THE LORD'S PRAYER: INTRODUCTION

Preached by Gregory W. Lee
7 August 2005

I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Matthew 6:9-13 [read from The Message]
-- this morning we're going to be starting a series on what we call "The Lord's Prayer" -- this prayer is found in two places in the Bible -- in Matthew 6 and in Luke 11-- and we're going to be looking at the two passages together in order to learn as much as possible about this prayer and what we are supposed to do with this prayer

-- as we begin this series, let me share with you a story about Charles Haddon Spurgeon -- Spurgeon is known as the greatest preacher that England ever produced -- through his ministry, England experienced a great revival and thousands of people came to Christ and experienced God's hand working in a mighty way in their land and in their lives -- one day, a group of American evangelists had occasion to visit Spurgeon in England -- after the service, they met him at the door and commented on what a great sermon he had preached and how much they had enjoyed the service
-- he asked them if they would like a tour of his church -- they were ecstatic -- here was the great preacher Spurgeon himself leading them through his church and showing them around -- as they were finishing their tour, he asked them, "would you like to see our power plant?" -- they weren't really interested in the power plant, but it was Spurgeon, so they followed
-- he led them into the basement and opened a door -- the room was filled with people on their knees, praying and interceding before God for the ministry of the church and for their pastor -- Spurgeon turned to the American evangelists and said, "This is the powerhouse of our church -- if anything happened in the service today, it was not because of anything I did but because of what went on in this room this morning."

-- by and large, the church in America is in decline -- all of the major mainline denominations, including our own, are in decline and have steadily lost members over the past 20-30 years -- there have been minor pockets of revival in some churches and in some denominations, but by and large, we are not experiencing power in our churches and we are not seeing God moving through our land as He has in the past
-- I believe that the main reason for this is a lack of prayer in our churches and in our lives -- for one thing, we have become too hurried in our lives to take time to pray -- we want everything right now -- we have instant news, instant weather, instant food, instant entertainment -- and this has carried over into our spiritual lives
-- we might throw up a quick "McPrayer" or so, but we rarely take time and pour out our hearts before God asking for His blessings or His power to come upon our lives and our churches -- we may sing "Sweet Hour of Prayer" but there aren't many of us who are going to the Lord in prayer for more than just a few minutes a day

-- secondly, we have forgotten the power and the purpose of prayer -- we tend to treat prayer as an afterthought -- as a spare tire -- something that we throw in our trunk and don't think about, just pulling it out from time to time as we have emergencies crop up in our life
-- I once heard about a church administrative council meeting where a large argument came up -- the people were divided about an issue and both sides were getting angrier by the minute -- finally, someone spoke up and said, "I think we need to take a moment and pray." -- another member dropped his head in his hands and said, "Oh no, has it come to that?"
-- John Wesley once said, "Give me 100 preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergy or laymen, such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of Heaven on earth. God does nothing but in answer to prayer."
-- If we want to experience God's power in our lives and see God bring about a revival in our church and in our land like He did in so many cities and nations in the Bible and throughout history, then we need to get serious about praying and we need to be on our face before God asking Him to work -- asking Him to restore us -- asking Him to reverse the membership declines in our churches

-- finally, I think we have forgotten the importance that Christ placed on prayer -- Jesus was a great man of prayer -- throughout the gospels, we see a picture of Him putting an emphasis on prayer -- before and after major events in His lif e and ministry, Jesus sought the Father through prayer -- when He got overwhelmed with the crowds, Luke tells us in 5:16, "Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed" -- it was normal for Jesus to go to a solitary place and spend the night in prayer -- seeking God's face -- seeking God's guidance -- seeking God's presence
-- but, we tend to look at prayer as a minor part of our spiritual lives and our worship services -- we might open our meetings in prayers and we might have prayers in our services, but rarely do we gather and pray for the programs and ministries going on in the church -- let me ask you a question -- how many of you took time to pray for our homecoming and revival last year -- how many of you prayed for the Fifth Sunday Revival -- how many of you are already praying for homecoming and for charge conference -- probably not very many
-- if we're honest with ourselves, we'd have to admit that we are not putting the importance on prayer as we should -- prayer should surround and bathe everything that we do in our churches and in our lives
-- God commands us to pray -- He expects us to pray -- in addition to the example of Christ, throughout the Bible God commands us to: "Pray without ceasing@ -- Acontinue in prayer@ -- Ain everything by prayer, let your request be made known unto God@ -- Apray always, pray and not faint@ -- Amen should pray everywhere@ -- Apraying always, with all prayer and supplication." -- and of course, "humble yourselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from your wicked ways."

-- prayer should not be an afterthought or a minor part of our lives -- it should be the most important thing that we do -- it should be the powerhouse in our lives and in our churches
-- if we are going to see anything happen in this church and in this community, then we are going to have to get more serious about prayer -- prayer for our churches, our pastors, our communities, and our denomination
-- so, we are going to spend the next several weeks talking about prayer, specifically the Lord's prayer, in the hopes that it might help us recognize the importance of prayer in our spiritual lives and that it might waken a desire in our life to become more dedicated in our prayer life
-- let's look now at some background information on the Lord's Prayer

II. Background and Context
-- as I said, the Lord's Prayer is found in two places in our Bible -- in Matthew 6:9-13 and in Luke 11:1-4
-- the passage in Matthew 6 is the one that we traditionally recite in our Protestant churches -- Matthew places this prayer in the context of the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus taught His disciples on a variety of kingdom issues -- within the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord's Prayer is found in a series of teachings by Christ on prayer and fasting
-- Luke places this prayer right after the episode with Mary and Martha -- when Jesus visited Martha's house and she came and complained because her sister Mary sat listening to Jesus teach rather than helping with the household chores -- immediately after this, Luke tells us that Jesus' disciples came to Him after He finished praying and they asked Him to teach them to pray -- Jesus gave them this prayer in response to their request
-- if you think about it, who better to teach us to pray than Christ -- not only did He exemplify a life of prayer, but He is the One that we are praying to -- Jesus knew exactly what He wanted us to say -- He knew exactly how He wanted us to say it -- if for no other reason than that, we should study this prayer simply because God Himself told us to pray to Him in this manner

-- Matthew's version of the prayer is longer than the prayer in Luke's gospel -- in Matthew, the prayer is composed of an invocation and seven petitions to God -- the first three asking for God's glorification and the last four requesting divine help and guidance -- depending on the translation that you use, Matthew's version may also include a doxology -- but most of the early New Testament manuscripts do not include this doxology -- we traditionally include this doxology when we pray this prayer in our services
-- Luke's version is more abbreviated, with an invocation and only five petitions to God -- flip over to Luke 11 and let's read Luke's version real quick [read Luke 11:1-4] -- a little different from what we normally pray, isn't it? -- when you read this version it just doesn't seem complete, does it?

-- so, why do we have two versions in our Bibles? -- well, it appears, based on the context and background of the two passages, that Jesus gave this prayer to His disciples on two different occasions -- the first at the sermon on the mount and the second in a more private setting
-- but, more importantly, having these two different versions in the Bible shows that Jesus did not design this prayer to be prayed as a liturgical recitation -- in other words, Jesus did not give us this prayer to pray back to Him word for word as it is written -- if that had been the case, it would be exactly the same in both Matthew and Luke's gospels
-- instead, this prayer is a given to us as a model of how to pray -- as Eduard Schweizer said, "the Lord's Prayer is an aid to prayer -- a guide to be followed without being bound to this or that precise wording" -- first we offer up our praise and thanksgiving to God and then we pray about our human needs
-- this prayer model from Jesus teaches us that right prayer begins with worship -- it puts the interests of the kingdom before our personal, human interests -- it accepts beforehand the Father's will -- His right to either grant or withhold answers to our prayers -- and then it presents petitions for our present need only, leaving the future to the Father's care and love (Scofield)

-- if you would, look at Matthew 6:1 and lets look at one more thing about the context of this passage [read vs. 1-8]
-- this prayer that Jesus gave us was different from the prayers traditionally prayed by the Jewish people -- their prayers were more liturgical -- they had specific prayers that they prayed every single day and prayers that were recited word for word during festivals and worship ceremonies -- their prayers were primarily restricted to praise and adoration and very seldom included petitions to God to work
-- prayers like these are great ways to commune with God -- but, a problem with liturgical prayers like this is that they tend to become rote repetitions -- they just become something that we say and that we don't really think about it -- and, it can cause us to forget what and why we are praying in the first place -- in the sermon on the mount, Jesus warned His listeners about hyprocrisy in their prayer -- He told them not to pray in public seeking to gain the approval of man and not God -- and He told them not to pray with rote repetition of words and lots of words like the Gentiles, because the quantity of words was not what was important
-- in the Lord's Prayer, Jesus reminded us of the underlying purpose in prayer -- to commune with our God and Creator -- to talk with Him -- to work on our relationship with Him
-- in our prayers, we should praise Him and thank Him for what He has done and tell Him what we need -- our prayers should never become dogmatic repetitions that have the form of Godliness but that denies its power
-- that is why this prayer that Jesus gave us here was a radical shift in the understanding of prayer -- instead of giving us a prayer that we just pray word for word, Jesus gave us a prayer that is relationship based -- we are told to come before God and to speak with Him because we are in a relationship with Him -- He is not an impersonal power but a personal God -- a God who knows us and loves us and cares about us and who wants us to talk with Him on a daily basis
-- We need to recognize that prayer puts us into a close relationship with God -- It results in us turning ourselves over to God -- body, mind, and soul -- Prayer not only causes God to work, but it also results in changing us, changing our hearts, and conforming our will to that of God

III. Closing
-- if we want to see a fresh outpouring of God's power and presence in our lives and in our church and in our communities, then we have to change our thinking about prayer
-- we have to get serious about prayer -- we must bathe our ministries in prayer -- We must bathe our worship services in prayer -- We must bathe our daily lives in prayer
-- To borrow a phrase from Maxie Dunnam, we must be immersed in prayer to such a point that prayer seeps from our bodies like a spring of refreshing water.
-- We need to ask God to revive us. We need to ask God to revive our church. We need to ask God to revive our community, and we need to expect Him to work.
-- as we go through this series on the Lord's prayer, I want to encourage you to commit to becoming more dedicated in your prayer life -- don't be satisfied with sending up little McPrayers while you're driving to work -- but spend time with God over these next few weeks -- spent time with His Word and spend time talking to Him and praying to Him for the things going on in your life and in this church
-- let's start right now -- let's pray