Means of Grace: Prayer

Something like this ever happened to you. You thought you were making some progress in prayer about youth, a seasoned mature's a Christian who had suffered a great deal coming to the Lord in prayer and you said to yourself I know almost nothing about what it means to pray is your prayer life. Perhaps you're like me and sit down at the kitchen counter or your desk each morning and you have every intention of devoting special link the time to prayer, but the distractions come to get a text or phone call or your mind wanders to the busy schedule that you have that day. Perhaps it's time to adjust our thinking about prayer.

Let's do that is Dr. Sinclair Ferguson looks at how Jesus taught his disciples to pray talking up the stage in our studies about what we sometimes affected as the means of grace on we've already seen, but we shouldn't think of the means of grace as instruments we use in order to get grace, but privileges God has given to us in his grace so that we may know him better on indeed serve him well. We thought in the last study about the Bible I know what coming to the subject of prayer member many years ago. I think it must be for two years ago.

Now that the privilege of being visited by the senior editor of a major Christian publishing company and in the course of the conversation he said to me we would like you to write a book on prayer, I thought to myself, I would like me to write a book, but I don't think I'm the mind and so I said to him you know I think there must be other people who would do it better than I would decide what would you like to suggest somebody I suggested to run a well-known name, he gave a little smile. He said we asked him and he declined as well. Do you have another suggestion you might make. I made our second suggestion of someone else was very well known.

He gave the same little smile and said we've we've asked him if he declined. He said he didn't really think what he was ready to write a book on prayer on salt that went on and on and that I never did see him publishing a book on prayer on the experience was in a sense an encouragement to me because many Christian people tell me that they find difficult, but sometimes they erroneously assume that because somebody seems to be an older Christian and the wise a Christian. They therefore find prayer easy know of course that are seasons in life when prayer is easier when at other times we need to understand what when we find prayer difficult. First of all, we are not on ongoing I'm not on ongoing in the sense that Paul says, for example, in Romans chapter 8. There are times when we neither know how to pray, nor want to pray for this is not you are past. This is not your favorite Christian.

This is the apostle Paul that ofttimes when we have cries in our hearts that words cannot express and we simply do not know how to play, so we should not despair if we feel I am finding it difficult to pray. Paul goes on to say you need to know.

But in those seasons. The Spirit himself makes intercession for the saints with drawings that words can't express is giving us this wonderful picture of what it means to know God and to be in fellowship with him as our heavenly father that he looks upon us in our weakness and he doesn't as some super spiritual Christians sometimes do despise us because we feel that we are not able to pray well. Rather, he sends his Holy Spirit to catch us up in this mysterious way into his purposes on this is my child, even although you cannot articulate to me what is in your heart, I'm drawing you to myself by my Holy Spirit because I want you to participate in the workplace. I'm doing in the needs of the world and the needs of the church. So first of all we should not be discouraged because the spirit will come to help us another reason not to be discouraged doctors because the apostles apparently find it difficult to pray, or at least when they listened to Jesus pray they must've felt they did not know very much about pray on a tall, so they came to Jesus, you remember at the beginning of Luke's gospel chapter 11 Jesus was praying in a soft, someplace on 20 finished one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray as John the Baptist taught his disciples to pray and you can see what's happening at mealtime to you that you thought that you are making some progress in prayer and then you have a seasoned mature but upset Christian who had suffered a great deal coming to the Lord in prayer and you said to yourself I know almost nothing about what it means to pray.

I think it was like that with the disciples. Jesus does something wonderful instead of saying to them. If you been listening to me.

Pray and you still don't know how to pray.

Sometimes preachers can be like back when we speak about prayer company. You're not doing well enough when Jesus apparently sits down with him and he says when you pray, pray like this and he teaches them what we call the Lord's prayer and Luke's fashion father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins, for we forgive others who are indebted to ours on the does not into temptation, and as we've already seen.

That's a very interesting feature of this prayer that it looks as though Jesus expected his disciples to pray this prayer every day. Now I know that are super spiritual Christians are way beyond the Lord's prayer but it's usually because we haven't noticed the need to pray each day for little Billy bled much effective way beyond praying each day for the daily bread because they are quite capable of providing it for themselves. The something humbling about this trip on the something true about this prayer I'm the reason that so is the cause.

This is not only a model structure for all of praying, but at some model structure for the way we live and it really underlines follows the praying is not an isolated spiritual exercise. We pray and we live in two different compartments. The truth of the matters we live as we pray and we pray as we live in.

So the Lord's prayer.

It is not only a basic manual of instruction about how to pray. It's a basic manual instruction about how to live for God's glory in order that we may allow important means to pray, and we should never lose sight of these two realities. So what I want us to do is just to think about this Lord's prayer to refresh ourselves.

Remember what I said in the beginning about Jack Nicholas the golf I'm sorry for those of you are not golfers to bring endless golfing illustration again going to his coach while he himself is the greatest golfer in the world and saying Mr. Grote teach me how to play golf and we really do need to keep on returning to the Lord's prayer, so that we too may allow him to say to Jesus, the great prayer the one who live our lives to make intercession for his people will Jesus teach me all over again.

The fundamentals of prayer so that I may not only examine my own prayer life so that the things I'm praying for really conform to your design so that I can build on the foundation that you have laid many ways to think about this. I want us to think about it in three different ways.

First of all, the way in which the Lord's prayer encourages us to have a right to shoot in prayer not of course the Lord's prayer is given to us and Luke's gospel chapter 11 and also in the middle of the sermon on the Mount in the sermon on the mountain. Sinnott is in a fairly interesting context. It's within the context of knowing God is your heavenly father.

Jesus is when you come to know God as your heavenly father two things begin to happen. One is you begin to be delivered from hypocrisy is pretending to be something you're not.

How does that happen because you know that your heavenly father knows everything about you. He knows the worst about you and if you can come to him, then you have no need to pretend to anyone else but your something different or better than what you really are on the other reality that it delivers us from his anxiety.

If you know your heavenly father then you know since Jesus, but he will take care of you let reason when we come to God in prayer.

Simplicity is of the essence. We don't need to use big complex words but on the big complex lots in the Lord's prayer, Jesus brings us down to the absolute essentials in which we are saying heavenly father, I want your glory to be seen, and I need your help us with Jesus goes on to teach that is an attitude shoot that we have in prayer on that is an approach that we develop in prayer when you pray, say father, hallowed be your name. Honestly, more customarily how that in Matthew's fashion father which art in heaven what are we doing there will recognizing the two realities about the nature of God. First of all that he is a dear father and secondly that he is in-and because he is our heavenly father. It is awfully essence that we are not his majestic name. To put it this way.

If we do not seek to sanctify the name of God. It's really an indication that we don't really know who God is. I hope we have come through the. In evangelical history in the last 20 years or so when the assignment seemed to be to some people, but you really knew God's that you would express herself to him and all kinds of charming ways, which was a real indication you didn't know who God was all it had never really crossed your mind how great and glorious.

He was even even of the human level. It never dawned on your that you are talking to the creator of this amazing universe, and you originally sent him to go to one level. So while that is an intimacy that is never a false intimacy. It's always heavenly father, hallowed be your name and it's interesting the way Jesus encourages us especially.

I think in Matthew's fashion. When you pray, say, our father, that means that we we pray together which is really interesting is Jesus who teaches us to pray our father sent without means. That means that when you come to know God and Jesus Christ, your father is his father everything that you see about the relationship with Jesus hard with his father is the relationship and to which he is inviting you. It's not that he is one father to the incarnate Lord Jesus in a different follow to you is one and the same father. Jesus teaches us disciples when you pray, say, our father noticed us that when Jesus prays with one exception. He always calls God father in one exception is not its explant on Calvary, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me when he apparently had no consciousness of his father's love for him, but only a consciousness of being forsaken in his humanity by his heavenly father is a connection between these two is it's only because he sensed himself to be forsaken because he took our place. But it's possible for him to say I have done everything that is needed for you know with me to come and say to the God of the whole universe when I come to you I called you is Jesus culture, our father, who is in heaven. So there's intimacy in prayer and I intimacy and prayer is a tremendous encouragement to pray because he is our father, because as our father. He's promised to provide for us is because he has promised to do these things, but we were able to come to him with confidence and ask for lease thing. Those of you who have had children, especially when their younger face identity wisdom they've known how to deal with you if your father they say dad we want this nominal gathering was of a dog. We need this slow. I need to does not mean you get. But then if they say to you, but dads you promise God you promise. Then you have placed your self under obligation to give them particular to stay on task because you promise to do so, and this is the wonder of prayer of the heavenly father has placed himself in his word under obligation to give us something things to provide for a suction blessing and so amazingly and daringly and humbly with able to come to him and say to him. Father, you promise. You sometimes see that in the prayers of the Old Testament saints structure.

They are not praying out of their own imagination.

Let me think What would be good for God's kingdom.

They are coming to God.

Sometimes in dire circumstances I'm saying we cannot understand the circumstances, we cannot explain the but our God, you made these promises and so we come to you on the basis of these promises and we ask that you will keep them. That section of the prayer of faith that James speaks about what to. Sometimes I think people misunderstand. I remember how he says the effectual prayer of a righteous man avails much of the uses Elijah as an illustration, Elijah Trant and the heavens were closed. There was no rain. Elijah played a game in the rain came on. People say that's the kind of prayer we need. We need the prayer of faith. What is the prayer of faith. The prayer of faith was just Elijah coming to the heavenly father.

I'm saying heavenly father.

It's in your why it's in your promises that if we rebelled like this, the heavens would be closed.

They would be as brass would become a fireman. No great God great covenant keeping God I'm coming to you and I'm saying to you, God, you promised it would be so so may it be so hundreds in this, that he was confident because he had unusual measures of faith that enabled him to imagine great things that God could do, but because he had faith that took hold of the promise of God is able to come to God and say to them, your father and you promise and then the faith to believe that if he had promised, and if Elijah asked then it must be so that teachers will, among other things, it teaches us. We need to get to grips with the promises of God is actually what the Lord's prayer does. That is, nothing in the Lord's prayer that does not focus on what God has promised to be and to do our father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.

We pray that with confidence well because look at what's happening in the church that on marvelous things happening in the church. But what do you say when the marvelous things happening in the church know you pray your kingdom come, because God has promised to bring in his kingdom.

You will will be done because God has promised that his will will indeed be done so we need to understand not only the center should that we have an prayer on this general approach that we have in prayer and the great fathers of the charge done through the Reformation. Fathers understood this book prayer needs to be directed by the word on the far prayer will be said by the Warren. Sometimes people say well I did I just ask for anything I want denied. I know that you will hear is not your solvent. What we need to allow him to pray for us what God has promised to do hospital was what you hear in gatherings for prayer is as so often we are focused on what we think is important and is not so often that you hear people today coming on saying on Lord, we come to you about this because this is what you have promised to two enough we look to use to keep your promise father will like little children coming to their daddies and saying, but dad you promised and were going to hold onto you until you fulfill your promise and I want you to notice some of the things that we need to ask for in prayer letter. Several of them. Obviously, the first is on need for daily provision. Give us this day our daily bread, to say the Lord's prayer in your trucks you say about every Sunday unknown.

I wonder how much of it registers. I mean after all, why are you praying for what's lying way out in your refrigerator or in the freezer or in the grocery store should not be the case and the answer is not that the people in Jesus time. What incapable of making and having bread, it was that Jesus understood the bread to eat will do nothing unless God sanctifies it to your nourishment and that's broadly applicable. Listen to this is a prayer for the blessing of God upon the necessities of our life, but will not it shows in such a way that will be able to live for his glory, you could apply that, for example, to every spoonful of medicine you take.

It will not help you unless God in his sovereignty sanctifies it to you and you know the answer. We need to lower list daily dependence on God. And then there's our need for pardon. As we pray that God will forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors undersea the logical point of you if you ever thought about what you're actually asking for Leah. You have the boldness to say to God. God finds somebody else will pay my debt because it must be paid. You really praying what David prayed in Psalm 51, oh God, that is no sacrifice for this son of mine find another sacrifice. In essence what you're saying to God is so, God, send your son to die on the cross so that I don't have to die forever in eternal hell.

So this is an amazing prayer and you see when we grasp that we understand why it is that we also pray as we forgive those who have sinned against such when we realize what he hasn't done to bring us forgiveness and how can we possibly withhold forgiveness from others and then of course lead me not into temptation. Don't bring me to a test that I'm not able to bear because I'm so conscious of my weakness and I know that you will deliver me from evil to write a book when I was a very unchristian via the Norwegian physician. I think it was named all hollows. Honey becomes our pricing plan is weakness. Prayer is weakness, my dear friends. That's the church's greatest problem in the West. We don't realize how weak we really are and therefore we pray, select, and that's my problem was a Christian.

I think I can do and that makes me tremendous unassuming when I realize how dependent I am told, so we want to say teaching it's so true assented to by a mortgage.

Much of the Western churches experience. Decades of peace and comfort in its resulted in a lack of prayer. We forgotten that we are weak and needy.

Dr. Sinclair Ferguson has pointed us back to the importance indeed, the essential nature of prayer today. You're listening to Renewing Your Mind, so glad you be with us all week. Dr. Ferguson is carefully explaining what it means to be a Christian and how to live abundantly to the glory of God would like to send you this series just request the 12 messages onto DVDs. When you contact us today with your gift of any amount or dinner ministries. You can find this@renewingyourmind.org or you can call us with your gift at 800-435-4343 the trustworthy Bible teaching you enjoy here on Renewing Your Mind is also available on our free legionnaire app downloaded today to receive immediate access to a large theological library on all your devices so filled with discipleship resources from Dr. RC Sproul or Ligon or teaching fellows and other gifted pastors and teachers.

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