any place
and you'd find them
praying these words.
Isn't that a beautiful thing?
So yes,
from time to time,
honoring the corporate nature
of this prayer
might mean actually
repraying these actual words
together in unison
during a church service
or during a prayer gathering.
But more than that,
it will mean praying
the substances
of these requests
with one another
and for one another.
Take any of these
five petitions
that Luke lists here
and consider
what would it mean
for us to pray this
as a church?
For example,
how might we be praying
as a church
for God's name,
for his revealed character
to be seen as holy
in us
and among us
and around us,
through us?
Well,
one way would be
for our love
to grow for one another
more and more.
Jesus said
that the world
would know
we are his disciples
by our love
for one another.
God is love,
John says
in his first epistle.
No one has ever seen God.
If we love one another,
God abides in us
and his love
is perfected in us.
We might pray,
God,
make your name
great among us
by empowering us
to be a loving church.
Help us to reflect
your self-giving love
that you displayed
on the cross.
You loved us
when we didn't love you.
We were your enemies
and you died for us,
so help us to love
one another
even when it seems
like we are not
being loved in return.
And may our city
see this love
that we share,
this supernatural love,
and may they know
how great
and how holy you are.
Father,
hallowed be your name.
And each one
of the petitions
could be expanded
like that
in infinite ways
as we take this prayer
and make it our own,
not just personally,
but corporately.
You see,
the Lord's prayer
is beautiful
in its simplicity,
isn't it?
It's so straightforward.
We don't have to heap up
lots and lots of phrases
to pray how Jesus taught us,
and yet this prayer
is utterly profound.
Each one of these petitions
is like a mountain range
that you can scale
and climb
and explore.
And the more time
you spend praying
and meditating
on one of these great summits,
the better perspective
you get of all the others,
like climbing one mountain
and then getting
an even better view
of the mountain range
on the other side
of the valley.
Each one of these prayers
should become our own.
So friends,
when you encounter
the difficulty
of not knowing
what to say in prayer
and how many of us
have been there,
take up this prayer
Jesus has taught us.
Pray it
and make it your own.
Say it in your own words.
Fill out the petitions
with the details
of your own life,
with the details
of the life
of our church.
See how other prayers
in scripture
expand on the same themes.
I've been spending
some time reading
the Psalms lately
and it's striking
how many of the petitions
in the Psalms
in one way or another
can be connected
to the Lord's prayer.
This is the Lord himself
teaching us to pray.
How could we not
make it the heartbeat
of our own prayer life?
Surely Jesus knew
what he was doing
when he taught us
this prayer as a pattern
for our own.
But there's another problem,
isn't there?
On the one hand,
prayer is hard
because often we don't
know what to say,
but there's a deeper
difficulty that we encounter.
We often struggle
to pray
because, well,
we don't think
it'll make any difference.
Right?
God doesn't seem
to answer,
so we stop asking.
Have you been there?
wondering what use
is it to pray?
And I think
this problem
really gets
to the heart
of prayer.
We need words
to say,
yes,
we need Jesus
to put his hand
over ours,
as it were,
and to help us
form the words,
but just as much,
we need Jesus
to teach our hearts,
to speak to our hearts,
to encourage us
to pray
when we've grown tired
or weary
or even cynical.
And to do that,
Jesus tells a story.
Imagine at midnight,
he says,
you hear a knock
on the door.
A friend
has just arrived
to your home
on a journey.
He's traveled
through the middle
of the night
as so many travelers
would in Jesus' day
to avoid the burning heat
of the Middle Eastern sun.
He's arrived
at your doorstep
at midnight,
but you have nothing
to set before your friend.
Not even a few loaves
of bread
for a single meal.
And of course,
hospitality meant
everything in Jesus' day.
It would have been
massively embarrassing,
not just for you,
but for your whole village
to leave a guest
unprovided for.
That would have been
like a big social no-no.
Hugely embarrassing
not to provide
for your guest.
But you're all out.
And of course,
the next batches
of bread
won't be baked
until the morning.
And unfortunately,
there are no 7-Elevens
who are open 24-7
in the first century,
so you are out of luck.
You are not going
to get some hostess cakes
to sort of set
before your friend.
What do you do?
Well,
the only thing
anyone would do
in your shoes,
you quickly head outside,
go to your neighbor's door,
and you start knocking.
Ah,
open up.
I need to borrow
some food.
Lord,
somebody just arrived.
They didn't text me beforehand,
and I don't have anything
to give to them.
And then Jesus says,
imagine this answer
comes from within.
From your neighbor's
small,
one-room peasant home
just like yours,
you hear him call out,
ah,
really?
Come on.
I finally got the kids
to sleep.
I am not going
to get up
and give you
any bread.
It is not going
to happen.
There ain't no way.
I already locked the door.
Do you know how hard
it is to unlock
the door?
I'm sleeping.
I cannot get up
and help you.
Go knock
on someone else's door.
But then Jesus says
this.
He says to this group
of first century people
exactly what they know
he's going to say.
they all know
that that neighbor
might not get up
and give you bread
on account of your friendship
but because it's
so embarrassing
to have you knocking
on his door
late at night
and because all
the neighbors can hear
and because the reality
is in your village
nobody wants to be
that guy
who refused
to give a few
loaves of bread
to someone in need
so he could show
the all-important thing
of hospitality.
In other words,
because your lazy neighbor
wants to save face,
Jesus says
you know he's going
to get up
and give you
whatever you need.
The social pressure
is just going
to be too great
and he's going
to do it.
And I think
Jesus' audience
would have kind
of chuckled
as he told them
this parable
just as you
and I do today
as we think
about this grumpy
neighbor complaining
that he doesn't
want to wake up
the kids
and yet still
rolling out of bed
because he's embarrassed
by the racket
being made
and not wanting
to come across
as stingy
and inhospitable.
Many in Jesus'
audience might have
actually been that guy
on an occasion or two.
Who had a knock
on their door
and had to get up
and give the bread.
And the point
Jesus wants us
to see is this.
Even if your grumpy
neighbor,
if even your grumpy
neighbor will get
out of bed
and give you
what you need,
if even he's
going to get up
and respond
and answer your request,
how much more
will your generous
heavenly father
who neither slumbers
nor sleeps,
who knows every request
before you even ask,
how much more
is he going to hear
every request you make
and give you
exactly what you need?
So ask,
Jesus says,
and seek
and knock
and don't give up.
And then he switches
the metaphor
and says,
if earthly fathers
know how to give
good gifts
to their children,
how much more
your heavenly father?
Ask and it'll be
given to you.
Seek and you'll find.
Knock and it'll be
open to you.
Now of course,
ask and it will
be given to you.
Doesn't mean that
God will give us
absolutely anything
and everything
we ask for.
Our heavenly father
is so much
infinitely wiser
than us
and has infinitely
better plans
than we could imagine.
The divine story
that he is telling
might not go
according to
our timeline.
The divine story
that God's telling
in our lives
might not follow
our plot arc
that we would have
scripted.
But that doesn't
mean
that God's
sovereignty
and love
and wisdom
and patience
are all working
for your good.
Indeed,
for your greatest
and highest good.
You see,
what Jesus
is trying to
drive home
in the second half
of the passage
is the unimaginable
reality contained
in that single
word
with which
the Lord prayer
begins,
Father.
You don't get it,
do you?
He says.
God
is now
your father.
Jesus is inviting
us to experience
the same
intimacy
that he has
as the eternal
son of God
with God the father.
He's saying,
you now
step into that
because I've come.
God
is the
God
of God
as their
ministry
that his
followers
now
also have
God
as their
father.
Now,
I know
that your
earthly father
may have done
nothing
but bring pain
and heartache
in your life.
Lots of us
can attest to that
in this room.
But don't you see
that is not
how God
relates to
his children.
children.
He's the
perfect father
who holds
nothing back
in his love
toward you.
Think about
the mission
of Jesus
itself
that climaxes
in his death
and resurrection.
The heart
of compassion
that Jesus
constantly shows
the way in which
he's willing
to absorb
the shame
of the people
around them
and give them
his honor.
All of that
is Jesus
carrying out
and expressing
the father's
love for you.
And as Paul
says in Romans
8.32,
he who did
not spare
his own son
but gave
him up
for us all,
how will
he not also
with him
graciously
give us
all things?
You see,
friends,
the cross
is the
undeniable
sign
that our
father
loves us
and will
always be
loving to
us
in all
things.
And the
supreme
gift
of the
father
as Jesus
highlights
in Luke
11 here
is the
Holy Spirit.
You see,
because of
what Jesus
has done,
we not
only share
Jesus'
status
as sons
and daughters
of the
father,
but wonder
of wonders,
we become
partakers
of the
divine
nature.
not just
a new
status,
but a
whole new
nature.
The sharing
of God's
own
life with
us
through the
Holy Spirit.
The same
Holy Spirit
that indwelt
Jesus throughout
his ministry
now dwells
in us.
You know,
in prayer,
you may not
always get
what you
ask for,
but in
this kind
of prayer
that Jesus
teaches us,
you will
always get
more and
more of
God
himself.
So when
you ask,
Jesus says,
ask
confidently.
Ask,
seek,
knock,
for the
follower of
Jesus'
prayer always,
always makes
a difference.
Because you
see,
in Jesus,
we don't
pray to
some distant
God,
we don't
pray to
some far
off deity,
we pray to
the holy,
loving,
triune God,
our heavenly
Father,
who sent
his Son to
atone for
our sins,
and who
sends his
Spirit to
make us
partakers of
the new
creation,
to put
something in
us that
is so
powerful and
rich and
new that
connects us to
the age to
come,
and that will
draw us
there,
whether we
realize it or
not.
So this is
what it looks
like to pray
as followers
of Jesus.
Confident that
God is our
Father through
the work of
Jesus,
we can take
up these
bold petitions,
may your name
be hallowed,
may your kingdom
come,
give us what we
need,
forgive us when
we've fallen
short,
lead us in
your paths of
righteousness,
and we can
ask with
expectant trust
that our
heavenly Father
not only hears,
but he answers,
answers,
and he answers
with a readiness
and an abundance
that flows over
even to the
giving of his
very own self
and the person
of the Holy
Spirit.
So friends,
this week and
this season
in our life as a
church,
may we commit
to a renewed
practice of
prayer.
Where is your
difficulty?
Is it because you
don't know what to
say?
Is it because you
don't know what
difference it will
make?
Do you see what
Jesus is teaching
you here?
You can take up
this Lord's Prayer
as your own,
and you can expect
a fresh outpouring
of his Spirit
as the result.
Let's pray.
God, in the quiet
of this moment,
we confess that
Lord, prayer
is difficult
for us.
Lord, we
confess that
oftentimes it's
not just the
busyness of our
schedules that
gets in the way.
Lord, it's not
just the crowding
of our
responsibilities.
It's not just
our distractedness
that keeps us
from prayer,
but we confess,
Father, that it's
a deep unbelief
in your goodness
and your
willingness to
hear us.
It's a deep
doubt that you
really do respond
to us as a
father responds
to his children.
Father, as we
gather around
this table again
and take the
Lord's Supper,
would we taste
and see afresh
with the eyes
of our hearts
that you are
exceedingly,
wonderfully good.
And that if you
have indeed
given us your
Son, how will
you not also
graciously in
your own time
give us all
good things?
Father, we pray
this in the name
of Jesus.
Amen.