Luke 11:1-4

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Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray.

A sermon preached by

Rev. William O. (Bud) = Reeves

First United Methodist Church

Hot= Springs, Arkansas

July 22, 2007

If you want to see the greatest memorabilia of= any sport or activity, one good place to look is the Hall of Fame. If you’re a baseball fan, go= to the Baseball Hall of Fame in C= ooperstown, New York. If you’re a basketball fan, = go to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. For football, go to the Hall of Fa= me in Canton, Ohio. Are you a bowler? Don’t miss the Bowling Hall = of Fame in St. Louis, = Missouri. There’s even a Daredevil Hal= l of Fame, located appropriately enough in Niagara Falls, New York= —although very few make it into that Hall of Fame alive. There’s a Country Music Hall= of Fame, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a Jazz Hall of Fame, and a Ukulele Hall= of Fame. There’s a Hall of= Fame for just about any sort of human endeavor.

If there was a Prayer = Hall of Fame, I’m sure the centerpiece exhibit would be what we call “T= he Lord’s Prayer.” W= e call it that because Jesus used this prayer to teach the disciples how to pray.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> We could also call it “The Disciples’ Prayer,” because it is a prayer intended for use by everyday disciples like you and me.

The Lord’s Praye= r is something we teach our kids—or we should—at an early age. Many of us could say it even befor= e we knew what we were saying. I h= eard about one little girl who began ending her nightly prayers by saying, “Good night, Howard.” &nb= sp; Every night, she would say her prayers and close with, “Good night, Howard.” Finally= her mother asked her, “Honey, who’s Howard?”

Her daughter replied, “That’s God’s first name. We learned it in Sunday School. ‘Our Father, who art in heav= en, Howard be thy name…’”[1]

If we’re going to learn this prayer, I want us to learn it right. But learning it right doesn’= t mean just repeating the words verbatim over and over again. I am more concerned that we learn = what kind of prayer this is. I thi= nk Jesus was giving this prayer to his disciples as a pattern for genuine pray= er, not as something to be repeated by rote without even thinking about it. That’s why I picked for our Scripture today the less familiar version of the Lord’s Prayer from t= he Gospel of Luke. I want us to = think about the Lord’s Prayer today as a pattern of prayer that we can use = in all the circumstances and seasons of our lives. This is how Jesus would have his disciples pray.

Jesus teaches his disc= iples to pray, first and foremost, in an attitude of worship. The very= first word of the prayer speaks of the relationship between a person and God. “Father” is the Aramai= c word “Abba,” a personal term of endearment, sort of like “Daddy.” Our pray= er time should be an experience of fellowship with a personal God who loves us= and knows us and is worthy of our praise.

So we say “hallo= wed be your name.” Holy is your name, Daddy! The first thing = we do when we pray is to worship God, to adore him, to exalt and extol and praise= him just because he is God, and there is no other. We get to talk to him, and he make= s time to listen! Isn’t that a deal?=

One morning on our vac= ation, I was sitting on the porch of the beach house we had rented, enjoying the e= arly sun and doing my devotional reading for the day. I had just read Psalm 42:8: “= ;Come, behold the works of the Lord= .” But I still had some things on my mind. I was not really focuse= d on the Scripture or on God. Just= then, from the beach house next to us, a little toddler came out with her grandpa. She was still in her pajamas, leading her grandpa by the hand.&= nbsp; She got a few steps out onto the sand, and suddenly a seagull flew o= ver her head. She looked up and s= tarted to clap her hands in joy. The= n her grandfather began to applaud with her.&nbs= p;

Suddenly I remembered = what my prayer time was all about. I was beholding the works of the Lord—the sun, the sand, the water, the bir= ds. I should be clapping my hands in joy. I should be exalting my God. The first attitude of pr= ayer is worship—“Yay, God! Well done! Bravo!̶= 1;

Jesus teaches his disc= iples also to pray in hope. With God, there is always hope; th= ere is always a future. Our prayers = should not be imprisoned by the pains of the past. Our prayers should not be bound by= the problems of the present. Our prayers should soar with the wings of hope, because our God is an overcoming God. His kingdom is coming, a= nd when it comes, his kingdom will have no end. So we pray, “Your kingdom come.” If we pray it en= ough, we will begin to get a glimpse of its glory. The vision of the kingdom will sustain us, even when we walk through the darkest valleys of our lives.

When Dr. Norman Vincent Peale was a young pastor, he had a parishioner who was a weatherman, althou= gh he was really more of a meteorologist.&nbs= p; He considered himself a scientist, and he didn’t take kindly to any remarks or criticisms either of the weather or of his forecasting. Sometimes Dr. Peale would see him = on Saturday and ask him to predict good weather for Sunday so more people would come to church. The fellow fa= iled to see the humor in that and would reply, “I only predict the facts a= s I see them. I am a scientist, a= nd everything I do must be verified by the facts.”

One day, the old meteorologist lay dying. His = son and his pastor were at his bedside. The old man was very weak, but still conscious. Suddenly he turned to his son and = said, “I see something very beautiful.&nbs= p; It is like a great white shining building, the prettiest I ever saw….And there is a light.”&nb= sp; Then, just as suddenly, the old man’s eyes closed in death.

Norman, the young past= or, said, “Maybe he had a hallucination.”

The son said, “My father never had a hallucination in his life.”

“Maybe it was a = sort of a dream,” Peale offered.

The son said, “I= n life and in death, my father was a scientist.&n= bsp; What he reported was what he saw.&n= bsp; He only reported verifiable facts.” Norman Vincent Peale then realized= that what the old man had seen was indeed a glimpse of the heavenly kingdom of God.[2] We pray in the hope that it will c= ome.

Thirdly, Jesus teaches= his disciples to pray for help. There are needs we have, very prac= tical and specific things we can pray for, and God will hear our prayers. Jesus prayed, “Give us this = day our daily bread.” Some translations say “the bread we need,” and I think that is the key to understanding this part of the prayer.&nbs= p; God cares for us, and he will provide what we need to live and live abundantly, so we can pray expecting God to give us what we need—maybe not everything we want, or everything we pray for, or all the luxuries and extravagances that we often mistake for needs. We need the faith to see that what= God gives us is what we need and that everything we have comes from him. God is faithful, and he will help = us when we pray to him. He will give = us our daily bread.

In 1986, the oil boom = in Oklahoma had gon= e bust, and many over-extended banks were failing. Many business owners in Oklahoma City had already closed their = doors in defeat and declared bankruptcy. In the corporate offices of Hobby Lobby, David Green’s world w= as crashing in around him. He ha= d put years of his life into developing a multi-million dollar hobby and craft business, but now his bank was ready to foreclose on his loans and send the business into oblivion. =

But the Green family k= new where to turn for help in a crisis. Although the foreclosure of the bus= iness was the worst thing they could imagine, they came to see it as a defining moment not only in their business, but in their spiritual lives. "I know I prayed prior to that time," David Green says, "but that's when I got really serious ab= out it."

He converted the space beneath his desk into his prayer closet. He would literally crawl under his = desk in his corporate office and seek God's help in prayer. And God gave it. It was God's response to those pray= ers for their business that the Green family believes pulled the company out fr= om under looming bankruptcy and set it on its feet again.

In the 20 years since = that crisis, David Green has not stopped praying. Hobby Lobby now produces more than= $1.5 billion in annual sales, and Green is listed by Forbes magazine as o= ne of the 400 wealthiest men in the United States.[3]

When we hit those bank= rupt times of our lives—physically, spiritually, emotionally—we can = turn to God for help. Jesus teache= s us to pray to God in our time of need.

The fourth thing Jesus teaches his disciples is to pray in repentance. We know we have sinned and fal= len short of the glory of God. No= t only are we imperfect and prone to make mistakes; we are ignorant of and antagonistic toward the will of God in our lives. We need to be forgiven. Which God does, on one condition: “forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.” We do, don’t we? All those people who have= hurt us and abused us and betrayed us and criticized us—we don’t hol= d an ounce of bitterness or resentment against them at all, do we? They are forgiven, right? Right?

According to Jesus, un= til they are, we are not. Until we forgive others, we cannot find forgiveness for ourselves. He went to the cross for our sin.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> He bought our pardon with his own blood. How can we expect him = to forgive us if we hold a grudge and harbor hatred over something that was probably small to start with?

When you pray the Lord’s Prayer and really understand it and really mean it, you can ha= ve power to forgive the greatest wrong done against you. In return you will feel the power = of God’s refreshing grace washing your sin away forever.

Bill Hybels tells abou= t a Christian he met on an evangelistic trip to a part of India that is predominantly H= indu and Muslim. Religious tension= is always in the air. This man&#= 8217;s father had started a Christian mission in that area. One day a Hindu leader had come to= his father and asked for prayer. = Eager to do that, and hoping to lead the man to Christ, his father had taken him = into a private room, knelt down with him, closed his eyes and began to pray. While he was praying, the Hindu man reached into his robe, pulled out a knife, and stabbed the missionary repeatedly.

The son, hearing his father’s screams, ran to help him.&n= bsp; He held him in his arms as the blood poured out onto the floor of th= e prayer hut. Three days later, his fa= ther died. As he lay dying, he sai= d to his son, “Please tell that man that he is forgiven. Care for your mother and carry on = this ministry. Do whatever it take= s to win people to Christ.”[4] There is no doubt in my mind that = whatever sins that Christian missionary had committed, they were forgiven.

Finally, Jesus teaches= his disciples to pray for resistance.<= /b> “Do not bring us to the time of trial.” Matthew’s version of the Lord’s Prayer adds the words, “But rescue us from the evil one.” The classic phras= ing that we are used to says, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” There is a = dual meaning here. The “time= of trial” is a reference to the painful times of evil and tribulation th= at happen just before the coming of the kingdom of God on earth. We should pray to be spared that e= xperience.

But the time of trial = can also mean any encounter with evil. We deal with that every day. Temptation is always around us.&nbs= p; We want to avoid anything like that which can hurt us. Years ago on the TV show Hee Haw, a man came in to see “Doctor” Archie Campbell. He complained, “Doc, I broke my arm in two places!”=

Archie responded, “Well, I’d stay out of them places!”[5] As Christians, we need to stay out= of the evil places.

Unfortunately, we can’t. Evil is all arou= nd us, and we really can’t avoid it. But we can pray for resistance to it. Martin Luther, the great Reformer, once said, “Temptations, of course, cannot be avoided, but = just because we cannot prevent the birds from flying over our heads, there is no need that we should let them nest in our hair.”[6] Prayer builds walls of defense aga= inst evil.

Every day is a spiritu= al battleground, and every day you make decisions that can turn you toward God= or away from him. I Peter 5:8 says, &#= 8220;Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour.” Friends, don’t be naïve about this. Pray for discipline. P= ray for resistance to the forces of evil. Pray to avoid the time of trial.&nb= sp; Pray the way Jesus taught his disciples.

The lesson Jesus gave = to his twelve chosen friends 2000 years ago was not just intended for them. We are disciples, too. We are the disciples of today. And if we want to build a solid pr= ayer life in the year 2007, there is no better model than the Lord’s Praye= r. It’s a prayer for all season= s, every day we’re alive. = Pray, then, in an attitude of worship. Pray in hope. Pray for help. Pray in repentance. Pray for resistance to the evil one. Then you will pray as Je= sus wants you to pray. Then you will pr= ay touching heaven. Amen!